Introducing Internet Chat and Chat Rooms

Chat rooms are areas on the Internet that allow people to 'meet up' and talk. Imagine being in a room full of people from all over the world chatting to each other, where you can hear everyone else's conversation and join in any one of them at any time. This room is full of people at any time of day or night for you to drop in and have a discussion with - this is an Internet chat room.

Chatrooms are one of the most popular activities on the Internet, attracting people from all walks of life and of all ages. With hundreds of thousands of rooms available, they are an opportunity to bring people from all over the world together to chat about any subject they're interested in; from aardvarks to zinfandel.

Discussions usually take place by typing a message on a computer keyboard, which is then displayed instantly in the chat room so that all the users can see it on their own computer screen and respond. Users may also be able to use an avatar to represent themselves as a graphical icon, and there are also video and audio chat rooms.

In this section, we take a look at basics of web-based chat rooms and Internet Relay Chat (IRC), along with some handy tips on how to find a chatroom so that you can join in the conversation.