Do you want to participate in the rally, but have no clue how to work this "IRC" stuff? Not to worry, we've got you covered in this section.

Step 1) Downloading and installing mIRC
     First, go to http://www.mirc.com and click the 'Download mIRC' link on the left side of the page. You will see a list of links to download the current version of the program from. Take your pick, click it, and download the file. (Note: While the site says it's only a 30-day evaluation, there is nothing to enforce this, and the program does not come with any adware or other unwanted things.)
     After the download is complete, find the file (mirc603.exe) on your hard drive, and double-click it. This will run the installer, which is pretty much a no-brainer process. Accept the agreement, tell it where to install, and so on. Once that's done, you're ready to move on to the next step.

Step 2) Configuring your mIRC to connect to the Espernet network.
     First, open the program. Leave the little lightning bolt 'Connect' icon in the upper left alone for the moment. Instead, click the Options icon (it should look like a little hammer and a file folder, second icon from the left). This will bring up a menu with a scroll box on the left. For the moment, simply click the first item in that box, which should be "Connect". At the top of the menu you will see two drop-down menus, labeled "IRC Network", and several buttons to the right, labeled "Add", "Edit", "Delete", and "Sort". Click on "Add", which will bring up a small menu with several blank fields.
     "Description"- Just put in whatever you want the server to be labeled as. "Esper 1", "Chocobo", "ICPR server", whatever you like.
     "IRC Server"- This is where you put in the server address. Espernet has eight servers, which will be listed at the bottom. We'll use Chocobo for this though. Just put in 'chocobo.esper.net ' (without the quotes) for this field.
     "Port(s)"- This should already be filled in with '6667'. You shouldn't have to change anything, but if for some reason you need to change the port number, most of Espernet's servers also run ports 5555, 6668, and 7000. You may also want to check Espernet's website for other port numbers.
     "Group"- This field should be left empty.
     "Password"- This field should also be left empty.
     After you've filled in the description, server, and port, click the "Add" button to go back to the Connect menu. Now, in the second of the two drop down menus, you should be able to select the server you just added. Now you're ready to actually go online!

Step 3) Connecting to the network, registering your screenname, and joining a chat room.
     You should still be in the Connect options if you're following this walkthrough. At the bottom of the menu, below the server stuff, should be four blank text boxes.
     "Full name"- This is just a short description that other users can check. You can put your full name, or a creative title, or a witty remark- anything you like.
     "Email Address"- This doesn't have to be your real email. If you want to put your real address, go ahead. It just helps identify you in a /whois (which will be described later).
     "Nickname"- This is what you will be seen as by other users. Put whatever name you want to be known as in here. For example, the webmaster puts her screenname "Firefury" in this box.
     "Alternative"- This is for an alternate nickname, in case the one you chose in the "Nickname" box is already taken when you connect. You don't have to fill this box in, but if the nickname you picked is already taken, you will be prompted upon connecting to chose an alternate..
     After you've filled in that information, you can either click the "Connect to IRC server" button in the menu, or hit "OK" to exit out of the options, and then click the lightning bolt icon in the upper left corner.
     When you connect, a little window will pop up about joining a channel. Cancel or 'X' that for now. In the IRC window, you will see a lot of text scroll by. Don't worry, that's just a bunch of server information- how many users are online, a message of the day, etc. What you need to watch for at the end is this-

"-NickServ- This nickname is registered and protected.  If it is your
-
-NickServ- nick, type /msg NickServ IDENTIFY password.  Otherwise,
-
-NickServ- please choose a different nick."

If you get this message, that means the nickname you've selected is already registered by another user, they just aren't online using it at the moment. You will need to change your nickname if this happens, and you can do so by typing in the bar at the bottom of the window "/nick whatever" (without the quotes).
     Once you have a nickname that isn't already registered, it's a good idea to register it. This is done by typing "/msg nickserv register <password>" (without the quotes or the <>s). For example, 'Baughb' wants to register his nickname. So he would type in '/msg nickserv register ;lkjfdsa', and enter that. Once you have your nickname registered, whenever you log onto the network afterwards, you'll need to identify to Nickserv. This is done by typing in '/msg nickserv identify <password>'. Again, using 'Baughb', whenever he connects, he would type in '/msg nickserv identify ;lkjfdsa'.
     Now you're ready to actually join a chat room (called 'channels' or just 'chans'.). To join the chat room for the rally, you simply type in '/join #ICPR', and a window will pop up for that room. (NOTE: On the day of the rally, if there are more than twenty people in #ICPR, the room will be set to +m, meaning you cannot speak in the room until voiced (symbolized by a '+' in front of a user's nickname in the list to the right of the window.). If this is the case when you get on, there will be other rooms with limited amounts of people in each. Just type '/join #ICPR-A' or '/join #ICPR-B', etc, until you find a room with some of the others in it.)
     Once you're in a room, all you need to do to speak is type what you want to say in the bar at the bottom of that room's window, and hit enter. Voila, you're chatting!

Step 4) Advanced mIRC commands- /me, /whois, /part, /quit, /list
     You don't really need to read this section in order to chat on mIRC, but these commands can be quite helpful to an mIRC user.
     "/me"- this is used in the chat room, and shows an action. For example, let's say Baughb types in 'Hi! I'm Baughb!', and enters it. This will show as '<Baughb> Hi! I'm Baughb!'. But if he types in '/me waves to everyone', this will show as '* Baughb waves to everyone'.
     "/whois"- this is how you look up a user. It shows the target's nickname, connect address (part of which is the email address), whatever was put in the "Full Name" box, channels the user is in, what server the user is connected on, whether or not they've identified to nickserv for that nick, idle time, if any, and when that user signed on. You can do a /whois from any window, but the results should show only in the Status window. For example, Baughb types in '/whois Firefury', and this is the result he would see-

'Firefury is rpfounders@host-66-81-177-158.rev.o1.com * of the Amahira clan
Firefury on @#Nameless_World @#SatelliteOfFuels @#kenshin @#Reploid_Productions 
Firefury using chocobo.esper.net *WARK!  WARK!*
Firefury has identified for this nick
Firefury has been idle 7mins 59secs, signed on Sun Mar 16 15:21:13
Firefury End of /WHOIS list.'

     "/part"- This is the opposite of the /join command. Rather than just "X" out of a channel, you can type '/part <channel> <msg>' (without the quotes or <>s). Let's say that Baughb wants to leave the room #esper. He types in '/part #esper Later guys!'. Everyome else would see him exit the channel, with that message. Great way to get the final word in a debate.
     "/quit"- This is the alternative to hitting the lightning bolt in the corner or "X"ing out of the program. When you want to disconnect from the network, all you have to do is type '/quit'. Like the /part command, you can tag a message onto it, that everyone will see in your quit. It's recommended that you disconnect from the network before you close the program.
     "/list"- Typing this in will bring up a window listing all the chat rooms on the network. You can refine this list slightly by specifying a little. Let's say Baughb is looking for all of the ICPR rooms. He types in "/list ICPR", and the list that will come up will show all the rooms that have ICPR in the name.
 

     And there you have it! There are more advanced commands, aliases and scripts, but those won't be needed, and there are guides online that explain that far better. All that's left now is to list for you the Espernet network's servers. Happy chatting!