First of all, you go to mIRC Website and download the newest mIRC version in the mIRC Download Section - I work with version 6.03 and this tutorial is based on that version.
You will see different locations to download the software from - mIRC 6.03 in Norway for example doesn't mean that you will get a Norwegian version of mIRC but that you will get the ordinary version from a server in Norway. Thus, you can select the best location for you and get it. While downloading and of course later as well, feel free to browse the mIRC website because there is many, many good info which you might want to read about instead of having to ask some rude guy.

(NOTE: There is also a quick version of this first part. It offers mostly pictures showing what the settings should look like and you won't have to read much. If you are one of those people who like nice pics but not reading much, go to Part ONE Quick Version.)


OK, you have downloaded and installed it. If you start it now, you will see this welcome message:


Uncheck the red marked box unless you want this nice welcome message show up whenever you start mIRC. Then, close this window.


After doing so, the mIRC Options window will pop up. It looks like this:


The red marked box is where you choose the network you want to connect with. This is for EFnet, so we select EFnet as our IRC Network. The field right under the network box is where you have to select a server - just pick one, it is not that important now.
The box Full Name is for your name and surname. I don't know what you think about security issues in the WWW but I'd prefer not writing my full name there - but it is still your decision. Briefly: this is for your full name (pretty self-explanatory actually). The same for Email Address - enter whichever email address you want here.
In Nickname, you enter the main nickname which you will use when you enter a channel where you can interact with other people. Think about a rather unique one - not peter for example but Best_Pete (a stupid one, I know) and don't forget that nicknames can only have nine characters. The field Alternative is for your alternative nickname which will be used when your main nickname is already being used by someone else which can happen. So, dear Peter, you might want to try P#E#T#E#R.


Now, you should have something like this:





Let's continue with the next step. (the next pic is what the window will look like if you are done with it)


On the left side of the options window you see a an options tree with currently highlighted Connect. Select the next entry called Options. These settings are not vital but nevertheless pretty useful. The first one is Connect on startup which I let unchecked - I hate it if things happen to quick. It means that mIRC automatically connects to the last used network when you start the program. Unchecked for me.
The second one is Reconnect on disconnection which is more important in my opinion. It can always happen that you get disconnected from a server - software error, bitchy internet connection, divine plans, etc. This option will automatically try to reconnect to the server if you are disconnected so that the time you are disconnected is pretty short. You will wonder why you need that - you will see if you get disconnected and can connect manually. That is true, but there will be times when you don't use mIRC but just let it run, and in those cases it is really nice to get reconnected immediately. Besides, why doing such works manually if your PC is so kind to do it?


To the next step... you select the main option called IRC in the options tree which will bring up the following window:


These are again rather little changes but you might want to check the red marked options. The first one is Rejoin channel when kicked. Yes, you can get kicked out of a channel and that can mean several things. It can be a love kick, a warning, unintentionally, automatically and so on. With this option checked, you automatically enter the channel again which you have been kicked out of.
The second option is Keep channels open and it keeps the channel windows open even if you get disconnected from the server or get kicked out of the channel. Pretty useful, so checked for me. The rest is not really important now, so let's continue.


Unfold the IRC subtree in the options tree on the left side by clicking on the little plus icon left of IRC and select the next option - Options. This window will show up:


I'd suggest you check the red marked options. The first one is Hide ping? pong! event and it actually doesn't do anything else but exactly that. Servers send PINGs to you from time to time to check if you are still connected and mIRC automatically responds to those. This may be interesting but you still don't need to see those PINGs and PONGs and that's why we check this option.
The other one is for always having to confirm if you close mIRC. Sounds rather stupid but it may happen that you click on that little X icon in the upper right even if you don't want to close the program. This way, you can prevent mIRC from being closed unintentionally.


OK, now to some more important settings, called DCC in the options tree. It looks like this:


These settings are important for downloading files. There are two sections of which the lower one is called On Chat request. OK, this one is not really related to downloading, but you should check Auto-accept - in channels you will normally have to access so called file servers and this is done by triggering them and thus starting a DCC chat. With these settings, this procedure is handled in another window which automatically pops up if you trigger the server .
The upper section is called On Send request. The most reasonable setting here is Auto-get file. This will automatically accept all files people want to send to you which doesn't sound very nice at all - think of all the viruses! But you can ignore certain file types so that you should really check Auto-get file here. Otherwise, you will have to accept each file transfer manually so that you couldn't get any files when you are away from keyboard for example.
In the field If file exists, you choose Resume - this means that you can resume older downloads. For example, you start getting file file.mpg and have to shut off your computer before getting all of it. You can resume the download of the file later with this option - it has just to be the same file you were downloading earlier and the file names have to be the same.


Now, the window should look like this:





OK, we are almost done with the settings, the last option we have to care about is Folders in the DCC subtree.


The picture on the left shows you how the window will look like if you are done with the settings. There are again two sections, the first one is DCC Get folders and specifies the location where you download files to. By default, there are two folders. The general download location is download in your mIRC installation folder; the other one is sounds in the same folder and it is for several sound file types. Thus, all files you download are saved in this two folders unless you decide to change the locations.
The lower section is called DCC Ignore and is actually more important - it controls the ignore functions. You won't believe it but there are indeed bad people out in the world and they like sending not so nice things to you. But you can protect your computer from such malicious files with the DCC Ignore option. In my opinion, the best selection here is Ignore only - this ignores a certain list of potentially dangerous file types like EXE or VBS files. The default list is pretty OK for our purposes so that we choose Ignore only and don't change anything.
Turn ignore back on in X mins is for the case that you manually disable this ignore option - someone you really trust wants to send you a safe EXE file so that you decide to disable DCC ignore. If you let the turn back option checked, mIRC automatically will turn on the ignore option after the specified time.


After having set all of these options, we return to the upmost entry in the tree, Connect:


The red marked button - Connect to IRC Server - will connect you to the specified server now with all settings you have chosen. And the options will be saved so that you won't have to do all of this again and again - you will only have to click on the connect button. Do it now - the options window will be closed and the connection begins.


If successful, the channels window will pop up. There is a huge list of servers which are not really interesting so that you just type the channel you want to join in the text box labelled Enter name of channel to join - in our case, we want to join #shakira- so that we enter that name. The last thing we have to do is clicking on Join and enjoy the party. Check the window:






Main Page --- Part ONE Quick Version --- Part TWO --- (Dutch Version / Nederlandse Versie)