So I cant connect to IRC using HexChat... I get this screen: reddit / irc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ayakalam · 2014-05-27 18:28 Here is the [screen-shot](http://d.pr/i/Or4H). It just sits there and the green bar keeps moving along, but nothing happens... I am on a windows 7 machine... I did the normal install. 0_o Help? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2014-05-27 22:22 Can you connect using other clients (not web clients)? This looks like a problem with your network connection, possibly a firewall. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- KindOne · 2014-05-27 22:36 Probably better off asking in #hexchat @ irc.freenode.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ayakalam · 2014-05-28 00:16 Hmm, yeah... is there a way I can check this hypothesis though? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ayakalam · 2014-05-28 00:16 lol ---------------------------------------------------------------------- the0ncomingstorm · 2014-05-28 00:32 If you are in a corporate or school network, then port 6667 might be blocked or filtered. In windows there used to be a utility called portqry. That should allow you to determine if he port is in fact the problem. Also try pinging the network's ip address. Could just be that the particular instance of the network you're trying to connect to is down or problematic. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ayakalam · 2014-05-28 01:44 Ah! I am on a corporate network yes... (at work). I will ping you again when Im at work to see ...oh - you mention pinging that address ... what address though?...thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- the0ncomingstorm · 2014-05-28 02:21 The ip address in the screenshot you provided. It tells you the server ip and port it's trying to connect to as the last line of info in hexchat. Xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:6667. The x's is the IP address, ping that and see what comes back. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2014-05-28 10:03 Try to connect with another client, such as KVIrc (it also has a portable version if you can't install software on the computer). Also try to connect (with both clients) to networks other than freenode. If both of these fail, it's likely a blocked port 6667. You could try connecting through other ports (see http://freenode.net/irc_servers.shtml for ports you can use for freenode).