Information on IRC available at: http://wiki.gnhlug.org/twiki2/bin/view/Www/IRC

In irssi:

irssi /connect irc.freenode.net /join #gnhlug

Once there, you'll find people who can help you figure out everything else, including myself.

To change your nickname, type:

/nick username

Once you have done this, you should register your nickname with nickserv:

/msg nickserv register password user@exampleNoSpam.org

This will let you kill the nick if your connection gets disconnected for some reason, with: /msg nickserv ghost nickname password

Your nickname is your identifier on IRC. Protect it

irssi can show identifiers for "channels" or "windows" that have activity: [20:38:28] [crschmidt(+w)] [17:nickserv] [Act: 2,5,7,8,9,10,13,16] The format here is: timestamp, nickname, user mode, windowid:window title, Activity listing (Currently, I have activity awaiting attention in all these channels.)

-- ChristopherSchmidt - 17 Nov 2004