Print these instructions FIRST!

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Left Click on the drive (C: or D: or whatever) that you want to install mIRC on.
3. Right Click on the right half of the window showing the drives contents.
4. Select New, then select Folder.
5. It will make a folder called New Folder. Rename it to mirc.
6. Click on this link to download the basic version of mIRC.(size: 585k) When the download pops up, select Save this program to disk, then Click OK button, then select the new mirc directory that you just created and Click the Save button.
7. After the program downloads, go back to Windows Explorer.
8. Go to the new mirc directory and there should be a file called "esrdmirc.exe" in there. Double Left Click on this file to extract the mIRC program.
9. Delete the "esrdmirc.exe" file.
10. Left Click and Drag the "mirc32.exe" to your desktop, then drop it on your desktop. This will creat a shortcut to the mIRC program.
11. While on-line, Left Double Click on the new shortcut to start the program.
12. When it first starts up there is some information that needs to be filled in.
13. Hit the Tab key twice and this should highlight the Real Name field saying "(your_name)". Type in your name, just first name is ok.
14. Hit the Tab key again and this will move you to E-Mail field saying "(your_e-mail_address)". Type in the first part of your e-mail address. (ie. mine is "[email protected]" so I typed in "ours")
15. Hit the Tab key again, this will put you in the Nickname field saying "(your_nick)". Type in a nickname you want to use. (ie. my nickname is "DearAbby". A nickname can be no longer than 9 characters and have no spaces, but can have _ )
16. Hit the Tab key once more and you will be in the Alternate field saying "(your_other_nick)". Type in a different nickname in case your first choice is already taken. (ie. my alternate nickname is "J-jo". Same rules apply as for the Nickname field. You could do something like "DearAbby2" as an alternate too.)
17. Click on the "Connect" button. This will save your information and start logging you on to IRC. After the first time, you will only need to Click the "Connect" button to start the log in proceedure.
18. If both nicknames are in use already the program will ask you to enter another nickname. After typing in the new nickname hit "Enter" and the program will try the new nickname. If the third one is in use it will ask again. Just keep going till you get one that works. :)
19. Once you are logged on, the program is set up to automatically "/join" you to the "#ESRD" and "#KidneyFailure" rooms.
20. Click on whichever room you want to talk in and start typing. Your text is not sent to the room till you hit "Enter", so please hit enter. :)