Translations by Bhavani Shankar

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>.

2006-09-07

Connecting to and browsing the internet, and communicating over the internet using email and instant messaging.

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.

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

gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly

gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse

Audio and video plugins

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>

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.

Troubleshooting

Check for device recognition

Open a <application>Terminal</application> (<menuchoice><guimenu>Applications</guimenu><guimenuitem>Accessories</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Terminal</guimenuitem></menuchoice>) and type the command: <code>sudo lshw -C network</code>

Using Windows Wireless Drivers

Ubuntu supports a system known as NDISWrapper. This allows you to use a Windows wireless device driver under Ubuntu.

Obtain the Windows Driver for your system and locate the file that ends with <code>.inf</code>.

Open <application>ndisgtk</application> (<menuchoice><guimenu>System</guimenu><guimenuitem>Administration</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Windows Wireless Drivers</guimenuitem></menuchoice>).

Select <guilabel>Install new driver</guilabel>.

Choose the location of your Windows .inf file and click <guibutton>Install</guibutton>.

Click <guibutton>OK</guibutton>.

Check for a connection to the router

Open a <application>Terminal</application> (<menuchoice><guimenu>Applications</guimenu><guimenuitem>Accessories</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Terminal</guimenuitem></menuchoice>) and type the command: <code>iwconfig</code>.

If the ESSID for our router is shown there may be a problem with ACPI support. Boot the kernel with the <code>pci=noacpi</code> option.

Check IP assignment

Open a <application>Terminal</application> (<menuchoice><guimenu>Applications</guimenu><guimenuitem>Accessories</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Terminal</guimenuitem></menuchoice>) and type the command: <code>ifconfig</code>.

If not then reboot the system.

Check DNS

IPv6 Not Supported

IPv6 is supported by default in Ubuntu and can sometimes cause problems.

To disable it, open a <application>Terminal</application> (<menuchoice><guimenu>Applications</guimenu><guimenuitem>Accessories</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Terminal</guimenuitem></menuchoice>) and type the command: <code>gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/aliases</code>.

Find the line <code>alias net-pf-10 ipv6</code> and change it to read <code>alias net-pf-10 off</code>.

Reboot Ubuntu.

Click <guibutton>Connect</guibutton>.