Battle.net

Connecting to Battle.net

Before you do anything, make sure you are connected properly to the Internet. In the case of a dial-up, dial up. In the case of a cable, just don't yank the cable out of your computer for no apparent reason. In the case of DSL, connect and leave it. Then open up Starcraft.

First, select Multiplayer from the menu and specify whether you want to play Original or Expansion. If you select Expansion, you cannot join Original games, and vice versa. Then, specify the Gateway you are nearest, and click "OK".

Navigating on Battle.net

When you log on to Battle.net, you will be asked to make a new account, or use an existing one. If you want to use an existing one, then you shouldn't be reading this walkthrough. If you want to create a new account, however, just click the "New Account" button and enter a username that's not taken, and a correponding password.
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After you do all that, you should log on with your account. Now, you can specify what chat channel you want to be in by clicking the "Channel" button. (Why am I even writing this? :P)
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Games on Battle.net

After you're settled, you may want to join a game another person has created. Click "Join" and it should bring up a list of all the games you can join.
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The green bars stand for good or very little latency, also known as lag, which means how well your computers correspond and by how much they slow down the game. If the game has red latency, however, try not to join, as it will most likely be very slow with periodic lagging. After a person lags for 45 seconds in a game, they may get dropped by other players.

You may create a game by clicking the "Create" button.
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You can type in the game name, and a password if you wish for a private game. Without a password, anyone can join. You can also choose the map and speed, as well as the game type.

When a person joins, you can boot them by clicking and dragging down and choosing the appropriate option on the slot. You can ban them by typing /ban username. You may start the game at anytime, as long as there are two or more players. Computers DO count.

If you get tired of choosing from the list, you can specify the game type you want to play by going to the top and dragging down the bar to a specific game type. This will cause Battle.net to filter out all other game types except the one you indicated.
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Ladder Games

There are games called "Ladder games" where people take or give points to you depending on whether you win or lose, and depending on the number of people who play. Ladder ranking can be found by clicking the "Ladder" button on the left side.
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More Battle.net Ladder information

Battle.net commands

/whisper [username] [message]
Sends a message that can only be heard by that user.

/stats [username]
Shows statistics of that player.

/whereis [username]
Shows the location and game version of that user.

/whois [username]
Shows the location and game version of that user.

/boot [username]
Boots the player out of the game. Can only be used by a game creator before the game starts.

/ban [username]
Bans the player from the game. Can only be used by a game creator before the game starts.

/unban [username]
Unbans user.

/friends [username]
Adds the player to your friends list, and giving you notices of when they log on, log off and join games.

/squelch [username]
Puts that person on ignore, and further messages will not be received.

/unsquelch [username]
Removes that person from your squelch list.

/time
Displays current time.

/join [channel]
Joins the specified channel without going to the button.

/friend list
Shows a complete list of your friends, and who's online and who's not. Up to 25 users may be added.

/friend add [username]
Adds the person to your list of friends so you know when they're online.

/friend r [username]
Removes the person from your friends list.

/help
Gives a full detailed list of all the commands on Battle.net