Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
IRC Basics
The first step in finding someone to talk to on the 'net is to download what's
called an IRC client. There are several popular choices, the most favored
being mIRC or Pirch for Windows 3.1/95/98/NT users, or Ircle for Macintosh
users. There is also a client for Windows 95 and Unix-based operating systems
(like Linux or FreeBSD) called BitchX, based on a program called ircII.
Clients
Documentation
IRC/Chatting On the Web