Chapter 11: IRC, MUDs AND OTHER FUN THINGS

     Many Net systems provide access to a series of interactive services
that let you hold live "chats" or play  online  games with people around
the world.  To find out if your host system offers these, you can ask
your system administrator or just try them -- if nothing happens, then
your system does not provide them.  In general, if you can use  telnet 
and  ftp , chances are good you can use these services as well.

    Talk                            
    Internet Relay Chat (IRC)       
    Muds                            
    The other side of the coin      


FYI:

     You can find discussions about IRC in the alt.irc newsgroup.
     "A Discussion on Computer Network Conferencing," by Darren Reed
(May, 1992), provides a theoretical background on why conferencing
systems such as IRC are a Good Thing.  It's available through  ftp  at
nic.ddn.mil in the rfc directory as rfc1324.txt.
     For a good overview of the impact on the Internet of the Morris
Worm, read "Virus Highlights Need for Improved Internet Management," by
the U.S. General Accounting Office (June, 1989).  You can get a copy via
ftp from cert.sei.cmu.edu in the pub/virus-l/docs directory.  It's listed
as gao_rpt.
     Clifford Stoll describes how the Internet works and how he tracked a
group of KGB-paid German hackers through it, in "The Cuckoo's Egg:
Tracking a Spy through the Maze of Computer Espionage," Doubleday (1989).