Older versions These ver*sions need a sep*a*rate script in or*der to sup*port SASL: cap_sasl.pl. You can in*stall it from https://scripts.irssi.org: mkdir -p ~/.irssi/scripts/autorun wget https://scripts.irssi.org/scripts/cap_sasl.pl -O ~/.irssi/scripts/cap_sasl.pl ln -sf ../cap_sasl.pl ~/.irssi/scripts/autorun/ Now load and con*fig*ure it in*side Irssi: /script load cap_sasl /server add -auto -net freenode -ssl -ssl_verify irc.freenode.net 6697 /sasl set freenode <login> <password> PLAIN /sasl save