Enabling TLS on ZNC

Note that this document only covers how to secure the connection between ZNC and the IRC network, not between your IRC client and ZNC.

You can either enable TLS/SSL using webadmin (easiest) or *status.

Enabling TLS using webadmin

Step 1

Open the ZNC webadmin page (normally https://your-znc-ip:zncport for TLS or http://your-znc-ip:zncport for non-TLS/SSL), select “Your settings”, and scroll down to “Networks”. The networks list should look something like this:

Step 2

Scroll down to “Servers of this IRC network”, check “SSL”, and set the port to 6697.

Step 3

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click .

If ZNC doesn’t automatically reconnect, you can run /znc connect to reconnect to the IRC network.

After reconnecting, you can verify that TLS is enabled by doing /whois <your nickname> and making sure <your nickname> is using a secure connection appears.

Enabling TLS using *status

Step 1

List the IRC servers currently active with /znc listservers.

This should make *status PM you something like this:

+---------------+------+-----+----------+
| Host          | Port | SSL | Password |
+---------------+------+-----+----------+
| xeroxirc.net* | 6667 |     |          |
+---------------+------+-----+----------+

If you are following these instructions for a network other than xeroxIRC, make sure you remember the hostname.

Step 2

You can then remove any servers in this list with /znc delserver <host> <port>. Remember to omit the trailing * (if any) from the server host.

Step 3

You can now re-add the server with TLS/SSL with /znc addserver xeroxirc.net +6697. If you are following these instructions for a network other than xeroxIRC, replace xeroxirc.net with the hostname/IP of the network.

Now the output of /znc *listservers should look something like this:

+---------------+------+-----+----------+
| Host          | Port | SSL | Password |
+---------------+------+-----+----------+
| xeroxirc.net* | 6697 | SSL |          |
+---------------+------+-----+----------+

If there is no trailing *, you may need to run /znc connect to reconnect to IRC.

After reconnecting, you can verify that TLS is enabled by doing /whois <your nickname> and making sure <your nickname> is using a secure connection appears.