Look here first, if you haven't already.

I can't remember the rest without having Trillian in front of me [/dickhead]

The most important thing to set up before visiting #mefi is your attitude - expecting the worst will only get you half-way prepared for what you may find. You need to be very very very open-minded at times.

I went to the about link. It doesn't tell you how to connect via a specific program... it says what server, port and channel to connect to, but I can't figure out where to put this information into Trillian.

Don't worry about how I handle myself; I won't pull a drakepool.

Sorry my brain doesn't work better - I can do it easily with the program in front of me. Basically, you need to go to the Connection Manager and add a server under the IRC section, with the appropriate settings. Id you have still not got it in about 6 hours when I get home, I will give you the details then.

tell everyone hi!

The chat progam that comes with Firefox works just fine.

Under the Connection Manager, there are boxes with the following "ghost writing":

Server Alias (followed by "via IRC"
irc.trillian.com::6667 (followed by "...")
Nickname
Username
User Info
and a checkbox for Automatically connect to this account at startup.

I think Server Alias is just a name for that connection and is arbitrary. I had it filled in as MeFi.
I changed irc.trillian.com::6667 to
irc.metafilter.com::6667.
All the others I entered my name (Doohickie).

From there, I'm not sure where to enter the channel name (#mefi).

interrobang: I have problems with Firefox for other websites I frequent (some menus not displayed properly).

If I use Firefox, should I be able to click on the #mefi IRC link? When I do that, I get "irc is not a registered protocol".

doohickie: did you connect to the irc server yet? once you connect, you'll see the server's 'message of the day' and some other stuff. type "/join #mefi" (minus the quotes). then type "see? i'm not such a dumbass."

You can use the chat program that comes with the full Mozilla suite (Chatzilla), but it is not bundled with FireFox itself.

There is a spot where you can enter command to run once connected the the IRC server - type /join #mefi there and it will join you to the room when you connect.

I get a little window that looks like an IM window that says "My Contacts". Above that, it says my name and "Connected". I'm not sure how to get to a Message Window. When I try selecting Message Windows in the index, I just get a settings page; no actual window. So... I'm still a dumbass.

Meh. So much for Trillian. But Chatzilla and mIRC work okay though.

Go to the main Trillian contact-list window thingy, right mouse click on the grey circle (middle one on the bottom, just at the bottom of the contacts list)

Select "toggle status window".

Type /join #channel in the status window. (Or, you could try /join in whatever that My Contacts windows thingy is)

The channel window will pop up.

Be aware that Trillian's IRC client isn't entirely secure, AFAIK. IRC can sometimes be hazardous to your computer. You should be ok on #mefi, though.

cool irc tip of the day: once you manage to connect, type "/quit quonsar" (without the quotes) to automatically kick quonsar off.