The word IRC (Internet Relay Chat) might be intimidating to those of you who have never heard of it or used it. Reading about channels and networks might have you sigh and turn around, but you actually don't need to know the workings behind it all to connect to the Concrete5 chat channel.

The easiest way to connect to the chat room is to follow this link: http://webchat.freenode.net/

Fill out the form with your nickname (=name to be used in chat) and the channel #concrete5 (chat room to connect to). Solve the CAPTCHA and click connect.

*Here is a link to an alternative image source if you can't view the above.

What happens now is that you are connecting to the network and once that is done the #concrete5 chat opens up for you. To the right in the chat room you will see the nicknames of everyone else in chat.

Now to start chatting you have an input field at the very bottom of your browser window where you can start typing. Hitting enter sends the text to the channel for everyone to read.

There are of course a number of things the webchat can't do that you will need a client for, but for simple chat and instant help this is perfect!

If you want to dig in deeper and get a client, I would suggest looking at the comparison table at Wikipedia to find one compatible with your system. How to configure a client is not covered here since it differ some between the different clients available.

See you in chat!