Connecting to a Server
The first thing to do after installing the program is to set up a connection record with the nickname that you prefer. 

After you have entered your nickname, connected to a server and joined the channels you are interested in, you can save the connection setup to a file, using a command from the File menu. That will allow you to connect and automatically join the chosen channels, just by double clicking on the setup file. 

You can also connect manually by starting the program and choosing a connection record from the "Open Connection" sub-menu under the File menu, or connect by using the Connections window.

Setting up a Connection record
Before you can open a connection you must have a Connection record with information about your nickname, what servers to connect to and what port to use on the servers.

The Connection records can be found both on the Connections window and in the Preferences window.  Open the Preferences window by pressing cmd-r or use the menu item Preferences. 

It will open up and display a list of available Preference panels on the left and the currently selected panel on the right. 

Initially that will be the Setup panel which has a list of the defined Connection records. When you first install Snak it will create a number of default Connection records in order to facilitate setup. 

Double click on the network you want to get on to edit the Connection record. Then you can fill in a nickname of your choice, and you can select the servers that you prefer on that particular IRC network. You can also choose to leave the default choices as they are.

Multiple servers
Connection records can specify multiple servers, which allows the program to try each server until it finds one that will connect.

This feature makes it much easier for you to get on a network. The best way to use it is to have a connection record for each of your favorite networks instead of a separate connection record per server. Just add your favorite servers on that particular network to the connection record. 

You can add servers to a connection record from this dialog.

If a server takes longer than 35 seconds to respond, or you need to specify a different port to use than 6667, please double click on the line in the table to bring up the dialog to edit the server record for the particular server.

You can create multiple Connection records and open multiple connections simultaneously, but please keep in mind that some servers consider that "cloning" and will ban you if you overdo it.

Connecting to a network
After completing the setup you can use the File/Open Connection menu to open a connection to a server. That will display a hierarchial menu where you can choose the desired connection.

You can also select the Connection record in the list in the preference window and press the Connect button from the row of buttons below the list.

A console window will be opened when the program attempts to open a connection to the server. You can follow the progress of the connection attempt in the lower left corner of the console window. 

Initially, the connection status will be "Not Connected".  When the connection attempt is started, the status will change to "Connecting", and when the program has established contact to the server and is negotiating for access, the status will be "Connected". After a successful negotiation the status will change to "Online" and you will see the logon and greeting message from the server flow into your console window.

You are now online with an IRC server and can join channels using the methods described in the next chapter.

If the connection attempt stays in the "Connecting" phase for too long it may mean that the server is not responding, and the attempt should be aborted by closing the console window. The default timeout for connecting to a server is 35 seconds. This can be set individually for each server by editing the server record in the preferences window.