Hi! Well I will assume you had installed Ubuntu already.
Connecting to the IRC channel: a) Go to Applications->Internet->XCHAT IRC b) Then, Click on XCHAT->Network List c) Choose your nickname (The Freenode server requires you to register the nick in order to connect to our channel..we will cover this later on) d) From the networks menu list, choose: FREENODE and press EDIT e) Make sure you change the port number to 8001 and Save. f) Click "Connect" and you should be online.
If the connection is successful, you should expect to see something similar to this:
* Looking up irc.freenode.net
* Connecting to chat.freenode.net (140.211.166.4) port 8001...
* Connected. Now logging in...
* *** Looking up your hostname...
* *** Checking ident
* *** Found your hostname
* *** No identd (auth) response
* Welcome to the freenode IRC Network ArepaKing
In order to join our channel you must type the following:
/join #ubuntu-northcarolina
Now, the following website will explain you how to register a nick and it will answer a lot of basic question.
http://freenode.net/faq.shtml#userexpirations
Please feel free to ask if you get stuck.
Hope it helps, ArepaKing