IRC #2000AD

    #2000AD is the Galaxies Greatest Comic's own IRC channel. IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat and allows exactly that; chatting. #2000AD has been on the go now for a couple of months and has become a fixture of Wednesday night entertainment for many of the regular posters to alt.comics.2000ad. But, you don't need to be a news group aficionado to take part in the chats, it is open to anyone and I'm here to tell you how.
    If you already know your way around an IRC program then all you need to know is : ChatNet, #2000AD, Wednesday evenings from 10pm GMT onwards. For those that don't, read on...
    Your first step to joining in will be to get yourself and IRC program or client, there are quite a number of these around but I choose to use mIRC, for the simple reason that it was recommended to me. You can download mIRC from it's web site at http://www.mirc.co.uk and I dare say it's available from Shareware.com or other such places. Once you have downloaded the program, which shouldn't take too long as it's under 1mB, then install it as you would any other program. Now that it's installed then fire it up and you will be presented with a screen like this :

This is your mIRC setup screen, from the pull down servers menu select one of the Chatnet servers. It probably makes sense to choose one that is geographically close to you. After that enter you name in the name box and your e-mail in the e-mail box, as far as I know these two are optional but it makes sense to let people know who you are IMO. After that you can choose you nickname which will your identity for the chat room. In the example shown, I have used the droidised version of my name as my first choice, and simply my name as a secondary back-up. The reason for the choice of two names is simply in case someone has already taken your first choice. Two people using the same name cannot occupy a chat room. If you try and join a channel (chat room) and both your nicknames are being used, the server will issue you with a name, usually something like Guestx, x being a number. Once you've filled this in, hit "Connect to IRC server!". Once it's connected you, you will be presented with a list of channels, simply select #2000AD from the list or type it in to the box provided, then click "Join channel" and you're away. Have fun and say hi if you see me. Remember; Wednesday, 10pm onwards, IRCnet.

If you're using Linux (if you're not, shame on you! ;-) ) then I recommend using Zircon. Works great for me and you can find it at either Freshmeat or LinuxApps.com. If you don't know what Linux is then drop me a line and I'll be happy to tell you.

Hend-Re