Forums Connection Issues Unable

I downloaded irc for the second time tonight in a couple months, I used to have it years ago, when it cost nothing etc. Now all of the sudden, since downloading the new version and all that, I'm having problems and feeling retarded, since I KNOW how to use irc, set it up, blah blah blah...
I'm getting the lovely,

"Unable to resolve server" msg...
I have no firewall, my antivirus isn't on, I have dsl/cable,I've restarted my pc, my internet is working fine, my ident is enabled, it can find my ip and my host, I don't have a router and my dns server etc. is all fine.....and I've tried connecting to different servers, different ports, different times of the day, different days, months later etc., I've registered, paid, and even uninstalled and re-downloaded.

.I have no idea what to do, I keep trying different things and nothing seems to be working...Sorry if this is in error- but I've read every connection problem post and couldn't find anything that I didn't do already or that helped.

First off, IRC is what mIRC connects to, mIRC is the program you downloaded from this website.

Unable to resolve server simply means the server does not exist, is currently down for maintenance or is down because of problems. Try another server.

What server are you trying to connect to? Are you sure you're not misspelling it? who knows...

So it simply means the server doesn't exist? So dalnet doesn't exist? Sorcerynet? Or am I getting the whole "server" issue wrong, maybe I am totally blind to how things work now.. No server seems to be working, I've tried many, and I don't even spell them out so I make sure I don't make a mistake.....it has to be something else, there has to be something else I'm doing wrong...

DalNet is a network.
irc.dal.net is a server

If you try connecting to the DalNet network using irc.dal.net for your server, you'll have better luck connecting than specifying a specific server on the DalNet network (and they have lots). By using irc.dal.net you'll connect to the first server that is available for the DalNet network.

Alright, so I've tried, a whole bunch of servers, and just keep going down the list to see if ANYTHING will let me connect, and nothing will, everything keeps telling me "unable to resolve server" I can't even type in a server, to try to connect, it just tells me "not connected to server" like i'm an idiot....
anyone have any other suggestions?

I downloaded the new list of servers, didn't help either....whats going on.....grrr.....

When you get the "not connected to server" message it's because you've tried to type in a command other than /server blahblahblah...
Try a server that you know for sure that works

/server irc.phazenet.com
/server amsterdam2.nl.eu.undernet.org
/server irc.cl

i've tried all of them, and none of them has failed to connect so far.
come back with the results

If you are "unable to resolve server" it may mean that mIRC can't get a reply from your DNS server. I'm not exactly sure how you change that setting in mIRC.

You can try connecting using an IP instead of a the DNS name. For example:

/server 209.223.117.180

-genius_at_work