One of the oldest and most popular text chat systems is Internet Relay Chat (or IRC). You will need to download IRC "client" software such as

• mIRC (for Windows) or
• Ircle (Macintoshes).

If you are running MS-Windows you will need to have Winsock properly installed. If you can use FTP, e-mail, News or other Internet programs from within Windows already, you can safely assume you have Winsock installed and working properly.

All IRC commands start with a "/", and most are one word. For example, typing "/help" will get you help information on the various commands. "/names" will get you a list of all nicknames, "/list" will give you a list of channels etc.

Once you have your IRC software, connect to a server in an IRC network, find a "platform" or chat room, pick a username, then use the "/help" command to find out any extra options.