Your first step for getting onto IRC is to download a program that will allow you to connect. Most of our members use mIRC, so for the purposes of connecting, this guide will instuct you in setting up the mIRC program. There are of course other programs you can use, just use a search engine like Yahoo or Lycos and look under IRC. If you do this though, you're on your own. Use the link at the bottom of the page to get to the mIRC web site. Download the 32 bit version of mIRC.
Now that you've downloaded the file, run it. This will install the mIRC program, go ahead and default through, it's painless. When it's finished, you'll have a dialog box pop up that says it's done, go ahead and click on okay, this will close the box.
Next you'll want to run the mIRC program itself, just go to the icon that has been created and run it. When it opens up, you'll get a box with some guy's picture in it. There's a box in the lower right hand corner, if you remove the checkmark, you'll never have to see that face again. Close the box by clicking on the X in the upper right-hand corner of the window.
The next thing that will pop up is something asking for your information, like your name, your email address, and what nick you want to go by. Fill this stuff in, you can put in a fake name and e-mail if you want. Then click on the "okay" button on the bottom. Note: Do not click the "Click to Connect Button" this will not connect you to the KDFS Network where UCIP is located.
If you need immediate attention type in /query nick 'nick' being the nickname that the person is using on the channel, this will open a private dialogue between you and the person you specify, again, give them some time to respond, they may be away from the computer or working on other things and unable to immediately respond.
Alright, I know all of what you have just read may sound a little confusing, my suggestion would be to print out these instructions and just follow them, step-by-step, one paragraph at a time, as you go. I know for a fact that when many of us first started, we didn't know what we were doing either, with a little time and attention, you can learn alot from the other people. Remember to never be afraid to ask questions because there's no such thing as a stupid question.
Now don't think this is all you can do on IRC or all you can do with mIRC, I encourage you to look at the Help files that come with mIRC, they can tell you alot of interesting things you can do with the program.