FAQs about the chat room:

How do I chat using ParaChat?

When you visit the web page with the chat room, and your browser supports Java, you will see the chat window above (give it time to load). Click on the "OK, Connect!" button, enter your user name (nickname) -- other fields are not required -- and click on "OK, Connect!" again. You are in the chat room! You will see the others in the chat room in the black window on the right. Type any message in the text box at the bottom (where it says "Type HERE"), hit your "Enter" key, and it is sent to all users by default.

How do I send a private message?

Check the 'private chat' checkbox and highlight the user to whom you wish to speak privately; then, any message typed is sent only to that user with a [PRIVATE your_name] in front of it so s/he will know who sent it and that it is private.

Can I block out annoying messages?

To silence annoying chatters in your room, check the 'ignore user' check box and highlight the unwanted user; then, any message sent by that user will not be displayed on your screen.

What's that "Surf" button for?

By default, the "Surf" button takes you to the last URL in the chat text; i.e, the last URL someone typed in as part of their message. If you want to surf to a URL typed before the last one, highlight that URL, and click on "Surf". This is how you can visit that cool site some user typed a message about. Please note: "Surf" takes you to the URL on a separate window of your browser so you can keep chatting on the original browser window!

Can I customize the chat window, fonts, colors?

Type '*chat' in the text box (where you type to send messages) to get a help on how to change fonts and colors for your window.

For example:

*chat bgcolor black (changes background color of the chat window to black)

*chat fgcolor green (changes foreground (text) color of the chat window to green)

*chat font courier (changes font of the chat window to Courier)

*chat fontsize 14 (changes font size of the chat window to 14)

*chat (gives a help on the entire list of commands available)

How can I find out more about the others in the chat room?

Highlight the user name and click on the 'User Info' button to get info on the user's login.

I am being annoyed/harassed by a user on the chat room. What can I do?

First, you can "ignore" their messages by clicking on the "Ignore User" button. You can also click on the user name and then on User Info. This will give you the user's IP address. If you know how (or ask your sys admin) do a traceroute to the IP address and determine the ISP (Internet provider), then send email to the ISP -- giving as much information as possible about log on time and the person's information -- and request some action -- e.g., disconnecting that user's service.

I cannot connect to ParaChat. I get 'Connection to ParaChat.webpage.com:7779 failed' message. Why? What do I do?

The error was due to the chat server being too busy at the time you tried to log in... In such instances, please log in again after a few minutes. Do NOT click on "Connect" multiple times; wait for a few minutes and then re-connect, else the Server receives several connect requests from the same machine, and it will actually take longer to connect. Sorry for the inconvenience.

I cannot connect to ParaChat. I get some or all of the following messages: Connection Failed; Disconnected: Network connection closed; Error 444. Why? What do I do?

These errors are due to your Internet connection going down, or due to the chat server being too busy at the time you tried the login. Please login again after a few minutes. As stated before, do NOT click on "Connect" multiple times; wait for a few minutes, and then reconnect, else it will actually take longer to reconnect.

My Java console gives me a 'set daemon bug' message on Netscape. What is that?

This is just an informational message - please ignore it.

I was logged on and the connection to the Internet/chat server dropped. I cannot log back with the same username (nickname) -- why?

If you log back via the same machine (IP address), it detects a more recent login and lets you in. However, if you use another IP address (another machine or a dynamic IP address), it will not permit another login if it still has a login under that user name. After a time-out period of 10 minutes, the user is automatically logged off, and you can then reuse the same user name (nickname).

Can I make the chat window bigger?

YES! Click on the "Float" button to bring up the chat applet in a separate window (separate from the browser). This separate chat window can be resized and moved independently of the browser window containing the chat web page. Use "Unfloat" to remove this separate chat window and fix it back on the chat web page.

Please note: by default, the size of the floated window is 3/4 the size of your browser window. You can change it as you wish, the size it comes up with is just a default start size.

I get the message: "Session killed due to another login from your machine", and then I cannot connect. Why?

This is a bug the chat server is working on; you get the message when the system is too busy. Please retry after a while.