Answers to Frequently Asked Questions for Chatters

Adapted from the official Parachat material.

For those who want to chat using this chat forum

Complete Listing of User Commands

1. What kind of browser do I need to use ParaChat
2. How do I chat using ParaChat?
3. How do I send a private message?
4. Is there a way to block off annoying messages from a user
5. What's that Surf button for?
6. Can I customize the chat window, fonts colors?
7. How can I find out more about the others in the chat room
8. I am using a MAC and cannot connect to ParaChat. Why?
9. Does ParaChat work with WebTV?
10. Is there a Java enabled browser for Windows 3.1 that works with ParaChat?
11. I am being annoyed / harassed by a user on the chat room. What can I do?
12. My Java console gives me a 'set demon bug' message on Netscape. What is that?
13. I was logged on and the connection to the Internet/chat server dropped. I cannot log back with the same username (nick) Why?
14. Can I make the chat window bigger?
15. I cannot connect to ParaChat. I get some or all of the following messages : Connection failed/closed. Disconnected:Network connection closed. Why? What do I do? UPDATED
16. I am using a proxy server or am behind a firewall, can I use ParaChat?NEW
17. I use AOL, how can I use ParaChat?
18. I get ...'could not connect to server BAD_PARAMETERS:BAD_PARAMETERS'. Why?
19. Do you have a list of all the ParaChat rooms?
20. I am using Netscape 3.0 / MS Internet Explorer 3.0 on Windows 95 and still get the 'Sorry not Java enabled' message, is there some option I need to set?
21. What is the Float Button for? Can I resize the chat window after a Float?
22. Can I get an audio cue, a beep notification when someone enters or leaves the room?
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.
24. I get a 'Load ParaChat class not found' error message or a 'gray box' when accessing the ParaChat rooms. How do I fix it?
25. I get one or more of the following messages 'Security Violation. java.lang.verify error, Applet exception:java.lang.ClassFormatError' and the chat applet does not load, what do I do?
26. Why does it take longer to connect to ParaChat sometimes?
27. Text in chat window flickers under Internet Explorer 4.0 Why? NEW
28. When I log in with a username <name> I get a 'Sorry that nick (<name> is logged in ' but I don't see the user in the chat room. Why? NEW
29. When I tried to login with username <name> it required a password, Why?NEW
30. When I click on User Info, it says IP address <suppressed>. Why?NEW
31. I get 'You do not appear to have the correct version of the Client Software' and can no longer use ParaChat. What do I do? NEW
    

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

You need to use a web browser that is Java enabled in order to use ParaChat.

If your browser is not Java enabled you will not see the chat room but get a message
'Sorry your browser is not Java enabled'

Windows 95 users :Netscape 2.0, or higher. Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or higher

MAC users must use MS Internet Explorer 3.01b , or Netscape 4.0 - it will not work reliably with Netscape 3.0. Please see following MAC question for more.

Win 3.1 users 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 hit return 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 [email protected], we want to know!

9. Does ParaChat work with WebTV?

No, ParaChat does not work with WebTV.

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. If you are the room administrator you can also expel or ban this annoying user from the chat room. If you are a user of the chat room, contact the webmaster of the site and they can use their room administration controls to expel/ban the user.

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.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. Why? What do I do?

These errors are due to your Internet connection going down or your inability to access our computers. This can be due to a failure on your ISP (Internet Service Provider), your modem or due to some intermediate computer on the path between your computer and ours being down. It can also be because you are behind a firewall or using a proxy server (i.e not directly connected to the Net).

If you suspect the connection problem is due to some other computer on the path from your machine to us being down or slow, you can do a traceroute to see the connection lags.You may want to just check back later when the net is behaving better. Also, if you suspect something is amiss, try http://www.internetweather.com ... which is updated every 15 minutes ... Also see question 24 below.

If the problem is due to your being behind a firewall/proxy server - see question 16 below.

16. I am using a proxy server or am behind a firewall, can I use ParaChat?

You will be unable to access one of the free ParaChat Personal rooms from behind a firewall or via a proxy server. You will however be able to access certain special firewall enabled chat rooms on some sites example the Parachat Demo room 4. If you find you can access room 4 and not rooms 1 to 3, then you are behind a firewall.

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?

The best way to find a list of other ParaChat rooms is via a search engine, such as Yahoo Net Events. This can be reached by clicking on the Yahoo Net events button on your ParaChat room (below the users list) or by going to http://search.events.yahoo.com/search/events?p=parachat

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.

YES. ParaChat chat rooms can be accessed by both the Java ParaChat client as well as any IRC client. This feature can be enabled only for the paid Professional license users or those running their own ParaChat server.

24. I get a 'Load ParaChat class not found' error message or a 'gray box' when accessing one of the ParaChat rooms. How do I fix it?

The error "ParaChat.class not found" is caused by a failure of your browser to download the class file from our webserver. This may occur due to one of several reasons, including mistyped HTML , misconfigured name servers, network outages on machines in the path between your machine and ours etc. These problems result in the infamous Java "Grey Box" and a message in the status line of the browser stating "ParaChat.class not found" or similar. This message does NOT mean that the Chat server is down.

If you are adding the chat room to the web page, the very first thing to do is to make sure that the HTML is correct. If it is not correct, that page will not work for anyone at all. Look at the directions below and make sure the hostname is the one we sent you. EXACTLY the same!

Also important, is that it is ParaChat not parachat or paraChat. If it is not the ParaChat class file that it is complaining about, the HTML has been mistyped. Have the webmaster of the site correct it.

If you are just visiting someone else's page, you need to see if the host machine is reachable. Before you can do anything, you need to find the hostname of the machine with a problem. Then, the you should try and access the host's webserver using a browser. To find the hostname of the webserver, look at the HTML source (e.g. using View-Source in Netscape) and find the line that contains
<APPLET and CODEBASE="http://..../classes".
The part after the "//" and before the "/" in the CODEBASE tag is the hostname. For instance, most ParaChat Personal rooms refer to http://parachat.webpage.com/classes and therefore the hostname is parachat.webpage.com. Most of our demo rooms are currently off of http://dru.webpage.com/pchat/try/classes, and so the hostname is dru.webpage.com.

Once you have this, point your web browser to that hostname, and try and view that site (e.g. http://parachat.webpage.com). There are three possibilities:

a) It may work and show you an HTML Page
b) It may fail with a message about Lookup or DNS failed
c) It may fail with a message about the host not responding, or
Host unreachable, or Host is down.

If (a), It worked, then it is most likely an intermittent network outage. Try flushing your browser cache, exiting your browser and retrying.(see question 25 on how to flush the browser cache if you don't know how to) In situations of rare desperation, you may want to try another browser, which some of our customers have claimed to have fixed their problem, or upgrade to a new version of the browser.

If (b) occurs, you need to contact your ISP. Tell them that their nameserver is either not reachable or is not translating that hostname properly. They should be able to help you out there.

if (c) occurs, there is most likely an Internet outage between our two sites. If you have a supportive ISP, call them and ask them to explain why you cant reach that host. If you don't want to bother them, (or you get the feeling they don't want to be bothered by you) you can do this yourself using tracert, ping.

25. I get one or more of the following messages 'Security Violation. java.lang.verify error, Applet exception:java.lang.ClassFormatError 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.

If it still does not work, check question 24 above.

26. Why does it take longer to connect to ParaChat sometimes?

In most cases you experience slow connect times and response times because of any computer on the Net between your machine and ours being down or slow.You can often determine which computer on the Net is causing the problem by doing a traceroute to see the connection lags. From time to time, we are all victims of Internet slow downs. We pay a lot of money to make sure that we are one hop away from all the major NAPs and are on a fast low latency backbone. But even that is no guarantee that the net in general will not be slow and sluggish.
You may want to just check back later when the net is behaving better. Also, if you suspect something is amiss,try http://www.internetweather.com ... which is updated every 15minutes ...

27. Text in chat window flickers under Internet Explorer 4.0 ? Why?

Microsoft has chosen to rewrite major portions of the Java graphics code (called AWT) in IE 4.0. This includes the introduction of a new IE 4.0 specific graphics library called AFC which is not available on any other browser. As a side effect of this applets like ParaChat and others that use the Java standard AWT components suffer from many annoying bugs and quirks including the annoying flickering in the ParaChat chat window. Microsoft has been informed of and is aware of these problems, but we encourage you to submit your bug reports directly to Microsoft.

If you are using ver 2.01 or better, you can try our work-around for the annoying IE flicker by using the *iefix command. You will need to type in *iefix and the chat screen will blank. All further text output in the chat window will use the new text renderer. This renderer works with Netscape as well.

(There are various other issues with the Microsoft IE 4.0 browser that are under litigation , see Sun Sues Microsoft For Breach Of JavaTM Contract. Microsoft fails Java compatibility tests for Internet Explorer 4.0 , although none of these issues affect ParaChat at this time.)

28. When I log in with a username <name> I get a 'Sorry that nick (<name>) is logged in ' but I don't see the user in the chat room. Why?

This is because the user is in a different ParaChat room. The usernames are shared across all the rooms on the chat server. The user already using that username <name> is logged on to a different chat room but is on the same chat server as yours and so you cannot use the same name. Please choose another username.

29. When I tried to login with username <name> it required a password, Why?

Some names are password protected on the chat server. For example the room administrator names are password protected. You have tried to use one of these password protected names. Please use another user name.

30. When I click on User Info, it says 'IP address <suppressed>'. Why?

Due to security and privacy concerns, the IP address has been suppressed for all users of the chat room. It is however visible to the room administrator. We recommend that the webmaster of the chat room get a administrator account (with the ParaChat PersonalAC or the ParaChat Professional license) so that they can see the IP addresses of the users and then expel/ban as needed as well as use other administration control on the chat room.

31. I get 'You do not appear to have the correct version of the Client Software' and can no longer use ParaChat. What do I do?

Please flush the cache, exit and restart your browser to automatically get the latest version of the ParaChat applet. Your browser has cached an earlier version.

Here is how to 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.

Exit the browser completely and restart it.

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