The chat feature can be accessed by clicking on the
button near the top of the page. Once you open the page you will be automatically signed in with your forum username with a "-ww" appended to it.
The chat feature requires Java to be installed on your computer so if it is not you will get a browser window with the board buttons but no content similar to these from Internet Explorer and Firefox:
You can install Sun's Java by downloading the Windows installer from the link below. This is the online installer and is only about 226Kb so should download in less than a minute. However once you download and run the installer it has to download the actual program files which are about 7MB and can take up to 30 minutes to download depending on your connection speed. (Cable and DSL users should be MUCH quicker.) If you do not have time/patience to wait for the download PM me your shipping info and I will send you the installer that does not require any download.
Download link:
http://www.wienerwritings.com/java-jre.exeSave the file to your desktop and run it by double clicking after the download is complete. If you are running Windows XP you will get a warning like this:
Click the "Run" button and proceed with the install and accept the default options.
Once installed close all your browser windows and restart your browser. Open the chat page again and when the Java applet loads you will get a warning that looks like this:
Click the "Always" button to avoid having to deal with this prompt in the future. (For those security conscious folks I have contacted the applet developer to see if they have any plans to reissue the applet with an updated certificate, if they do I will update this How To.)
After you load the applet you will be logged into the chat room and will be ready to start chatting with any fellow WW members, the screen will look like this:
