IRC bot pong doesn't work - ping

Question

I've created bot, using code from this page.
Everything was good, when I was trying to reach irc.rizon.net. But problem arrives, when I've changed server to irc.alphachat.net.
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import socket
server = 'irc.alphachat.net'
channel = '#somechannel'
NICK = 'somenick'
IDENT = 'somenick'
REALNAME = 'somenick'
port = 6667
def joinchan(chan):
ircsock.send(bytes('JOIN %s\r\n' % chan, 'UTF-8'))
def ping(): # This is our first function! It will respond to server Pings.
ircsock.send(bytes("QUOTE PONG \r\n", 'UTF-8'))
def send_message(chan, msg):
ircsock.send(bytes('PRIVMSG %s :%s\r\n' % (chan, msg), 'UTF-8'))
ircsock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
ircsock.connect((server, port)) # Here we connect to the server using the port 6667
ircsock.send(bytes("USER "+ NICK +" "+ NICK +" "+ NICK +" :This bot\n", 'UTF-8')) # user authentication
ircsock.send(bytes("NICK "+ NICK +"\n", 'UTF-8')) # here we actually assign the nick to the bot
joinchan(channel) # Join the channel using the functions we previously defined
while 1: # Be careful with these! it might send you to an infinite loop
ircmsg = ircsock.recv(2048).decode() # receive data from the server
ircmsg = ircmsg.strip('\n\r') # removing any unnecessary linebreaks.
print(ircmsg) # Here we print what's coming from the server
if ircmsg.find(' PRIVMSG ')!=-1:
nick=ircmsg.split('!')[0][1:]
if ircmsg.find("PING :") != -1: # if the server pings us then we've got to respond!
ping()
if ircmsg.find(":Hello "+ NICK) != -1: # If we can find "Hello Mybot" it will call the function hello()
hello()
Problem is with ping command because I don't know how to answer to server:
:irc-us2.alphachat.net NOTICE * :*** Looking up your hostname...
:irc-us2.alphachat.net NOTICE * :*** Checking Ident
:irc-us2.alphachat.net NOTICE * :*** Found your hostname
:irc-us2.alphachat.net NOTICE * :*** No Ident response
PING :CE661578
:irc-us2.alphachat.net 451 * :You have not registered

Answer 1

With IRC, you should really split each line up by ' ' (space) into chunks to process it - something like this should work after your print (untested)
The reason it's not working is because you're not replying to PINGs properly
chunk = ircmsg.split(' ')
if chunk[0] == 'PING': # This is a ping
ircsock.send(bytes('PONG :%s\r\n' % (chunk[1]), 'UTF-8')) # Send a pong!
if chunk[1] == 'PRIVMSG': # This is a message
if chunk[3] == ':Hello': # Hey, someone said hello!
send_message(chunk[2], "Hi there!") # chunk[2] is channel / private!
if chunk[1] == '001': # We've logged on
joinchannel(channel) # Let's join!
send_message(channel, "I've arrived! :-)") # Announce to the channel
Normally the command / numeric is found in the second parameter (chunk[1]) - The only exception I can think of is PING which is found in the first (chunk[0])
Also note that I moved joinchannel() - you should only be doing this after you're logged on.
Edit: Didn't realise the age of this post. Sorry!

Answer 2

I believe you just need to make a small change to the string you send in response to the ping request.
try using:
ircsock.send(bytes("PONG pingis\n", "UTF-8"))
This ping response works for me on freenode.