Now, I'll admit, IRC is very hard to understand and set up. It's very confusing even with an easy program to configure like Ircle. However, not to worry. I, myself have decided to provide steps to set up an IRC client so you can get on any channel in minutes. I will try to explaint he steps the best I can. Most IRC clients are the same but have different interfaces. Therefore, commands may be slightly different. I am trying to mainly compare between Ircle and ShadowIRC. Those two are similar but with Ircle having more features, it's a bit different.

Before we can start chatting, we need to set up our server list. Now, in order to do this you must open the program (Duh...). This step differs in the applications Ircle and ShadowIRC. Ircle has its own connections window for server lists. Which is a very nice feature, I might add. Using that connection window, you can specifically enter your server lists and keep them organized. In ShadowIRC, all of this is done in the preferences. And it not much different, except done in the preferences, which is a bit more irritating.

First, in Ircle, take a look at the connections window (If it is not shown, go under the "Window" Menu and select "Connections") and click the first server. Double-clicking it will bring up the configuration for that specific server and that mainly allows you to choose your name. Now, if you have a complete identity, filling in all of the fields with your name will work fine (except password, unless you're really stupid :P). However, if you want different options you can do different. I recommend just putting your desired nickname for every field. Example:

There is an example of a half-filled out Connections list. Now, let us begin with our connections. See number 5 down the list? That's the ChatNet network server I used (apparently). Here's what it looks like for the built-in server list on Ircle.

And that is hardly anything. Normally, you would select the first one and see how it works. Then try others if the first one doesn't work. Let's use the one I used for ChatNet shall we? irc.chatnet.org is the server. Select that, and it will be on your Connections list. Then, go into the configurations by double-clicking it and enter the identity information. Simple? Thought so...

In ShadowIRC it is a bit more complicated. But I'm not being sardonic; it's not that bad. In ShadowIRC to set up for ChatNet, go into the preferences (Edit Menu > Preferences) and go to the drop-down menu within the preferences. It's typically the first one; Connections. Fill out the information accordingly. Connection Name is just for display. I recommend that you put the network name as the Connection Name. In this case, "ChatNet." For Server name, enter the server which is irc.chatnet.org. The port is normally the default port. Unless a website source for a server tells you different, it will always be the default port: 6667. So just let that be. Did you run out of ideas? Click the "Server List" button on the right for ShadowIRC's built-in Server List. Not quite as big as Ircle's but still pretty sufficient.

Congratulations! You have officially set up your information so far to connect to ChatNet! Let's move on and I will give you a specific example...

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