The most basic way to get onto Neveron chat is through the java applet. On the empire page, click the Comms tab, and then choose Chat. Alternatively, click here.

 

You need to pick a name (commonly referred to as a "nick") to go by in chat - this is how everyone will see you, and most likely refer to you. Put this in the nickname box, and choose channel as #neveron, and click continue. Please note that this does require Java, and this may need some sort of installation, depending on your system.

 

You will eventually join the AfterNET servers and will find yourself looking at a screen much like the one below. On the right is the nicklist - this is a list of people in #neveron - double click someone's name to open a private chat with them. At the bottom is the list of windows you're talking in - anything which has changed since you last looked will be highlighted in red. Whoever is dark blue is the one you're looking at currently. Type in the long thin bar. To the right are the colours - it's generally suggested you don't use these as it's considered somewhat rude and can often make your text illegible if people are using a different colour background. See the etiquette section for more info.

 

mirc

mIRC is one of the most used chat clients around. It is available as a free download from www.mirc.com, on a shareware basis. You are meant to pay for a registration code, but no one ever does - it doesn't stop working after the 30 day trial is over anyway. Anyway, download and install mIRC. When install is complete, a dialog box will come up asking if you want to launch mIRC. You do.

You will be presented with a window like this. Type in #neveron in the top box and click "join" - then click OK.

For more information on how mIRC works, see mIRC's help file.

etiquette

IRC can be daunting - anyone in #neveron with a + next to their name has a level 8 empire at least, many will have level 10s. But most people are willing to help out newbies when they can, and are friendly towards people in chat generally. There are some people who are less than helpful, but usually only to their enemies. Some channels have specific rules, #neveron's are listed here. But in general, bear these suggestions in mind:

• Don't wait for someone to speak to you - you may be a long time waiting. Speak up and people will likely talk back to you.

• Be polite.

• Don't expect a response immediately - people aren't always watching chat. Be patient.

• Don't swear in a public channel.

• Don't TYPE IN CAPITAL LETTERS - this is considered to be shouting.

• Don't use colours - some people may have a different background colour to you, and this might make your text invisible. For instance, dark blue looks great against white, but it's very hard to read on a black background.

• Get a real nick, eg something other than Traveler  or Guest.

Basic irc coMMands

There are three sorts of commands for Neveron IRC - general IRC commands, X3 commands and mattbot commands. For mattbot commands, see the mattbot3 help page. What I list here are some commands you may find useful for simple IRC usage.

authserv

AuthServ is AfterNET's user login tool - once you have an authserv account, you can be added as a user to channels, which in turn means you can invite yourself to them, rather than having to wait for a factionmate to come on and help you.

To register an authserv account, first, type:

/msg Authserv REGISTER username password email

Replacing "username", "password" and "email" with your desired username and password, and an email address. This address must be valid and not a Hotmail address. You will be sent a registration code of some kind, which you then have to enter in your IRC client to confirm registration.

To login to an authserv account, type:

/msg Authserv AUTH username password

Replacing "username" and "password" with your username and password.

You can set yourself up to be automatically invited to a channel to which you have access by typing the following in any channel with X3 in:

.uset #channel autoinvite on

It is also possible to set your IRC client up to log you in automatically when you connect to the servers. The best way is to go to your IRC client's options, find the AfterNET server you are using, and in the password box, type /username/password , replacing "username" and "password" with your username and password. More information on this can be found at AfterNET's website.