Threads don't working properly on my Java IRC bot

Question

I don't know exactly how threads work, but I guess i'm doing it right.
I'm coding an IRC bot just to help me to administer some computers.

When the bot receives the command -new, it runs another bot with the given parameters.
The bot connects to the network properly but the last one that received the command to run another one, stops responding the administrator commands.

Here is the bot class:

public class IRCBot extends Thread {

    private final String NETWORK;
    private final int PORT;
    private String nickname;
    private String defaultChannel;
    private String admin;
    private Socket connection;
    private BufferedReader input;
    private BufferedWriter output;
    private final String VERSION = "1.00";

    public IRCBot(String NETWORK, int PORT, String nickname, String defaultChannel, String admin) {
        this.NETWORK = NETWORK;
        this.PORT = PORT;
        this.nickname = nickname;
        this.defaultChannel = defaultChannel;
        this.admin = admin;
    }

    private void connect() throws Exception {
        connection = new Socket(NETWORK, PORT);
        input = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(connection.getInputStream()));
        output = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(connection.getOutputStream()));
    }

    private void disconnect() throws Exception {
        connection.close();
    }

    private void sendLoginData() throws Exception {
        output.write("NICK " + nickname + "\n");
        output.write("USER " + nickname + " codemonkey.com CM: " + nickname + "\n");
        output.flush();
    }

    private void pingPong(String[] data) throws Exception {
        if (data[0].equals("PING")) {
            System.out.println("--> PONG " + data[1]);
            output.write("PONG " + data[1] + "\n");
            output.flush();
        }
    }

    private void joinChannel(String channel) throws Exception {
        output.write("JOIN " + channel + "\n");
        output.flush();
    }

    private void sendMessage(String to, String message) throws Exception {
        System.out.println("--> PRIVMSG " + to + " :" + message + "\n");
        output.write("PRIVMSG " + to + " :" + message + "\n");
        output.flush();
    }

    private void verifyMOTD(String[] data) throws Exception {
        if (data.length >= 2) {
            /**
             * 376 is the protocol number (end of MOTD)
             */
            if (data[1].equals("376")) {
                joinChannel(defaultChannel);
                sendMessage(defaultChannel, "wazup monkeys!");
            }
        }
    }

    private boolean isCommand(String[] data) {
        if (data.length >= 4) {
            if (data[1].equals("PRIVMSG")) {
                String[] split = data[0].split("!");
                if (split[0].substring(1).equals(admin)) {
                    if (data[3].substring(1, 2).equals("-")) {
                        return true;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

    private void verifyCommand(String[] data) throws Exception {
        if (isCommand(data)) {
            String from = data[2];
            String command = data[3].substring(2);
            switch (command) {
                case "admin":
                    sendMessage(from, admin);
                    break;
                case "version":
                    sendMessage(from, VERSION);
                    break;
                case "avapro":
                    sendMessage(from, String.valueOf(Runtime.getRuntime().availableProcessors()));
                    break;
                case "freememory":
                    sendMessage(from, String.valueOf(Runtime.getRuntime().freeMemory()));
                    break;
                case "totalmemory":
                    sendMessage(from, String.valueOf(Runtime.getRuntime().totalMemory()));
                    break;
                case "new":
                    if (data.length < 9) {
                        throw new WrongParametersException(from, "-new (network) (port) (nickname) (defaultChannel) (admin)");
                    }
                    IRCBot newBot = new IRCBot(data[4],Integer.parseInt(data[5]),data[6],data[7],data[8]);
                    Thread threadNewBot = new Thread(newBot);
                    threadNewBot.run();
                    break;
                default:
                    sendMessage(from, "exception -> uknown function: \"" + command + "\"");
                    break;
            }
        }
    }

    public void run() {
        try {
            connect();
            sendLoginData();

            while (true) {
                String data = null;
                while ((data = input.readLine()) != null) {
                    System.out.println("<-- " + data);
                    String[] dataSplitted = data.split(" ");
                    pingPong(dataSplitted);
                    verifyMOTD(dataSplitted);
                    try {
                        verifyCommand(dataSplitted);
                    } catch (WrongParametersException ex) {
                        sendMessage(ex.from(), ex.toString());
                    }
                }
            }
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            System.out.println(ex.getMessage());
        }
    }
}

And here the main class:

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        IRCBot bot = new IRCBot("irc.quakenet.org",6667,"cod3monk3y","#codemonkey","codemonkey");
        Thread botThread = new Thread(bot);
        botThread.run();
    }
}

Answer 1

You invoke run() on your Thread instead of start().

run() just calls the method which is performing your code on the same thread it was called.

start() actually starts a new thread and perform the code on it.