IRC channels are one of the most significant parts of Ubuntu community infrastructure. However, all Ubuntu channels I've ever met are hosted on irc.freenode.net. What's the point of irc.ubuntu.com? I've seen some users claiming they can be found there... But is that server used at all?
irc.freenode.com and irc.ubuntu.com refer to the same collection of irc servers. They are both CNAMEs (DNS aliases) for chat.freenode.net. The current setup is as following
andreas@stilgar:~$ host irc.freenode.com
irc.freenode.com is an alias for chat.freenode.com.
chat.freenode.com is an alias for chat.freenode.net.
chat.freenode.net has address 93.152.160.101
chat.freenode.net has address 82.96.64.4
chat.freenode.net has address 208.82.117.76
chat.freenode.net has address 213.92.8.4
chat.freenode.net has address 213.232.93.3
chat.freenode.net has address 130.239.18.172
chat.freenode.net has address 38.229.70.20
chat.freenode.net has address 84.240.3.129
chat.freenode.net has address 89.16.176.16
chat.freenode.net has address 130.237.188.200
chat.freenode.net has address 94.125.182.252
chat.freenode.net has address 50.22.136.18
chat.freenode.net has address 78.40.125.4
chat.freenode.net has address 140.211.167.98
chat.freenode.net has address 140.211.167.99
chat.freenode.net has address 216.155.130.130
chat.freenode.net has address 86.65.39.15
chat.freenode.net has address 213.179.58.83
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2001:19f0:feee::dead:beef:cafe
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2a03:280:0:1::1
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2001:1418:13:1::25
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2a02:2498:3a3:1b96::1
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2001:820:2::6
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2001:6b0:5:1688::200
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2001:6b0:e:2018::172
andreas@stilgar:~$ host irc.ubuntu.com
irc.ubuntu.com is an alias for chat.freenode.net.
chat.freenode.net has address 213.232.93.3
chat.freenode.net has address 94.125.182.252
chat.freenode.net has address 140.211.167.98
chat.freenode.net has address 208.82.117.76
chat.freenode.net has address 216.155.130.130
chat.freenode.net has address 78.40.125.4
chat.freenode.net has address 140.211.167.99
chat.freenode.net has address 50.22.136.18
chat.freenode.net has address 213.92.8.4
chat.freenode.net has address 130.237.188.200
chat.freenode.net has address 84.240.3.129
chat.freenode.net has address 89.16.176.16
chat.freenode.net has address 82.96.64.4
chat.freenode.net has address 213.179.58.83
chat.freenode.net has address 86.65.39.15
chat.freenode.net has address 130.239.18.172
chat.freenode.net has address 38.229.70.20
chat.freenode.net has address 93.152.160.101
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2a02:2498:3a3:1b96::1
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2001:6b0:e:2018::172
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2001:6b0:5:1688::200
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2001:19f0:feee::dead:beef:cafe
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2001:820:2::6
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2001:1418:13:1::25
chat.freenode.net has IPv6 address 2a03:280:0:1::1
andreas@stilgar:~$
