You want to get Shakira related files - very good. To get them you need to connect to the channel #shakira- or #shakirararemedia in the network EFnet. If you don't know how to do that, please go to Part ONE of this tutorial (or to Part ONE Quick Version which has almost no text but just pictures).

If everything was correct and you are a lucky person, the window look like the following one and you will be connected to an IRC server of the EFnet network and join the channel you specified, in our case this is #shakira-:


This is the main channel window. The green marked area is the list of present nicknames. Not all of those are different people and almost never all people are active at the same time - so don't be surprised if they don't reply. @ in front of the nicknames indicates that it is a so called operator: they are responsible for the channel and they have the right and the duty to keep an eye on things - so, if you don't behave, you will mess with the @-people and at the end, they may kick or even ban. But normally, they are all nice people.
+ in front of the name means that it is a file server - which is where you will download files from as we will see in a bit.

The blue marked area is the main chat window and here, you will see when people join, leave, sing, have sex, yell, cry, talk or whatever. In order to participate in this wonderful chat, you enter your statements in the red encircled text box and press ENTER. For example, after joining the channel, you might want to write "Hello, I am a newbie, please don't be annoyed :)".


OK, enough of this, now to downloading files. As we have seen, there are file servers and you have to trigger them in order to see what files they offer. To see a complete list of active file servers, you have tpye !list and press Enter. After that, the file servers and their descriptions will be listed one after another in the main window. In the picture above, you can see for example this:


This server is called ojr and its trigger is !ShakiraLive (marked red). So, we type the trigger and press ENTER. This should open a new window which is the so called DCC chat window with the server.
This is an automatic function and you don't really chat with anyone, so do not expect someone answering you. A file server is actually nothing else than an accessable section of someone else's harddisk. Yes, if I set up a file server, I specify folders which can be accessed directly via IRC - and so you can copy all files in those folders. This leads to two consequences:
1. Your download speed will never be higher than my upload speed. So, it doesn't matter if you have cable internet connection and can download like hell if I have only a dialup connection and can upload only with a few KB per second. You will have to wait for my uploading.
2. Accessing a file server and downloading files is not a right someone has. Nobody has to share files and nobody must let other people access their harddisks and use their upload bandwith. Therefore, we should be thankful for everyone who shares files with other people and never blame anyone for not doing so.

Amen! Let's continue. The server window is opened now and it looks similar to the main window - more or less like this:


You have again the text box at the bottom of the screen where you have to enter your commands. You will have to use those commands in order to navigate through the folders and files of the server - much alike DOS, if you still know that. The most important commands are:

DIR - Displays the content of the current directory you are in. You will need this to see which folders and files are available.

CD - Changes current directory. You have to add the new directory name to this command to change into it; directories are normally written in CAPITALS, in our example "ojr", PERFORMANCES (red) is such a directory so that you would have to type CD PERFORMANCES in order to change into this folder.

CD.. - Changes to the parent directory (moves one folder level up). In our example "ojr", if you changed into the PERFORMANCES directory, you would have to type CD.. in order to return to the root directory.

GET - Starts downloading a file or queues it. You have to add the file name to this command to get it; file names are written in an ordinary way, in our example "ojr", shakira_-_tu_[tb-vme]_[ojr-delogo].m2v is such a file so that you would have to type GET shakira_-_tu_[tb-vme]_[ojr-delogo].m2v. After that, either the transfer starts (which will open a new window so that you won't miss it) or you get a queue number - as explained, theses files are uploaded by other users and normally, the transfers of a server are restricted to one or maybe two. So, if there are transfers in progress (which will be the case mostly, so don't be disappointed) you will be queued, and if you are not the first one in the queue, you will have to wait until the other queues are processed before your download starts.

SENDS - This command will show you how many transfers currently there are so that you can decide if you even want to request a file.

QUEUES - Shows you the current queues. You can use the SENDS and QUEUES commands to decide if you want to request a file or if you would have to wait for too long and therefore decide not to use the server this time.

CLR_QUEUES - Clears your queues. If you have queued files but then realized that you don't need them or you don't want to wait any longer, you can (and should) clear your queues with this command.

Please note: As this is an automatic chat session, it has restrictions. If you don't type anything for a certain amount of time, it will be closed. Normally, you get a warning message telling you that DCC session will be closed after 30 seconds or something like that - if you keep being idle, the chat will be closed and you will have to trigger the server again if you want to access it.
And how are you supposed to get a file if the DCC chat is closed?! Well, that is no problem. If a transfer starts or you are queued, you can close the chat without either losing your transfer or your queue. You just have to be in the main channel when your transfer starts - which means that you can theoretically leave IRC and connect again for joining the channel if your transfer is supposed to start. But some servers might cancel your queue if you leave the channel. Briefly: At the beginning, you should stay in the channel if you are downloading files or having queued some.
Another note: The fact that you can close the DCC chat with a file servers implies that you should actually do it. It is not very cool to keep the contact to the server open all the time and type commands every 30 seconds or so in order to keep the DCC chat open. That is not necessary and after requesting a file, you can and should close the chat!


Well, well... I think I have forgotten so many things you might wonder about when you try mIRC and I am sorry about that. But I think this should be enough for your first steps... and with time, you will encounter more and more cool features of mIRC. If you have questions about this stuff, feel free to ask in the channel, there should be people willing to help out.



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