They are taking a massive DDoS, not only it is having recurrent netsplits, the services (chanserv, nickserv) are getting up and down, and lots of bogus users are logging in and off (right now I am seeing a 31NAEEEF5Q for example... and some minutes ago I saw 18 users in the same style in a channel that had 3 real users)

I'm pretty sure that happens when a nick collision happens.

Yep. The users with names like that in channels I'm in are actual users.

The "bogus users" are probably bots like those of scrollback.io's (which is a service used by a few channels that I frequent).

It started experiencing frequent netsplits as the Super Bowl stream began, and went down completely a few seconds before the Half-Time Show, then came back up for a few seconds right after it ended. Since then I've been reconnecting over and over without being able to load any channels.

It's just come back up as of five minutes ago, with normal chat working.

(US user)

Lots of mentions in here of the term "netsplit". I hadn't heard of it before, so here's some context: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netsplit

This probably doesn't help:

  $ dig chat.freenode.net | grep 127
  chat.freenode.net.      264     IN      A       127.0.0.1
  chat.freenode.net.      264     IN      A       127.0.0.2

Did a double take when I saw this in irssi:

    23:22:03 Looking up irc.freenode.net
    23:22:03 Connecting to irc.freenode.net [127.0.0.1] port 6697
    23:22:03 warning SSL handshake failed: Connection refused
    23:22:03 Connection lost to irc.freenode.net

FYI using IRC over SSL is useless.

FYI, no, it's not and this stupid line of thinking is getting old.

Just because the NSA can also connect to the server, join the same channels you're in, and see your conversations does not mean SSL is "useless".

It's like saying that locking your car doors "is useless" because someone can just smash the window in.

It's not stupid nor is your analogy apt.

All it takes is one user not using SSL or not verifying certs for your chats to be vulnerable to eavesdropping.

As well as all it takes is one gmail user for your email conversation to be vulnerable to eavesdropping.

Is this a reason to say SSL between your email client and server is useless?

Straw man argument

That is bullshit. SSL on IRC enables you to:

- evade local packet inspection

- ensure no local MITM is performed

- log in to services via a client cert instead of a passphrase

Please take your FUD elsewehere.

Let me ask you something.

What purpose, other than eavesdropping, is there for performing MITM on irc?

Probably not much. But it's nice to minimize attack surfaces and annoy arpspoofing skids which might be on your LAN.

Some people may reuse NickServ passwords for other more important things. Those passwords are just sent over plaintext.

Credential theft

Even if it is, I have to identify with nickserv. I'd rather not do that in plaintext.

FYI, you can still connect by using a named server, ie roddenberry.freenode.net.

http://freenode.net/irc_servers.shtml

It sounds like it primarily affecting US servers. Avoid those and don't use the chat.freenode.net servers.

Mine's not working either. Connection refused on both +7000 and +7070

Works for me; have you ruled out a local connection issue?

It seems to be back up. I got confirmation it was down for a few minutes, at least not only in my area.

I just got hit with a netsplit; looks like a rough day for the network.