Internet or online dating is a fantastic way to meet someone without having to face the bar or club scene. Going into a chat room you can get to know someone and talk to them, so that you can determine if you want to meet with them or date them in the offline real world.

You are able to communicate and get to know quite a bit about someone, without even having to leave your home. The physical appearance aspect is thus very much played down, giving both a chance to base attraction on deeper values.

The first impression you give, will be based totally on how you present yourself and communicate online through the words that you type. You need to be aware of some things for your own safety though. Luckily these are very easy to accomplish by being an anonymous computer user. Just use some common sense before meeting people in real life.

Always use a fictitious online name or "handle". Try and use an email address that can be easily changed or deleted. Never give out your work email address or your physical address over the Internet. This is not only to protect yourself from the person that you are chatting to, in case they have less than honest motives, but also from online lurkers. There are people out there, some very clever people, that will eavesdrop on your chat, and use any information they get to their advantage. This often happens without either chat partner even knowing about it. Use a "Hot mail, Yahoo or Gmail" account for this.

You should of course be honest about the information that you do put online. Your gender, age and city that you live in, are general enough, to be useless to hackers, but obviously important to your chat partner. Just avoid handing out phone numbers, addresses etc

Be honest when you're chatting with someone online. This is particularly important if you're chatting trying to find a potential date. Starting to lie about how you look, what you do, your interests, or any other personal information, would not be a great start to a potential relationship. Always think, what if this person is the one, would you like them to be interested in something that you are not, or the real you? Remember, you will eventually meet in real life if this goes further, how would you feel about someone that had lied to you? Give the same courtesy that you expect.

Also don't expect too much from someone that you meet in a chat room. Remember, you don't know what they are really like so it