As of version 2.2, sirc supports connections through SOCKS proxies,
using the SOCKS version 4 protocol (also supported by most SOCKS version
5 servers).

This is achieved by loading the script "socks.pl" before the client
attempts its initial server connection.  

Note that socks.pl redefines some of sirc's internal functions and has
more intimate knowledge of sirc's internals than a proper sirc script
should, so it should be considered more like a module than a script.

The usual way to setup the client to load socks.pl automatically is 
by including the line   &load("socks.pl");  in the system-wide 
"sircrc.pl" configuration file, located in sirc's lib directory.  

sirc also requires the environment variable SOCKS_SERVER to be set to
the hostname or IP address of the SOCKS proxy server.  If the proxy
uses a port different than 1080, it must be set in SOCKS_PORT. 

If the local host cannot resolve names outside of the firewalled
network, *and* if your SOCKS server implements the SOCKS4A extension of
the SOCKS 4 protocol (which lets the local client pass hostnames instead
of resolved addresses to the SOCKS proxy), then set the environment
variable SOCKS_DNS to 1, and sirc will try to use it.  This is quite
experimental; mail me some feedback if it actually worked.

If the SOCKSified sirc is able to talk to your SOCKS host, and has
sufficient permissions for the connections, you should be able to
connect to servers and accept DCC CHATs and DCC SENDs.  

To be able to send out DCC CHAT and SEND requests, the SOCKS protocol
requires that you specify the IP address of the remote host that will
connect to you.  This script provides the command 
/setrem <hostname or IP> for this; use it before the DCC command.

Since the remote host will generally be the same as the one appearing
in the remote user's WHOIS, you can use the shortcuts /sdc <nick>
and /sds <nick> <filename>  to automatically look up the remote host
and initiate a DCC CHAT or DCC SEND.