[10/05/01: I just added forums to my site. If you'd like to see if anyone else sent anything to the PESH forum, go here. Feel free to share any info you have about your life or attempt to find old friends!]

Chatting on IRC

If you're not IRC'ing on #planoeast, you're missing out. If you're not on the 'Net yet, you should be. If you don't have a computer, you should be shot.

Okay, so maybe that's a bit too harsh, but the Internet's such a great place to talk with friends. That's part of the reason I came up with the whole IRC'ing on the #planoeast channel idea. First of all, you can talk publicly or privately with as many people talking as you want. Second of all, IRC'ing is completely free! Third, IRC is easy to use. There are some less important reasons, but I think I've made my point.

Imagine a place where you can talk to your closed circle of friends without interruption. Now throw in the abilities to send files and chat as much as you want. That's what IRC is, basically. Interested?

Software

To IRC, all you need is a telnet prompt, but IRC'ing is near impossible through telnet. Since most people are using Windows or Macs these days, using an IRC client like mIRC or IRCii is much more convenient.

To telnet into IRC, use a good telnet program (I'd suggest NetTerm, which you can probably find at shareware.com. Fill in the address and port of the IRC server you want to log into into the appropriate fields and connect. Then just follow the same procedures as listed below.

mIRC is the program to use for IRC'ing. It requires that you are using a SLIP/PPP connection (you know, the thingy that lets you use the World Wide Web and other Internet features from home) and a Windows system. Yes, it works on both Win3.x and Win95. mIRC is so flexible and it cleans up output from IRC so that it's much easier to read than through telnet. You can write your own scripts in mIRC and it even comes with pre-installed commands to help you do things with the click of your mouse.

For more information, try the mIRC mirror site.

Once the software's downloaded, double click on it in your File Manager or Explorer and install it. Now all you have to do is find mIRC in the directory you specified for installation and double click on mirc32.exe or mirc16.exe, depending on which version you have.

As for Macintosh software, I'm not entirely sure what's best or how you should configure your client to log in. But the information on this page should work for most clients since IRC has a standardized system of operating.

Figuring Out What to Do First

So when you run your software, it'll first ask you what server you want to connect as and what personal information you want to enter. No one enters their Real Names or E-mail Addresses, so feel free to put in some nonsense so people can't find out personal information about you. If you have problems connecting, try changing your Identd User ID to the same name as your Real Name. The Identd tab is under the Setup menu in mIRC.

You'll want to connect to an Undernet server. Here are some good Undernet servers (usually your client will include some) that you may want to add. The number after the address is the port and should be filled into the Port field.

• okc.ok.us.undernet.org 6668
• phoenix.az.us.undernet.org 6668
• manhattan.ks.us.undernet.org 6668
• chicago.il.us.undernet.org 6668
• vancouver.bc.ca.undernet.org 6668

Once you successfully log into a server, you should get an /motd message, which is basically just a basic login message of the day. At the prompt, type /join #planoeast and you'll then be on the #PlanoEast channel. From there we can help you get started on IRC.

IRC Basics

Here are some basic commands which will help you get started:

• /join channel : Joins the specified channel.
• /part channel : Quits the specified channel.
• /msg person message : Sends a private message to the specified person.
• /me *action* : /me grins outputs "Xeus grins."
• /ctcp person ping : Checks to see how much another person is lagging.

Tips

For mIRC, do these things. Go to the "General Options" menu and turn on the options "Connect on startup" and "Reconnect on disconnection" under the "IRC Switches" tab. On the "Perform" tab in the "General Options", check the "On connect, perform these commands" box and add /join #planoeast to the text field. The next time you start up mIRC, it'll automatically join #planoeast.

About the Channel...

The channel has been registered and so feel free to stop by and chat with whoever else decided to spend some time online.