diff -uNr a/bitcoin/src/init.cpp b/bitcoin/src/init.cpp
--- a/bitcoin/src/init.cpp 2a962f65fd9a55bfd5db5ed17a95d57ec009905436eb550bcda1c6a024935f1c88b62d509a4c5ac3ddda00970412bfba71aae29f389c191af22c2f1dcf758c07
+++ b/bitcoin/src/init.cpp 4a6fd3869db3a39835edd505281ad25b8f0feafd30b035369c730e1afadcd17fe3f1f49c8da4b3f59d97daabca37c9b544f57e8e484a43811a8dca044726bf45
@@ -162,9 +162,9 @@
             "  -proxy=<ip:port> \t  "   + _("Connect through socks4 proxy\n") +
             "  -port=<port>     \t\t  " + _("Listen for connections on <port> (default: 8333 or testnet: 18333)\n") +
             "  -maxconnections=<n>\t  " + _("Maintain at most <n> connections to peers (default: 125)\n") +
+            "  -myip=<ip>       \t  "   + _("Set this node's external IP address.\n") +
             "  -addnode=<ip>    \t  "   + _("Add a node to connect to\n") +
             "  -connect=<ip>    \t\t  " + _("Connect only to the specified node\n") +
-            "  -noirc           \t  "   + _("Don't find peers using internet relay chat\n") +
             "  -nolisten        \t  "   + _("Don't accept connections from outside\n") +
             "  -banscore=<n>    \t  "   + _("Threshold for disconnecting misbehaving peers (default: 100)\n") +
             "  -bantime=<n>     \t  "   + _("Number of seconds to keep misbehaving peers from reconnecting (default: 86400)\n") +
@@ -412,7 +412,6 @@
         // Use SoftSetArg here so user can override any of these if they wish.
         // Note: the GetBoolArg() calls for all of these must happen later.
         SoftSetArg("-nolisten", true);
-        SoftSetArg("-noirc", true);
     }
 
     fNoListen = GetBoolArg("-nolisten");
diff -uNr a/bitcoin/src/irc.cpp b/bitcoin/src/irc.cpp
--- a/bitcoin/src/irc.cpp a2d021c40268e8dfadd89ce84f19a0fae780599823cff27d0afeefd7e842f4e1828b18d2bcf97497ba510efbdfb927041a4fd4dccf9e83dcad04c73439ad1565
+++ b/bitcoin/src/irc.cpp false
@@ -1,436 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright (c) 2009-2010 Satoshi Nakamoto
-// Copyright (c) 2009-2012 The Bitcoin developers
-// Distributed under the MIT/X11 software license, see the accompanying
-// file license.txt or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
-
-#include "headers.h"
-#include "irc.h"
-#include "net.h"
-#include "strlcpy.h"
-
-using namespace std;
-using namespace boost;
-
-int nGotIRCAddresses = 0;
-bool fGotExternalIP = false;
-
-void ThreadIRCSeed2(void* parg);
-
-
-
-
-#pragma pack(push, 1)
-struct ircaddr
-{
-    int ip;
-    short port;
-};
-#pragma pack(pop)
-
-string EncodeAddress(const CAddress& addr)
-{
-    struct ircaddr tmp;
-    tmp.ip    = addr.ip;
-    tmp.port  = addr.port;
-
-    vector<unsigned char> vch(UBEGIN(tmp), UEND(tmp));
-    return string("u") + EncodeBase58Check(vch);
-}
-
-bool DecodeAddress(string str, CAddress& addr)
-{
-    vector<unsigned char> vch;
-    if (!DecodeBase58Check(str.substr(1), vch))
-        return false;
-
-    struct ircaddr tmp;
-    if (vch.size() != sizeof(tmp))
-        return false;
-    memcpy(&tmp, &vch[0], sizeof(tmp));
-
-    addr = CAddress(tmp.ip, ntohs(tmp.port), NODE_NETWORK);
-    return true;
-}
-
-
-
-
-
-
-static bool Send(SOCKET hSocket, const char* pszSend)
-{
-    if (strstr(pszSend, "PONG") != pszSend)
-        printf("IRC SENDING: %s\n", pszSend);
-    const char* psz = pszSend;
-    const char* pszEnd = psz + strlen(psz);
-    while (psz < pszEnd)
-    {
-        int ret = send(hSocket, psz, pszEnd - psz, MSG_NOSIGNAL);
-        if (ret < 0)
-            return false;
-        psz += ret;
-    }
-    return true;
-}
-
-bool RecvLine(SOCKET hSocket, string& strLine)
-{
-    strLine = "";
-    loop
-    {
-        char c;
-        int nBytes = recv(hSocket, &c, 1, 0);
-        if (nBytes > 0)
-        {
-            if (c == '\n')
-                continue;
-            if (c == '\r')
-                return true;
-            strLine += c;
-            if (strLine.size() >= 9000)
-                return true;
-        }
-        else if (nBytes <= 0)
-        {
-            if (fShutdown)
-                return false;
-            if (nBytes < 0)
-            {
-                int nErr = WSAGetLastError();
-                if (nErr == WSAEMSGSIZE)
-                    continue;
-                if (nErr == WSAEWOULDBLOCK || nErr == WSAEINTR || nErr == WSAEINPROGRESS)
-                {
-                    Sleep(10);
-                    continue;
-                }
-            }
-            if (!strLine.empty())
-                return true;
-            if (nBytes == 0)
-            {
-                // socket closed
-                printf("socket closed\n");
-                return false;
-            }
-            else
-            {
-                // socket error
-                int nErr = WSAGetLastError();
-                printf("recv failed: %d\n", nErr);
-                return false;
-            }
-        }
-    }
-}
-
-bool RecvLineIRC(SOCKET hSocket, string& strLine)
-{
-    loop
-    {
-        bool fRet = RecvLine(hSocket, strLine);
-        if (fRet)
-        {
-            if (fShutdown)
-                return false;
-            vector<string> vWords;
-            ParseString(strLine, ' ', vWords);
-            if (vWords.size() >= 1 && vWords[0] == "PING")
-            {
-                strLine[1] = 'O';
-                strLine += '\r';
-                Send(hSocket, strLine.c_str());
-                continue;
-            }
-        }
-        return fRet;
-    }
-}
-
-int RecvUntil(SOCKET hSocket, const char* psz1, const char* psz2=NULL, const char* psz3=NULL, const char* psz4=NULL)
-{
-    loop
-    {
-        string strLine;
-        strLine.reserve(10000);
-        if (!RecvLineIRC(hSocket, strLine))
-            return 0;
-        printf("IRC %s\n", strLine.c_str());
-        if (psz1 && strLine.find(psz1) != -1)
-            return 1;
-        if (psz2 && strLine.find(psz2) != -1)
-            return 2;
-        if (psz3 && strLine.find(psz3) != -1)
-            return 3;
-        if (psz4 && strLine.find(psz4) != -1)
-            return 4;
-    }
-}
-
-bool Wait(int nSeconds)
-{
-    if (fShutdown)
-        return false;
-    printf("IRC waiting %d seconds to reconnect\n", nSeconds);
-    for (int i = 0; i < nSeconds; i++)
-    {
-        if (fShutdown)
-            return false;
-        Sleep(1000);
-    }
-    return true;
-}
-
-bool RecvCodeLine(SOCKET hSocket, const char* psz1, string& strRet)
-{
-    strRet.clear();
-    loop
-    {
-        string strLine;
-        if (!RecvLineIRC(hSocket, strLine))
-            return false;
-
-        vector<string> vWords;
-        ParseString(strLine, ' ', vWords);
-        if (vWords.size() < 2)
-            continue;
-
-        if (vWords[1] == psz1)
-        {
-            printf("IRC %s\n", strLine.c_str());
-            strRet = strLine;
-            return true;
-        }
-    }
-}
-
-bool GetIPFromIRC(SOCKET hSocket, string strMyName, unsigned int& ipRet)
-{
-    Send(hSocket, strprintf("USERHOST %s\r", strMyName.c_str()).c_str());
-
-    string strLine;
-    if (!RecvCodeLine(hSocket, "302", strLine))
-        return false;
-
-    vector<string> vWords;
-    ParseString(strLine, ' ', vWords);
-    if (vWords.size() < 4)
-        return false;
-
-    string str = vWords[3];
-    if (str.rfind("@") == string::npos)
-        return false;
-    string strHost = str.substr(str.rfind("@")+1);
-
-    // Hybrid IRC used by lfnet always returns IP when you userhost yourself,
-    // but in case another IRC is ever used this should work.
-    printf("GetIPFromIRC() got userhost %s\n", strHost.c_str());
-    if (fUseProxy)
-        return false;
-    CAddress addr(strHost, 0, true);
-    if (!addr.IsValid())
-        return false;
-    ipRet = addr.ip;
-
-    return true;
-}
-
-
-
-void ThreadIRCSeed(void* parg)
-{
-    IMPLEMENT_RANDOMIZE_STACK(ThreadIRCSeed(parg));
-    try
-    {
-        ThreadIRCSeed2(parg);
-    }
-    catch (std::exception& e) {
-        PrintExceptionContinue(&e, "ThreadIRCSeed()");
-    } catch (...) {
-        PrintExceptionContinue(NULL, "ThreadIRCSeed()");
-    }
-    printf("ThreadIRCSeed exiting\n");
-}
-
-void ThreadIRCSeed2(void* parg)
-{
-    /* Dont advertise on IRC if we don't allow incoming connections */
-    if (mapArgs.count("-connect") || fNoListen)
-        return;
-
-    if (GetBoolArg("-noirc"))
-        return;
-    printf("ThreadIRCSeed started\n");
-    int nErrorWait = 10;
-    int nRetryWait = 10;
-    bool fNameInUse = false;
-
-    while (!fShutdown)
-    {
-        CAddress addrConnect("92.243.23.21", 6667); // irc.lfnet.org
-
-        SOCKET hSocket;
-        if (!ConnectSocket(addrConnect, hSocket))
-        {
-            printf("IRC connect failed\n");
-            nErrorWait = nErrorWait * 11 / 10;
-            if (Wait(nErrorWait += 60))
-                continue;
-            else
-                return;
-        }
-
-        if (!RecvUntil(hSocket, "Found your hostname", "using your IP address instead", "Couldn't look up your hostname", "ignoring hostname"))
-        {
-            closesocket(hSocket);
-            hSocket = INVALID_SOCKET;
-            nErrorWait = nErrorWait * 11 / 10;
-            if (Wait(nErrorWait += 60))
-                continue;
-            else
-                return;
-        }
-
-        string strMyName;
-        if (addrLocalHost.IsRoutable() && !fUseProxy && !fNameInUse)
-            strMyName = EncodeAddress(addrLocalHost);
-        else
-            strMyName = strprintf("x%u", GetRand(1000000000));
-
-        Send(hSocket, strprintf("NICK %s\r", strMyName.c_str()).c_str());
-        Send(hSocket, strprintf("USER %s 8 * : %s\r", strMyName.c_str(), strMyName.c_str()).c_str());
-
-        int nRet = RecvUntil(hSocket, " 004 ", " 433 ");
-        if (nRet != 1)
-        {
-            closesocket(hSocket);
-            hSocket = INVALID_SOCKET;
-            if (nRet == 2)
-            {
-                printf("IRC name already in use\n");
-                fNameInUse = true;
-                Wait(10);
-                continue;
-            }
-            nErrorWait = nErrorWait * 11 / 10;
-            if (Wait(nErrorWait += 60))
-                continue;
-            else
-                return;
-        }
-        Sleep(500);
-
-        // Get our external IP from the IRC server and re-nick before joining the channel
-        CAddress addrFromIRC;
-        if (GetIPFromIRC(hSocket, strMyName, addrFromIRC.ip))
-        {
-            printf("GetIPFromIRC() returned %s\n", addrFromIRC.ToStringIP().c_str());
-            if (!fUseProxy && addrFromIRC.IsRoutable())
-            {
-                // IRC lets you to re-nick
-                fGotExternalIP = true;
-                addrLocalHost.ip = addrFromIRC.ip;
-                strMyName = EncodeAddress(addrLocalHost);
-                Send(hSocket, strprintf("NICK %s\r", strMyName.c_str()).c_str());
-            }
-        }
-        
-        if (fTestNet) {
-            Send(hSocket, "JOIN #bitcoinTEST\r");
-            Send(hSocket, "WHO #bitcoinTEST\r");
-        } else {
-            // randomly join #bitcoin00-#bitcoin99
-            int channel_number = GetRandInt(100);
-            Send(hSocket, strprintf("JOIN #bitcoin%02d\r", channel_number).c_str());
-            Send(hSocket, strprintf("WHO #bitcoin%02d\r", channel_number).c_str());
-        }
-
-        int64 nStart = GetTime();
-        string strLine;
-        strLine.reserve(10000);
-        while (!fShutdown && RecvLineIRC(hSocket, strLine))
-        {
-            if (strLine.empty() || strLine.size() > 900 || strLine[0] != ':')
-                continue;
-
-            vector<string> vWords;
-            ParseString(strLine, ' ', vWords);
-            if (vWords.size() < 2)
-                continue;
-
-            char pszName[10000];
-            pszName[0] = '\0';
-
-            if (vWords[1] == "352" && vWords.size() >= 8)
-            {
-                // index 7 is limited to 16 characters
-                // could get full length name at index 10, but would be different from join messages
-                strlcpy(pszName, vWords[7].c_str(), sizeof(pszName));
-                printf("IRC got who\n");
-            }
-
-            if (vWords[1] == "JOIN" && vWords[0].size() > 1)
-            {
-                // :username!username@50000007.F000000B.90000002.IP JOIN :#channelname
-                strlcpy(pszName, vWords[0].c_str() + 1, sizeof(pszName));
-                if (strchr(pszName, '!'))
-                    *strchr(pszName, '!') = '\0';
-                printf("IRC got join\n");
-            }
-
-            if (pszName[0] == 'u')
-            {
-                CAddress addr;
-                if (DecodeAddress(pszName, addr))
-                {
-                    addr.nTime = GetAdjustedTime();
-                    if (AddAddress(addr, 51 * 60))
-                        printf("IRC got new address: %s\n", addr.ToString().c_str());
-                    nGotIRCAddresses++;
-                }
-                else
-                {
-                    printf("IRC decode failed\n");
-                }
-            }
-        }
-        closesocket(hSocket);
-        hSocket = INVALID_SOCKET;
-
-        if (GetTime() - nStart > 20 * 60)
-        {
-            nErrorWait /= 3;
-            nRetryWait /= 3;
-        }
-
-        nRetryWait = nRetryWait * 11 / 10;
-        if (!Wait(nRetryWait += 60))
-            return;
-    }
-}
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-#ifdef TEST
-int main(int argc, char *argv[])
-{
-    WSADATA wsadata;
-    if (WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(2,2), &wsadata) != NO_ERROR)
-    {
-        printf("Error at WSAStartup()\n");
-        return false;
-    }
-
-    ThreadIRCSeed(NULL);
-
-    WSACleanup();
-    return 0;
-}
-#endif
diff -uNr a/bitcoin/src/irc.h b/bitcoin/src/irc.h
--- a/bitcoin/src/irc.h ed3b395dc5d402e50fb6a46188ac5ac5ac249f9a0ff7eb026f66b1b3cb057c1fb660c76ec0626caddc056b36f208cb8951603316a49b2f2ea25721efe05b5b4d
+++ b/bitcoin/src/irc.h false
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright (c) 2009-2010 Satoshi Nakamoto
-// Copyright (c) 2011 The Bitcoin developers
-// Distributed under the MIT/X11 software license, see the accompanying
-// file license.txt or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
-#ifndef BITCOIN_IRC_H
-#define BITCOIN_IRC_H
-
-bool RecvLine(SOCKET hSocket, std::string& strLine);
-void ThreadIRCSeed(void* parg);
-
-extern int nGotIRCAddresses;
-extern bool fGotExternalIP;
-
-#endif
diff -uNr a/bitcoin/src/makefile.unix b/bitcoin/src/makefile.unix
--- a/bitcoin/src/makefile.unix 0f0e33a7b5754899d74e4653292abed226b5b28a9dfe250544ad7eafd928041bd862b8d8293297dabafd84547124f72e94fe77caaceb7b1f0ed93460aa8ce449
+++ b/bitcoin/src/makefile.unix 6ce9f5aa9ba9134f1b98e4aa862c6540bf929c950bf0ca84f35dc4a3fa489121388dd5d43aca001d0e64dc16af5d818485e2ff3bbe645a24abb1fc69eb943a70
@@ -79,7 +79,6 @@
     db.h \
     headers.h \
     init.h \
-    irc.h \
     key.h \
     keystore.h \
     main.h \
@@ -99,7 +98,6 @@
     obj/crypter.o \
     obj/db.o \
     obj/init.o \
-    obj/irc.o \
     obj/keystore.o \
     obj/main.o \
     obj/net.o \
diff -uNr a/bitcoin/src/net.cpp b/bitcoin/src/net.cpp
--- a/bitcoin/src/net.cpp eaf9888f03cfc0267577d217d24b0fba45d5d141e9d8536081059b97195590a0f7aa8d27704cabd46d1af5033733b96d1bb01c47dcfbd636db659db101cc4a45
+++ b/bitcoin/src/net.cpp 712c2726313ee78027c22b67db8f148572c19003463d8438f47d64dc4f354376a7b492d5a7bfbe324fe8b8e6023e4836473b2b76099b72f58262d616665d0f41
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 // file license.txt or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
 
 #include "headers.h"
-#include "irc.h"
 #include "db.h"
 #include "net.h"
 #include "init.h"
@@ -244,24 +243,6 @@
 }
 
 
-void ThreadGetMyExternalIP(void* parg)
-{
-    // Wait for IRC to get it first
-    if (!GetBoolArg("-noirc"))
-    {
-        for (int i = 0; i < 2 * 60; i++)
-        {
-            Sleep(1000);
-            if (fGotExternalIP || fShutdown)
-                return;
-        }
-    }
-
-    // Fallback in case IRC fails to get it
-    // ... nope.
-}
-
-
 bool AddAddress(CAddress addr, int64 nTimePenalty, CAddrDB *pAddrDB)
 {
     if (!addr.IsRoutable())
@@ -1060,11 +1041,6 @@
                 if (nSinceLastTry < nDelay)
                     continue;
 
-                // If we have IRC, we'll be notified when they first come online,
-                // and again every 24 hours by the refresh broadcast.
-                if (nGotIRCAddresses > 0 && vNodes.size() >= 2 && nSinceLastSeen > 24 * 60 * 60)
-                    continue;
-
                 // Only try the old stuff if we don't have enough connections
                 if (vNodes.size() >= 8 && nSinceLastSeen > 24 * 60 * 60)
                     continue;
@@ -1298,21 +1274,22 @@
     {
         // Proxies can't take incoming connections
         addrLocalHost.ip = CAddress("0.0.0.0").ip;
-        printf("addrLocalHost = %s\n", addrLocalHost.ToString().c_str());
     }
     else
     {
-        CreateThread(ThreadGetMyExternalIP, NULL);
+        addrLocalHost.ip = CAddress(mapArgs["-myip"]).ip;
+        if (!addrLocalHost.IsValid())
+	  throw runtime_error(strprintf(_("You must set myip=<ipaddress> on the command line or in the configuration file:\n%s\n"
+					  "If the file does not exist, create it with owner-readable-only file permissions."),
+					GetConfigFile().c_str()));
     }
 
+    printf("addrLocalHost = %s\n", addrLocalHost.ToString().c_str());
+
     //
     // Start threads
     //
 
-    // Get addresses from IRC and advertise ours
-    if (!CreateThread(ThreadIRCSeed, NULL))
-        printf("Error: CreateThread(ThreadIRCSeed) failed\n");
-
     // Send and receive from sockets, accept connections
     if (!CreateThread(ThreadSocketHandler, NULL))
         printf("Error: CreateThread(ThreadSocketHandler) failed\n");
diff -uNr a/bitcoin/src/net.h b/bitcoin/src/net.h
--- a/bitcoin/src/net.h fd5e99a998637d3a0f154c2124a264a76649d115fe5b38bebeb4bf3abc1943de9031ebd2ca002f81f1d7ed53c8e72f072689e16264be1e6944ae2cf0926ea226
+++ b/bitcoin/src/net.h 2e06a0b090af91ebb861bc575a121021ef352e4e55f16dde823462413029bce59c45f57d34066bc6d8f9c8e537ba39b6615bdad286b744a581bc41e55d407a58
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@
 bool ConnectSocket(const CAddress& addrConnect, SOCKET& hSocketRet, int nTimeout=nConnectTimeout);
 bool Lookup(const char *pszName, std::vector<CAddress>& vaddr, int nServices, int nMaxSolutions, int portDefault = 0, bool fAllowPort = false);
 bool Lookup(const char *pszName, CAddress& addr, int nServices, int portDefault = 0, bool fAllowPort = false);
-bool GetMyExternalIP(unsigned int& ipRet);
 bool AddAddress(CAddress addr, int64 nTimePenalty=0, CAddrDB *pAddrDB=NULL);
 void AddressCurrentlyConnected(const CAddress& addr);
 CNode* FindNode(unsigned int ip);
diff -uNr a/bitcoin/src/serialize.h b/bitcoin/src/serialize.h
--- a/bitcoin/src/serialize.h a8b934c161794e0eabbcba01cfb3bd9c08f9c14ee92c2053c9f4707db51139811a37c6c10ef027db3433bec9e8c7d3637354215df85c50c10cb06aa07635d823
+++ b/bitcoin/src/serialize.h b4e3047ee278c2a47973df102a7a8b59982c23ea5c873a20a3fce83ea5e146fa73f7a3c8c32b43bb9979397a33984b045c561636473d57c97c3383611fc84c2a
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@
 class CAutoFile;
 static const unsigned int MAX_SIZE = 0x02000000;
 
-static const int VERSION = 50301;
+static const int VERSION = 50400;
 static const char* pszSubVer = "";
 static const bool VERSION_IS_BETA = true;