Something is major fubared with the IRC server: 

&lt;root&gt; Welcome to the BitlBee gateway!
&lt;root&gt; 
&lt;root&gt; If you've never used BitlBee before, please do read the help information using the help command. Lots of FAQs are answered there.
&lt;root&gt; If you already have an account on this server, just use the identify command to identify yourself.