Software update: mIRC 5.81

On the webpage mIRC contains the latest version of this popular IRC program, the version number has gone up one hundredth and is now at 5.81, this is not the only thing that has changed:

A new mIRC version has been released. The previous version performed very well during the past months. Still we thought several thingies needed a fix or update, leading to this new release. We really recommend you to download and try mIRC v5.81!

Improvements and new features:

This version has far too many improvements, new features and functions to mention here in detail. I’ll point to some of the simple ones here – the ones you might encounter right away;

• Remember how mIRC now uses it’s own internal beep sound for event beeps? By popular request the internal beep is now only played for event beeps. mIRC uses the default windows sound for errors etc. and a “pc speaker” option has been added overriding both of them. happy?
  
• Another looong awaited feature is a built-in uninstaller. I wouldn’t know why that is needed but next time you clean up your PC, mIRC is easily removed by the control panel add/remove dialog! It also removes all registry changes btw.
  
• An important change has been made to the socket connection routines. mIRC was binding the connect socket, even if it wasn’t necessary. This may have prevented mIRC from connecting through a DSL or network environment.
  
• The Flood protection has been improved by sending a NOTICE instead of a PRIVMSG to the server every now and then. As you might know mIRC will wait for this notice to get back from the server before it resumes sending any queued lines.
  
• A small problem with the .chat files that unloaded all of your remotes has been fixed. More important is the complete integration of .chat file support into the mIRC executable. The mlink helper applications are no longer needed! mIRC will also set up the .cha and .chat associations in the registry.
  
• With mIRC 5.81 we’re experimenting with support for URLs of the irc://irc.undernet.org:6667/mIRC format. This makes it very easy to add a link to your website leading to your favorite IRC channel! Give it a try? Please note however that this only seems to be working for MS Internet Exploder -not Netscape- we’re still working on this
  
• The new /anick command no longer changes your current nickname, unless the alternate nick is the active one. /nick will try to prevent nick and altnick from becoming identical nicks.
  
• By popular request you can now either disable, or ignore all except certain known file types, or ignore only certain known (and often malicious) file types in the DCC Ignore feature.
  

buggies fixed:

mIRC’s new version fixes most, if not all, of the small but nevertheless annoying buggies found in the previous version 5.8. Some prominent ones are;

• A small change in the Channel Central (use the /channel command) blocked the use of control characters in the topic editbox. This blocked the use of colors etc. Sorry.
  
• The /splay command will now accept long file names even if they’re not enclosed in quotes and error messages are now also wrapped.
  
• A little bug that emerged if you double-clicked URLs under Windows ME is fixed.
  
• Another buggy in the Agent wasn’t allowing you to turn agent on/off on a per channel/query window basis.
  

[break]Thanks to an anonymous reader for the tip.