CHOOSE BETWEEN TWO CHAT OPTIONS : (1) Chat Within Your Browser (2) Download The WHB Chat Program
In an ever changing world it is those people at the forefront who push the boundaries the quickest . . . and nowhere is this more true than with the bunch of loons that meet in an internet chat room to discuss their number one hobby . . . BREWING !
The WHB's have their own Chat Channel and we have provided two ways for you to get there :-
Chat within your browser.
Download the WHB Chat program and run it as a separate program.
Instructions for both ways to chat are below.
And before I go any further, a BIG THANKS to GANDALF & ARAGON for helping the Worty Webmaster in setting up this channel !
BACKGROUND TO THE WHB ONLINE CHAT
The WHB's have been holding 'Virtual Meetings' once a month since 2001 and did so in the AOL Instant Messenger.
However, we have now moved on to IRC Chat for our chat service and hence can offer brewers a permanent chat room into which they can come at any time ... 365 days a year !
Download the WHB CHAT PROGRAM FILE (Zipped : 1.18 MB), you may need to just left-click the link and choose to save to disc or right-click and choose 'Save Target As'. I'd recommend the right-click option. Please make a note of where on your hard drive it will be stored after download !
After downloading is complete, you will have a file called whb_1.zip on your hard drive. Please unzip the file (www.winzip.com) to give you a single file called whb_1.exe.
Take this new file (whb_1.exe) and double-click it. This will cause it to further unzip (2 zippings, don't ask ... the whb_1.exe file is actually a self-extracting zip installation file.)
After running whb_1.exe it will tell you where it will place the final installation files ... they will get stored in a folder called 'WHB'.
After you receive confirmation that the final unzipping process is complete, please visit the installation folder on your hard drive (folder name WHB, using Windows Explorer for instance) and find a file called mirc.exe, it will have an icon with blue, red and yellow lettering.
This file, mirc.exe, is the file you run to start chatting. If you so wish, in Windows Explorer, right-click the file and select 'Send To Desktop As Shortcut' or similar, an icon will then appear on your desktop.
Whether you have an icon on your desktop or just the file shown in Windows Explorer, please run this file.
It will open up a chat application and present you with a login screen. Please enter the required details (Full Name, Email Address, Nickname & Alternative (Nickname)). Whatever you enter for the NICKNAME will be your nickname in the chat room. By way of advice, feel free to lie about your real name & email address !! A second nickname is useful in case your PC ever dies during chatting, just make it easy to remember.
After entering these details, click OK.
Finally, look at the toolbar at the top left of the application's screen and click the icon that looks like a yellow lightening bolt.
You will now be in the WHB Chatroom !!
At ANY TIME in the future, feel free to double-click the icon for mirc.exe and check if there is a brewer hanging around for a chat ... then chat away !
When we send out reminder emails for our Virtual Meetings we usually suggest a beer for tasting and at 9.00 pm we conduct an 'Online Tasting' in which we all open the same beer at the same time and discuss its merits.
