HOWTO TOR + UBUNTU LINUX + IRC FREENODE

To keep some of the howto up to date, I'll link to some external sources. This is what's needed to be done:

1. Install TOR
2. Install hexchat, a TOR/sasl-friendly IRC-client
3. Configure hexchat
4. Add irc servers of interest to hexchat (special steps needed if the server is freenode)

1. Install tor

Here you go, here's an up to date guide https://www.torproject.org/docs/debian

2. Install hexchat

Add this PPA to your repository (site describes how) https://launchpad.net/~gwendal-lebihan-dev/+archive/hexchat-stable

Open up a terminal and type (this will install hexchat .. make sure you've added the PPA or you'll get an old version of hexchat that does not support certain things):

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install hexchat

3. Configure hexchat

Once you've got both TOR and hexchat installed, you need to configure hexchat to connect via tor. That is simple, but there are also some privacy settings need to be set (if you care about that.. but feel free to skip all that if you don't care - so why did you want tor in the first place?).

1. Connect to any server (preferable 127.0.0.1 and fail) just to get the hexchat "main window" and its menu list. Go to settings->preferences->(network) Network setup and set the proxy server to 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Set type to SOCKS5 and Use proxy for: All Connections.
2. For privacy matters, make sure "Get my address from the IRC Server" is checked in the very same window. This shouldn't matter though as we're going to disable file sharing.
3. For pravacy matters, also mark "Use Authentication" and give the username and password some random letters; the only purpose of this is to give your IRC an ip-address (will be a proxy) that is different from all your other tor-ip addresses. So if you visit some sites with tor for example, that activity won't be as easily connected with your IRC activity.
4. https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/doc/TorifyHOWTO/XChat#CompulsoryXChatPrivacySettings do not follow that guide as it's outdated, irrelevant for us and more relevant to an outdated version of xchat (we are using the superior hexchat), be warned. But that's my source for step 5 below (in the link you can also read about why we're doing what we're doing). There is one thing I want you to do from that link however: it's the section Plugins and scripts to disable all plugins (quit hexchat before doing it). You should see it directly if you click on the link. Keep in mind that the xchat in those paths should be hexchat.
5. In the hexchat "main window" where you are able to type commands, enter the following things:
   
   /set dcc_auto_chat 0
   /set dcc_auto_resume OFF
   /set dcc_auto_recv 0
   /set irc_hide_version ON
   /set identd OFF
   /ignore *!*@* CTCP DCC
   /ignore * CTCP DCC
   
   /set irc_real_name user
   /set irc_user_name user
   /set irc_nick1 user
   /set irc_nick2 user_
   /set irc_nick3 user__
6. Go to setting->preferences->input box and set Nick completion suffix to :
7. Go to setting->preferences->general and clear the text boxes saying Quit, Leave Channel & Away
8. Uncheck both the Away options
9. Go to setting->preferences->File transfer and set "Auto accept file offers" to "Ask for confirmation"
10. Uncheck all three options "Send window", "Receive window" and "Chat window" under "auto open DCC window" if they aren't unchecked already.
11. Go to settings->'CTCP replies' and delete everything in that list. Save, and open the window again to make sure that they are gone.

4. Add freenode (or any other tor server) to hexchat

Go to the network list. Check "Show favorites only". Press add, call it freenode-tor or something (but not just freenode since a server with that name exists in the list already). Click favor (I assume it's marked now) so that it'll show in the list (favorites) next time you bring up the network list. Press edit to edit the server setting.

Fill in some nickname, Second choice and some real name. Now, here comes some server specific settings.

If you're connecting to freenode, you should set the Login method to: SASL (username + password) and you should set the username to your freenode username, and password to your password. You need a registered account on freenode to connect via tor, they require it. If you don't have one, you'll have to connect to freenode with a non-tor connection and register yourself via nickserv.

If you're connecting to, say, quakenet, which doesn't require authentication, you can just set the login method to default and leave the password field blank (I suppose the user field can be whatever and is ignored by some servers anyway).

One last thing left. The server addresses must be added. I'll explain this one for freenode, but it's the same for any other tor server. Simply add the .onion addresses from this page http://freenode.net/irc_servers.shtml to the servers list. No port should be given. If you're connecting to quakenet via tor, just use their irc.tor.quakenet.org/12345 address or whatever it is, they don't seem to know what they're doing with their .onion service (currently they've even given it a port.. which is kind of nonsensical). As stated (at this writing time) on freenodes link above, the onion addresses are sometimes full. In order to chose which one of those servers you want to connect to (so you can try them all), you open up the edit window for the freenode-tor server and mark the server you want to connect to. Click close and connect.

You're ready to connect.