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Barb M's SIMPLE #p Chat Directions aka "THIS is what worked for ME" The #parkinsons chat on the Undernet (which IS somehow a part of the Internet) is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You're likely to find chatters in the #p chat from about 5 to 10 p.m. EASTERN Standard Time (USA) and again from about 7:30 a.m. EST. The #parkinsons chat room may be empty often because folks logon in LOCAL time to an international network. BE PATIENT. People DO logon. To access the #p chat, you'll need a net browser program, and your PC needs a modem and an ISP . I'm not going to go into THEM at all, 'cause chances are you wouldn't have gotten this far without 'em. <smile> You will need a special shareware program to access the #p chat, which will also permit you to logon to the rest of the IRC channels (Internet Relay Chat) if you want to (and there are THOUSANDS of 'em!). Following are very limited selections of locations from which you may download this program (with thanks ot Marvin Gilles): MIRC IRC Software: (IBM) ----> http://www.geocities.com./SiliconValley/Park/6000/ (IBM) ----> http://www.ctfire.com/ (MAC) http://www.mid.net/INFO-MAC/PM-1995/95-09/Info-Mac_Digest_V13_97/0029.html "Pirch" IRC client software----> http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/~frappa/pirch.html Once you've downloaded the IRC program, extract it into an appropriate directory. Run the program's SETUP. I left all settings at DEFAULT originally, and that got me into the #p chat. Execute the program you've just installed. The first screen you'll see is the Registration/Info/About the Author screen and ya can just pass it by. The second screen has the List of Servers. SCROLL DOWN TO THE PART OF THE LIST THAT SAYS "UNDERNET" (without quotes). Pick the closest UNDERNET location to you, and highlight it by scrolling down to it. Press on or click on the CONNECT command when you've highlighted the closest location to yours. THIS action will bring you the Channel Folders (or Channel Selection) window. In the top space, type in EXACTLY as I have it here: #parkinsons IF you end up spelling it incorrectly, you will probably end up IN a chat room.. but it WILL be the WRONG ONE! Be careful! Press on or click on JOIN. Congratulations! You SHOULD be in the #parkinsons chat room! And you MAY even see other chatters... <smile>. IF there's only YOU and another entity called @W.... well pay attention, 'cause @W is NOT a real person! THAT is a "marker" (or "whatever"..) put there by the system operator. You can "chat" with @W forever, but you'll never get a response! On the other hand, that may be just what you're looking for! <grin> Old @W and I are best friends already! <laughing> IF you see others in any IRC-style chat with the @ beside their handle, that indcates the person whom the system automatically puts in charge of that chat room, and THEY were merely the first person to enter that chat room after it's been empty. IF you join the #p chat, and can SEE people chatting there, and YOU type a greeting which DOESN'T bring you a cordial "Howdy" back... you MAY have run into a "SPLIT." NOTE: They're not being rude... they just can't see your typing at all. Type /exit (and don't forget the front-slash before the word!) and then relogon again. As I understand it, splits are pretty common in IRC chats, and CAN cause confusion and aggravation. But if you want to get into that chat bad enough, repeating the logon process SHOULD get you in eventually. I've purposely left out the fine points of logging onto the #p chat and the IRC Chat because I've got very limited knowledge the details. They CAN be found, generally in the place from which you've downloaded MIRC or PIRCH, etc., as can HELP files. The steps I've listed here worked for ME, and are the most elementery. Good luck! Barb Mallut aka Lil_Honey in the #parkinsons chat barb_msn@,msn.com