https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Network
#IRC#
As-of version 0.6.x of the Bitcoin client, IRC bootstrapping is no longer enabled by default. The information below is accurate for most versions prior.
Bitcoin joins a random channel between #bitcoin00 and #bitcoin99 on irc.lfnet.org. Your nick is set to an encoded form of your IP address. By decoding all the nicks of all users on the channel, you get a list of all IP addresses currently connected to Bitcoin.
For hosts that cannot make outbound connections on port 6667, the lfnet servers are also listening on port 7777.