Vocalist.org archive


From:  "Dianne van Dulken" <dogmac@r...>
Date:  Mon Jul 24, 2000  6:02 am
Subject:  IRC


Reg wrote:

>Is irc a chat room? If it is there's one at the eGroup mother site
that is easy to use but all I ever find is an empty room. Maybe it's
the time difference or the season? It's winter here. Reg.
http://www.egroups.com/

The chatrooms you see on pages such as egroups aren't really IRC.
They are small, java driven applets which only apply to that
particular page.

IRC itself is a much bigger, more complex thing. It is REAL chat,
where anyone can get on there and talk about anything. It is run
from various chat servers, which are world wide. Apparently there
is a chatroom called #vocalist on Undernet. Personally, I never ever
chat on Undernet, being a Starlink person myself, so I would never go
there.

You need to link up to one of these servers first, and then join a
group. The best way to do this is to get yourself some chat
software. MIRC is undoubtedly the best (get it from
http://www.mirc.com), but there is also PIRCH and VIRC, both of which
are moderately popular.

To get to the Undernet chatroom:

1) Get yourself some MIRC
2) When you open it, you will get a page with the following fields:

a) Drop down list of IRC servers. Select anything that starts with
undernet - I can't recommend a server, because, as I said, I always
use Starlink
b) Your full name. You CAN fill this in with your real real name,
but most people put twaddle in here
c) Your email address. See b)
d) Your nickname. This is a way that people can identify you. This
can be up to 10 characters long Generally (though not always), you
are best off not going with your real name, as you may not always be
able to get it. EG: If there are five Reg's who use underlink, it
is first in best dressed, and you may only be able to use Reg some of
the time, which will confuse the people you are talking to. There is
also a netiquette thing which says "If someone has been coming to
chat as that name for forever, don't use it". Stealing other peoples
nicks is VERY VERY bad. So, slightly obscure is better. I am always
on as dogmac, myself.
d) Your alternative. This is another nick, for when your first one
has been taken.

3) Click "Connect to IRC Server" This will then go and connect you
up

Once you have done that, you will need to join the vocalist chat
room. You do this by typing in "/join #vocalist" Voila! Hopefully
you will find other people there to chat to. If you find yourself
with an @ in front of your name, that means you are an operator of
that channel, and have to keep everyone else well behaved.

Cheers

Di

PS Any other Starlink users out there? Want to start an alternative
channel?

PPS For more info on IRC, go to the MIRC page. They have a very good
intro there


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