Please follow these steps to set up your nick and configure your client. Check off each step to make sure it's been done:
Select a permanent, master nickname. If the nickname you want is registered but has expired, just ask a staffer and in most cases, we will be happy to drop it for you.
Please avoid using the name of a community project or trademarked entity, to avoid conflicts. Write down your password and be sure to keep the sheet of paper in a safe place.
Register your IRC nick:
/msg NickServ REGISTER password youremail@example.com
Replace password with a secure, unguessable password that you keep secret.
The email address that you select will not be given out by staff, and is mainly used to allow us to help you recover the account in the event that you forget your password. For this reason, you are required to use a real, non-disposable, email address. Upon registering, you will receive an email with a verification command that you will need to run to complete the registration process. Failure to verify the account will cause it to be automatically dropped after about 24 hours.
To keep your email address private, rather than displaying it publicly, mark it as hidden (which is done by default for new accounts):
/msg NickServ SET HIDEMAIL ON
It's useful, but not required, to have an alternate nick grouped to your account. For example, if your primary nick is foo:
/nick foo_
then identify to your primary account:
/msg NickServ IDENTIFY foo password
and finally, group the new nick to your account
/msg NickServ GROUP
We prefer you to use just one account, and group nicks to it as described above, rather than registering for multiple accounts. Grouping nicks in this way gives you the benefit of having all your nicks covered by the same cloak, should you choose to wear a cloak.
The exception to this is where you might want to run a bot. You should register a separate account for your bot.
Configure your client to identify itself to NickServ automatically whenever it connects to freenode so that it's less likely you'll connect to the network without being identified to NickServ. The easiest approach is to specify your NickServ password as a server password.
If your client supports server password, please set this up as accountname:password. Make sure to include the colon. This will allow you to identify to your services account on connect, regardless of the nickname you are using when you connect. For example:
/connect chat.freenode.net 6667 mquin:uwhY8wgzWw22-zXs.M39p
Thanks for the tutorial.