Welcome to the world of IRC, and the mIRC message boards
Luckily for you there is a myriad of resources to help you get connected and help you well beyond that stage too. On this site alone there are huge documents containing a massive amount of information that is there to help people like you
You might like to see
this page for help with installing mIRC and connecting to IRC. The
mIRC and
IRC FAQ are always a good thing to browse over too. You can even download the mIRC FAQ for quick and easy reference later. For ideas on what servers to connect to, see the
IRC Networks page and for some further information, news and ideas about IRC/mIRC see the
More Info page.
Remember, when in mIRC you can type
/help and the mIRC help file will popup. If you're looking for help with something specific, let's say the "/echo" command, type
/help /echo.
On top of this there are help channels all over IRC with volunteer helpers (like me!) that are there to help you. You can type
/join #mIRC when connected to IRC and 99% of the time you'll see helpers there willing to assist. You can also type
/list *help* for all kinds of help channels. Remember, different help channels help with different things, so read the topic of the channel before asking your question. Type
/topic #channel (Example:
/topic #Help) to read the topic, but you can also see it by entering the channel, it's the first bit to show up.
Staying safe on IRC is also an issue. It is important to never accept files off of people that you don't know (the file sharing feature in mIRC is called 'DCC' which means Direct Client to Client. See
/help DCC). Also, do not click on any URLs (website addresses) that people send to you, especially if they promise "free porn" or pictures of IRCops and other such silly things - they often infect you with viruses. It's a good idea to have 2-3 virus scanners on your computer with, if possible, "auto protect" features enabled. See
this thread for further tips and advice on staying safe, aswell as some references to programs that will help you.
Also remember mIRC and IRC are not here for file sharing - illegal file sharing is a big thing on IRC and may even be why you found this program. It is
illegal to download (or upload) copyrighted material. This includes the latest mp3 from Britney, the latest movie with Keanu or the latest software from Symantec - even old country & western music tracks from some unknown guy in Texas who died 15 years ago is probably copyrighted and you should only obtain such material from the owner or gain appropriate legal consent from the right people. It's also a good way to get a virus! We don't help with illegal file trading on these Forums, read
this post for more reasons and confirmation.
Finally, you might want to use the Forum's
Search feature which has become, over time, a huge help file in itself. Use concise and short search terms when using the search feature. Also expand the drop down lists to 'All Forums' and 'All Posts' aswell as 'Entire Phrase'.
Google is another good resource if you can't find the answer here, although you can of course always post here if you need help - read the Forum descriptions before posting to make sure you post in the correct one
Happy chatting, and hope this helps
Regards,