I have created an IRC channel for How to Geek users for those interested. It can be used as a place for discussion about geeky things, a help and support forum, or whatever as long as common sense is used. The channel is on irc.freenode.net at ##howtogeek. My nick is jawee and the How To Geek's nick is howtogeek.

If you are unfamiliar with IRC and do not already have an IRC client, here are a few to try:

Windows: http://www.silverex.org/news/

Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X: http://www.kvirc.net/

Linux: http://www.kvirc.net/

Command Line: http://www.irssi.org/

Additionally, most multiprotocol IM programs such as Pidgin, Kopete, and Miranda have some degree of IRC support.

To join, you should basically need to know these commands:

/server irc.freenode.net

/join ##howtogeek

The users that are considered trustworthy over time will be granted automatic voice so that other users can get an idea.

If you have any questions, please let me know. I will go more in depth if anyone needs me to.

so it is pretty much the same as this but is a im and not an actual forum.

so how do i get connected?

ok i will try that when i get home later tonight. right now i have the second one listed but couldn't really figure it out and it was really late when i tried so i didn't have much time to play around with it.

You should be able to leave the password box blank for this IRC server.

i think that i'm going to just stick to the forum for now this seems really confusing and doesn't seem to have many people on yet.