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However, if you find mIRC too complicated, or if you simply do not intend to access IRC regularly enough to bother downloading a client, you can use the SWC-JavaChat. This guide will be explaining from the mIRC perspective, since it is, by far, the most commonly used IRC client available, and is the only program officially supported by the IRC help staff. The program is shareware, but can be used for free indefinitely. IRC also allows you to chat privately with another person, like an instant messenger, so that nobody can listen in on your conversation. These rooms can be set public, to allow anyone to participate, or private, in case a Combine faction or smaller group prefers a room of their own to use for specific members only. IRC allows you to chat in rooms called IRC channels with multiple people at the same time. IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat and it is a method for chatting with others on the internet.
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