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TO USE FIRETALK

  1. FireTalk STARTS automatically every time you sign on to the Internet (ISP/AOL).

  2. Initially, you are in no FORUM (chatroom) and you are in no PRIVATE CONVERSATION.

  3. To CALL an individual that is on your CONTACTS list, click on the yellow telephone that is to the right of their name. This will put both of you in the PARTICIPANT box. You will be in BOLD type and he/she will be in LIGHT type. The LIGHT type means that you CALLED the person but the person did not yet ACCEPT your call. When the person’s name turns BOLD, it means that your call has been "PICKED UP" and you can now talk.

  4. To JOIN a FORUM you must first see a list of the FORUMS by clicking on the FORUM button.  Choose a category that interests you by double clicking on that category.  (Note: the NEW USERS forum is a great place to learn how to use FireTalk.)  Scroll down the list of forums until you see one that you like. Choose the forum by clicking on it and then click on JOIN at the bottom of the forum window. You will know that you are in the forum because you will see the names of the forum participants in the PARTICIPANT box.

  5. To LEAVE a private conversation or a forum click on the HANG UP button.

  6. To invite a third (additional) person into a PRIVATE conversation, click on their yellow phone in your CONTACTS list in the same manner that you called the original person.

  7. If you get a second call while you are talking in a private conversation, you can put the first person ON HOLD while you take the second call. Just click on the HOLD button and the first person will be put on HOLD and the second person will be connected to you. After talking to the second person, you will return to the first person.

  8. You can send an "INSTANT MESSAGE" (a note) to anybody on your contact list (whether they are currently online or not) by RIGHT CLICKING on their name on your contact list and choosing SEND INSTANT MESSAGE. A little note will flash on their screen indicating that they have an INSTANT MESSAGE.

  9. You can send a "VOICE MAIL" (a sound recording) to anybody on your contact list (whether they are currently online or not) by RIGHT CLICKING on their name on your contact list and choosing SEND VOICE MAIL.  Record your voice mail message, play it back to yourself if you'd like, send it out.  A little note will flash on their screen indicating that they have a VOICE MAIL.

  10. When some is calling you, a red light will flash and a "ringing" sound will be heard. Click on PICKUP to answer the call.

  11. If you are in a forum and someone calls you for a private conversation, if you answer the call you will be leaving the forum. You can return to the forum after you hang up the private call.  (Note: you can see the name of the person who is calling you, before you "pick up", by looking at the INFO box directly below the blinking red light.)

  12. If you are in a forum, you cannot put the forum "ON HOLD" to answer a private call. The HOLD button will only put a private call on "hold" when you are answering another private call.

  13. To ADD a person to your contact list, RIGHT CLICK on their name in the PARTICIPANTS box and choose ADD PARTICIPANT TO CONTACT LIST. Now, that person will be on your CONTACT LIST (ADDRESS BOOK) so as you can call them easily in the future.

  14. To BLOCK an unruly participant so as you will not be able to hear him, RIGHT CLICK on the participant’s name and choose BLOCK PARTICIPANT

  15. To see info (real name) of a participant or a contact, RIGHT CLICK on the person’s name and choose VIEW INFO.

  16. To adjust the setting of your transmission (microphone) volume, leave (hang-up) from any forum or private conversation, click on TOOLS menu at top of the window and choose MIC TEST WIZARD.

  17. To CREATE your own FORUM, make the forum list visible by clicking on the FORUM button, choose a category and then choose CREATE from the bottom of the forum window. Type in a NAME for the forum that you are creating but DO NOT type in any password. If you type a password, all persons wishing to enter your forum must be aware of the password. Make the name of your forum short and descriptive and enticing. Then just wait for people to visit. If you always use the same forum name, then people will look for it and visit you on a regular basis. When the last person leaves your created forum, the forum will disappear.  (Note:  While waiting for visitors to come into your Forum, you can right click on any name on your contact list and choose "INVITE TO FORUM".)

  18. Try to remember to look at the participants box when you talk so you can see if anyone else is talking at the same time (BUBBLE means that a person is talking). If two people are talking at the same time, it sounds like garbage and nobody understands anything. NOTE: The person that is talking always jumps to the top of the participants list. If this does not happen, click on the label "S" at the top of the participants list to make it happen.

  19. The FORUM LIST may be sorted in a number of different ways. Clicking on the label at the top of the list will sort it in that manner. The different labels are P (listed with PASSWORD PROTECTED forums at top), M (listed with MODERATED forums at top), FORUM (listed alphabetically by FORUM NAME, which is a good way to find a specific forum name), USERS (listed by NUMBER OF USERS (participants) in the forum).

  20. The TEXT CHAT button will open a community text chat window. Anything that is typed at the bottom of the window (and then hit ENTER), will be sent into the large text chat window for all participants to see. You can use this text chat feature to type in your WEB SITE address for all to see. EXAMPLE: http://www.oldmaster85.com

  21. The LAUNCH button will take you to a WEB PAGE that has been FIRETALK ENABLED. This means that if you define your LAUNCH button to go to http://www.oldmaster85.com/chatroom.htm , then whenever you click on the LAUNCH button, a special browser window will open up and take you to the chatroom at the OLDMASTER85 web site. All people who did similarly will arrive at the same OLDMASTER85 web page and be able to talk with each other. In effect, you have literally made the OLDMASTER85 chatroom web page a FORUM. You will see in your participants box all those people who are also at the OLDMASTER85 chatroom page. The chatroon page has become a FORUM.

  22. To tell people how to make their LAUNCH button point to the OLDMASTER85 chatroom page, tell them to do the following. Click on TOOLS dropdown menu... click on OPTIONS... click on INTERNET tab... in the box that is marked URL TO LOAD ON LAUNCH type in the following (exactly!!!)

    23. http://www.oldmaster85.com/chatroom.htm

    From now on, whenever the person clicks on LAUNCH, he will be sent to the OLDMASTER85 chatroom page at the OLDMASTER85 web site. All others who clicked on LAUNCH will also be there and they will all be participants in the FIRETALK forum at the OLDMASTER85 web site.

  23. The OLDMASTER85 FireTalk telephone number is 218188

  24. The MisterAguy FireTalk telephone number is 202585

  25. To find out the FireTalk number of someone, click on ADD/FIND CONTACTS and type in either their FireTalk name or their E-mail address.

  26. If you are experiencing a "poor connection" with alot of "breaking up", restart your computer and you’ll probable get a better connection.  (Note: you can see the quality of your voice connection by POINTING (do not click, just point) to the big yellow telephone handset in the upper right corner of your FireTalk window.  Two values will appear.  The PING value... how long in thousands of a second does my voice take to get from me to FireTalk and back again... should be under 500.  The PLOSS value... what percentage of my voice transmission packets are being lost, causing "breakup" of my voice... should be 0%)

  27. To CLOSE the FireTalk program, just click on the "X" as you would close any window. This will put FireTalk in STANDBY mode. The FireTalk yellow telephone will continue to appear in the lower right section of your monitor screen near the time of day and if someone tries to call you, the FireTalk program window will open up and you’ll see and hear your phone ringing. To open up the window manually, just click on the yellow telephone that is in the lower right section of your monitor screen. NOTE: If you see a YELLOW TELEPHONE in the middle bottom of your monitor screen, it means that FireTalk is MINIMIZED (not in standby mode, but, rather, just minimized). Click on that (middle bottom) yellow telephone to bring up the FireTalk window.
    28.

    Happy FireTalking
    from your WebMaster
    misterAguy FT# 202585

...and send me (the OM85 WebMaster)   
an Instant Message or a Voice Mail   
telling me if these instructions   
were helpful to you.   

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