SSL-support for mIRC - the easy way

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mIRC does not have OpenSSL librarys needed for SSL support included in it due to the varying import/export restrictions of encryption across countries, but you can download them yourself to get SSL-support working.

This guide is based on guide at http://www.mirc.co.uk/ssl.html, but explains this a bit more simply.

**** 1. What is needed ****

You need OpenSSL 0.9.7d or never and at mIRC website they give url to OpenSSL homepage, but only sourcecode packages are available there and compiling them is not something that everyone is able or willing to do, specially when there is simpler methods available - after all you would just need a package with two .DLL-files. They also offer a link where you can get OpenSSL installer, but I have a better way.

**** 2. Getting OpenSSL DLL's needed ****

I used google with search words 'openssl dll's' and found this page and a package with the needed two OpenSSL 0.9.8a DLL-files (libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll) readily compiled. The package can be extracted with most good packing programs - I prefer WinRAR when I need to work under Windows, but many prefer WinZip too. If that page is not existing you can try googling another page with the same search words.

Of course if the link doesnt work you can download the OpenSSL installer from here: The Win32 OpenSSL Installation Project. If using this installer jump to step 4.

NOTE! When the OpenSSL DLLs are compiled under Visual C++ .Net, they also need msvcr70d.dll to work, which does not come with Win9x. I really dont recommend using these old Win9x systems that are lousy even if we call some never windows systems "good" (I don't) - if your computer is too slow to run newer versions of windows I would recommend at least considering Linux as an option.

**** 3. Placing DLL's to right place ****

Open the package with DLL-files and extract them under mIRC installation directory (eg. C:\Program Files\mIRC\) OR Windows system folder. I placed them under mIRC directory.

**** 4. How does it work? ****

mIRC will load the DLLs automatically if it finds them. After that you can find SSL settings in the View/Options/Connect/Options dialog. You can also connect using SSL by using command /server with -e switch or prefix the port number with + (eg. +6667) (/server command usage is no doubt explained in mIRC help). Also according to mIRC homepages guide to SSL with mIRC The variable $sslready can be used to determine whether mIRC has loaded the dlls successfully and variable $ssl can be used to determine whether the current connection is secure or not. Don't ask me anythig about these variables, I am NOT familiar at all with mIRC, nor do I like it, I just use it in case I cant access my shell account where I run irssi.

Screenshots of mIRC with SSL encryption support
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	This document was created with emacs. Copyright (C) Jani Saksa, 2006. You can freely offer this document on other websites or media's freely, but I allow modifying it only when not adding false and/or harmful information. Please also add a mention here that you have modified the original document and I would love if you could link your modification to the original document.