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with file sharing in irc, you give out your ip address
No sense in worrying about that because as soon as you logon to an IRC server, people can find out your IP address unless you are using a proxy. Also, never download files people just hand over to you, especially if the file is under 2 kb. Most of those are trojans, for example in some of the more popular dalnet channels, people will send files that are .exe but have a .txt icon, you have to be very careful. If the file is large, and is something you would like to see, just download a virus scanner, make sure the definitions are up to date, and scan the file. BTW I made a tutorial about IRC safety you may be interested in,