Chapter 12: IRC, MUDs AND OTHER THINGS THAT ARE MORE FUN THAN THEY SOUND

 
 
Many Net systems provide access to a series of interactive services that 
let you hold live "chats" or play online games with people around the 
world.  To find out if your host system offers these, you can ask your 
system administrator or just try them -- if nothing happens, then your 
system does not provide them.  In general, if you can use telnet and ftp, 
chances are good you can use these services as well. 
 
 
12.1  TALK
 
 
This is the Net equivalent of a telephone conversation and requires that 
both you and the person you want to talk to have access to this function 
and are online at the same time.  To use it, type 
 
     talk user@site.name
 
where user@site.name is the e-mail address of the other person.  She will 
see something like this on her screen: 
 
     talk: connection requested by yourname@site.name
     talk: respond with:  talk yourname@site.name
                                                                               
To start the conversation, she should then type (at her host system's 
command line):
   
     talk yourname@site.name
 
where that is your e-mail address.  Both of you will then get a top 
and bottom window on your screen.  She will see everything you type in 
one window; you'll see everything she types in the other.  To 
disconnect, hit control-C.
     
One note: Public-access sites that use Sun computers sometimes have 
trouble with the talk program.  If talk does not work, try typing
 
     otalk
 
or
 
     ntalk
 
instead.  However, the party at the other end will have to have the same 
program online for the connection to work.