To start Chatting through a IRC server, you need a Client (program). The most popular is mIRC. It is just available for IBM compatible computers (as far as i know). There is another famous program called pirc. That should be for Mac users.
If you start chatting, you usually want to do something. You got expectations what you can do on a chat server and you want a program that fits your engagement.
I.e. you want to flirt
chat on one of the famous servers. You just found out that
something like chat exists, you will never be chanop or hold any
other special job. You don't expect anything but chat.
If this is you, you just need the Basic mIRC.
But as soon you want more
and can't program that yourself, you will have to find a script.
First, to warn you, there are thousands of scripts, so test these
programs or ask a friend to tell you whats the right for you.
All these scripts base on the basic mIRC program. You can "Script"
your own little program into mIRC and there are very much people
that are doing this.
Most of these scripts you can put together into categories. The most of them are the same.
Fun Scripts: They are filled with "stupid sentences" (Kisses, slaps, tosses, ...) that are automated. Most of them also got games included or ASCII Arts. They are mainly designed to have fun while chatting. When others are bored, you can have game or draw or whatever. They use many colors, so don't be suprised when you get kicked for using colors!
Entertaiment Scripts: They are kinda similar to the Fun Scripts, but mostly they got MP3 / Wave / whatever - Players and good handling instead of "stupid sentences" and ASCII Arts. These are more or less one in all's.
Protection Scripts: These scripts are designed to make chatting safer. They can't prevent you from all attacks, but they can be attendants. Note: There are many fucked up "Protection Scripts"
WAR Scripts: Main aim of that kind of script is to harm other chatters. They are capable (depending on what script) of nuking or crashing other computers. Almost every WAR script has got some spam utilities (send other chatters huge amounts of messages). These are nothing for newbies! And experts: use them wise! ;-)
Bot Scripts: These are just for channel owners. Read the Bot section for more details.
You will often find
Scripts that combine two or more types. As said, test them! You
can get links to script sources on www.mirc.com
in the "Links to mIRC related sites" section.
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