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[Veladynee]

Either the chat just crashed or my computer just spazed out and killed my programs.. Because I'm having trouble connecting or even loading the chat applet..

[Draco]

Try getting either mIRC or Trillian to connect to IRC it's better then the JavaAplet.  Trillian can also logon with AIM, Y!IM, MSN, and ICQ.  I use that and it's no trouble at all.

[atomicdragon]

I would recommend xchat since it is free.

[Dragantha]

mirc is also free

its not a must to pay the fee

[atomicdragon]

Technically mIRC is only free for 30 days, after which you are required to pay for it.  Yes you can continue to use it or find a copy without that annoying message, but if you don't pay for it after the evaluation time period, you are using the software illegally and you are technically breaking the law.  I won't say anything about my opinions on copyright laws and whether it is right or wrong to use it in such a way, but from an official and legal standpoint that means:

mIRC is not free.

Edit: Note, on second thought, there may be some old versions that were before the time they started charging for the program that I don't know about, which I think you can use for free.  But that doesn't apply to anything you can download from their site now, or any of the newer versions.

Edit2: I checked their boards and it seems mIRC has always cost money, at least for the last 8 years.

[Dragantha]

Well they have a strange way of putting it in the readme then
can recall something about that it isnt a must to pay but it would help in the dev of the proggie

[Selroth]

Hmm...  I've been using it for 8 years or so.  Maybe I should pay for it :)  Oh wait, I tried.  They no longer have a mailing address for checks....

[atomicdragon]

Paypal is not that bad, although I don't know how you handle things with out a credit card.  I never really wanted to use it until I found out my motherboard's manufacturer only used paypal for the deposit on a RMAed part.  It was pretty easy to do at that point (although paypal doesn't accept a different shipping address than my credit card's which is back home, but the computer company ignores that address anyways).

[atomicdragon]

Another big option for a free IRC client seems to be ChatZilla which is what several of my friends.  It comes as part of the various versions of Mozilla (as far as I know it comes with the original and Firefox).  So it is another option if you are looking for a browser other than Internet Explorer.

(I didn't even know it was there until I started fiddling with buttons.)

[Red_Draconi]

hmm.. i perfer trillian, i dont have any problems w/ IRC on trillian, aaannd ITS FREE!!!

mwhahahaha
..oops...
hehe

[Selroth]

Not true.  The beta versions are free.  Their intended release is not.  So, the old ones have bugs that will never be fixed unless you pay, and it will in time become obsolete as the IM services keep changing their protocols, and you have to update Trillian to get it to work.  This is especially true with Yahoo's service, which is why it often will not work for the majority of people who use Trillian.

[atomicdragon]

Another option I might add to this thread would be KVirc, which is a decent free client and has some fancier options compared to a few other browsers.  It has a few quirks too, so you might want to test it a bit.

Unfortunately, x-chat is no longer free for the windows version.  This may change soon as charging money for that program has created a large uproar due to violating several software licenses in the process.