Internet : Internet Relay Chat

The System

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is the most common mechanism for "talking" interactively over the Internet. The "talk" takes the form of typed messages rather than spoken words.

To take part in a discussion you must first enter a chat room. There are many different chat rooms available. Each room is dedicated to the discussion of a particular topic such as football, computer games etc.

Depending upon the popularity of the topic there could be either just a few or lots of people in a chat room at once. When you enter a chat room you can see the names (or nicknames) of all of the people in the room. You can also see the messages that these people are sending. If you want to contribute to the conversation you can send a message yourself. This will appear on the screens of all of the other users'.

Some chat systems will let you send private messages to particular users that only they can read.

Advantages and Problems

Unlike electronic mail, chatting using a system such as Internet Relay Chat is interactive. This means that when you type a message it appears on the other users' screens almost immediately. The other users are then able to respond straight away. To be able to chat like this all of the users involved in a conversation must be logged on to the Internet at the same time. It can be difficult to verify the identity of other users of a chat room. Some people disguise their identities and pretend to be someone they are not. It is never a good idea to give out personal information in a chat room as you can not really be sure who is reading it.

GCSE ICT Companion 04 - (C) P Meakin 2004