The anonymity allows hackers to find one another and exchange possibly illegal information. The chat levels are so high that no single server could handle the volume, so more than one server networked together is needed. Popular IRC networks are DALnet , EFNet , Undernet , and NewNET . The channels are generally named according to the topic that people discuss on that channel.
Someone creates a channel by entering it and naming it.
The channel disappears as soon as the last person hasleft. They have full control over the channel. Sometimes channels can be registered so that they persist even after everyone logs off, and that the creator can still log back on and resume control. This leads to hackers who try to kick everyone off in order to take over the channel. Two direct mechanisms are to DoS the persons machine or flood their IRC channel.