To get the chat rooms to work, you must have Java installed and you can't be behind a firewall. Installing Java is easy. Go to www.java.com and click on the upper right corner and follow the instructions. If you are behind a firewall, all the chat will say is: "*** Connecting to www.communities.com:1745" and nothing more will happen. We are trying to get the chat rooms to work when you are behind a firewall, but until then you can't use the chat rooms.

You will join the chat room called "General" when you start the chat. To join another chat room, click on the "Chat rooms" button and then double-click on a chat room in the list. You can also type: "/j #chatroom" or "/join #chatroom" which will join the chat room called "chatroom". If the chat room is empty it will be created, so /j or /join are also used to create chat rooms.

To leave a chat room, type "/l #chatroom" or "/leave #chatroom" and you will leave the chat room called "chatroom".

Sending a private message is easy. The syntax is: "/msg nickname message", so if you for instance want to ask Josh what he's doing, just type "/msg Josh Hey, what are you up to?" (without the quotation marks). The first time you send a private message to someone, or the first time you receive a private message from a person, a new window will appear. After that there is no need to use /msg anymore, you can just type your messages in the conversation box for that chat window. To close a private conversation window, simply type "/close".