Opinion based review; Unrealircd or nefarious

Redwulf · none Joined: 24 May 2005 Posts: 10

A friend and I have had a long running debate. I run the classic anope/unrealircd he runs x3/nefarious. I wanted to see if anyone else had any reviews on the subject. Please don't attack, just state why in your educated opinion one may be better than the other as generally as possible. I realize one is an ircu and the other an irc. Thanks

PingBad · Guru Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 2064 Location: New Zealand

For one, both are IRC Daemons (hence ircd).
For another thing, if you say "classic" in the contextual sense of chronology, ircu has been around a heck of a lot longer than UnrealIRCd.

As for my opinion as to which is "better", there is no "better" in the world of IRC servers, only what is "more suited for my needs" - if Unreal/Anope serves your needs well enough for you to continue using the combo on your network, then so be it; and the same could be said for X3/Nefarious - and the same again for every ircd/services combination available to any admin.

While I don't mean to imply that you're instigating this, I'd like to say I'm actually quite sick of these debates over which is better than another - "<blah blah blah> is better because of feature X" "oh no, but <blah blah blah> is better because it has feature Y which surpasses feature X" "ah but <yet another IRCd/Services combo> is better because it has feature X, feature Y and feature Z!" - that's all well and good, but not everyone has the same needs in their choice of IRCd as everyone else, now do they?

Jobe · Posted: Aug 08, 2008 2:43am Post subject:

To be honest I prefer both the Unreal/Anope combo and the Nefarious/X3 combo. Which I use depends on the networks needs and requirements.

darkwarrior · Lurker Joined: 02 Aug 2008 Posts: 172

While I believe they both have advantages and disadvantages, and probably weigh out to be equal, I probably would go for Unreal any day. Due to the fact that the multiple op levels (half op, op, protected, owner) satisfies my needs, I would go for Unreal. As for Anope, I probably would go with different services. My choice of services would be a custom version of srvx that would work with those different op levels, but that is just my choice.

Other than that, as PingBad stated, it is all on what works best for you. Everyone and every network is very different in its own way, with a different type of community. While some people won't come close to touching a network running Unreal, some would. It really depends on the community you are trying to target, the knowledge of those you're trying to target, and what you/your community/your network wants.

PingBad · Guru Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 2064 Location: New Zealand

Redwulf · none Joined: 24 May 2005 Posts: 10

PingBad if you're tired of posts similar to this, it's simple, don't read them. By saying "I don't mean to imply that you're instigating this," you're saying the exact opposite. Otherwise you wouldn't have said it, now would you?

When I asked for an educated opinion, I was asking for people who'd used both like Jobe. The other people who responded to this, while emphasizing the fact that which works best depends on the network, also met my request by giving me their opinion (without listing features, which you'll note I never asked for). Otherwise I'd be asking for facts, not general opinions.

greg27 · Lurker Joined: 07 Oct 2006 Posts: 159 Location: Australia

Redwulf · none Joined: 24 May 2005 Posts: 10

Perhaps, but let's stick to the topic please.

mage · Newbie Joined: 04 Oct 2006 Posts: 75

unrealircd has extensive support and a clean code, commented, easy to build upon, unlike many many other ircds.
unrealircd also has the spamfilter function which comes in so very handy!

Anope is handy I wouldn't rely on it on a large network We've experienced odd crashes.

My favourite combo is unreal/atheme (dont laugh)

nefarius/x3 is good too but im not used to it enough to say it's better (or worse)

PingBad · Guru Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 2064 Location: New Zealand

SATAN-HHH · Eleet Joined: 29 Nov 2003 Posts: 855 Location: Texas

ButtaKnife · none Joined: 26 Apr 2005 Posts: 37

Well, I may as well throw my two cents into the basket...

I have used Unreal a little bit, and it seemed alright. I was not impressed with all of the extra "features", though.

When "shopping" for software for our network, we wanted performance, stability, and just the right amount of features. Originally, we had planned on using a customized Bahamut install, until we found Nefarious. It has suited us very well for about 2 years. We have customized the ircd somewhat to fit the needs of our communities, and we have been customizing X3 since even before we opened our doors. We had also tossed around the idea of writing our own services from scratch or building up from the Anope source. After working with X3, though, we couldn't imagine using the Anope code. X3 offers a lot for users and network staff alike, and it is extremely fast and flexible. Adding new features and commands to X3 is relatively easy, I think. Administration of Nefarious and X3 isn't for the weak of heart, but then again, you shouldn't be running an IRC network if you don't know how to dabble in code or know the basics of server administration, in my opinion.

Both X3 and Nefarious scale wonderfully and provide enough features to make IRCing easy and powerful, but without the un-needed bloat and features that can turn someone into a power abuser before they know it. Nefarious and X3 only have a couple of things that could be considered excessive, and those are easily disabled.

I have my doubts about Unreal's scalability, stability, and performance under heavy load. Since I haven't put it to the test, though, I can only speculate.

What does all of this mean? Well, the above can be summed up as, "I can't speak for Unreal, but I do know that Nefarious and X3 are very good and I would highly recommend them." I think for most uses, the Nef/X3 combination can be deployed to meet the needs of the network. A few small tweaks may be necessary, but in the end, I believe the effort would be worth the benefits. Feel free to ask any questions about Nef/X3. I'd be happy to help (and I bet Jobe would, too). Smile

Snerf · Newbie Joined: 15 Sep 2004 Posts: 67 Location: IRC

I just find that unreal has a LOT of user modes, that really do not do users any good or use at all, they are just modes for Opers and such, that I feel are just not necessary to run a network.

I am a fan of ircu, mean and clean, does what it should w/o all the extra bells and whistles.

katsklaw · Guru Joined: 28 Jun 2004 Posts: 1114

mage · Newbie Joined: 04 Oct 2006 Posts: 75

it's not bad to be a 'fan' of an irc server software. After all, this is our hobby.

But, at least in my personal case, After a while, you leave the fan things aside and focus on having some software which is quick, easy to handle, with good documentation and which doesn't demand too much time to set up and maintain.

This is not to say.. "An ircd for the lazy" but an ircd to an experienced admin which doesn't have much time in his/her daily schedule to live to maintain an ircd up and running.

This is why I find some of the unrealircd tools very useful. Especially the restrict usermodes and the spamfilter. Those two are my favourite ones.

Bottom line.
it's what I have chosen because it suits my needs. What I want to say is:
Almost each and every irc server software out there is good to somebody. But there will never be an irc server software that pleases everybody.