Description:

Miau is small but quite featured IRC-bouncer - a service a bit like
HTTP-proxy, but for IRC-networks.

The biggest difference of miau and HTTP-proxy (forgetting the fact
they talk all different protocols) is that when IRC-client disconnects
from bouncer, the connection to the server isn't necessarily lost.
This way your nick can stay online and cannot be taken by the others.
In case bouncer loses the nick because of netsplit or other
disruption, it can try to get it back automatically.

Some people may also like the fact that when using bouncer, your
hostname appearing in IRC is the one of the machine the bouncer is
running at, not the one you are IRCing from.