FYI gf -------------- From: LMGATEWOOD@aol.com Date: Sun, 7 Feb 1999 18:05:21 EST To: glofra@townsqr.com Subject: Re: A Question: Was Re: [ILMACOUP-L] IRC Chat Time X-Mailer: AOL 4.0 for Windows 95 sub 214 Gloria, I saved this from several months ago. It might help explain the sites and channels and downloads. THE INTERNET RELAY CHAT PROGRAM -- ROOTSWEB IRC by Dale ("Doc") Schneider <maddoc@rootsweb.com> System Administrator and all-round guru for RootsWeb Searching for an elusive ancestor far from where you live? Want to talk with genealogists in other parts of the world? Well, guess what? You can! Internet Relay Chat (IRC) allows you to communicate instantly with other users. When you are talking in IRC, everything you type will instantly be transmitted around the world to other users who have also connected to the IRC server. They can then type something and RESPOND to your messages -- and vice versa. I should warn you that the program can be very addictive once you begin to make friends and contacts on IRC, especially when you learn how to say "cousin" in 14 languages. RootsWeb IRC has a wide variety of channels open during the week, from USGenWeb State meetings to our new live IRC Server chat in Australia. The RootsWeb IRC Server also hosts the IIGS IRC Channels which include the regularly scheduled discussions of topics such as military records and researching in specific localities: United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Germany. If you are familiar with IRC, but not RootsWeb's IRC, you need only add irc.rootsweb.com to your list of servers. (We run on the standard port of 6667.) If you would like to try IRC, but do not yet have software, you can obtain lists of IRC client software at various search engines all over the net (<http://www.yahoo.com>, etc.). Here is a brief list of the most common clients: Windows 3.x/95/98/NT mIRC -- This is one of the most popular Windows IRC clients and is available in either 16 or 32 bit depending on your operating system. You may download a copy from <http://www.mirc.co.uk/get.html> pIRCH -- pIRCH may be downloaded at <http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/~frappa/pirch.html> OrbitIRC -- OrbitIRC may be downloaded at <http://www.dlcwest.com/~orbitirc/index.htm> MAC Ircle 3.0b10 -- Ircle is available at <http://www.xs4all.nl/~ircle/> <http://www.ircle.houseit.com/> MacIRC -- You can download MacIRC 0.9.6 from: <http://www.macirc.com> UNIX and other systems IRCII -- You can download IRCII from <ftp://cs-ftp.bu.edu/irc/clients/> Once you have your new mIRC client installed (I'm using this as an example since it is the client I use): * Start the mIRC program * from the mIRC setup window click Add * Enter the following info into each slot Description: Rootsweb IRC server : irc.rootsweb.com Port(s) : 6667 *Click Ok *Click connect You should now be connected to the RootsWeb IRC server. To talk with others, you need to join a channel. Since the #genealogy channel is almost always open, simply type: /join #genealogy and you will be connected to that location where everyone gathers to talk. If you don't find anyone there, just hang around for a while or disconnect and come back later. To see a list of open channels while you are logged onto the server, type: /list Other helpful information about IRC, including specific tips for AOL users, can be found at <http://www.irchelp.org> For your chat I think they will need to type /join #ilmacoup Hope this helps a little. Mirc has a 30 day free trial and I installed Orbit which has a 90 day trial before you need to register. Linda Gatewood