Opening the lines to a good chat

By FRANCIS TILL

Setting up a chat connection these days usually involves nothing more than clicking an online button to enter a chatroom - although you may first have to download special programs.

A chat session begins when you sign in and choose a room - or start one. Many use platforms such as Yahoo's in just this way: opening a private room and inviting their friends to join them.

Chatroom screens are generally built on a standard format: the screen where the chat takes place is at the top left, the list of chatters is in a narrow panel on the right and you type your comments in a small, bar-shaped window at the bottom.

Extras come in the form of various buttons and toolbar/mouse commands that festoon the browser window, sometimes overwhelmingly.

There are thousands of independent chatrooms, but they are often overshadowed by the five major hitters, all of which are built around the idea of "instant messaging" as pioneered by IRC/ICQ.

* IRC - Internet Relay Chat uses text-based chatrooms called "channels".

* ICQ - stands for what it sounds like - I Seek You - whatever the TLA (three-letter acronym) might actually mean in geek-speak.

* AIM - America Online's Instant Messenger was once limited to AOL users but is now open to the public and in use on more than 50 million computers.

* Yahoo Messenger - is the most comprehensive messaging tool online at present. Text, voice and video chat are all available with the click of a mouse for registered users.

* MSN Messenger - has fewer features than Yahoo Messenger (no voice, video). On Windows XP it comes pre-loaded as Windows Messenger and is much more powerful, but will lag behind Yahoo until voice and video are integrated.

You can get MSN Messenger from the website if you do not have XP.