
Unlike many other clients that are free, mIRC is shareware. mIRC has been in development since the '90s and has a lot of great features, like a scripting language for automating routine tasks.

How To Get Onto IRC Step 1: Pick a Client You can ask questions of the developers themselves, a major step up from tech support operators who've never even touched the code and are forced to follow a script. Another advantage becomes apparent when you wander into IRC channels for open-source projects (many of which are hosted on Freenode).
