Is it Feasible? -Create/Host my own private IRC for family and small group comms

Questions
1

Goal: private communications channels for extended family or small group.

Questions:

  1. Is it feasible?
  2. Is VPN and IRC a good solution
  3. Better options?

Background:

I’m new to Linux, got red pilled by Jeff on Telegram 10/21.

In the Linux Beginners class we discussed OpenVPN hosted on a VPS. I was able to install and configure and connect to an OpenVPN server hosted on Linode.

Looking forward, would it be a reasonable goal to host a IRC server (or other comm system) on a VPS and connect multiple (family / friends) over OpenVPN (or WireguardVPN) so we can talk without our conversations being easily spied on?

I found some info on building an IRC server : Run your own IRC server | Ubuntu

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Hey @Hoss1960!
Yes, it is very doable. If your VPS is setup with Ubuntu LTS, then it’s the server vesion, which means that the tutorial you found at Canonical will work nicely for it.
The only part you’ll need to be mindful of is to set it up only for registered users, which would be your family. Then you can install IRC clients on your computers and phones to login to your custom server. Just be certain that - especially in the case of phones - all your devices are on a VPN. :slight_smile:

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