Berndt Josef Wulf <wulf@ping.net.au>  wrote:
 > are there any known issues with the icb port running on
 > NetBSD-1.4.1-i386? 
 > 
 > The system will invariably crash every time I leave icb running long
 > periods of time. When returning to the system, it will still move the
 > mouse for a couple of times, but no response from any terminal etc.
 > After that the screen just seizes.

ummm, I don't think it's related to 'icb':

 1:45PM  up 53 days, 20:14, 8 users, load averages: 1.16, 1.25, 1.24
USER    TTY FROM              LOGIN@  IDLE WHAT
mozayani p5 laptop1.largemed Tue10AM  1:10 icb -g 1 -h localhost -n mozayani 

 > What is a good alternative for icb? Does irc do the job? 

there are probably many good alternatives to icb, irc being one of them
no doubt... But I only use 'icb' for mostly historical 'avoid change' 
reasons.