irssi-proxy
[thanks to JamesOff for this description]
irssi-proxy is (obviously) an irc proxy, but it's much more than just a
bouncer. irssi-proxy is a plugin for irssi (./configure
--with-proxy and /load proxy). Once installed,
irssi-proxy exposes each of your ircnets (as defined in irssi with
/ircnet) on a port as an IRC server.
This means that
instead of having to remember to type /quote pass blah when you
connect, you can just supply the password as normal in your client. The copy
of irssi running the proxy works just as a normal client which you can use,
but you can also connect one or more clients to it to share the connection.
This is probably best illustrated by an example.
I run a copy of irssi with
the proxy module loaded inside a copy of screen on my stable shell. Then,
when I'm at home I connect a local copy of irssi to it (four times, one for
each network) using /server my.irc.shell myPort myPassword. My
local irssi is automatically joined to all the channels the proxy is on.
Then I go to work, where I start another irssi locally, and connect to my
proxy. Now I have two clients connected simultaneously to my proxy. I don't
need to disconnect one before connecting the other. If I end up somewhere
that I can ssh but not run irssi, then I just ssh to my shell and use the
proxy like a normal irssi.
Using irssi as a proxy has the major advantage of irssi's power as an IRC client. I never have to worry about my proxy disconnecting because I can trust irssi to reconnect in an intelligent fashion. I can run scripts on the proxy such as forwarding important messages to me by SMS, keeping my nick, and so on. Even if you don't want to use irssi as a client, I can strongly recommend it as a proxy because you can just connect to it with any client (I know someone who uses irssi-proxy to hold her nick during the day, and then connects to it with mIRC in the evenings).
Finally, using irssi locally instead of ssh-ing to the machine that the proxy is running on means that you will not have lag during typing.