"The easiest way to achieve what you want is to pick a server"

Can you tell me how to do this?

"connect to it in mIRC"

I think I saw directions for this.

"and make a channel of your own. Just join a channel that does not exist yet and you will have @ status there."

Not sure what that means, but I might "get it" if I do the first things first.

"Once you have a channel you can make it private, secret or set a password (key) for it. That allows you to control who can and can not join the channel. Needless to say if you only want your friends in the channel you will have to let them know where you are and on what network."

Ok. Gotcha!

Thank you!!!!