WebcityUSA Northwest and Seattle's Live Online Java Chat!

Live Chat Questions and Instructions

1. What kind of browser do I need to use ParaChat?

You need to use a web browser that is Java enabled like Netscape 2.0, 3.0 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0. If your
browser is not Java aware you will not see the chat room but get a message
'Sorry your browser is not Java enabled'

MAC users must use MS Internet Explorer 3.01b , it will not work with Netscape currently. Please see following MAC
question for more.

Win 3.1 can use Netscape 3.01 Beta with Java for Windows 3.1 , see following question on Win 3.1 for more.

2. 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. Click
on the Connect button , enter you user name (other fields are not required) and click on OK. You are in the chat room.
You will see the others in the black window on the right. Type any message in the text box at the bottom and it is sent to
all users by default.

3. How do I send a private message?

Check the 'private chat' check box and highlight the user and then any message typed is sent only to that user with a
[PRIVATE your_name] in front of it so he know who sent it and that it is private.

4. Can I block out annoying messages?

To silence annoying chatters in your room , check the 'ignore user' check box and highlight the user and then any
message sent by the user will not be displayed on your screen. If you like using commands you can use *ignore add
username

Its as if that annoying user just went away! Wish it worked in real rooms too right?

5. 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 or was in the chat window. If you want to surf to something else, highlight the URL in the chat window
and hit Surf. This is how you can visit that cool site some user just 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.

6. 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)

7. 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.

8. I am using a MAC and cannot connect to ParaChat. Why?

There are known problems with Netscape's implementation of Java and we are working with Netscape to see if we can
work around those bugs. So currently ParaChat will not work for Mac users using Netscape. Microsoft's Internet
Explorer 3.01b is known to work well for some Mac users and work with some repaint bugs (chat window messed up
and cannot see the chat command buttons) for other Mac users. If you are a Mac user and have had luck with any
other version of these browsers or any others please send us email at pchat@paralogic.com, we want to know!

9. 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 our chat server being too busy at the time you tried the login..In such instances please login again
after a few minutes.Please do not hit 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.

10. Is there a Java enabled browser for Windows 3.1 that works with ParaChat?

You could use the new Navigator 3.01 Beta with Java for Windows 3.1 available for download at
http://home.netscape.com/comprod/mirror/client_download.html

It is believed to work with ParaChat though it is slow and has some bugs.

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

Firstly you can ignore the message, by clicking on the Ignore User button - see question 4 above for more. 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 to (or ask your
sys admin) do a traceroute to the IP address and determine the ISP (Internet provider) and then send email to the ISP
giving as much information as possible about log on time, persons information and request some action - e.g disconnect
service.

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

This is just an informational message - please ignore it.

13. I was logged on and the connection to the Internet/chat server dropped. I cannot log back with the same username (nick) 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 min the user is automatically logged off and you can then reuse the same
user name (nick).

14. Can I make the chat window bigger?

YES! You can now!.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 independent 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 just a default start size.

15. 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 our chat server being too busy at the time you
tried the login. In such instances please login again after a few minutes.Please do not hit 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.

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

This is a bug that we are working on, you get the message when the system is too busy, please retry after a while.

17. I use AOL, how can I use ParaChat?

Just connect to AOL, go to the Word Wide Web, minimize the AOL window and launch a Java enabled browser. You
can download Netscape Navigator v3.01 from http://www.netscape.com or Microsoft Internet Explorer v3.0 from
http://www.microsoft.com.

18. I get ...'could not connect to server BAD_PARAMETERS:BAD_PARAMETERS'. Why?

That error is due to the system detecting that one or more of the applet parameters passed is invalid. Please check the
HTML code on the Java chat applet against the code received on registration. Also if you are using Netscape Gold 3.0
you may get this even with correct HTML due to a parameter passing bug on Netscape Gold 3.0. In that case please
use another browser/version like Netscape 3.0 (non Gold), Gold 3.01 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0.

UPDATE: On certain versions of Netscape, this problem can be fixed by changing the Document Encoding to
'Western'. On your browser, click on Options, then click on Document Encoding and set it to Western

19. Do you have a list of all the ParaChat rooms?

We do not maintain a public list of chat rooms currently. Sorry

20. I am using Netscape 3.0 / MS I.E. 3.0 on Windows 95 and still get the 'Sorry not Java enabled' message,
is there some option I need to set?

Make sure that your browser's Java feature is enabled. For Netscape Navigator, enable Java by clicking "Options",
"Network Preferences", "Language". Make sure the "Enable Java" checkbox is checked. For Microsoft Internet
Explorer, enable Java by clicking "View", "Options", "Security". Check the "Enable Java programs"checkbox.

21. What is the Float Button for? Can I resize the chat window after a Float?

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 independent 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 just a default start size.

22. Can I get an audio cue, a beep notification when someone enters or leaves the room?

Yes. You can use the *beep command to set an audio cue when anyone enters or leaves the room. If you enter *beep
(in the message line) you will get a help message as well as the current beep settings

To turn beep on when someone enters the room use
*beep enter on

To turn beep on when someone leaves the room use
*beep leave on

To turn beep off when someone enters the room use
*beep enter off

To turn beep off when someone leaves the room use
*beep enter off

23. Does ParaChat work with IRC? Can I use an IRC client to connect to a ParaChat room or use the
ParaChat client to connect to IRC.

No. Even though ParaChat is a superset of the IRC protocol, the ParaChat server cannot be currently accessed via an
IRC client. Similarly the ParaChat client cannot be used to connect to an IRC channel.

24. I get a 'Load ParaChat class not found' error message or a 'gray box' when accessing one of the demo
rooms on the ParaChat web site at http://www.parachat.com. How do I fix it?

The chat applet on our demo rooms loads from a machine called dru.webpage.com - it appears that you are unable to
access this for some reason. We suggest the following

1. Flush caches on your browser.

For Netscape : On the browser's menu bar, go to Options ,select Network Preferences ,select Cache,click on
Clear Memory Cache Now,click on OK. Click on Clear Disk Cache Now, click on OK. .Set Verify Documents
to Every Time, click on OK
For Microsoft Internet Explorer: On the browser's menu bar, go to View,select Options ,select Advanced ,
click on Settings for the Temporary Internet Files. Check the Every visit to the page option under Check for
newer versions of stored pages. Click on Empty Folder and select Yes to the Delete temporarily files message.
Click on OK Click on OK in the Options Dialog.

Exit your browser completely and restart it.
This will fix the problem in most cases.

2.If above did not help, see if you can access dru.webpage.com via your browser by pointing your browser to
http://dru.webpage.com If you get hostname not found error, then it means your ISP (Internet Service Provider) is not
running name services correctly. Contact your ISP and ask them to fix their name services so you can access this
machine : dru.webpage.com

25. I get 'Security violation' and the chat applet
does not load, what do I do?

This is probably because your browser is caching an earlier version of the applet. Do the following

1. Flush the browser's cache:

For Netscape : On the browser's menu bar, go to Options , select Network Preferences ,select Cache,click on
Clear Memory Cache Now,click on OK. Click on Clear Disk Cache Now, click on OK. .Set Verify Documents
to Every Time, click on OK
For Microsoft Internet Explorer: On the browser's menu bar, go to View,select Options ,select Advanced ,
click on Settings for the Temporary Internet Files. Check the Every visit to the page option under Check for
newer versions of stored pages. Click on Empty Folder and select Yes to the Delete temporarily files message.
Click on OK Click on OK in the Options Dialog.

2. Exit the browser completely and restart it.