Doranwen, I'm sure someone more technically-inclined than I am will come to answer you in due course. But, in the meantime, as a fallback you might take a look at what Karen suggested above:

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Just as a 2nd option, if you have problems installing an IRC program on your system, you can try the web-based chat at http://www.undernet.org . Click on Webchat at the top of the screen, and it'll ask you for some information before you log on: Your name, nick, and it will ask for a preferred channel, or other. Once you log in, you can type out the command to log into one of the channels. It works just the same as any other IRC client. It also supports multiple channels, now, which I'm quite happy about.
Good luck getting on IRC! Come and try it out before the Kerths, just to get used to us.


Wendy smile

Just a fly-by! *waves*