Once you launch xchat, you will be presented with the following screen

Now in the first text box labeled "Nick Name," enter your preferred nickname. In my case it is "John." In the event a someone is already using that nick name your second choice will be used. The Third choice text box follows the same idea as the previous. If you are registered, "User name" is where you would place your registered nick name. Lastly, you would enter your real name. Now that the user information is all set, we want to add the server to our network. To do so, click on the Add button. Your screen should look similar to the following:

Next we want to delete the "New Network" text and replace it with a new label. In my case I will call it Codecall.

Once you have done that, press enter and then click on the Edit... button. Your new window should look like mine.

Under Servers for Codecall click on "newserver/6667" and replace it with "irc.podnet.org"

Since we do not want to use a proxy, we will uncheck that option.

Next, we want to join a channel, in this case #help. So click the text box next to the "Channels to join:" label and enter #help.

Finally press Close and press Connect