I try to open a DCC chat and people accept, but my end does not go past the waiting for acknowledgement

(I will point out that I was able to DCC chat easily in Chatzilla)

also, when I type in (from mirc tutorial DCC):
//dns $me
I get NO response

but:
//echo -a $ip
gets 75.204.147.21

AND, I just went back into Chatzilla and still works there

i just found out that I was doing in Chatzilla was PMing, not DCC chatting.

Will start looking for how to PM in mIRC.

PM (or Query) is done by:

/msg nickname Your message

Or, (by default if you don't change anything), double click the nick and a separate window will open for them. Then just type like you would in a channel and it will be sent to them.