This often takes up to a minute or more so gather your thoughts, jot down a few questions to ask, or grab a cuppa. Once the applet loads, you're ready to get started. When the screen settles down, type a one word name or nickname into the text field. This name will identify yourself to the group. You can also play around with the actions and sounds to see what they do.
Any new software takes some time to get used to.
We've found the Chat program in this service to be pretty good. Needless to say your browser has to support java and have it enabled in the preferences. We've found that when we're pushing our computers' RAM to the limit, the java-based Chats sometimes crash out. We suggest closing all applications besides your browser. If your ISP drops your connection automatically when it doesn't sense activity, you might be dropped during the chat session because to the ISP it doesn't look like you're using the connection.