Different Chat Clients Available for Free Teen Chat

Betcha can't think of ten different chat clients available for free teen chat! Did you guess irc, icq, msn, yahoo, msn, aim, web cat, cell phone chat, mulit chat clients - miranda, trillian? Although there are about ten different ways to chat online, they can all be grouped into five groups.

The first group is the client chat group. You might have heard of it before. Client chat allows us to chat with other online users through the use of software that's separate from our web browsers or our online services. (Yes, in the 'old days,' we could only chat through the use of an online service like AOL or CompuServe).

Today, you don't need to use service software - you can use a client instead and chat with a whole bunch people anywhere (not just AOL or CompuServe users) in hundreds of different free chat rooms or forums. The most popular chat clients are ones like IRC which stand for "Internet Relay Chat."

IRC allows chat participants to meet on "channels" which are forums that concentrate on a specific subject even though you can talk privately if you want, or create your own channel if you'd like to do that instead.

Here's a list of some brand new and popular IRC programs:

MIRC - mIRC is un-crippled shareware that provides colored text, file transfers, remote commands, web and sound support, and more. It's compatible with Windows 3.1 and 3.11, Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP, NT - And it costs US$20.00 to register.
www.mirc.com

Visual IRC - Visual IRC offers script ability of its own or any ActiveX scripting language, including VBScript and JavaScript. It's compatible with Windows 98/NT/2k/Me/XP/95 - And it's free to use.
www.megalith.co.uk

X-Chat - X-Chat is a graphical IRC client. It's compatible with Windows, MacOSX, or Linux - And it's free to use.
www.xchat.org

Irssi - Irssi offers Autologging, formats and themes, customization, Perl scripting, and seamless upgrades. It's compatible with UNIX and it's free to use.
www.irssi.org

Colloquy - Colloquy allows Applescripting, different styles, file transfers, multiple server chatting and more. It's compatible with Mac OS X and it's free.
colloquy.info

The second group is the IM group. IM stands for 'instant messaging' and it basically means that you can instantly chat with anyone using the same IM software that you have at any time around the world. When IM software first came out, it originally provided a one-to-one communication, meaning that it only allowed two people to chat at a time.

Today however, IM software like ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and AOL Instant Messenger allow more than two people to chat in conferences up to ten or more people.

Here's a short list of some brand new and popular IM programs:

ICQ - ICQ lets you send SMS messages from ICQ to a cellular phone, send email, share files, send URLs, send greeting cards, talk for free - PC to PC, play games and a whole lot more. It's compatible with Windows, Mac and Windows CE, and it's free to use.
www.icq.com

MSN Messenger - With MSN Messenger, you can send text to mobile phones, have a video conversation, create custom backgrounds, show photos, and more. It's compatible with Windows and it's free to use.
messenger.msn.com

AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) - AIM offers free mail, screenname linking, news, expressions, and more. It's compatible with Windows and Mac operating systems and it's free to use.
www.aim.com

Yahoo Instant Messenger - Yahoo IM offers photo sharing, radio stations, background themes, file transfer, avatars, skins, PC-to-PC calls, web cam, conferencing and more. It's compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux, and FreeBSD operating systems, and it's free to use.
messenger.yahoo.com

The third group is the web chat group and what's unique about this kind of chat is that it doesn't require any additional software other than the web browser that you're already using. You can use web chat to communicate one-on-one or with many different people if you like.

To use it, you simply visit a website that offers web chat and click the link to a room that you'd like to join. After that, your web browser's screen will open up to a forum where you can begin chatting right away.

The fourth group is the multi-chat client group. These clients are really convenient for those of us who use different clients to chat with different people. It would be nice if everyone used the same client to chat so we wouldn't have to switch programs to talk with them, but that just isn't the case. Some people prefer to use AIM - others prefer to use Yahoo - and then there are those who stick to MSN.

If you had to communicate with three different people who use one of these three clients, you'd have to install each of these clients on your computer just so you could chat with them.

If you used a multi-chat client however, like Miranda or Trillian for example, you wouldn't need all these different clients - you'd only need one multi-chat client. That's because with Miranda or Trillian, you can talk to a Yahoo user, an AIM user, and an MSN user without having to switch from one of these software programs to another. And you could talk to each one of these users at the same time!

Short list of popular multi-chat client software programs:

Trillian - Trillian provides file transfers, audio chat, group chats, contact message history, tabbed messaging, systray notifications and more. It supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, and IRC, and it's compatible with Windows 98/ME/2K/XP. It costs $25.00.
www.trillian.cc

Gaim - Gaim provides access to multiple accounts, file transfer, away messages, and more. It supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, GroupWise, and Zephyr and it's compatible with Windows 98/ME/NT/2K/XP, BSD, MacOS X, and Linux. It's free to use.
gaim.sourceforge.net

PalTalk - PalTalk provides live voice and live video. It supports AIM, Yahoo!, and MSN and it's compatible with Windows 98/ME/NT4/2K/XP/2003. It's free to use.
www.paltalk.com

Miranda - Miranda provides over 300 plugins and supports ICQ, AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, Gadu-Gadu, Tlen, Netsend, and many more. It's compatible with Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP & 2003 and it's free to use.
www.miranda-im.org

The fifth group involves cell phone chat and this is one really neat toy! You might have heard of this before as "text messaging," and it basically allows us to chat (send text based messages) through our cell phones. Pretty neat, huh?

What makes this type of chat highly appealing is that you can chat to people using Internet too - not just your cell phone buddies. It's the perfect solution for chatting at a time when we're away from our computers.

Here's a short list of some brand new and popular cell phone chat programs to get you started:
MSN Messenger
messenger.msn.com AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
www.aim.com Yahoo Instant Messenger
messenger.yahoo.com