TSBB IRC (Internet Relay Chat) Info

Posted By: Charles Brennan, Windrose 18, So. Florida
Date: 12/26/02 12:57p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

If you click on Forums and then scroll down and click on Chat Room, you may (or may not) be connected to the TSBB chat room area. This is where TSBBer's can interact (and act up! ) with each other, in real time, as opposed to leaving messages back & forth. There are however, a few "gotchas" to deal with: 1) It is almost entirely JAVA-based and if you have your JAVA functions turned off to protect against malicious code (some firewall programs take it upon themselves to do this to you, all by their lonesome, without even asking you first), or if you have Windows XP (which comes with JAVA crippled, oops! I mean, disabled!), or if you have Internet Explorer 6.0 or any other Microsoft variant thereof; you will become yet another victim of the Eternal Microsoft/Sun Java Pissing Match. 2) The TSBB Chat client assumes you are using JRE (Java Run-time Environment) version 1.2 If your browser is using ver. 1.0 or 1.1, you may be waiting for quite some time (possibly forever!) for the chat window to open up. 3) Some special function content browsers (notably AOL) may or may not be able to connect to the chat room. This is a function of how well their Internet portals work and in fact, varies widely around the country. Once it DOES come up, it will log you right to the trailersailor chat room and log you on as a guest with some number (depending on how many guests are on-line in chat rooms, all over the entire Internet), such as: Guest41658. This tends to make you very mysterious to the other chatters. Where the window says: Nickname, key one in. Newbies frequently make the mistake of using their OWN name, such as: Bill. Since the Webchat servers all over the country are handling thousands of names, believe it or not, there might be some OTHER guy named "Bill" on, at the same time as you! In a few moments you will be demoted back to a mere Guest and a number. If you have already begun typing things in and the nickname window has disappeared before you got a chance to key one in, simply mutter the Magic Incantation: "The machines serve US!" and type in: /nick, followed by your nickname of choice. (Example: /nick CharlesB_Windrose18) Try to figure out something unique, such as your name, an underscore and your boat. (Example: CharlesB_Windrose18, or Noemi_E20) This will also help identify you to the crowd. If the TSBB chat client is working a little too slowly (or intermittently! ) for your tastes, avoid the hassle and get an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) client. A popular one for the TSBB regulars is mIRC32, which is shareware that you can get from (surprisingly enough!) : <http://www.mirc.com> When you get it up and installed, it will ask several very annoying questions, which you will not know the answers to. Here are some answers: IRC Servers: Key in "Webchat.org" (no quotes though) Name: "TSBB" Source: "linkline.ca.us.webchat.org (7000)" (6667 might work too, but I try never to use anything with the Number of the Beast embedded in it! These computers are temperamental enough, as it is! Why tempt Fate? ) Fill in your Full name where prompted, email address if desired, a log-in nickname, and an alternate log-in nickname to get back in with, when your RottenISP (is that one word? ) bounces you off. Connect to the IRC network, and when prompted for a room, or channel, key in "#trailersailor" (no quotes). Most of this glop you just do once. Thereafter, you just click to start the program, click to connect and click on the desired chatroom choice. For those TSBBer's of the MAC persuasion there is IRC shareware and even freeware available for your machine, too. One example of shareware is: ShadowIRC, which is a fast IRC client for the Mac OS. Among other features, ShadowIRC can process Ircle and mIRC color codes (though not at the same time). ShadowIRC 1.0.3 introduced better contextual menu support for plug-ins and improved performance, and the software has been recompiled with CodeWarrior Pro 5.0. In this version is a new 'Search Backwards' option in the find window. (Why they think this is important, is beyond me! I must not be a MAC personality! ) Get it from: <http://download.com.com/3000-2146-10128989.html?tag=lst-0-16> An example of freeware for the MAC is: Snak, which lets users participate in discussions on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels. IRC is a service that uses the Internet to connect a large number of servers all over the world. With Snak, an individual can connect to a nearby server and check out one or more of the thousands of available channels. Features include manual and automatic logging, support for international character sets, font and background colors for each individual channel, and a dedicated input field for each channel. At any given time, the largest of the IRC networks may have as many as 35,000 participants, and almost anyone can find a channel that is of interest to them. Get it from: <http://download.com.com/3000-2146-10175898.html?tag=lst-0-1> Whether you use a MAC or a PC, the mirc web site: <http://www.mirc.com> has an excellent tutorial on how IRC clients and chat rooms work, and I fully intend to read it someday! A final misconception some TSBBers have, is that the chat room only opens up on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8:00 P.M. CST. The chat room is available 24/7, it's just that it might get kinda lonely in there, from time to time! Several TSBBers have agreed informally to meet on Monday evenings (same time), as well. It can be used in a pinch to talk through (this is real time, remember?) some problem or the other, with another TSBBer. See ya there!