Arynwood Chat: #public* Now talking in #public
* arynwood_guest32 has joined #public
arynwood_guest32 hi! first chat room since 1999
night_owl wb to the internet :)
* night_owl waves
How do I join Arynwood Chat?
Open chat.arynwood.com, type a nickname and press Connect. You land in #public, the lobby. It’s free and needs no account.
- Open chat.arynwood.com in any current browser, on a computer or a phone.
- Type a nickname, or keep the guest name it suggests.
- Press Connect. You’re in #public. Say hello, or read along for a minute first.
- To visit another room, type
/join #general, or use the room links below.
Which chat rooms are open?
Three public rooms are open: #public, #general and #arynwood. Each link opens the web chat with that room filled in.
| Room | What it’s for | Open it |
|---|---|---|
| #public | The lobby. The web chat puts everyone here first. | Enter #public |
| #general | Everyday conversation on any subject. | Enter #general |
| #arynwood | Questions about Arynwood software, this site and the chat itself. | Enter #arynwood |
The rooms are small for now. AOL’s rooms started small too: TIME’s history of AOL chat describes a “little frontier town” where you could recognize almost every screen name. On IRC, conversation often comes in bursts, so a quiet room can wake up while you’re there.
How do I join from an IRC app?
Add a server with the address irc.arynwood.com, port 6697 and TLS turned on, connect, then type /join #public.
| Server | irc.arynwood.com |
|---|---|
| Port | 6697 with TLS. Port 6667 also answers, but without encryption, so use 6697. |
| Rooms | #public, #general, #arynwood |
| Services | NickServ for nicknames, ChanServ for rooms |
In irssi or WeeChat, from the terminal:
irssi: /connect -tls irc.arynwood.com 6697 WeeChat: /server add arynwood irc.arynwood.com/6697 -tls /connect arynwood then: /join #public
Any IRC app works. Which IRC client to use compares the current ones.
Can I keep my nickname?
Yes. Register it with NickServ and it stays yours on this network. Next time, identify with the same password.
/msg NickServ REGISTER a-new-password [email protected] /msg NickServ IDENTIFY a-new-password
Use a password you don’t use anywhere else. The IRC beginner guide covers NickServ, ChanServ and the common commands.
What are the house rules?
Be kind, keep it safe for work, and treat everything you type in a public room as public.
- The public rooms are for adults, 18 and over.
- No harassment, hate, sexual content or spam, and no advertising unless the room says yes.
- Don’t share personal details, yours or anyone else’s. If someone opens with “a/s/l?”, you don’t have to answer.
- Room operators (shown with an @) can remove anyone who breaks these rules.
- To report someone, message an operator or email [email protected].
Is Arynwood Chat private?
No. The public rooms are public: anyone in a room can read and save what you write there.
Your connection is encrypted with TLS, so other people on your Wi-Fi can’t read it on the way, but the server can, and so can everyone in the room. For conversations that belong inside a family, team or club, Arynwood Community gives you private chat spaces by invitation on your own host.
Is Arynwood Chat connected to AOL?
No. Arynwood Chat is Arynwood’s own IRC network. AOL closed its chat rooms on December 15, 2020.
What Arynwood keeps from that era is the format: named rooms you walk into, a lobby, a nickname instead of a profile, and conversation with whoever happens to be there. What happened to AOL chat rooms tells the rest of the story.
AOL, AIM, Yahoo and MSN are trademarks of their owners. Arynwood is an independent studio and is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.
Sources and how I checked
The rooms, ports and services on this page were checked on the live network on September 24, 2026: the channel list from irc.arynwood.com, and the connection settings in the chat.arynwood.com web client. Dates and figures below each link to where they come from. If you spot an error, email [email protected] and it will be corrected and dated.