I'm sorry, I forgot to include the instructions for autoconnect.
In order to enable autoconnect, go to your forum/irc.php and use mibbit to join your channel(s) and log into nickserv, become a operator of the channel, and type /autoconnect on
After that, it should automatically allow all users that use it to autoconnect to the channel.
Also, as far as becoming an operator, it has always worked fine for me. There are sometimes restrictions set by the server owner(s) as far as hostmasks, for security. If you use /oper, I mean. If not, ignore what I just said about all that.