IRC

REAL TIME CHAT


When I first went onto the internet, I started going out a lot less, staying at home most nights on my computer. Yet, despite this homebody existence, my social life started to improve considerably.

The reason for this is that the internet is by far the most effective way I know of making friends, both locally and worldwide - it's your choice. Making yourself available for random chat in ICQ is one way, and IRC chat is yet another. In IRC (Internet Relay Chat) you converse (using your keyboard, of course) in real-time (as opposed to the delayed response you get via email communication) with others, and can also send or recieve files (such as pictures, documents), using a protocol called DCC.

There are dozens of IRC communities on the net, the most commonly used being Dalnet, Efnet, and the Undernet. In the Undernet alone, there are usually somewhere in the region of 16,000 "chat rooms", most of which are open invitation: you can join these at the click of a button.

No matter what your favourite topic of interest, you are sure to find a devoted group of people on IRC willing to share their views and contribute discussion, whether it be on Star Trek, Cat Grooming, Fishing, the songs of Seattle grunge band Nirvana (or Britney Spears if you prefer), Kinky Sex, Restoring Old Cars, Chinese Cooking... you name it, there will be a channel dedicated to it. The variety of topics on IRC is endless.

Getting there is fairly easy. First you must download an IRC client, mIRC being my recommendation, and the choice of 90% of IRC users worldwide (and it's shareware, so it costs nothing to try it out). Once installed and configured, you are ready to trade ideas and opinions with hundreds of thousands of like-minded individuals throughout the world.

You can download mIRC by clicking on the icon below.