One of the biggest problems about running irssi in a terminal in screen is that there aren’t any notifications by default if you are mentioned, or if there is activity in a channel. By running these commands, you will be able to get these notifications. They can be tailored based on the notifications that you want.
/set beep_msg_level CRAP MSGS PUBLIC NOTICES SNOTES CTCPS ACTIONS JOINS PARTS QUITS KICKS MODES TOPICS WALLOPS INVITES NICKS DCC DCCMSGS CLIENTNOTICE CLIENTCRAP CLIENTERROR /set beep_when_window_active ON /set beep_when_away ON /set bell_beeps ON
Could you maybe show your .screenrc file, do you need any special settings?
How does the beeping work. Does it constantly beep or flash until you check the screen (this is what I’m looking for)?
If you only want it to flash when your nick is mentioned, use the following instead of the first line:
/set beep_msg_level MSGS NOTICES DCC DCCMSGS HILIGHT
Stolen from: http://pookey.co.uk/wordpress/archives/4-irssi-making-it-beep-when-your-nick-is-mentioned
If you use PuTTy, you also need to set the Visual Bell (flash window) and the Flashing option under Terminal > Bell. This will cause the icon to flash in your tray when somebody mentions you.