I'm having problems connecting - what do I do?
Firstly check the other answers on this page. One of them may give you information on what to do to correct your particular problem. If not, please email [email protected] with all relevant information (see right-hand column).

It says I have excess connections. What does that mean?
If you receive this message it means you attempted more than 2 concurrent connections to AustNet. If this is an accident email [email protected] with the full ban message and explain what happened.

It says I've been advertising and spamming?
Advertising/Spamming in the context of IRC is unsolicited or unwanted advertising. It typically refers to advertising channels or urls. If you are banned for spamming and you have been spamming wait 2 hours and review the Austnet agreement.
If you haven't been spamming, you may be infected with an auto-spamming virus - see the #ava website for help. Otherwise, email [email protected] with the full ban message and details of your IRC actions around the time you were banned.

It says I have a compromised host. What does that mean?
This is usually an automated ban, when AustNet's Open Proxy Tester has located an open port 1080 or wingate on your machine, or your details match that of some of the irc viruses that exist.

If you get this message check what ports are open on your machine. This can be done on most operation systems by opening a command prompt and typing netstat.
The column labeled "Local Address" shows the ports that are open. If you know why that port is open then block access from AustNet's open proxy tester, then email [email protected] with the full ban message requesting the ban be removed.

It says I have a bad ident. What do I do?
Occasionally idents are banned due to being associated with troublesome users or scripts. The fix is to change your identd response, and the method of doing this varies from client to client:

Windows
in mIRC, type /identd on newident and /emailaddr newident

Unix
Unix clients typically respond to ident requests with the username they are using for that process on the machine. However some identd software allows users to respond with a "fake" reply. In addition to this some software can use custom replies.

xchat: /set username newident

BitchX: modify .noident file

Once you change your user@ you should be able to reconnect

If you are still having problems, email [email protected] (see guide on the right of this page).

If you do find yourself unable to connect to Austnet, after checking the information on the left, you will need to email [email protected].

To help you, we will need the following information:

The name of the server to which you were trying to connect.
eg:
spin.nsw.au.austnet.org

The program you were using to connect.
eg: mIRC, trillian, bitchx

Your internet service provider
eg: telstra, iprimus, AOL

Your computer's (IP) address (if you can find it)

Any error/disconnect messages you received

The time/date of the incident. (It would be helpful if you included your timezone)

Note: If your email has no subject, it will be rejected by our mailing list software, so please make sure you include a reasonably descriptive subject.