← Back to Projects

Retro Chat, Real TLS

FOUO IRC

Some protocols never needed reinventing. A real, self-hosted IRC network running on the same sovereign-cloud stack as the rest of fouo.io — TLS-only, no big-tech chat app required.

FOUO IRC runs on fouo.io's server, right alongside mail, identity, and files. It's a single static Go binary (Ergo) with no external services process to run — accounts, SASL login, and channel registration are all built in.

Connect

  • Server: irc.fouo.io
  • Port: 6697 (TLS only — no plaintext port is exposed publicly)
  • Network name: FOUO

Any modern IRC client works out of the box — Ergo speaks the current IRCv3 spec, SASL included. Connect and chat right away, or run /REGISTER <email> <password> once connected if you want a persistent, SASL-authenticated nick.

Under the hood

TLS Everywhere

Public connections are TLS-only, with a real Let's Encrypt certificate that auto-renews.

Live

Built-in Accounts

SASL-based registration and login are native to the daemon — no separate services process to run or secure.

Live

Single Binary, Hardened Service

Runs as a sandboxed systemd service under its own unprivileged user, no runtime dependencies.

Live

Abuse Protection

A fail2ban jail watches for connection-flood abuse — scanners, clone bots, reconnect-spam brute forcers — and bans automatically.

Live