.....Chat II.....
1. ICQ.
"I Seek You"
You have to download approx: 1,6 MB.
My ICQ number is 3649591.
What happends is that when you have installed the software
( its free so far, but AOL have bought ICQ and the world
is guessing that they will start to charge you some day.
But you don't have to worry about being charged
because if that will happend they will change the servers and you will have to download a new version of ICQ).
You register and you get an unique icq-number.
And if you know anyone else that have icq
you can add their icq-number to your "icq-buddy-list"
and always see when they are online.
You can..in icq...chat, send instant messages and well
more things which I have not bothered to learn.
You can also create your own "temporary" chatroom with your
icq friends and be there and chat with eachother.
...And don't forget...chain letters are not appreciated !
Must say its a really handy and most useful program this.
2. PowWow (aka Tribal Voice)
Is the logical "next step".
You have to download approx: 3,6 MB.
Is free, no charges.
It is like a combination of ICQ and a usual chatroom,
but with sound added !
And plenty of rooms to choose if you want to chat in a chatroom.
I had some problems to download the software, try several
different places to dl from if you have a problem.
3. Excite.
..Yet another step !
You download approx 2 MB
..and its free....no charges what so ever.
Here are chatrooms where you represent yourself
with a name (aka handle) and a small picture (aka avatar).
Here you can of course change avatar
whenever you feel like it, there are many many sites to find them, and it is easy to make one for yourself !
You can also play "gestures" in here, small programs that have a picture and sound added to it.
When you get the feeling for this you can make your own gestures, its fun !
Excite is big, I sometimes think it is to big, there was a place called
"Virtual Places" also (which was my fav) it was similar to excite, but much smaller.
That place was teared down by hackers and does not exsist any more :-(.
But the "old VP people" have a few places in excite where they hang out: "virtual street".
Oh...I almost forgot, once you are inside you could ask someone.....politely...
if they could take you on a tour...and that is just what it says: A Tour.
You link your avatar to the other persons,
and he/she can "surf" and you just look at your screen.....
and do not forget to bookmark the nice pages the person takes you to.
You can also play games in excite:
Chess, Backgammon, Battleship and Yatsee with others while you are there.
This is the best and nicest way to chat I have seen so far.
If you meet : tc, Red3000GT, Nance, MIB, Rhy, Various, and a number of others...say Hi from me !
I am Pathfinder in Excite.
Look at my "VP home page" 
A good place to go to to get some avatars and gestures is here:
Ing's AV's and gesture links
4. There are others as well, and those I have tried is:
Virtual world, but I didn't like it.
Palace, but I didn't like it
...and well.....don't remember them all any longer.....
if you don't have it...course only if you have sound on puter !
