Hi Mark,

>As some of you already know, I can not access the Friday or Tuesday conferences from work because of our firewall. So I have to experience this 2nd hand.

Here is a FAQ at www.MIRC.com, it may help, may not

(22) Can our firewall be blocking my IRC session?

Yup, that is very well possible.... I only know of mIRC as being a Windows based IRC client being SOCKS compliant at the moment. No other IRC Clients support firewalls. You need a SOCKS compliant IRC client to be able to IRC over a firewall. Ask your internet provider or corporate network managers if you are behind a firewall and, if so, if using mIRC will allow you to use IRC.

>I also never heard back if we were going to add an evening conference for those who can not attend during work hours.

I'll make sure to bring it up if I'm here Friday. I would also like to see a Busness Hours and Non-Business Hours Chat.