Chat Rooms for Grown-Ups

Grab the Software

To experience IRC, you'll first need to install one of the many freeware or shareware IRC client applications. Alas, choosing the right client may well be the most difficult part of the process. Download sites offer a ton of IRC clients, each with its own interface and quirks. We'll introduce you to IRC through its most popular client program for Windows: mIRC, a shareware package available on FileWorld.

Download mIRC from FileWorld.

After you've downloaded the file, double-click its icon to install it. Then connect to the Internet in your usual fashion and choose Start, Programs, mIRC, mIRC32 to start the program.

Basic mIRC Settings

In order to use IRC, you must provide the client program with some basic information. For example, everyone on IRC needs a nickname (in IRC-speak, your "nick"), roughly equivalent to a handle on CB radio or a screen name on AOL. Your IRC client--in this case, mIRC--provides your nick and other information to the server.

When you first launch mIRC, the Options dialog box appears. Any of the settings categories displayed in the left pane can be selected with a single click. Appropriate fields then appear in the right pane.

Click "Connect" in the left pane, and enter your name (it does not need to be your real name) in the Full Name field on the right. You may leave the E-Mail Address field blank; doing so will cut down on unwanted e-mail from strangers. You must, however, fill in the Nickname field--this is where you enter your desired nick.

Above the fields you've just filled in is a drop-down list of dozens of IRC servers you can connect to. Each is associated with a particular IRC network. The three largest networks are EFNet, DALnet, and Undernet--each of which hosts tens of thousands of users from around the world at any given moment. Each network has its own tenor. DALnet is the safest network for beginners, as it allows you to "register" your nick, meaning that after you've chosen a name, someone else can't come along and steal it (this can happen on other IRC networks).

Click the drop-down list and choose the DALnet server geographically closest to you. Click "Connect to IRC Server" to log on to IRC. This may take a little while--if mIRC stalls with a message like "Found your hostname" in its Status window, just sit tight for a few more seconds. Eventually more text will scroll by, you'll receive some information about how many people are connected, and you'll be ready to go.

Two obstacles can crop up at this point. If the nick you've chosen is already in use by someone logged on to IRC, you'll receive a "Nickname is already in use" message. If that happens, you'll have to change your nick. At the bottom of the status window is a command line. On that line, enter this command: /nick <new nick>

The slash is important: All IRC commands begin with a slash. Follow the /nick command with another nick that suits your fancy, and see if the server complains again.

You will also run into trouble if you've chosen a nick that belongs to someone else who is currently not logged on to IRC. In this case, the status window will display the message "This nick is owned by someone else. Please choose another." Follow the procedure above to pick another nick. Once you've selected a nick that you can use, you're set to start chatting.