firefox and homepage

Bert · Post by **Bert** » Sat May 14, 2005 11:14 pm

I just installed Firefox.
Just before the installation was completed I had a choice to make 'Firefox start' (or something like that) my home page. I unchecked the box and then continued.
It ended up being my home page anyway.
I went to the site that I want as my home page (Sympatico), clicked on 'make this page my homepage' with out any result.
Is there something obvious that I am doing wrong?

Sebastian Swift · Post by **Sebastian Swift** » Sat May 14, 2005 11:26 pm

After navigating to Tools > Options..., in the General section you'll see a text field for Home Page. Enter the URL you want to be your home page in that field.

Bert · Post by **Bert** » Sun May 15, 2005 12:47 am

Got it. Thanks.

Geoff · Post by **Geoff** » Mon May 16, 2005 1:48 am

I just installed Firefox for the first time last week. I can't believe I didn't do this sooner. Anyone using thunderbird?

Turpissimus · Post by **Turpissimus** » Mon May 16, 2005 9:28 pm

I just installed Firefox for the first time last week. I can't believe I didn't do this sooner. Anyone using thunderbird?

May I recommend some extensions?

Adblock (for those annoying flash ads)
ForecastFox (Weather forecasting)
All-in-One Gestures (mouse gestures - quicker and easier than back buttons)
BugMeNot (if you ever have to enter subscription details for a newspaper)
And finally BBCode (for boards such as this)
Stumble-upon is also quite nice - it helps you find websites related to your interest, so that you can aimlessly browse the web more easily.

As for Thunderbird, it's OK. I never got a great deal of spam, so the main advantage over Outlook wasn't much use to me. I get quite a lot of mail in Outlooks own Rich Text format (which Thunderbird doesn't support), but once there's an extension for it, I'm moving over.

Turpissimus · Post by **Turpissimus** » Mon May 16, 2005 10:06 pm

Almost forgot -

FireTune

Makes your pages load faster.

edonnelly · Post by **edonnelly** » Tue May 17, 2005 1:38 am

Geoff wrote:I just installed Firefox for the first time last week. I can't believe I didn't do this sooner. Anyone using thunderbird?

I use Thunderbird and I like it very much. Previously I had been using the Mozilla Suite (which contains the programs that are now Firefox and Thunderbird). I use Windows at work and Linux at home, and both programs (Firefox and Tunderbird) are great on each OS.

I would say that the advantages of Thunderbird over other mail programs are not nearly as numerous or significant as the advantages of Firefox over other browsers, but I would give it a try.

Bert · Post by **Bert** » Tue May 17, 2005 10:49 pm

Turpissimus wrote:Almost forgot -

FireTune

Makes your pages load faster.

After I have "firetuned" my pc, do I just delete this should it stick around.
(I don't need any extra icons on my screen.)

sisyphus · Post by **sisyphus** » Wed May 18, 2005 12:21 am

If you install Adblock you might like to use a published blocking list. Just read the instructions. If you doubt the authenticity of the site (as you should) you can find your way to it through the Adblock home site (through Firefox). Or just google it. There are similar alternatives i believe.

Turpissimus wrote: As for Thunderbird, it's OK. I never got a great deal of spam ...

You lucky, lucky, nay, LUCKY *******. At work i get between two and three hundred e-mails over night. On a good day only 80% of them are spam. Sometimes 97% of them are spam.

Turpissimus · Post by **Turpissimus** » Wed May 18, 2005 2:29 pm

After I have "firetuned" my pc, do I just delete this should it stick around.
(I don't need any extra icons on my screen.)

The desktop icon? Delete it.

You lucky, lucky, nay, LUCKY *******. At work i get between two and three hundred e-mails over night. On a good day only 80% of them are spam. Sometimes 97% of them are spam.

Hmmm. Is thunderbird any good at sorting these? I do wonder exactly how clever its spam filters are.

sisyphus · Post by **sisyphus** » Wed May 18, 2005 11:46 pm

Turpissimus wrote:Hmmm. Is thunderbird any good at sorting these? I do wonder exactly how clever its spam filters are.

This, sadly, i don't know. At work i'm only able to use The Dark One. At home i use my partner's PC (i work with the cursed things all day, why would i buy my own?). Whilst far from stupid she's familiar with The Dark One and doesn't fully appreciate its destructive potential. i've been fairly successful in getting her to switch from The Security Hole That Dare Not Speak Its Name. Maybe it's time to take the Next Step.

i haven't investigated, but i'm sure there must be independant (freeware) third parties that will help with spam filters.

edonnelly · Post by **edonnelly** » Thu May 19, 2005 12:16 am

Turpissimus wrote: Hmmm. Is thunderbird any good at sorting these? I do wonder exactly how clever its spam filters are.

It's pretty good, but not perfect. You can manually mark images as spam and it tries to "learn" what is and what is not spam. It usually gets rid of about 80% of my spam. It deletes the spam messages for you so you never have to see them. On the down side, though, about once a week it marks a legitimate message as spam, so it's not perfect and I occasionally have to look through the deleted mail to make sure there's nothing in there by mistake..