diff --git a/plugins/Irc/ircmanager.php b/plugins/Irc/ircmanager.php
index 6a86e34fd3..37d9980853 100644
--- a/plugins/Irc/ircmanager.php
+++ b/plugins/Irc/ircmanager.php
@@ -60,25 +60,26 @@ class IrcManager extends ImManager {
      * @param resource $socket
      */
     public function handleInput($socket) {
-        common_log(LOG_DEBUG, "Servicing the IRC queue.");
+        common_log(LOG_DEBUG, 'Servicing the IRC queue.');
         $this->stats('irc_process');
         $this->conn->receive();
     }
 
     function connect() {
         if (!$this->conn) {
-            $this->conn = new Phergie_Bot;
+            $this->conn = new Phergie_Extended_Bot;
 
-            $password = isset($this->plugin->password) ? $this->plugin->password : NULL;
+            $password = isset($this->plugin->password) ? $this->plugin->password : '';
             $transport = isset($this->plugin->transport) ? $this->plugin->transport : 'tcp';
             $encoding = isset($this->plugin->encoding) ? $this->plugin->encoding : 'ISO-8859-1';
+            $channels = isset($this->plugin->channels) ? $this->plugin->channels : array();
+            $nickservpassword = isset($this->plugin->nickservpassword) ? $this->plugin->nickservpassword : '';
 
             $config = new Phergie_Extended_Config;
             $config->readArray(
                 array(
                     // One array per connection, pretty self-explanatory
                     'connections' => array(
-                        // Ex: All connection info for the Freenode network
                         array(
                             'host' => $this->plugin->host,
                             'port' => $this->plugin->port,
@@ -93,88 +94,25 @@ class IrcManager extends ImManager {
 
                     'processor' => 'async',
                     'processor.options' => array('usec' => 200000),
-                    // Time zone. See: http://www.php.net/manual/en/timezones.php
-                    'timezone' => 'UTC',
 
-    // Whitelist of plugins to load
-    'plugins' => array(
-        // To enable a plugin, simply add a string to this array containing
-        // the short name of the plugin as shown below.
+                    'plugins' => array(
+                        'Pong',
+                        'NickServ',
+                        'AutoJoin',
+                        'Statusnet_Callback',
+                    ),
 
-        // 'ShortPluginName',
+                    'plugins.autoload' => true,
 
-        // Below is an example of enabling the AutoJoin plugin, for which
-        // the corresponding PEAR package is Phergie_Plugin_AutoJoin. This
-        // plugin allows you to set a list of channels in this configuration
-        // file that the bot will automatically join when it connects to a
-        // server. If you'd like to enable this plugin, simply install it,
-        // uncomment the line below, and set a value for the setting
-        // autojoin.channels (examples for which are located further down in
-        // this file).
+                    'ui.enabled' => true,
 
-        // 'AutoJoin',
+                    'nickserv.password' => $nickservpassword,
+                    'autojoin.channels' => $channels
+                )
+            );
 
-        // A few other recommended plugins:
-
-        // Servers randomly send PING events to clients to ensure that
-        // they're still connected and will eventually terminate the
-
-        // connection if a PONG response is not received. The Pong plugin
-        // handles sending these responses.
-
-        // 'Pong',
-
-        // It's sometimes difficult to distinguish between a lack of
-        // activity on a server and the client not receiving data even
-        // though a connection remains open. The Ping plugin performs a self
-        // CTCP PING sporadically to ensure that its connection is still
-        // functioning and, if not, terminates the bot.
-
-        // 'Ping',
-
-        // Sometimes it's desirable to have the bot disconnect gracefully
-        // when issued a command to do so via a PRIVMSG event. The Quit
-        // plugin implements this using the Command plugin to intercept the
-        // command.
-
-        // 'Quit',
-    ),
-
-    // If set to true, this allows any plugin dependencies for plugins
-    // listed in the 'plugins' option to be loaded even if they are not
-    // explicitly included in that list
-    'plugins.autoload' => true,
-
-    // Enables shell output describing bot events via Phergie_Ui_Console
-    'ui.enabled' => true,
-
-    // Examples of supported values for autojoins.channel:
-    // 'autojoin.channels' => '#channel1,#channel2',
-    // 'autojoin.channels' => array('#channel1', '#channel2'),
-    // 'autojoin.channels' => array(
-    //                            'host1' => '#channel1,#channel2',
-    //                            'host2' => array('#channel3', '#channel4')
-    //                        ),
-
-    // Examples of setting values for Ping plugin settings
-
-    // This is the amount of time in seconds that the Ping plugin will wait
-    // to receive an event from the server before it initiates a self-ping
-
-    // 'ping.event' => 300, // 5 minutes
-
-    // This is the amount of time in seconds that the Ping plugin will wait
-    // following a self-ping attempt before it assumes that a response will
-    // never be received and terminates the connection
-
-    // 'ping.ping' => 10, // 10 seconds
-
-));
-            $this->conn=new Aim($this->plugin->user,$this->plugin->password,4);
-            $this->conn->registerHandler("IMIn",array($this,"handle_aim_message"));
-            $this->conn->myServer="toc.oscar.aol.com";
-            $this->conn->signon();
-            $this->conn->setProfile(_m('Send me a message to post a notice'), false);
+            $this->conn->setConfig($config);
+            $this->conn->connect();
         }
         return $this->conn;
     }