In addition to its practical uses and besides needing it to take part in MHA on-line conferences, it's also a lot of fun. The following tells you all you need to know to get started. In order to take part in IRC you will need to obtain a client which is the program that runs on your machine and interprets the information sent by the server. If you are using a Windows based system there are a number of clients to choose from. With Macs there is basically a choice between Homer or Ircle.
Most people use Homer.
Each network has many different servers and whilst some clients will automatically connect you to a particular server, it is best to connect to the one that is nearest you. It's like a hotel with hundreds of conference rooms. On joining you will see the names of the other people who are also connected to that channel and a lot of text going by. Some of the text will be incomprehensible to the newcomer, but don't be put off, people will help you out. Taking Part in a Conversation It couldn't be any simpler - anything you type in will be sent to the channel as a public message when you hit the return key.