The main possible reason is because most common Linux distribution's IDENT or "Identity" servers can't deal with IP Masqueraded links. No worries though, there are IDENTs out there that will work.
Installing this software is beyond the scope of this HOWTO but each tool has its own documentation. Here are some of the URLs:
Please note that some Internet IRC servers still won't allow multiple connections from the same host even if they get Ident info and the users are different though. Complain to the remote sys admin. :-)