Charles H. Tankersley & Karyn L. Hart
“In the beginning, there was chaos! And He said; Let there be light.”
Thus, with a big bang, enlightenment began. Starting with grunts and points, next with marks, and smoke, and drums; then with the written word; followed by telephones, radio, television, we have learned to communicate. And now, today, there is the information superhighway-the Internet.
We are told, to find any information, we need only connect to the Internet and “surf the web”. And this is not the end. We continue to evolve. So why is it we have to call the HAL-PC helpline or go to SIG meetings to learn how to surf the web? To be honest, we do not! All we need is a connection to the web; an ISP (Internet service provider) like HALNET. It is true we will need to have the knowledge to install and connect to the web. Most of us, who are new to the computer, have to either call the helpline or take our machines to the office to connect to the web.
There is something new, available today, which will bring the superhighway to our doors. The new TV’s are equipped with a limited connection to the web, WEBTV. We can attend high school, universities, and yes, even earn a degree on the Internet while sitting in our homes in front of our computers (or TV’s). Some of us are even working in our homes, at our own pace, using the Internet. For several years we have heard of this, it has been often mentioned on the TV news, in the newspapers, on the radio. Now, the tools are at hand and readily available. Can we believe it, most of the programs required for this are “freeware”, some are very inexpensive “shareware” and worth every penny. And more are on the way, the Internet will always be in beta.
With this article we speak of two of these; an IRC client “mIRC”<http://www.mirc.co.uk>, and a top rated communications tool, “ICQ”<http://www.icq.com/>. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is an outgrowth of the old “talk” program used by the original Internet programmers to communicate with each other in real time. As long as programmers and University researchers were involved, “talk” served its purpose, but when the public and other non-technical people came online there was a need for something simpler and easier to use. In 1988, Finnish programmer Jarkko Oikarinen broke onto the scene with the original IRC Chat program that is in use throughout the Internet
Originally, IRC was in the archaic computer languages, difficult to use and limited to only the expert. But with its movement into the public realm and the acceptance of DOS and windows, new programs began to be written bringing IRC within reach of all of us. Many developers have entered the world of IRC, giving rise to AOL, CompuServe, Prodigy, and many other providers of “chat rooms”. HAL-PC has had a “chat server” for several years, it was closed to all but the HAL members, not publicized, and no one used it.
The HALNet IRC server is currently being set up as a public IRC server. Although, with this writing it is not certain, it seems that it will be a HUB server for a new network, connected to other servers of unknown users. This will be a boon to all the membership, as HAL-PC joins with the many other networks and servers already in existence. But this privilege also carries with it great responsibilities, too. It is through IRC that we hear of those “perverts” who seduce our children to run away from home to live with them, and where we hear those horror stories of our mates finding another, falling in love and deserting their families. It is also where the cyber-sex and porno is distributed, even child pornography is on IRC.
But, let this not deter us, for there is much good in IRC as well. We can learn much on IRC, there are many clean, family, type chat rooms. And there are many of us on IRC who are more than willing to give all the help we can, especially if we believe you will make our chat rooms your regular stop. There is something for everyone on IRC. Chat rooms of special interests of all types do exist, many lifetime friends can be found, and it is world wide. The one drawback of IRC is: it is the written word; although we can play music, send pictures, and transfer files. It is used, primarily, as a social tool, a way to communicate with friends, new and old, and to chat with far away family. Also, be aware: IRC IS ADDICTIVE!
If you have decided you want to try IRC, it is recommended that you learn a little more about it first. There are many learning tools available on the Internet. We can do a word search, using any of the search engines, and find more than we can read in a week or month. One of the best can be found at <http://www.irchelp.org/> (you can download mIRC from this site, too). There are many more, and each network has it’s help rooms as well. If all else fails, “read the directions”. Each IRC client has its help files as well.
It seems everyone and his brother has his favorite IRC client, and there are many different ones. However, the most popular one is mIRC http://www.mirc.co.uk, followed closely by PIRCH <don’t have the URL, but, again, a search engine will find it>. Until HAL-PC’s chat server is working, you may “practice” on any of the servers and networks. These are listed on the client of your choice One place which would be good to practice would be: <babylon.beyondirc.net> <Ports: 6665,6666,6667,6668,6669,6670> , <#Texas>
(NOTE: This is a plug, Charles Tankersley is co-founder of #Texas, and is ops on #Barnowl’s and #Midryders and fully intends to be a founder of a channel on HAL-PCs server. His nick is CHTANK and alternate is gramps. On #Texas, Sahara is also a HAL-PC member and is ops. Other HAL-PC members do come here, too)
mIRC is very easy to set-up, one merely needs to read the help files and follow the on-screen directions, find the server they wish to use, click on the connect button, which is very easy to find, and this will connect you to the server’s status window. Most important when joining any network: Read the rules! They are always given in the status window. Then find the “channel list” and find the channel you wish to connect to (the list is usually very large), double click on that channel, and you will connect. A window will drop down with a small bar at the bottom with the cursor blinking in it. If you have done your homework well, read the <http://www.irchelp.org/> lessons, then you are ready to say, “Howdy, I am new, may I join you???”
I’ll bet you a dime to a donut that they will say, “YES! Please do!” If anyone gives you a problem, let the “ops” know, the ones with an “@” in front of their names. Never, never ask for ops, it will not be given in my channels.
We select our ops carefully, we want our channel to be clean and family-like. When we feel you are ready, we will ask you to be ops.
ICQ<http://www.icq.com/> is one of the fastest growing and in our opinion, the very best of all the communication tools available today. ICQ has already achieved over 10,000,000 regular users and is just a little over two years old. Mirabilis ICQ is a programming company in Israel, and is looking to hire more programmers, however, one must move to Israel to get the job. This article will not dwell on ICQ. One needs only to go to the website and read what they say, then download it and start using it. However, if you want it by other means, send an e-mail request to Charles H. Tankersley at tank@hal-pc.org and he will e-mail you the URL.
If you have ICQ now or will have it in the near future, Charles Tankersley’s ICQ number is: 4679313. HAL-PC’s helpdesk ICQ number is: 10868896; yes, they have one, too. Katz’s e-mail address is khart@hal-pc.org, her ICQ number is: 5871313. ICQ is the most recommended communication and working tool of all the tools. It supports telephony, video, NetMeeting and Netscape’s conference. When you go to their website and see this, you will find this is one program you want to have. Before downloading, go to <http://www.icq.com/webguide.html> and see what you want to do with it. You will find this one program can solve most of your communication problems!
And it is only 1.6 meg and runs in the background as you do other work, even on a 486.
Best of all, it is free!
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.