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We recommend
that you use a friendly IRC Client called mIRC. mIRC is available for
Windows 95 and Windows 3.11 users. If you're a Mac User, you can download
Ircle for the Macintosh.
You can download mIRC from the mIRC
homepage.
Once you've installed mIRC, just open the program up. A box like this
will appear.
Once you have
run the mIRC installation program and started the program for the
first time you will be presented with a box in which you must enter
your Personal details such as your real name (you can put anything
you like in here!), email address (this must be your real login name,
ie if you login to LiSP as jmnsmith, you enter jmnsmith@lisp.com.au),
and two nicknames. Nicknames are needed to identify you to others on
the IRC. No two people can have the same Nickname at the same time on
any given server. For this reason you select an alternate nickname
(in case the first is used). If both the nicknames are being used
when you join a channel you will probably notice a message in the
STATUS window during the logging in procedure advising you of this.
If you fail to change your nickname quickly you will be disconnected
from the server and will have to try again with new nicknames. To
logon to a server just click onto the "CONNECT TO SERVER"
button. If you have trouble connecting to this server you can select
another one in the window above the "CONNECT TO IRC SERVER"
button. You should also enter your IDENTD. Click on the Identd tab
and enter your email id, the bit before @lisp.com.au, so if my email
was andrew@lisp.com.au,i would enter andrew.
After a short
delay you will be presented with a list of channels to select from.
Just select a channel name and click on JOIN. You can also add other
channels not listed here, such as #LiSP. Just type the channel name
in the "CHANNEL TO JOIN" window and click onto
"ADD". If you want a far more extensive range of channels,
just press OK and type /list List brings up all the channels that
have people in them (only if they aren't secret or private). Note-
Some material that is on IRC may offend you. If you do not wish to
see offending material, we suggest you stay in channels such as
#chatzone etc,. We cannot do anything about material that passes
through any IRC Server.
When the
channel window finally pops up you will notice lines of text coming
up on the screen (usually in black) prefixed by other nicknames of
the other people currently chatting in this channel. You only need to
type your text in the smaller text window below and press the enter
key to send you own text to all the people who are looking at this
channel. If you wanted to talk to a friend elsewhere you would need
to arrange to meet with them on a chat network such as the DAL net
and in a pre-agreed channel, and at a certain time to meet there.
The lower part
of the channel window is reserved for the messages you will type.
Click into the lower bar to begin typing your message. Type your
message and press return to send it to the channel for everyone to
see. Until you press return no-one can see your message. Be polite
and say hello when entering a chat channel and goodbye when leaving.
You will also come across a lot of "IRC speak" such as
"LOL" for "laughing out loud" or "BRB"
for "be right back" as well as smileys eg :) represents a
smiling face (look at it sideways). One of the best ways to learn
more about IRC is to ask the people on the channel. When you are
ready to leave dont forget to say goodbye to everyone. Just shutdown
the program window.
We recommend
that you use the Oz.Org IRC Network. If you'd like more information
on how to connect, please visit the OzOrg
WebSite.
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