diff --git a/HOWTO.md b/HOWTO.md
index ce5a31f8..9aba2d43 100644
--- a/HOWTO.md
+++ b/HOWTO.md
@@ -151,6 +151,7 @@ We will download the latest git snapshot for Electrum to configure and install i
     $ cd ~
     $ git clone https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum-server.git
     $ cd electrum-server
+    $ sudo apt-get install python-setuptools
     $ sudo configure
     $ sudo python setup.py install
 
@@ -165,6 +166,10 @@ package manager if you don't want to use the install routine.
     $ sudo apt-get install python-setuptools python-openssl python-leveldb libleveldb-dev
     $ sudo easy_install jsonrpclib irc plyvel
 
+For the python irc module please note electrum-server currently only supports versions between 11 and 14.0. 
+The setup.py takes care of installing a supported version but be aware of it when installing or upgrading
+manually.
+
 Regarding leveldb, see the steps in README.leveldb for further details, especially if your system
 doesn't have the python-leveldb package or if plyvel installation fails.
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 532b73f0..84c349af 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
     name="electrum-server",
     version="1.0",
     scripts=['run_electrum_server.py','electrum-server'],
-    install_requires=['plyvel','jsonrpclib', 'irc>=11'],
+    install_requires=['plyvel','jsonrpclib', 'irc >= 11, <=14.0'],
     package_dir={
         'electrumserver':'src'
         },