To everyone, I promised you help. Well...... This is the standard help that Marv gives A beginner's Guide to #Parkinsons On IRC You've heard a little or a lot about #parkinsons and you want to know how to get there. The first step is the correct program. There are three popular programs available. For the MAC the program of choice is IRCLE. For IBM and compatibles using some flavor of windows there are two programs, PIRCH and MIRC. AOL A very good discussion of how to get onto IRC from AOL using the MIRC program can be found at the web site http://www.mindspring.com/~mcgatney/irc.html. I highly recommend it to anyone attempting accessing the Undernet from AOL. This site lists the servers you must use to access IRC from AOL. Only one of these servers will get you to the Undernet and only the Undernet will get you to #parkinsons. MAC The web site http://www.mid.net/INFO-MAC/PM-1995/95-09/Info-Mac_Digest_V13_97/0029.html is one of the places I know about where IRCLE is available. A web site dedicated to IRCLE is http://www.xs4all.nl/~ircle/ This site may or may not be of help but it does direct you to other sites where the software is available. Unfortunately, this is all I know about the program and it's use. Windows and MIRC Mirc is probably the most popular program for accessing IRC. It can be downloaded from either of these two sites. http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Park/6000/ http://www.mirc.co.uk/ These are by no means all of the sites available on the web. Windows and PIRCH Pirch is very much like Mirc in its use and screen display. It is available at http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/~frappa/pirch.html IRC: What is it and how to get there. http://kragar.kei.com/irc.html http://www.netsurf.org/~violet/jwz/irc-faq.html http://www.singnet.com.sg/public/IRC/ircclient.html Of the three sites listed above the first two give fairly detailed instructions on how to access the Undernet. The third is a large list of programs used to access IRC. The best set of "how to - 1, 2, 3, you're there" instructions is on the web site for Mirc and AOL. The instructions hold true for Pirch (the screen elements differ somewhat) and the Ircle web page has a "how to" section as well. I hope this goes a way toward answering everyone's questions *grin* Marvin Giles. This is my contribution.... IRC Information Mirc - http://www.mirc.co.uk/get.html Pirch - This is the "Ultimate Pirch Page" http://www.rtis.com/nat/user/ryan/pirch.htm Ircle - for MAC's http://www.xs4all.nl/~ircle/ This site I found looking for information to help you. It has almost anything you need to begin. http://www.neosoft.com/~biscuits/niu.html It contain information for all irc's even the MAC. It explains how to get started and the various networks and channels. Spending some time there could be helpful to all of us. Whatever program you chose, you will need to download it. Make a file possibly named irc and save the download in it. This file comes in a compressed format to save download time and space. After you have downloaded the software it will need to be de compressed and installed. If the file that you downloaded ends in .exe then it will be self-extracting (meaning that it will decompress automatically when you double click on it) If it ends with a .zip then you will need a compression program like WinZip. (With WinZip if you double click on the zip file it will automatically start up and you will be able to extract the files into a directory of your choice. After the decompression run the install. Don't be alarmed if it does it automatically, some programs are set up that way. Now the fun begins. Just remember, after you are logged on the "undernet" server then you will type /join #Parkinsons. See you there If you need further help, just email the specific problem that you are having. Barb (MotherHen)