Chatting on mIRC or IRC?
It never ceases to amaze me how people disregard help files. They install an application and start it right away without reading a single line from the help file. I wonder how the world would look like if people could buy a car and try to drive it without learning how to do it first.
So, first thing you need to understand: mIRC and IRC are two completely different things, even if their names are similar.
IRC means Internet Relay Chat. It’s a method of chatting, a communication protocol if you prefer the tech talk. It’s like “television,” a way to see and hear different programs.
The same way you need a TV set to be able to view TV programs, you need an IRC client - a program which understands this communication protocol, displays messages on your screen and sends messages to other people - to be able to chat on IRC. There are many kinds of IRC clients (programs) you can use, just as there are many kinds of TV sets you could buy. mIRC is just one of them; there are also pirch, The Klient and more. You can use which ever you want - they do the same thing, although they might look a little different. This is normal when you have a computer; you probably know that there are more web browsers than just Internet Explorer: Netscape Navigator, Mozilla Firefox or Opera would be alternative browsers. There are several e-mail clients you can use, several instant messengers, several word processing applications, and so on.
You will have to connect your IRC client to one of the thousands of IRC servers in the world. These servers take messages from connected people and deliver them. Some IRC servers are interconnected forming IRC networks; people on one server can chat with the people on another server of the same network. Undernet is such an IRC network, with over 30 servers you can connect to.
Each network has its own chatrooms called “channels,” just as any cable TV operator provides their own channels you could watch, different from the ones you may find on satellite, for example. You can’t connect to one IRC network and try to find a channel and the people of another IRC network. They are separate, you must know the channel name and the network or server name where your friends chat.
In conclusion, you chat on the IRC network of your choice, not on mIRC or any other computer application. Without getting connected to IRC, the application is useless; and there are other ways to chat on that IRC network than just mIRC program. So please, please, please stop using the expression “chatting on mIRC.” There is no such thing.
