[Naturally, my handle at FICS is Dr.Dave.]
There is on-line help once you log in (type "help"), or you could visit the handy walk-through ICS help site.
You can play using a mouse on a normal-looking board [80k GIF] using SLICS/CHESSBD for a Windows PC with SLIPP connection, and there are other interfaces for players with modems and/or other makes of computer. You can get the interfaces from the FTP directories for your make of computer from Internet Chess Library; many are free but some like SLICS are shareware.
Once you are on you can play "lightning", "blitz" or "standard" time limits, although the standard isn't always wonderful at the faster limits (and the server will post all you blunders to you after the game...)
On these servers you get given a 4-figure rating for each type of time limit to help you find players of about your standard. Most folk are pretty friendly although many have a "no takeback" rule, and if you are playing a rated game you may find yourself lag-flagged, and sometimes if you are winning your opponent may disconnect rather than finish the game and lose rating points. And Ford help you if you overlook a takeback request by a higher-graded player, even in an unrated game. See also:
This document (fics.html) was last modified on 13 Mar 97 by
Dr. Dave