There are times when we would like to talk to someone who is going through what we are feeling. Email is fine but conversations allow follow-up in the real time. Sometimes acquaintances made in this fashion turn into friendships.

INTERNET RELAY CHAT AND THE #PARKINSONS CHANNEL ON THE UNDERNET

The #parkinsons channel on the Undernet is an example where you can find Parkinson's folks, folks with similar neurological disorders and care-givers. The chat medium uses the keyboard to chat. Some are slow only to be faster....and some of the faster become slower...depending on the med cycle. This is understood by all....slowness or typographical errors are expected. There is no pressure....only friendship.

There are three preferred software programs available that allow chat on the Undernet. They are Pirch and mIRC for the pc and IRCLE for the mac.
The latest version numbers for Pirch are .92 for Win95 and .87 for Win 3.1. The current version number for mIRC is 4.72. Configuration help is available, once you make it to the #parkinsons channel.

HOURS OF OPERATION AND PARTICIPANTS

The parkinsons channel is in use around the clock....when the U.S. sleeps our Australian, Indonesia and Singapore friends keep the channel active.

A few of the active participants of the #parkinsons channel are:

WerPuppy (Marvin Giles) Our founder and Channel Manager, Irving TX
HomeBoy (Yours truly) Oklahoma City, OK
Adz (Ed Martin) Land of the 1,000 Lakes
Geomalia (Ralph Herbst) Home of the Windy City
Memzer (Rita Jackson) Small town Texas
^yak^ (Elizabeth Butler) Gold Coast of Australia
Zebra (Dennis Greene) Home of the Sandgroper
BarbD (Barbara Davis) Bean Town U.S.A.
BarbP (Barbara Patterson) Dundas
Newton (Brian Nevin) Home of the Banana Man
willyr (Willy Romanow) Viva La Canada
MotherHen (Barbara Jarjoura) Home of the Blue Crab
Yopper (Kees Paap) Wooden Shoe capital of the World.
W (See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil)

Come join the fellowship....and fun.


THE PHONE THING...SPEAKING ACROSS THE INTERNET...AROUND THE WORLD

The following describes how two people, connected to the Internet at the same instant in time, who have a sound card in their pc and a microphone can call and talk to one another.....without any long distance charges....

It must be illegal....you say. No, your email travels around the world in packets of data, along with voice data packets of folks conversing all over the world. There are two programs that use this method for the pc. The two programs are Freetel and NetMeeting. Freetel has a free version which has advertising and limited features and a version that they sell for about $40 which has more features and no advertising and priority on their server. NetMeeting is a program in development by Microsoft that is in beta testing.....we get to help by using it free.

FREETEL

Freetel is available at: http://www.freetel.com

It can be used by those using Win 3.1 or Win95.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

You install it. The program connects you to the Freetel server which not only displays everyone's directory information but also connects you to any name that you click on. You talk, they talk and you hang up. Since there are thousands of folks trying to connect to their server, it can take a long time to connect and to receive directory information. Buying their program, would give you more features and priority access to their server. Viewing the directory is like driving through the "Red Light" district....keep your eyes straight ahead and drive right on through..:)))
Just stop the directory scroll to examine interesting folks you might like to call. You can lurk also and perhaps someone will call you.

NETMEETING FOR WIN95

Of these two programs, the operation is similar but the NetMeeting program allows the use of both video and audio, whiteboard, and chat using the keyboard. It is more polished and also has six possible servers to connect to. If you have a color or black and white camera, callers can see your whatever...if you desire to use that feature. Most folks include in the comment line if they have video....and some even warn you what to expect...:))) Connections using both audio and video at the same time tend to suffer from the lack of bandwidth to transmit both at the same time.

NetMeeting in the configuration allows you to pick which server you want to log on to each time. This is helpful if friends or family or business associates call regularly and know which directory to look for your name. I am found regularly on uls3.microsoft.com. That is my home directory. If you don't remember the name...look for Parkinson's Information in the comments column.

While this beta version of NetMeeting allows only to to speak in conference, up to 30 others can join and use the chat window and whiteboard to communicate and compare etchings.

Most international users will indicate the language they speak and understand by putting this information in the comments area so it will be readily apparent before you call.

Even though you might select uls3.microsoft.com for your home directory, you can look at the other 5 directories and call any one on them by double clicking with the mouse. Looking in another directory also doesn't interfer with someone else being able to call you....while you are browsing.

Chat or voice, look me up and give me a call....it'll do us both good!









[log in to unmask]      That man may last, but never lives,
                        Who much receives, but nothing gives;
HomeBoy #Parkinsons         Whom none can love, whom none can thank,--
                               Creation's blot, creation's blank.
John Cottingham           Thomas Gibbons (1720-1785): When Jesus dwelt.