BigBlueBall Chat Tutorial -- mIRC

[Spike]

Connecting to the BigBlueBall chatroom with mIRC

Note: BigBlueBall.com and irc.bigblueball.com are in no way affiliated with mIRC.

So, you like IRC and you'd like to use a program instead of the website every time you want to come chat with us. This part of the tutorial will explain how to use the popular independant IRC client mIRC to connect to BigBlueBall's IRC Server.

First, download mIRC from their website. Install it wherever you like, and run it. You'll see mIRC open up, followed by this dialog box:



It might seem overwhelming, but it's fairly easy to understand.

Type in your information in the four boxes. Your full name can be whatever you like (doesn't have to be your name at all, some people like to use catchy phrases or their usernames), your e-mail address (which isn't really used), and most importantly, your nickname and alternative nickname. The first one will be chosen, but if it's already taken on the server, your second one will be used. See the example below:



After your information has been filled out, click Servers in the menu to your left, right under Connect. Click the button that says "Add". You will see this small dialog box pop up:



Type in the information just like the image above, then click "Add". You should see "BigBlueBall.com IRC" in the server box.

After you've added the server, click Options, the third menu option to the left. You should see this:



Make sure the check boxes match the ones in the image above, especially the first three options. After you've done that, click "OK". Close mIRC, and reopen it.

This time it should actually connect to the server (You should see a bunch of text scrolling by on the screen; this is okay, the server is just talking with your IRC program). After it's done, you should see a screen pop up, "mIRC Favorites". This doesn't matter / apply to BigBlueBall's chat server, so uncheck "Pop up favorites on connect". That way this window will never bug you again. (See image below)



Hit the "X" in the corner to close out the window, and type this into the textbox at the bottom of the screen, like so:



Then hit enter! You should now (finally) be talking in our chat channel.



Next time you start your mIRC, it should immediately scroll the text like before, so just type "/join #BigBlueBall" to join the channel and start talking.

That's all! Start chatting!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to make a new thread in our IRC forums or post in this general thread.