IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. Of course, this is not a voice chat.
This system was invented by Jarkko Oikarinen in Finland in 1988, and in a short time
became a great favorite in the world. There’s a diversity of IRC-servers, joined
together in a net. All information is transferred inside the net, so there isn’t much
difference whether to use this or that server, although there are some points – we will
cover them later. It looks like this: you see phrases of the speakers on your screen and
answer them by typing the text on your keyboard. To use IRC, you need a special program,
IRC-client. There are several such programs, they are alike, but we recommend you mIRC. Click this
and download the latest version of this
popular client. Next, you should choose two nick-names. Why two? If you weren’t original
and there is such a nick as yours already, the second will be used instead of the first.
If both names already exist, you’ll have to think of another one. Then you’ll have to
choose a server to which you will connect – you might try a ‘random’ one at the top
of the list. After the connection you’ll have to choose a channel according to your
interests, and join it. Channels are something about ‘chat rooms’. Each channel has
its subject, and it is reflected in its ‘topic’. Having joined the channel, you’ll
see some people chatting about something; in the main window you’ll see their replicas,
and in the mirror on the right – their nick-names. Now it’s time to say ‘hi’! At
first it will be rather hard for you to catch up with everything, but in an hour or two
you’ll be chatting okay. There’s nothing sophisticated about mIRC or IRC, anyone can
get a good understanding of these things. And lastly, about the servers. You’ll choose
the best one only according to the delay between your and your speakers’ messages. To
test it, use a special ‘ping’ command (by right-clicking on the nick). If ping is
exceeds 20 seconds – you’d better change the server. See you online!