I followed the directions for setting up the IRC from this link, but it didn't work and I never got an email for activation.

http://www.vo-wiki.com/wiki/IRC

I receive fine, but I can't send over the IRC without an error saying I need a +v to send.

What channel are you trying to send to? That message means that you're trying to talk to a moderated channel, in which you need to have "voice" in order to speak.

#vrelay is moderated. To use the relay to chat to 100, you need to type /msg vo ch <yourmessagehere>.

If you're registered with NickServ when you register with the relay itself, you should be getting +v when you enter #vrelay, either from ChanServ or from the bot (named "vo").

yes, but you are forgetting you have to link. go ingame and type /msg IRC register

then it will tell you to go to #vrelay and type something like /msg vo link "your ingame name goes here"

you should then get a message saying it has worked, reload the channel and you will have voice, though you can't get voice if your nickserv isn't registered, so if the e-mail has'nt come through i suggest you retry, there is a command to resend activation code, from memory i can't remember it so google nickserv commands or /nickserv help

hope this helps

If you linked accounts okay but want to switch to a different client, can you just login with the same account information, or do you have to relink?

Linking a game character to your IRC name links to the IRC registered name, so you only have to link once as long as you identify with nickserv on whatever client you use.