How to Setup a Secure Private IRC Channel

The entire point of running a channel on a public IRC network like freenode is to enable ad-hoc collaboration and communication. In fact I'd argue that that is the entire point of IRC as a whole. A guide for running a secure and private IRC channel on freenode seems like a non-sequitur.

First of all, it only takes one user connecting to your channel without SSL to render your encrypted connection worse than useless.

Secondly, if security and privacy are of utmost concern, then you should be running your own IRC server(s) in-house, thus allowing you more complete control and the ability to issue k-lines etc.

First of all if you want secure private IRC you should be running your own irc daemon (I would reccommend UnrealIRCd).

Second, if you insist on using a public IRC server a much better solution would be to use FiSH encryption (ultrx.net/doc/fish). Distribute the passkey over another channel to the users and you can have secure irc on a public network without even making the channel private. SSL also ceases to matter.

Err, why is this here? Also, the NickServ and ChanServ commands are going to differ across networks and IRCd's...If you want a truly private IRC you should probably roll your own server. If that isn't an option, at least set a key for your channel so that messages are encrypted