I just answered that irc bnc question, it inspired me to create this.

On IRC you have to be careful of files that are sent to you without permission. Some people, in an attempt to circumvent the /dccallow simply allow all files, well DON'T DO THAT!!! Often, when you enter a popular channel, files will be sent to you without your permission, I once got a file called "list.exe", sent to me without permission from "chanserv". I don't want to explain the chanserv trick as this is safety, not anonymity, plus it is kinda malicious. I found "list.exe" in my folder of downloaded files, I hadn't downloaded anything, so I scanned it, lo and behold, there was an IRC trojan. A great way to make enemies. many IRC trojans don't just provide access to your system, IRC users use YOU to spam other users with messages to join other channels or to check out certain websites, like I said, a great way to make enemies. So always make sure you don't accept just any file, this can be verified using the options and going to the "DCC" section.

One important thing to remember on IRC, is that users can find out your IP address. This is pretty important, because many warscripts have built-in port scanners. So firewalls are paramount for IRC usage, because even if you use a BNC it is very simple to find out a person's IP address, (sorry, i don't want to mention that trick here as well, since I am kinda scared of getting neg points! ) so firewalls are a very important line of defense. And you can even set up a filreserver with a firewall. With products such as zonealarm it is as easy as click the server box next to your IRC program. In other firewalls, just pick a port that you want your fserver to use, not all fserve scripts have this option, but I know invision does. It is a good alternative to using the common port 59 for DCCs.

Irc proxies, called BNCs are also very useful at times. Now, I personally wouldn't trust a free BNC, even though some work, make up another account to use on them, because BNCs can logs all activity so if you logon to a server using one and then you use your nickserv password, the BNC admin could log that info and then use it whenever he or she likes. To be safe, get a shell account, and set up a BNC on the shell. These are not only safe, but fun as many shell providers have vhosts for IRC so you can make your host name something like "i.like.big.butts.and.i.cannot.lie.net". Many shell providers offer these vhosts, different shell providers offer different vhosts, so find a really funny one to amaze all your IRC friends. Also, BNCs are useful if you were unafirly banned from a channel.

Now, some warscripts, have backdoors built right in to them. These are very dangerous, as people can find out the version of MIRC you are running by typing "/ctcp version NICKHERE". To get past this, simply use a trustworthy MIRC script, I like invisions and excursion. And there is one more thing in this section to remember, some versions of MIRC, most notable MIRC 5.3 have exploits, which can crash a system or just the IRC client. To keep safe, just always use the most up to date version of your script or of MIRC. I think there is something like MIRC ver. 6.

And one backdoor that is very common. People will often say something like, "type this in your mirc to get op status in every channel!". It is usually something thats starts with "//.write", "//.$decode", or "//.$encode". These actually create backdoors, I don't know how these work, and nobody I have asked on IRC knows. Even the security channels. But never type those in. But if you have you can find instructions on removal and security at http://slacker.to/decode.cgi.

NEVER EVER GO TO A SITE THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO YOU IN A MESSAGE! ESPECIALLY IF IT IS FROM SOMEBODY YOU DO NOT KNOW! OR ESPECIALLY IF IT IS TELLING YOU TO DOWNLOAD A FILE!!! Often, people try to have others go to a site and download trojans, they are named all kinds of things, like "modembooster.exe", "cableuncapper.exe", "britneyspears.mpg", "angelfirecrack.exe", "drunkmanbing.mpg", "operator.exe". Never download those please. Not only will you get infected, but you may start to spam others.

Those are all the good safety tips I can think of right now, as I find more, I will post them.

And sorry for bumping this post guys, I did not know what the button did and I wanted to try it, and I figured it was safer to try it on my post than another person's post. So sorry if that was annoying. If anybody could explain the button to me, why it is there, it would be appreciated.