First you need to connect using the web. Go to the connector page and select "Crossoriginnetwork". You'll get a port number to use in the address bar of your browser.
You also need to know the port number the server is running on. If you installed it locally, you can see it on the index page. It's set to 8001 as a default.
If you don't want to use the web page, you can use something like netcat for Windows or nc for Linux instead.
Using the web page is the only way you can create a new group, but you can use netcat/nc to join groups with a private password. The first time you create a group, you can change the password, so anyone who doesn't know the password can't join that group.
The web page will only tell you about the groups it can connect to, so if you're using netcat/nc you'll need to know that the server is running on 8001. The web page will only list groups you can join, but netcat/nc will let you join any group, but you need the group password.
Groups always have port numbers. The default groups are 8080 and 8081.
The connector will let you connect to whatever ports are set up.
If you don't create any groups, you'll only be able to connect to other people on port 8080, and only if you have a port from the connector. If you create a group, then people who use the group port number will be able to connect to you using any port number from the connector.
If you want to find out what groups are on other chat servers, you can use a message to "findgroups". This is to create a discoverable network of private groups, so you can set up your own local chat server for your friends.
You can use the web page to add other chat servers and groups. The server number is 8001 by default.
But if you want to chat to other people who might be using this chat server, it's best to find a group you can join using the message "findgroups".
When you connect, you'll be asked for a name, and then you can type messages.
If you want to get an updated list of people in a group, type "/ who".
If you want to move to another group, type "/ list". This shows you the other groups that you can connect to. If you type "/ join group" then you will disconnect from the current group and join the new group. You can find out what groups you can join by typing "/ findgroups". If you want to leave the current group, type "/ part".
You can chat with people on the same server by typing "/ msg name message". You can chat with people on other servers using "/ msg group:name message".
You can direct the next message to another server or a group by typing "/ dest server" or "/ dest group". You can cancel this by typing "/ dest none".
If you want to join a group on another server, or create a group on another server, you can type "/ server server" to change what server your next message goes to. You can also type "/ server server:port", or you can type "/ server name:group" to create a group on another server. To list what servers you can send messages to, type "/ servers". To cancel this, type "/ servers none".
If you want to get an updated list of people on this server, type "/ whoall".
To list what groups you can join, type "/ findgroups". To list all the servers that you can send messages to, type "/ servers".
If you want to set a password for a group, type "/ password password".
If you want to change your name, type "/ name name".
If you want to use slashes in a message, you can type "// message".