Mellow's CHAT page

CHAT

There are many ways to "chat" while on the internet. Seems to me an interesting way to reach out and chat with people you'll likely never meet in person (the global village) or to keep in touch with far-away folks, without long distance charges.
Below I touch on a couple of (the many) ways to chat on the Internet:
ICQ...ChatCircuit (web based) ... MOO's/MUD's .. Talkcity (web-based) ... IRC ..and..POW-WOW...

************************** ICQ *************************

ICQ is a popular chat program. Once you load it on your computer and signup for a user-id (an 8 digit number) and password.

ICQ

************************** Insect Chat *************************

Insect Chat, from Iowa State University

************************** Chat Circuit *************************

************************** Yahoo chat *************************

YAHOO chat requires your to create a YAHOO ID before you can chat. If you want to chat instantly that can be a drag. But creating a YAHOO ID is pretty easy, is just a one-time process, and lets you have free email and online games access, then, as well.

create a Yahoo ID (aka Yahoo username,password)

Yahoo chat

Schroeder Chat land (a Yahoo chat room i have defined)

************************** MOO's *************************

One of my old favorite ways to slouch about the Internet, is to visit my favorite "live chat" places, called MOO's. (no, they are not generally Cow-related.) Just places to go to type "live" back-and-forth with people from all over the country and the world. You can get to these sites via the magic of telnet. If you have telnet software ready-to-go, you can click straight to these places:

[BayMOO] [ForestMOO] [EdenMOO] [RiverMOO] [EnviroMOO] [EnviroMOO (web-based/java)] [EnviroMOO webpage] [RiverMOO]

and here's a particular MUD i've been at in the past... more of a medeival DnD roleplay theme.. [Dimensions]

Once at a MOO you are generally told to type "connect guest". You may/maynot be asked to describe yourself...then your in. Basic stuff:

say blah blah blah (to talk)

look (to see who/what is there)

n, w, s, e (directional keys, to move from room to room)

...and take it from there, and enjoy yapping in cyberspace...

...If you don't have telnet or don't know what it is... you can still click on these regular web-pages that talk some about the MOO's.

[ForestMOO web-page] [EdenMOO web-page] [BayMOO web-page] [ Gurk's MOO-Gate] [ Marks's fav. MOO's]
[ Rachel's Super MOO List] [ Rachel's MOO essay] [ ppalmb19's moo-list]

********************* Talkcity... web-based chat *********************

This is one of many web-based places to go chat.
It is called "Talkcity" and you can get to it by clicking here:
Talkcity
If you have a slower connection or computer it may take awhile to load.
If you have an older browser, it may not work. Here are the details:

- once at Talk City, you can (for example) - click PEOPLE - then under PEOPLE chat, find "Looking for unlisted room?" - type in the name a room you would like to create, then click GO - a window should pop up. choose the "Talkcity guest chat login" side - enter a NICKNAME and email (fake email if you want) - then click "Enter room-name-that-you-created" - A friend can get in the same way, if you tell them/email the chat room name you created.

******************** IRC **************************

IRC means Internet Relay Chat. This, by far, is the most popular way to chat. If you get on the IRC, be wary, all types of people with all types of language are there. You can get an idea by the name of the "channels". I'm not going to go in depth about IRC, but I'll give three bits of info. (and say that I like mIRC software)
1. Introduction to IRC
2. place to get IRC software, for win95 (mIRC, VIRC or Pirch)
place to get IRC software, for win31
place to get IRC software, for Mac (IRCLE or MacIRC)
3. Will's favorite IRC server = chat.talkcity.com:6667

*********************** POW-WOW *************************

POW-WOW is one of a couple of similar softwares, that let you connect to another person on the internet and "chat" individually with them, either by TEXT or VOICE. You can also use a "shared whiteboard". To use the VOICE option, both parties must have sound-card/speakers and microphone. It really is a pretty cool thing. I like POW-WOW for two reasons:

1. it's free
2. you can contact a friend, only knowing their email address
(some other softwares require you know their IP address, which can be a pain)

POW-WOW takes a little-bit of setting-up, but not much. To see who else is currently online with POW-WOW and to register in their pages, you must have a recent Netscape Navigator or MS Internet Explorer. But, you do not have to do either. If you know someone's email address AND know they have POW-WOW, you can just try and ring them directly

PowWow web-page
PowWow download page
it comes in Win31,Win95,WinNT flavors..not Mac,tho

To connect-directly with me, using POW-WOW you must click the
"german cross" then type in my email address (as "address") and click pow-wow
Tho remember, YOU must have POW-WOW active, and so must I
(and I don't run around with POW-WOW active 24-hours a day,
tho I check my email often)

also,remember that PowWow must be started before Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0 in order for it to work, and you're in business.

******************** AOL Instant-Messenger **********************

I won't go into great detail on this one ("AIM"), but i do have this one also, and it it universal... in that there is versions of it for Win95, Mac and even "java". Here is the webpage to get started with it:

"AIM" web-page

Tho AIM is run by "America On-line" (yech), you don't have to be an AOL user to run this. Any person on the internet can use it. E-mail me for my AIM-username if you'd like to chat with me using AIM.

Last updated: Friday, 29-Oct-1999 10:51:15 CDT
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