There are three different types of chat rooms on the online service:

1. Public chat rooms
Communal meeting places. Each public chat room is devoted to a different topic and can hold up to 48 people at a time. You can choose from a list of public chat rooms when you sign on. When you enter a chat room, you'll see a list of all the people who are already there and anything you type can be seen by the others.

2. Private chat rooms
These work in a similar way but they can only hold a maximum of 23 members. The other difference is that private chat rooms are not listed in the public chat area, so they're useful when you want to chat with friends, family or colleagues online and want to keep your conversation among yourselves.

To enter or create a private chat room, simply sign on to AOL and go to Private Chat, then enter the name of the room you wish to create or enter.

3. Auditoriums
A much larger type of chat room, capable of holding thousands of members. Auditoriums are generally used for large public events, such as celebrity chats online.