I have good news and bad news. The good news is that, you have nothing to worry about when the server says that your nickname is already in use. What happens is that the connection between your computer and the IRC server was lost. In most cases it happens because the wireless was out for a while (not enough for it to give an error between modem and computer but enough to not let some data through) or the same with a cable network (though, this happens way less often... but it happens). So, what happens is that, obviously, your script (in this case Mibbit) detects the loss in connection first and takes immediate action by trying to reconnect to the server. But the server is a bit more patient and awaits longer for a response from the user, so, it will still be using that nickname when you reconnect. Eventually, he will realize that you're not there and he will drop the nickname. When he does that (by giving the quit message "Ping Timeout"), you'll have absolutely no problems in using it again.
The bad news is that I have absolutely no idea what's up with the "Connection failed (Max clones reached for your IP)" message. Making the assumption that you didn't connected to the chat more than once (that is, opened more than 1 game tab... cause if you did, that's most likely the problem), I'll try to get deeper into it. Though, Mibbit is not the most intelligently written script I've ever seen. So, I would advise you to check this thread
(127209.2) and see if it still happens with a decent script. Let me know how that works out.
Last edited by the L train at 3/10/2010 4:45:10 PM