Computers The Newbie's Guide to IRC.

OK, Berry and I talked this over, and she will be making this a sticky topic to assist newbies in getting onto irc, using mirc, and other useful advice for those not born with a direct connection to the web

And thus we are presenting, once again, Ark's Step-By-Step guide to IRC for the Masses! (the masses use Windows, so that's what this is geared towards)

1) Go to www.mirc.com
2) Click 'Download mIRC' (second link on the left hand side)
3) Click on 'mIRC 6.03 in Georgia' or any other download link
4) A box asking what you want to do with the file should pop up, click 'Open'
5) Wait for mIRC to download
6) A box will open, click 'Next'
7) Click 'Yes'
8) Click 'Install'
9) Click 'Finish'
10) The installation is complete. Click on your Start button
11) Click 'Programs'
12) Click 'mIRC'
13) Click 'mIRC' in the popdown window (2nd icon)
14) Behold! Your irc client.
15) Fill in the name, email, nickname, and alternative fields. Use your prefered nickname for all of them if you are concerned about people getting your email address.
16) Click the 'OK' button.
17) Now, type in this: "/server whole.ny.us.quakenet.org"(WITHOUT the quotation marks)

-IMPORTANT!- At the very bottom of this thread is a link which contains ALL of the Quakenet servers. You may use ANY of these servers with the "/server" command. It is advised to choose one that is near your geographic area.

18) Wait until the screen stops scrolling, you should see a line that starts with 'Local Host'.
19) A window will pop up that says 'mIRC Channels Folder'. Click the little 'X' in the corner to close the window.
20) In the Status window, click on the bar at the bottom. Type "/join #boards.jp" (WITHOUT the quotation marks)
21) Talk. TALK! KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!

If you have any questions or comments, please PM me with them, as I would like to keep this thread strictly technical and easy to read for the newbies.

- Ark

 

Part Two

Welcome to part 2 of Arky's IRC Tutorials section...

Understanding and using IRC

This tutorial is geared towards users of the mIRC client.

When you connect to IRC, the first window you will see will be what is called the 'Server' window. This window shows messages and information that the irc server has sent to you.

The server window is also where you can first choose to join a chat room. Chat rooms on irc are also known as 'Channels'. Any name starting with a pound sign (#) is a channel, for instance #mangatoanime, #irc-help, and #FinalFantasy. To enter a chat room, you type '/join #channel', with #channel being whatever chat room you wish to join.

When you enter a room, you will see 2 frames. A large one that fills most of the screen, and a smaller one that is on the very right hand side of the screen. The large window is the conversation window, where you can see what you and anyone in the room says. The window to the right is the names window, which lists the names of everyone in the channel. Some of the names will be preceded by an at symbol (@). This means they have what is known as Operator (op) status in that channel. Operators can kick and ban people from a channel, so it is in your best interest to not be rude to them.

Some people may also have a + sign preceeding thier names. This symbol means that they have been 'voiced', and can talk if the channel is moderated. In a channel that is moderated, you can not talk unless you are an Operator or have been voiced.

The bottom of the screen is the input bar, where you can type in whatever you want to say. Hitting enter sends your text to irc, and everyone will see what you say.

At the top of the screen, there will be a bar that contains the icons for any channels and servers you have open. This is called the 'Channel bar'. You can drag this to any side of the screen that you prefer it (I always stick mine on the bottom).

This concludes the second IRC tutorial. As before, if you have any questions or comments, please PM me with them, as I would like to keep this thread strictly technical and easy to read for the newbies.

- Ark

 

Part the Third, FAQ's

Welcome to part 3 of Arky's IRC Tutorials section...

Common Questions:

Q: "How do I do that purple text stuff?"
A: The purple text is called action text. Example:

* Ark yawns

To use an action, simply type '/me' and then the action; for example, '/me yawns' will produce the '* YourName yawns' line in irc.

A word of advice: Don't over use actions. It can get annoying to others really, really fast.

Q: "I don't like the colors, can I change them?"
A: Yep. If you look at the toolbar at the top of your mIRC window, the 11th icon from the left will be an icon of some crayons. Click on it, and a 'mIRC Colors' window will come up. Clicking on any item will select it, and then you can click on one of the colors at the bottom to change the color of it. Be careful though, you can make irc unreadable pretty quick if you're not careful with your color choices.

Q: "Some guy on irc is being mean to me, what can I do?"
A: Well, there's several options if you are being severely bothered by someone.

First off, don't be annoying. People are a lot less mean when someone isn't annoying. That may sound a little harsh, but it's the truth. Be nice to others, and in general people will be nice to you.

If you're not provoking them, you can ask one of the channel operators for assistance. They might be able to help defuse the situation, or take action if it is required. Don't expect to just ask for someone to be kicked and have it done... Most ops won't do anything unless they see a good reason to do so.

Finally, you can ignore the person. Click on thier name in the names list on the right hand side, and right-click it. In the menu that comes up, choose 'ignore'. Anything that person says henceforth will not be shown on your screen.

This concludes third IRC tutorial. As before, if you have any questions or comments, please PM me with them, as I would like to keep this thread strictly technical and easy to read for the newbies. If there are any more common questions, I will add them later.

- Ark

 

Eww..its all sticky'ed.

 

/me applauds

 

Yeah. well, quality takes time

...

Actually, I had the first two parts done quite a while ago, just didn't remember to finish and post it ^_^ But my laziness has been resolved anyways.

- Ark

 

I just made this M2A Customised mIRC Client.

This should bring you directly to the chat room once you install it.

Here is the link:

http://www.eirlan.com/mangatoanime/M2A-Chat.exe

Thats All.

 

Seems the main quakenet redirector is down. You can still get on via direct server links. Here's a linky-linky that has all the current quakenet servers: Linkage!

[edit] Ok, the main irc.quakenet.org redirect is back up now. [/edit]

- Ark