Xchat

I'm the guy who likes things delivered- UPS to the door, rural mail delivery, even got cow feed delivered today. Online, I get the Metro deluge from Craigslist delivered via RSS.

So I started using the live chat and liked it, but right away started getting tired of the interface. For me to keep chat running while I surf the web elsewhere, I used the float window, and gave chat its own tab. Then I resized the windows and split the screen 80/20 browser/chat. This works, but takes a lot of setup work. Each time. The float window can't even remember the way I set it up last time. Also annoying to put in my name every time.

And it all goes away if you accidentally close the tab or move away from the chat page.

I happened to see bogs post that he uses a chat client. Hmmmm.... 

I read up on chat clients, and found Pidgin.  Pidgin is free, and downloads pretty fast. It will do all your chats/IMs in one place. But eventually I got tired of Pidgin's little oddities, and went looking again. I was referred to Xchat. I like that much better, and it is very simple to set up.

So here's how to get it:

1) download Xchat.

2) Set up the server. For the geometroforum, you need to add a network. Call it IRCstorm, the address is irc.ircstorm.net. In the space for 'favorite channel', add #geometroforum. Add you preferred nickname, plus 2nd and 3rd choice. Remember no spaces, but_you_can_use_these.

You're done.

If you select autojoin on startup, then Xchat becomes a one-click wonder, right into the chat.

All your chats are logged, which is nice. To read them, go to C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\X-Chat 2\xchatlogs.

I'm still learning it, I'll keep updating tips/tricks here.