Translations by Joel Goguen

Internet and Networks

Internet Applications

This section provides information on using common Internet applications, such as web browsers and email clients.

Web browsing with Firefox

The powerful and secure <application>Mozilla Firefox</application> web browser is included in Ubuntu. <application>Firefox</application> features tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, built-in search, and live bookmarks. Also supported are popular plug-ins such as Java, Flash, and RealPlayer.

<application>Firefox</application> can be launched by clicking <menuchoice><guimenu>Applications</guimenu><guisubmenu>Internet</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Firefox Web Browser</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

Quickly install common plugins

It is possible to install a whole set of commonly-used restricted plugins at once, by installing the <application>Ubuntu restricted extras</application> package.

<emphasis>Restricted plugins</emphasis> are those which cannot be distributed with Ubuntu because of legal issues surrounding their use in some countries. Check that you are allowed to use this software before installing it. See the <ulink url="http://www.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/licensing">Ubuntu website</ulink> for more information on restricted software.

As well as plugins and multimedia codecs, <application>Java</application> and a set of Windows fonts will be installed.

The following plugins and codecs are installed by the <application>Ubuntu restricted extras</application> package:

flashplugin-nonfree

gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly

gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse

msttcorefonts

sun-java6-plugin

Audio and video plugins

Many different multimedia formats are used on the Internet and you may find that you are unable to play some audio and video files without installing an appropriate plugin.

Flash multimedia plugin

Java browser plugin

Some websites use small <application>Java</application> programs, which require a Java plugin to be installed in order to run.

Changing the default font size

If you find that the size of text in Firefox is too small to read comfortably, you can increase the default font size.

Press <menuchoice><guimenuitem>Edit</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Preferences</guimenuitem></menuchoice> and select the <guilabel>Content</guilabel> tab

Under <guilabel>Fonts &amp; Colors</guilabel>, change the <guilabel>Size</guilabel> to a larger number (around 20 tends to be quite comfortable to read)

Text on web pages should immediately look larger. Press <guibutton>Close</guibutton>

To temporarily increase the size of text on a web page, press <menuchoice><guimenuitem>View</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Text Size</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Increase</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. Alternatively, hold down the <keycap>Ctrl</keycap> key and scroll down with your mouse's scroll wheel, or press <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>+</keycap></keycombo>.

To return the text to its normal size, press <menuchoice><guimenuitem>View</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Text Size</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Normal</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

Send and receive emails

Email is one of the most popular ways to communicate over the Internet. Ubuntu includes all of the tools that you need to send, receive and organize email messages.

The <application>Evolution</application> groupware suite is the default email client, and can handle all of your <ulink type="help" url="ghelp:evolution#usage-mail">email</ulink>, <ulink type="help" url="ghelp:evolution#usage-contact">contact lists</ulink>, <ulink type="help" url="ghelp:evolution#usage-calendar-todo">tasks</ulink> and <ulink type="help" url="ghelp:evolution#usage-calendar">calendar</ulink> needs. It also integrates with the <ulink type="help" url="ghelp:clock#clock-usage-calendar">panel clock</ulink>, giving you one-click access to your task list.

<application>Evolution</application> can be launched by pressing <menuchoice><guimenu>Applications</guimenu><guimenuitem>Internet</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Evolution Mail</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

See the <ulink type="help" url="ghelp:evolution">Evolution manual</ulink> for help on how to use Evolution.

Junk mail filtering

Bogofilter classifies mail as junk mail (also known as <emphasis>spam</emphasis>) by analysing the message statistically, and can learn from selections made by the user. The technique is known as Bayesian filtering; you can find more details on this here:

http://www.paulgraham.com/spam.html

http://www.paulgraham.com/better.html

Evolution can be automatically configured to use Bogofilter.

Open <menuchoice><guimenu>Applications</guimenu><guimenuitem>Internet</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Evolution Mail</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

Enable the junk mail filter by selecting <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu><guimenu>Preferences</guimenu><guimenu>Mail Preferences</guimenu><guimenu>Junk</guimenu><guimenu>Check incoming mail for junk</guimenu></menuchoice>.

Turn on the Bogofilter plugin by selecting <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu><guimenu>Plugins</guimenu></menuchoice>

Bogofilter will now start to learn what is spam, based on the messages you mark. To mark a message as spam, select <menuchoice><guimenu>Message</guimenu><guimenu>Mark As</guimenu><guimenu>Junk</guimenu></menuchoice>.

Alternative email applications

To start <application>Thunderbird</application>, choose <menuchoice><guimenu>Applications</guimenu><guimenuitem>Internet</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Mozilla Thunderbird Mail/News</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

To change your preferred email client to <application>Mozilla Thunderbird</application>:

Choose <menuchoice><guimenu>System</guimenu><guimenuitem>Preferences</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Preferred Applications</guimenuitem></menuchoice>

Click on the <guibutton>Mail Reader</guibutton> drop down menu, and select the <guilabel>Custom</guilabel> option.

In the <guilabel>Command</guilabel> text box, type <userinput><command>thunderbird %s</command></userinput>, then close the dialog.

Instant Messaging

Instant messaging (IM) is a way of communicating with friends and family by sending messages to one another over the Internet. Instant messaging happens in real-time, and there is no delay between you typing a message and the other person receiving it.