chat rooms

I have tried a few different chat room plugins and either I am completely retarded or the instructions to use the are insufficient. I tried quick chat and phpfreechat. Both say just add the short code and away you go. That is not my experience. phpfreechat when I added the shortcode I got nothing. Quick chat at least display but there are no directions for editing and the send button will not display. I tried these on both my localhost and a live server test site. ANyone have a better experience setting up a chat room?