What is IRC?

http://live.pirillo.com/ – What is IRC? Internet Relay Chat (IRC) has been around for about as long as the Internet itself, and there are a plethora of clients you can use.

mIRC, a Windows IRC client, describes IRC as:

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is one of the most popular and most interactive services on the Internet. Sure, the Web is nice for finding info and E-mail beats snailmail hands down, but when you’ve been wondering ‘where the others are?’, then IRC is what you’re looking for.

IRC is the net’s equivalent of CB radio. But unlike CB, Internet Relay Chat lets people all over the world participate in real-time conversations. IRC is where the Net comes alive!

Snak is a popular Mac client:

There are thousands of meeting rooms, each focused on a location or subject, so it’s easy to find a place where something interesting is being discussed. You can find rooms for computer related topics, your favorite sci-fi tv show, sports like soccer or ice hockey, current politics, local events in boston or kenya and everything in between.

In addition to chats in the meeting rooms, you can also have private, real-time talks with friends, family or business associates.

XChat is the ever-popular Linux chat client of choice:

XChat is an IRC chat program for both Linux and Windows. It allows you to join multiple IRC channels (chat rooms) at the same time, talk publicly, private one-on-one conversations etc. Even file transfers are possible.