Some hints for using the chat
1) Your login to the chat can be anything you want as long as it is not offensive...if it does not connect to the chat, then you have an illegal name, try changing it and then connecting again.
2) If you would like to change your nickname type
/nick yournewnickname
3) if you are getting a message that your nickname is owned by someone else...keep in mind this is an IRC chat and someone probably does own it, just use the /nick command to change it.
4) once you have a nickname that you want to keep you need to type:
/msg nickserv register password full-email-address
the password can be anything you want...just remember it, and the email must be a valid email address.