NetFAQs: Windows - Web Browsers

SeaMonkey Browser - Browser for Microsoft Windows

Links for SeaMonkey: E-mail | Newsgroups | Profiles |

Browser configuration:

To enjoy all, or at least most, of what the Internet has to offer, it is necessary to configure your browser correctly. This tutorial shows you some of the most common functions of SeaMonkey.

Tabbed browsing:

If you'd like to have a separate instance of SeaMonkey open for each site you visit, you can do so. You can also utilize SeaMonkey's tabbing feature. You can open each page you go to in a tab in one window rather than a separate window for each site you visit.

To open a new tab, click File -> New -> Navigator Tab or click Ctrl+T on your keyboard.

A new tab appears.

Enter the address of the other site you'd like to visit.

Now you can toggle between tabs to view various sites.

To configure other options, do the following:

On the Toolbar, click Edit and select Preferences from the menu.

Setting the Home Page:

Highlight Navigator.

To the right, you can set the home page.

Home Page = The home page is the first page displayed when you open Navigator. You can set it to any page you like. The example below uses http://www.netfaqs.com/.

Clearing the History and Location Bar:

In the left-hand column, highlight History.

Clear History = The history is a folder containing a list of every site visited during a certain time period (in this case, 9 days).

Clear Location Bar = The 'Location Bar' is Netscape's name for the 'Address Bar'. Below is an example of SeaMonkey's Toolbar. The 'Location Bar' contains a list of every name address you entered. If you click on the down arrow to the right of it, you'll see the list of sites.

Managing Passwords:

In the left-hand column, double click Privacy & Security.

Highlight Passwords.

Password Manager:

You can enable SeaMonkey to remember the passwords you type for the various Web sites you access. If you'd like to enable this feature, check Remember passwords.

If later on you decide you like to remove a stored password or all of them, click the Manage Stored Passwords button.

The Password Manager window appears.

The password-protected sites you access and the usernames you use for those sites appear here.

To delete a particular password, highlight the corresponding site and click the Remove button.

When finished, click the Close button.

Deleting Cookies:

In the left-hand column, highlight Cookies.

Note: Cookies are a necessary evil on the Internet. Cookies are small files left on your computer to aid in quicker access upon return. However, some sites gather information from you through the use of cookies. As annoying as they can be, you need them to be able to access certain sites (i.e., bank and credit union sites). Without them you cannot access these sites and others.

To the right, enable Allow cookies for the originating website only or Allow all cookies.

Important: If you have trouble accessing certain sites, ensure that you have cookies enabled.

Click the Cookie Manager button.

The Cookie Manager opens.

Every site you visit on the Internet deposits a cookie in a folder on your computer. After a few weeks of surfing, they build up. After building up, cookies can impede your surfing. For this reason, you must delete them periodically. Don't worry; you'll get more.

To delete stored cookies, highlight one or more cookies and click Remove Cookie to delete it or them, or click Remove All Cookies to delete all the cookies in the folder.

Click OK when finished.

Blocking Pop-up Windows:

Pop-up windows are the annoying little screens that seem to appear randomly while surfing. SeaMonkey's pop-up blocking capability will suppress these windows so you won't have to view them.

Click the Allowed Sites button.

The following window appears:

If you like certain sites and don't mind their pop-up windows, you can enable SeaMonkey to allow pop-ups from these sites. Enter the address of each site and click the Add button.

Note: You can also remove the sites if you change your mind.

Click the OK button to close the window.

Master Passwords:

In the left-hand column, highlight Master Passwords.

The master password allows you to control all passwords with a single password. If you enable the master password, you can enter it once per session and you won't have to enter any other passwords you've created for various Web sites during that session.

To enable this feature, check the box Change Password.

The following window appears:

If you've not yet set the master password, enter a new password, confirm it and click the OK button.

Enabling Java & JavaScript:

In the left-hand column, double click Advanced.

Java is an important part of the Internet. Many pages are written in Java and JavaScript. To view these pages as they were intended to be viewed, you should enable Java.

Highlight Scripts & Plug-ins.

Enable JavaScript for:

To the right, you should enable JavaScript for Navigator.

Allow scripts to:

You can also stipulate exactly what you'll allow JavaScript to do. JavaScript can move, resize, raise & lower windows. It can also change images. If this functionality annoys you, disable it here.

Clearing the Cache:

Highlight Cache.

The cache is a folder containing all the files (text and images) of the sites you visit. Every word, icon, photo, etc. of the pages you visit are stored in this folder. Depending on your surfing habits, they can build up quickly. They should be deleted periodically to improve browsing performance.

To clear the cache, click Clear Memory Cache and Clear Disk Cache.

Enabling the Proxy:

Highlight Proxies.

There are two common reasons to use Proxies:

Filtering - Web sites are filtered to stop unwanted sites dealing with smut, violence, etc. from reaching your computer. The proxy address is available from your ISP support center. T If needed, you can get Proxy Watch or GlobalSafe from your ISP's help desk to lock down this proxy setting so that kids can't bypass it.

Web Acceleration - With Web acceleration software installed, your Internet connection can be 2 to 5 times faster.

1. Highlight Proxies.

2. To the right, enable Manual proxy configuration.

3. The screen on the left shows settings for Filtering whereas the screen on the right is for BrowseBlast.

Enter the proxy server address in the Address field and the port number in the Port field.

Note: If you do not know these numbers, contact your ISP to obtain them.

Settings for Filtering

Settings for BrowseBlast

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