Hi Family, I received the notice yesterday that our chat room is set up and ready for us. Let's all get together and talk about our Cook's. :) It's every Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. Central Time. Lisa and I tested it last night and while we were there a lady came into the room from Wales. It was unique that each of us was from a different place and yet be in a room and talk all at the same time. Lisa in Florida, Gentech in Wales and me in Oklahoma. We were all three on different servers. I was given the instructions below to follow to be able to get into our chat room or any other genealogy chat room on IRC. So that you can test it to see if you can find the right place, I will buzz in and out all the rest of the day and evening. Ellie IRC is Internet Relay Chat = It is a system of talking to people in "real time". You type to each other on a screen where everybody that is on the channel can see all the stuff typed.. mIRC is an IRC browser just like Netscape or Explorer, only it is for "chatting". IRC.ROOTSWEB.COM is the name of the server where the IIGS (International Internet Genealogy Society) chats. The port number is part of the server info. All channels start with a # sign.The channel you want is #cooksearchers. Here is total info: In order to get to chat you need to first have an IRC browser. You can obtain a good one from http://www.mirc.com (its shareware). After installing it, when you access it you will come up with a window showing irc servers. You need to add the server, irc.rootsweb.com, on port 6667. Then click on "CONNECT TO SERVER". A new window will open and you'll have to wait about a minute for the connection to take. After you get the welcome message (that you're connected), type "/list" (without the quotes) and hit enter. You will be presented with a new window showing all the open channels on that server. Double click on #cooksearchers and you'll be joining it. If you select #genealogy channel, you'll get some chat help from all the friendly people there. If no channels are showing, it means none are open - try again later. Or, if you're opening the channel, just type /open #cooksearchers and you'll have started the channel. For a schedule of all the different iigs irc meetings, check out: http://www.iigs.org/cgi/ircthemes/ircthemes You'll be suprised at the variety of chats available to you. John DeKleine.