Internet chat can be a fun thing, a new thing, and an exciting thing. It can also be dangerous, and here are a few tips for CHATTING:

1. DO not ever give personal information about yourself unless you have known them for awhile and trust them.
2. Do NOT respond to Age/Sex/Location checks. This is usually something started by either hormone crazed teens or possibly even pedophiles. It sometimes leads to cybersex and that is something to be avoided. Age/sex/location should not matter in the world of chat where anyone can lie and no one has a face.
3. Do not flood a chat. Such methods are not condoned and are immoral. Save yourself and others some time and go play a game or go outside should you ever feel heated enough to flood.
4. Flame wars are no good for anyone. They carry over from Usenet (newsgroups) and you can even lose your Internet account from a flame war. BEWARE.
5. Do not download programs from people you don't know. Often they can be deadly for your computer. Check out the viruses page for more information.

Now that the tips are said and read, you may embrace the wonderful world of Internet chat. Here are some of the most popular programs (that we recommend), EXCLUDING AOL chats (for America Online members only) and Javascript chat rooms.

ICQ ( I - Seek - You ) : Allows instant messaging, chat rooms, file transfers, and many more features. Free.

AOL Instant Messanger: Chat rooms, 1-1 messaging, and an easy to use interface. The "pop-up" messages can be annoying but at least you can turn the sound off. Free.

Mirc: Shareware chat program (30 day free trial) that connects to IRC (Internet relay chat). More advanced than the other programs but also more complicated to use, Mirc is far more advanced and offers unsurpassed flexibility in the way that you can modify the program  to make it do different things. Basic commands are: /join #(channelname) and /nick (change to nickname)

PowWow: Real-time chat, voice chat, and instant messages, Free.

Each of these four programs works well for chatting but the best program cannot be determined by us. It it determined by your friends and which program they use to communicate. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Have fun chatting away!