Live chatting is like if you were talking on the phone, but instead of using your voice, you work with your fingers, on a "chat channel". The technical details behind this will be explained later.

To discuss with others on the Internet, you need to connect to a server: a larger computer who distributes what people write to all other participants. The server also forwards the messages to other servers, so that more people can see and chat with each other. Such a group of servers is called a "network".
The program you use to connect to the server is called an "IRC client". There are several dozen clients available, we've selected three popular ones for you.

Double click on the installation program icon first.

After the welcome screen (press "Next") and the license agreement (press "Yes") the window on the left side appears on the screen. Choose the options according to the the picture and press the "Install" button.

The automatic installation takes only a few minutes

When you see the message bellow on the screen, the installation procedure is completed.
Congratulations and go over to STAGE 3.

Start the mIRC program from the start menu. When you see the "about mIRC" dialog box on the screen, press "continue" to go on.

You see on the screen the Options window : if it's not the case, press the button on the toolbar.

Fill in the "Full Name" and "Nickname" informations like you can see on the left picture.

• Full name is your prename, you must enter it if you want to connect to an IRC server.
  
  
• Don't enter your E-mail address, just enter a dash.
  
  
• Nickname is the name people will see and call you on the chat.

Complete the first three lines like you can see on this left picture. Instead of "chat.scoutlink.net" you can also enter the name of the closest server from the IRC Server List. When you're ready to continue, press the "Add" and the "Connect to IRC server!" buttons.

The left window is used to join a channel. Each channel corresponds to a specific language or theme. Enter the name of the channe (e.g. #english and press "Join" to close this dialog box and join the channel.

When you press the "Channels List" button (see the next table, fourth button), the "Channels List" window appears on the screen. When you press the "Get list" button, the channel's list appears in a new window. Double click on one of the listed channels to join it.

A typical channel window looks like this.
If you have reached it, you are ready to chat.

The four buttons you will use most frequently
	Connect to the server
	Option (to connect to an other server)
	Enter a channel (manual)
	List on screen the existing channel's