What are the Hostkey and Ownerkey?
Hostkeys and Ownerkeys are used to join a channel as host.
The difference between the hostkey and ownerkey is that the owner cannot be kicked by a host. Only the room owner should have the ownerkey to ensure that they always stay in control of their room.
As a room owner, you can give the hostkey to those people whom you trust to help you manage your room; you may find that this method is easier then hosting them manually each time they enter.

Note: Remember that both the hostkey and ownerkey are case-sensitive. This means it has to be entered exactly or it will not work.


How do I use these keys?

Contents of this page:
Using hostkey and ownerkey with room enter.
Using hostkey and ownerkey with the IRC /join command.
Using hostkey and ownerkey in a macro.

Enter Room

The first way you can use the key is with the "room enter" feature of Microsoft Chat.
To do this, go to the Room menu then select Enter Room... You are presented with this screen:

On this screen, in the field under where it says Enter the name of a new or existing chat room: fill in the name of the room you wish to join.
On the lower half of the screen under where it says Optional password: is where you will enter your hostkey or ownerkey.

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IRC Command

The IRC command  "/join" can be entered from either a channel window or the status window. The way to properly use this command is as follows; "/join #Room password". (You do this without the quotation marks.)

Note: You cannot use this if you are already in the room you want to join with the key; you must first leave and then use the command to enter again.

In the example below, we will be entering the room #My_Room and using the password secretpassword. This is what it would look like if were you joining from a different room:

In this example, we will be using the "/join" command from our status window (if your status window is not active go to the View menu and select Status Window. This is what it will look like joining from status window with the room name and key the same as above.

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Macro Use

To make a macro for joining a room with your password, first open up the Automations dialog by clicking the View menu, then selecting Automations (You can also press Ctrl-L). Stay on the General tab and down at the bottom you will see the section for macros.

Next to Name: type in "Join #Room". (Replace #Room with the name of the room you wish to use in this macro).
In the lower text box (on the left side of the Add Macro and Delete Macro buttons) enter in the following. "/join #My_Room secretpassword". As an example, when you use this replace #My_Room with the room you are going to enter. Also replace secretpassword with the hostkey or ownerkey. You should have something that looks like this:


Now click on Add Macro, then Apply, then finally Okay.

You can now access your macro by pressing the associated alt code; in this example Alt-0 -- or by clicking the View menu, then highlighting Macros and selecting the room-join macro you've just made. Below is what this should look like when you select your macro:

Again, remember you cannot activate a key in a room in which you are already present; these macros need to be used from either the status window or from another room.

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