Anime News Network's chat channel is also an IRC channel on WorldIRC. The channel can be accessed from our website here, or from any standard IRC client like mIRC.

The IRC server to connect to is: IRC.WorldIRC.Org and the channel is #animenewsnetwork.

WorldIRC provides a Nickname Services feature much like nickserv on other networks, but its syntax might be slightely different than what you are used to:

Registering your nickname/phpBB username with WorldIRC:
/msg NS@service2.worldirc.org REGISTER <account> <password>
Where <account> is replaced with your account name, and <password> with your chosen password (does not need to match your forum password.

Authenticating to your nickname:
/msg NS@service2.worldirc.org AUTH [account] <password>
If you omit the account, it defaults to your current nick (which is, by default your forum user name).

Optional Command for your phpBB profile for auto-login:
/msg NS@service2.worldirc.org  AUTH <password>