IRC bot

Often, an IRC bot is deployed as a detached program running from a stable host.

As IRC has become popular with many dial-up users as well, shell accounts at shell providers have become popular as a stable Linux server with a decent connection to run a bot from.

IRC bots are particularly useful on IRC networks such as EFnet and IRCnet without channel registration services, and on networks like Undernet or QuakeNet that require conditions to be met (minimum user count, etc.)

Where bots are used for administrative functions such as this, they may need more access than a normal client connection allows.

Some versions of IRC have a "Service" protocol that allows clients with these extra powers.