Redhat 6.2 w/gnome on i486. I've had this about a year - first PC - no windows or mac exp - fortran 25 years ago - I did not set up my system. I would like to access some chat rooms but JAVA bogs down. I have XChat already installed but no man pages for it. What do I do, set it up to run in terminal and input into the terminal? (I have to startx as root and su on a terminal to user - that's a whole nother problem I have not dealt with successfully - had to reinstall my dev directory after changing permissions in it) Do I just start it and then type into the input rectangle on the web site and it bypasses JAVA? any enlightenment would be appreciated. also I would like to use it in Opera as Netscape is very slow.

If you want to run xchat without a window manager then type

X;export DISPLAY=localhost:0;xchat

I think.

or is that not what you want?

Can I just enter xchat into one of my preference paths in Opera? Am I limited to using it in a xterminal ? Is there a website that will tell me the abc's of this chat business?

you seem a bi confused... there's no conenction between xchat and opera, they're unrelated.

Xchat also has xchat-text now, which is equivalent to normal xchat, but doesn't need x.

How about totally confused. On some web sites like ebay, I can use their chat fine through my Opera browser. On other s where an applet starts up, like in JAVA, I can use them in Netscape only (as opera does not support JAVA) but it's too slow to use. I understand I need an IRC client to use chat. I have xchat installed. Is that the IRC client I am using when I input on those web sites? If not, how can I use it to input into those JAVA sites? Do I call it up on an xterm and use the commands I read about on a chat web info page?

Okay, i entered xchat on a prompt and apparently have a list of chat rooms that popped up (I guess that's what that list is). so xchat cannot be used to go into chat rooms on websites like those on trading cards at yahoo, or glass clollectables on a website that already has it's own chat. I choose only only from the list of chat rooms that xchat supports. Do I get it now?

ok. it's all down to a matter of protocols. Xchat is an IRC client. Internet Relay Chat is teh standard protocol that chat rooms use. Kinda the petrol equivalent... whereas some rooms are not based on any service at all.. solar power! hmm... naff analogy. Either way, if you can find outt how the chat room you want is use is run, then you may easily be able to find the info out to use a faster smaller client. If you use Yahoo chat, then there are a few clients around, i use Gyach.

if you want to tell me which chat rooms they are, i could have a look when i'm bored

>Either way, if you can find outt how the chat room you want is use is run, then you >may easily be able to find the info out to use a faster smaller client. If you use >Yahoo chat, then there are a few clients around, i use Gyach.

Sorry about all the dummy chat posts. I get it now - web info explained all.

So I can find out and access some of those chat rooms, like yahoo through a client and not access them through my browser? That would be nice. What info do I need to find out on how the chat room is run and what do I do with it when I find it out?

Stop reading whenever you feel that I'm wrong.

There are two major types of chat "services" around the internet right now.

The first, most widely used, and oldest is IRC. IRC is 100% unrelated to the world wide web. There ARE various IRC CLIENTS that run via Java and connect to the various IRC networks(groups of servers that host clients). But these are rare and generally crappy. There are also numerous IRC CLIENTS for windows/linux/mac/etc that run as standalone applications to connect to IRC servers.

The second type of chat(and the one you are used to I believe) is a chatroom run by a website. This does NOT RELATE TO IRC in any way 99% of the time. These are simple Peer->Peer java clients that are connected via a VERY simple server(generally the webserver your on). They generally have 0 outside servers connected into them and are therefore limited to around 300 users(depending on their internet connection).

An up and comer in chatting are the various IM protocol based chat areas(AIM is the most famous). These again have NOTHING TO DO WITH IRC, they are similar to your web-based clients but are generally larger since they are sponsored by big companies(Yahoo, AOL, Jabber, etc).

I hope this clears up some of your confusion, you appear to be trying to merge two separate environments into one grand "chat" area.

J