Hi, Dave. I’m at a conference and have just been told by a fellow attendee that there’s an IRC channel for us attendees to chat in while we’re here. But I’m on a Mac and have absolutely no clue what IRC is and whether it works with my various instant message clients, so I don’t know how to join the discussion. Help!

Like me, it sounds like you probably either use specific instant messenger programs like Yahoo! Instant Messenger, Google Talk, or AOL Instant Messenger, or you use a Mac multi-IM client like Adium or Fire. They’re darn nice, particularly the last two, but none of them are compatible with IRC chat rooms. (Well, Fire is IRC compatible, but I have to say that I find it quite difficult to configure it for an IRC channel and have it work properly. Your experience may vary, of course.)

The good news is that just like any other area of Mac computing, there are a couple of really nice Mac IRC (which stands for Internet Relay Chat, by the way) clients, the very best of which is Colloquy. Let me show you how, using this freeware program, you can join an IRC channel too…