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

Firefox can be launched by clicking &firefox;.

### Get addons for your Firefox

Addons extend Firefox's capabilities, such as automatically removing adverts or altering the behaviour of menus.

To view a list of currently-installed plugins in the Firefox Web Browser , open &firefox; and click Tools Add-ons.

#### Quickly install common plugins

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

Restricted plugins 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 Ubuntu website for more information on restricted software.

Click here to install the ubuntu-restricted-extras package.

As well as plugins and multimedia codecs, a set of Windows fonts will also be installed.

The following plugins and codecs are installed by the Ubuntu restricted extras package:

- flashplugin-installer

- gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg

- gstreamer0.10-pitfdll

- gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad

- gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse

- gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly

- gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse

- libavcodec-extra-52

- libmp4v2-0

- sun-java6-plugin

- ttf-mscorefonts-installer

- unrar

#### 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.

Quicktime, Real, WMV and many others are available.

1. Open &software-center;.

2. Click Sound & Video.

3. Double click each plugin or application you require and click Install.

4. You are asked for a password, then the plugin is downloaded.

#### Flash multimedia plugin

Click here to install the flashplugin-installer package.

#### Java browser plugin

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

Click here to install the sun-java6-plugin package.

### 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.

1. Press Edit Preferences and select the Content tab

2. Under Fonts & Colors, change the Size to a larger number (around 20 tends to be quite comfortable to read)

3. Text on web pages should immediately look larger. Press Close

To temporarily zoom in to a web page, which will increase its text size, press View Zoom Zoom In. Alternatively, hold down the Ctrl key and scroll up with your mouse's scroll wheel, or press Ctrl+.

If you wish to enlarge the text without enlarging the other page contents, make sure the box at View Zoom Zoom Text Only is checked.

To return the page to its normal size, press View Zoom Reset, or press Ctrl 0.

## 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 Evolution groupware suite is the default email client, and can handle all of your email, contact lists, tasks and calendar needs. It also integrates with the panel clock, giving you one-click access to your task list.

Evolution can be launched by pressing &evolution-mail;.

See the Evolution manual for help on how to use Evolution.

### Junk mail filtering

Bogofilter classifies mail as junk mail (also known as spam) 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.

- Install the Bogofilter package.

- Open &evolution-mail;.

- Enable the junk mail filter by selecting Edit Preferences Mail Preferences Junk Check incoming mail for junk.

- Turn on the Bogofilter plugin by selecting Edit Plugins.

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

### Alternative email applications

You can also use Mozilla Thunderbird for email. To install it, install the thunderbird package.

To start Thunderbird, choose &thunderbird;.

To change your preferred email client to Mozilla Thunderbird:

- Choose &preferred-applications;

- Click on the Mail Reader drop down menu, and select the Thunderbird option.

- If Thunderbird is not listed above then click the Custom option. In the Command text box, type `thunderbird %s` and Close.

## 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.

### Empathy Internet Messenger

Empathy is the default instant messenger client in Ubuntu. With Empathy you can talk to people who use AIM, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, GroupWise, ICQ, IRC, Jabber, MSN, Napster, Salut, Sametime, QQ, and Yahoo, and list all your buddies in a single window.

To start Empathy, choose &empathy;.

See the Empathy Manual for help on using Empathy.

### Ekiga Softphone

Ekiga is an Internet telephony (VoIP) application in Ubuntu. It lets you make audio and video calls over the Internet to people who have hardware or software that follows the SIP or H.323 standards and also features basic instant messaging. It is compatible with Windows Messenger and most VoIP applications. However, Ekiga cannot communicate with Skype because the latter uses proprietary technology. If you have the right SIP provider, you can also use Ekiga to place calls to any normal phone line.

- Install the ekiga package.

- To start Ekiga, choose &ekiga;.

See the Ekiga Manual for help on using Ekiga.

### IRC instant messaging

For users of IRC instant messaging services there is XChat Gnome. Its features include advanced scripting support (perl and python) and a clean, easy to use interface.

- Install the xchat-gnome package.

- To start XChat, choose &xchat-gnome;.

### Getting help using IRC instant messaging

One excellent way to get help with Ubuntu or to introduce yourself to IRC is to join Ubuntu's official support channel on &irc-network;.

- Start XChat-Gnome as above.

- When you start XChat-Gnome for the first time, it will ask you for an IRC Nickname & your real name. Pick anything you want for your nick (first initial & your last name is good, or be more creative), put your real name or part of it, and press OK.

- In the Server Window that opens next, select Ubuntu Servers, and press Connect.

## Other Internet applications

The Internet has much more to offer besides web browsing, email and instant messaging. Ubuntu provides a selection of other applications to help you get the most out of the Internet.

### Peer-to-Peer networks

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are a way of sharing files, music and videos between people from all around the world.

A popular P2P service is BitTorrent, and BitTorrent capability is included in Ubuntu by default. To use BitTorrent, find a .torrent file online, click on it in the Firefox Web Browser, and the Transmission BitTorrent Client should start automatically.

To restart a download open Transmission BitTorrent Client, choose &bittorrent;.

An alternative P2P application is the aMule File Sharing Client.

- Install the amule package.

- To open aMule, choose &amule;.

### News Readers

You can automatically receive news updates from the Internet. There are several different types of news service to choose from:

- Usenet is one of the oldest and allows you to discuss news and other topics with people from all around the world. Pan Newsreader is a news reader which works with Usenet.

  Install the pan package and then choose &pan; to start using Pan.

- RSS feeds are a popular way of automatically receiving regular news updates and articles. Liferea Feed Reader is an RSS feed reader with many useful features.

  Install the liferea package and then choose &liferea; to start using Liferea.

#### Create News Feeds with Liferea

This section will cover a basic procedure to add news feeds to Liferea. Start Liferea by selecting &liferea;

- If you're behind a proxy, select Tools Preferences Proxy and fill in your proxy details and click on the Close button,

- Press New Subscription on the Liferea toolbar,

- Press the Advanced button,

- Enter the address of the RSS feed in the Source box,

- Select the OK button to complete the procedure.

- Once you have create the news feed, click on the Update All toolbar button to update all your news feeds.

## Design web pages

Ubuntu includes a wide selection of tools to help you design and develop web pages.

- Bluefish is a powerful editor for web designers and programmers.

  Bluefish supports many programming and markup languages, and includes many utilities for designers and programmers.

  - For more information, see the Bluefish website.

  - Install the bluefish package.

  - To start Bluefish, press &bluefish;.