Step 1

• Firstly you should download and install mIRC. You can get to the download page here. I won't run through the installation, it should be easy enough. mIRC is one of the best and most popular IRC clients for Windows.

Step 2

When you load mIRC for the first time, the options window should pop up straight away. If it doesn't, get to it by clicking on 'Tools' on the menubar and then 'Options'. You should get this screen:

• Fill in the four boxes. Remember that anyone can see this information, so use a name you're not bothered about people seeing. You should also use a false email address unless you want mountains of spam.
• The bottom two text boxes are the most important. If possible, please choose a nickname that reflects your forum username, but because only one user can connect to and IRC network with a name, your name of choice might not be available. Also remember that your nickname can only be up to 10 characters long.
• If you're confused about these values, you can see the ones I entered here.
• When you're happy with these choices, click 'Servers' in the left-hand pane.

Step 3

• Click 'Servers' on the left hand side, then click 'Add'

Step 4

• Fill in the server details as shown
• Then press 'Add'

Step 5

• Find the GBAtemp server (that you just added) in the list, click it and then press 'Select'

Step 6

• When you click the 'Select' button you should be returned to this screen
• Click the 'Connect' button. The options window should close and your client will start connecting

Step 7

• Before you can chat, you need to register with NickServ. This is a service that stops people stealing your username, and allows the staff to associate IRC nicknames with forum usernames in the case of an incident.
• Type out the message above, but replace 'mypassword' with your desired password and my email address with yours.
• Please note that your IRC password isn't the same as your forum password!

• Every time you connect to the IRC server you should type out this command (again, replacing 'mypassword' with your own password) so you can speak on the chat and we know who you are!
• If this seems too tedious to do every time you connect, type /alias ver msg NickServ IDENTIFY mypassword and press enter. From now on, you'll only have to type /ver to identify yourself.

Step 8

• To join the GBAtemp channel type out the command above and press enter. You'll then be connected to the channel as shown below and can start chatting!

Notes

• This tutorial only covers the bare minimum you need to do to get on IRC. I recommend that once you become acquainted with the basics you take a look through the options and configure mIRC to suit you.
• I'd also recommend adding #GBAtemp.net as a favourite channel and making your client connect to it automatically when mIRC starts. Take a look on the 'Favourites' menu to do this, it's pretty straightforward.