Chat Clients You will first need a chat client if you do not have one. Some good places to look first.

For Windows users
mIRC is the most popular chat client for Windows. Many scripts are available for it should you decide you want to "upgrade" later.

pirch is another client used to access irc servers. pirch offers the ability to join multiple servers. Not as popular as mIRC but a good choice for some users.

For Linux users

ircII a plain text irc client for Linux

For Mac users

Scripts Once you become familiar with irc chatting, you may want to try a script. A script is a chat client with shorcuts, expanded menus, and added features. It is not recommended that new users start right off with a script. And when you do first try a script, go to an empty channel and familiarize yourself with some of it's features. Some scripts have auto kick, auto warning, and/or auto ignore features, not knowing how these work can make your irc experience less than enjoyable!

For Windows users

The largest selection of mIRC scripts there is.

Home of the fine art of scripting, and

For Linux users

While famous for it's Linux/Unix version, Bitch-X also has Win9x/NT, Mac, and FreeBSD versions available too!

Mac users other than Bitch-X I do not currently know where you get scripts for Mac. Feel free to email meand I will check into getting more links!