How To Setup psyBNC on an Ubuntu 12.04 VPS

Introduction

Bouncers are small, lightweight software for usage in IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Bouncers have multiple benefits but they mainly allow a user to hide their original connection source and let the user be left connected after disconnecting from their client. PsyBNC is an easy and lightweight bouncer that runs on Linux and supports many features, in this tutorial we’ll set up a bouncer and connect to the Freenode server.

Install libraries

Before downloading psyBNC, we have to download and install the libraries psyBNC depends on. We can do so by logging into SSH and executing the following command:

sudo apt-get install patch make gcc build-essential libncurses5-dev

After executing that command, Ubuntu will ask to confirm to download and install the libraries.

Downloading psyBNC and extracting

When the installation is finished, we can start downloading psyBNC. At moment of this writing, psyBNC 2.3 is the latest version. psyBNC is not in the Ubuntu repository so we’ll have to download it from the site. To do so execute the following command:

wget http://www.psybnc.at/download/beta/psyBNC-2.3.2-7.tar.gz

When the download is finished, which should take a few moments, extract the package by doing the following command:

tar -zxvf psyBNC-2.3.2-7.tar.gz

Now, let’s enter the folder by doing this command:

cd psybnc

Setting Up and Compiling psyBNC

We can now start setting up psyBNC; execute the following command:

make menuconfig

A new text interface should start up. In this interface we can change multiple things but lets keep most of it on default for now.

Navigate to the bouncer-config section and select Listening Ports. Select the current port and enter a new port (or keep the default port). Make sure you keep the asterisk and space in front of it. For example:

* 1337

Now navigate back by pressing escape and select exit twice. You should now be back in your main SSH interface.

Now we can start compiling psyBNC with the following command:

make

Starting psyBNC

When it’s compiled, we can start psyBNC up by doing the next command:

./psybnc

Now you should be able to connect to your bouncer with an IRC client with the following command:

/server DROPLETIP PORT PASSWORD

1. DROPLETIP = host or ip of your droplet (VPS)
2. The port you picked in the previous step (by default 31337)
3. Your psyBNC password, the one you use to login now will be your password

You’re now connected to your bouncer.

Connecting to Freenode

Now lets say you want to connect to Freenode and idle on the DigitalOcean channel. You can do so by first adding Freenode to your server list by doing the following command:

/addserver wolfe.freenode.net :6667 

After a moment your bouncer should connect with the VPS. Now join the DigitalOcean channel with the next command:

/j #digitalocean

And there, you’ve set up a bouncer on the freenode server.