A brief explanation of the "Unable to connect (Can't assign requested address)" error.

Due to the DoS attacks against DALnet, the DALnet administration disabled their random
irc.dal.net server alias. This used to resolve to a list of one or more real server IP
numbers, but often these days it points to 255.255.255.255 which is not a real IP. You
can see this for yourself using mIRC's /dns feature:
	/dns irc.dal.net

When you try to connect to that bogus IP, mIRC gives the aforementioned error. The only
way to connect is to use a specific server name like irc.example.com using the tips on
the main DALnet connection guide page:
	http://irchelp.org/dalnet

Why did they do this? If there is no publicly addressable (i.e., "real") IP number,
then there is no target for the DoS attackers. Unfortunately, that also means there is
no way for legitimate users to connect either. This applies to nearly all of the
servers shown in the /links list, even after you manage to connect do DALnet. The
automatic server list in the URL above checks this for you, so you can tell which
servers are "real" and which are not accessible.

Good luck.

Jolo@EFnet