Registering your nickname with our IRC Services enables you to password protect your desired nick. The benefit to this is that you will be able to register channels, as well as protect your identity from impersonation.
To register your nickname on our IRC network, first change to the nick you desire by typing:
/nick <nickname_here>
into your IRC client. Once you have found a nick you like (and is available), type the following:
/ns register <password> <email>
Nickserv will respond to you via a notice, informing you that your nick is now registered.
If someone has taken your registered nickname, you can use nickserv's recover to take it back from them. To disconnect the thief, type the following:
/ns recover <nickname> <password>
After using this command, your nickname will be put on hold for one minute. This prevents the thief from taking it back before you can fully recover it (at least for one minute). If you would like to remove this hold sooner, you may use nickserv's release function by entering this command:
/ns release <nickname> <password>
The final steps in recovering your stolen nickname would be to change your current nick to your old one, and then identifying with nickserv (it's like a password, if you didnt catch that you can leave now). Do this all the time:
/ns identify <password>