What the hell do I do now?
OK, so you've downloaded a copy of mIRC and you've installed it. And you've run it and you wonder, "what now?"
Well the first thing you'll notice when you run mIRC is that it introduces you to the guy who wrote the program. mIRC is sort-of freeware, in that the program doesn't require anything be paid for you to use it, but it's sort of shareware in that if you don't pay, you'll eventually be bugged by the application sending you to the donation page every once in awhile. First, decide if you want to support independent software right now, or not.
Then, proceed on to the first of the two main steps to getting on the IRC server. The first is telling the IRC server who you are, and you want to be.
As you can see, mIRC asks you for your full name, email address, a nickname and an alternate nickname. You need only be concerned with the two nickname fields. Choose your favorite for the first (more on nicknames and alternate names can be found later, either on IRC or here - when I code up the page). You can fake the full name/email fields, if you like.
Now that you've got your name, you need to tell mIRC what server to go talk to. There are plenty more IRC servers out there than you think, and a lot more people chatting on them than you can imagine. Slashnet alone runs about 1000 connections at any given time. So, what is slashnet?
All you do here is drop down both menu until you get to the slashnet entry. The top one "Network," should just say Slashnet and the bottom, "Server" should read "Random slashnet server."
Oh, and slashnet is a network of 6 computers, worldwide, that run the IRC software and maintain a connection to those 1000 or so people mentioned earlier. Their names are area51, coruscant, moo, radon, vortex, and pinky. You can choose to connect to any of them manually, if you like (vortex is located in Australia, if you care, so that traffic from your machine has to travel across the planet and back. but, you will not notice a time lag on IRC. what you type instantly shows up in the channel).
So, that's the crash course. Try it out and we'll see you soon in #ashevillerock. Oh! I didn't tell you how to get there? Silly me!
Ok, you've filled in your info, and now comes the best part. Click the "Connect to server" button. Odds are real good that your computer will beep three of four times, in quick spurts. This is normal. It means mIRC is talking to slashnet. Once you are connected, you will see the mIRC Favorites window popup. Just type #ashevillerock in and click "Join." A new window will pop up and you will have joined the channel.
Now, that should take care of anything. Catch me in channel if you need to, or email me.
Quick Review!
irc.slashnet.org - homepage for
the servers hosting #ashevillerock
mIRC - mIRC, the client I use for
Internet Relay Chat. It's free, unless you want to make a donation to the
author
IRC Help - another good
IRC-related resource
mat's quickstart for mIRC