Internet Relay Chat: |
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by Bill Van Pelt |
Say you're up at 2 a.m., playing Doom and you forget the cheat codes. No book, everyone you know is asleep, but you need those codes. The solution ?
Log on to Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and look for a channel of game players or doom addicts and ask for the codes. You'll get them, I know, because I did it one night (morning really). IRC is the CB radio of the Internet. Composed of numerous IRC servers (computers running the IRC software) you use a IRC software program (a client) to connect to the server and hold real-time conversations with folks all over the world. You can chat with your family in Dallas and conference with relatives in the Old Country. You can also talk to miserable fatheads you wouldn't want to meet, but it's easy to disconnect or switch channels when that happens, and it will. You can even transfer and receive files directly to and from another person's computer.
This sounds all well and good, but there's got to be a catch, right? Right. IRC can be a pain to learn, but with the proper software, confusion can be kept to a minimum. There are a number of clients available (search with your browser for IRC clients) but a popular title is mIRC and it pretty much has all the features needed and the interface is about as user friendly as you're going to get. The newest version is shareware, and is available for Win 3.x and Win95. Use your browser to go to: http://www.mirc.co.uk/ and there you can download the version that's right for your machine. Some of the software repositories may have an older version (just 16 bit) and those were freeware. The mIRC web site also has lots of help and information on IRC and is a good place to find answers to questions you're bound to have on IRC usage.
Let's look at installing the newest version of mIRC. The file you download will be a self-extracting .EXE file. The 32-bit (mirc47t.exe)differs somewhat from this description of the 16-bit (mirc47s.exe) installtion. Open your file manager and double click on the file and the installation program will prompt you for a directory and all that sort of thing. Say OK and the installer does all the work for you.
To run mIRC connect to HALNet (or your expensive provider…shameless plug, eh?) and then double click the icon to start the program. You'll need to fill in some information first, and there are some decisions you need to make that are important.
First, the setup will ask for your real name. If you don't want anyone to know your real name, then don't put it here. People on IRC can "finger" your nickname and get your real name. Also if you don't want your email address known to everyone on IRC then put something generic here (somebody@somewhere.net), next choose a nickname. Everyone on IRC uses nicknames, but there are thousands of people on IRC and when you sign on the server looks to see if the nickname you've chosen is already in use. If it is your alternate nickname will be used. If that is in use, you won't be able to get on the server. So don't choose something common or you'll never get on. If you want to you can use numbers with a name. Bob1254 will work more often the just Bob. A list of IRC servers comes already installed so click on one (which one doesn't matter) and click the OK button. The program is set up ready to use. You'll probably want to try different servers later on, but this will come after you experiment for a little while.
Now click on the lightning bolt in the top left corner and mIRC will try to connect. It may take 45 seconds or so to connect, and you'll see your nickname appear in the title bar of the program window. Then you'll get a bunch of stuff printed to the screen that you won't be able to read cause it goes by too fast. The last line should read End of MOTD or similar, and that means you're on the server.
You'll get a flashing cursor in the bottom pane of the window and you should type the command to join a channel. All IRC commands are preceded by a forward slash (/). To join a channel type /join `channnelname' and to quit type /part `channelname' without the quotes. All channel names are preceded by a # (pound sign). Type /join #newbie and you'll join the newbie channel. There's usually a newbie channel and if not use the channel list button to list out the channels.
Now you'll get the channel window. It is divided into three parts. On the left is a large window where the typed conversations appear. On the right is a smaller window that has a list of all the nicknames of those on the channel. The bottom pane is where you type your commands and messages and you hit enter to send the command or message. Don't be concerned about seeming foolish, just get the flow of the conversation and jump right in. When you want to leave the channel type /part #newbie and hit enter. You'll leave the channel. To quit the server click the disconnect button next to the lightning bolt at the top left of the button bar.
That's enough to get you started, but you should really get the FAQ from the mIRC web site, and also the help from the program menu bar will give you all the commands you'll need. As with any software there is a learning curve, and with IRC it can be steep, but you can't break it, and if you get confused or someone upsets you, just hit the disconnect button.
Here are a few places to find more information on IRC with your web browser:
http://www.phoenix.net/~lsimon/mirc.html
HALNet also has an IRC server and you can find out more information on the HAL-PC home page or from the moderator Charles Tankersley (tank@hal-pc.org).
Bill Van Pelt, a HAL-PC member, is the HAL-PC Internet SIG leader.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.
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