For anyone else having trouble signing on via the Java applet (like me), here's instructions on how to get into the chat room using a standalone IRC client. The first step is to get one. The most popular one for PC is mIRC and the most popular for Mac is ircle.

www.mirc.com
www.ircle.com

Now you configure your IRC program to log on to the server and chat. While both of these are graphical and point-and-clicky, IRC is mostly command-line driven. This means to do stuff you have to type in a command. On both platforms these commands will be the same. To sign on you would type /server diigitalrealms.com and press enter (or return). You will see in the console window messages indicating you are logging in, followed by a welcome message, followed by the MOTD (Message of the Day). Once you see "End of /MOTD command" you are officially signed on. Now will need to join the channel. Channels in IRC are like chat rooms. It's where all the action takes place. To join our humble channel, you would now type /join #VolksFolks. the '#' in front of 'VolksFolks' just indicates that this is a channel. After you press enter, a new window will appear, the channel window. On the right you will see a list of users currently logged in. Participate by typing all your witty and insightful comments for all the channel to see.

There are two users on the server who are not real people at all, they are bots. They do server functions. NickServ registers people's nicks and ChanServ registers people's channels. This is not a big deal on our small server but it is very helpful on larger networks such as DALnet or Undernet, where there are thousands of channels and millions of users. Still, since they're here, we might as well use them. To register your username, type /msg nickserv register , where would be a password of your choice. Once you are registered no one else will be able to use that nickname without supplying the password.

Well, that covers the basics. If you need additional help, please contact me by clicking on the steak below:

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