*** ANSWERMAN INTERNET EXTRA *** For the week of March 24, 1997 This is the free weekly newsletter for the community of Internet users on America Online. This week, AnswerMan tries some cool Web sites for online chat: sites that make it easy to chat -- even with friends who use other online services. =*=*= IN THIS ISSUE =*=*= AnswerMan's Update -- Chat on the Web Upcoming Weekly Focus -- What's coming up The End -- How to contact us or unsubscribe =*=*= WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK WITH ANSWERMAN =*=*= Go to keyword: For: ANSWERMAN Daily tips and Internet message boards AM FOCUS Pointers to chat tools, lots more NET HELP Get quick help for your Internet questions NET TUTORIAL Clueless about the Internet? Start here! AM GLOSSARY Decrypt that Internet jargon Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Go to keyword ANSWERMAN Go to keyword AM FOCUS NET TUTORIAL =*=*= ANSWERMAN'S UPDATE -- Chat on the Web =*=*= Hi all. Before we get started with chatting on the Web, a couple of quick notes. When you're sending an e-mail message, be sure to double-check that the recipient's e-mail address is correct. A single errant character can mean that your message will bounce back to you -- annoying -- or worse, that it will be delivered to the wrong person entirely. In examples close to my heart: AnserMan@aol.com is not the same as AnswerMan@aol.com -- he's sick of getting Internet questions intended for me. And AnswerMan@aol.com is not AnswerMan2@aol.com -- I'm sick of getting questions about paper currency intended for him. The three of us all try to forward mail intended for our counterparts with similar e-mail addresses, but not everyone on the Net is so vigilant. (I, too, have make the mistake. This newsletter is being mailed out late besause I mistyped the mailing list's e-mail address the first time around. Oops.) So triple-check that address before you send that mail. And use the Address Book for people that you mail frequently. OK, on with our show. Chatting on the Web isn't a whole lot different than chatting in the People Connection or with Internet Relay Chat: you choose a topic that sounds interesting, enter a "room" or a "channel" and start to gab with the other folks who have congregated there. But Web chat is unique in some ways -- primarily, the community of users is different. As with IRC, chatters may be spread all across the Internet. (In the People Connection you'll find other AOL users, but not folks from other parts of the Internet.) Web chat is a little easier to set up than Internet Relay Chat (which I talked about in the January 13 issue of the newsletter) and considerably easier to learn. After all, web cha just uses your Web browser, and you already know how to use that. Right? A novel feature of Web chat -- and one that I frequently get questions about -- is the ability to easily have private chat sessions with friends on other systems. If your best buddy uses Prodigy or CompuServe or any random Internet access provider, no sweat. As long as they have access to a Web browser, you're good to go. You need to agree at a time and a site at which to meet. Many chat sites offer the ability to create a private room. Each private room has a name and a secret password. Share this information with your buddy and you're free to chat until your brain runs dry. Hundreds of Web sites offer chat services. Some are pay-for-play, others are free. Many of the free ones are supported by advertising. Yahoo has a huge list of Web chat services at http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Chat/ (geez, I hate those long URLs.) I'm going to take a look at two popular web chat services here. Yahoo Chat (at http://chat.yahoo.com) offers a rather groovy chat system, although its not perfect. It divides chat rooms by category -- general chat, entertainment, news and business, regional, romance, science and technology, teens and sports. Within each category are dozens (sometimes hundreds) of individual chat rooms. Yahoo chat is a popular place. The site comes in three flavors -- Java, plug-in, and HTML. All provide the same basic function: the ability to change chat rooms, type text and see what others are saying, and so on. The Java and plug-in versions are flashier, but the HTML version works with more browsers. If you have the Windows 95 version of AOL 3.0, Yahoo Chat works just dandily. If you have a Mac or the Windows 3.1 version of AOL, Yahoo Chat doesn't work right out of the box. The folks at Yahoo say that it will work if you download and install Netscape Navigator. You can get Navigator at keyword Netscape, or just use another web chat server that does support the AOL browser. Another chat site is the Chat House at http://www.chathouse.com. Chat House is funky but popular, and easy to get started with no matter what browser you use. The Chat House is divided into floors, with different rooms of conversation on each floor. Some floors require that you register (which is free) and others are "public access," open to anyone, registered or not. This is a good way to try out the chat system before creating an account for yourself. In addition to copious public rooms, Chat House lets you create a private room. Other features include user profiles, the ability to send private messages to other Chat House users, and the ability to see pictures of other users. With the Chat House and many other chat systems, you need to press an on-screen button to reload the page and see what new text others have typed. If you forget to press the "update" button, you won't see any new text -- kind of a drag if you're used to watching text scroll effortlessly by in the People Connection. And when you're using Web chat services, remember that there are no AOL guides or Terms of Service. If someone's getting out of hand, there may not be anyone to complain to. But both Chat House and Yahoo Chat have their own rules that you're expected to abide by. Have fun with Web chat! Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: AM FOCUS: More Web chat info Yahoo Chat Keyword NETSCAPE Chat House =*=*= UPCOMING WEEKLY FOCUS =*=*= Every week, AnswerMan focuses on a particular facet of using the Internet. Here are the Weekly Focus topics we'll be covering in the near future: March 31 - April 6: Privacy & the Internet Coming in April: Internet games, new goodies for Mac users, genealogy sites, April Fools fun and more. =*=*= THE END =*=*= That's all for this week. Got comments about this newsletter? We want to hear them! Send 'em to AnswerMan. The e-mail address is AnswerMan@aol.com. We would hate to see you go, but if you must leave, there are two easy ways to unsubscribe yourself from this newsletter. You can use either. #1: Send an e-mail message -- To: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Subject: UNSUBSCRIBE Body: UNSUBSCRIBE ANSWERMAN #2: For AOL 3.0 users only: Click here then press "Unsubscribe". Passengers will please refrain from flushing toilets while the train is in the station, darling I love you. Copyright 1997 by America Online. All rights reserved.