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Mozilla Web Browser Getting Started Guide

23 February 2003

It's a new Web Browser
It's better than IE
It has a cute dinosaur
Mozilla is an open-source, standards compliant, cross-platform Web browser that allows you to highly customize your web browsing experience.

Introduction

Anyone may help improve Mozilla whether it be by coding, bug reports or document writing. Mozilla strictly follows the World Wide Web Consortium�s recommendations to display Web pages as accurately as possible. Mozilla is designed to run on many different platforms � Windows, Apple Mac, Linux and more.
This quick guide explains how to install the Mozilla Web browser and some common �must-have� configuration settings. Whenever I install Mozilla, this is the procedure I follow. These settings might not be to your taste but in any case demonstrate the key areas you may wish to tweak for your own best Web browsing experience.

Installation

There are two real choices on which version of Mozilla to install. If you are only interested in Mozilla as a simple Web browser then download the latest Mozilla release � Currently Mozilla 1.4
If you are interested in seeing the latest developments with Mozilla and helping the project by testing the latest versions of the code then download the latest nightly build - Mozilla Nightly
After downloading the Mozilla installer for your platform, run it to launch the setup wizard.
The wizard asks what components you want to install, Choose: 'custom' and select everything except 'mail & news'
Enable 'QuickStart'
Rest of install�

Configuration

Block Pop-up Ads

This prevents Web sites from launching pop-up windows when you enter or leave a web site.

Edit-->Preferences + Privacy & Security -> Pop-up Windows:

Block unrequested popup windows'

Tabbed Browsing

Tabs appear along the top of Mozilla and act as separate browser windows, rather than opening multiple web browsers.

Edit;Preferences + Navigator->Tabbed Browsing:

Open tabs instead of windows for:

Check the 2 boxes below

Now you can open a new tab by either clicking a link while holding control or by pressing control+T

Searching

Do Google searches from the Address Bar

Edit;Preferences + Navigator->Internet Search

Default search engine: Select Google (or your favorite)

Search results: Uncheck 'Open the Search Tab....'

This stops the sidebar from opening after a search, which I find annoying. You can search by typing into the address bar (eg/ where you normally type http://...) then pressing Down Arrow and Enter.

Privacy

Mozilla can help prevent companies tracking your movements across the Web
although be warned this is only 1 of many tricks up advertisers� sleeves.

Edit;Preferences + Privacy & Security-->Cookies

Select 'Enable Cookies for the Originating web site only'

This could cause problems with some sites that you have to log on to although I have never encountered this.

Themes

Initially Mozilla looks scarily like the old Netscape. You can make it much more slick by installing a new skin.

View-->Themes-->'Modern' or 'Get more themes'

Restart Mozilla

Modern looks OK but if you 'Get more themes' then you can browse the themes website for something more your style
My favorite is Pinball. You will need to close and re-open Mozilla for the new skin to take effect.

Plug-ins

All the usual plugins can be installed with Mozilla to handle different media
types found on the Web

Flash

I don't tend to install Flash anymore as 99% of the time it is just used in advertisments that I am happy to miss. Download the installer and run. It will automatically detect Mozilla.

Real Media Player

1. Download RealPlayer 8.0
2. Start the RealPlayer installer but dont do anything.
3. Copy nppl3260.dll and nppl3260.xpt to your Mozilla plugins folder. They will be in a a folder with a name such as ~rnsetup in yout temporary files folder. You can use Windows search to find them.
4. Continue with the RealPlayer install if you do not already have it installed
or close the installer if you do.

Java

1. Install Java Runtime Environment. Version 1.4.0 is recommended.
The Java plugin is automatically detected by Mozilla 1.0.
If Mozilla does not detect the plugin, copy NPOJI600.DLL (JRE 1.3.1) or NPOJI610.DLL
(JRE 1.4.0) to your Mozilla plugins folder.

Other stuff

K-Meleon
MozBar
Useragent bar
Link to mozdev.org
prefs file
Plug-in info from http://plugindoc.mozdev.org

Replies: 3 Comments

can you do me a favour and email me a copy of nppl3260.xpt i can't find it online anywhere.

Cheers

Ozzy

ozzy said @ 01/08/2005 03:08 PM EST

"I think this is done on purpose by the web site writers. Yahoo does this too. If the web site doesn't want us to save passwords (ie: for security reasons), should we break protocol in order to save them?"

There is no protocol. IE introduced an autocomplete="off" attribute that sites could use to disable the saving of passwords and form data. Mozilla originally didn't support this but several online banks threatened to block Mozilla unless it was implemented, so support was added.

There is a pref to override that feature.

wallet.crypto.autocompleteoverride

dave said @ 03/18/2003 12:27 PM EST

I'm running Win98. I only have Mozilla installed and wanted RealPlayer audio to work. Typing "about:plugins" in the mozilla location bar reveals what plugins are installed.

I grabbed RealPlayer8 (NSRP8.EXE) and installed it. Although it installed fine, it was not. I discovered Mozilla wants 1 file installed to make RealPlayer8 (NSRP8.EXE) work as a plugin:

C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Plugins\nppl3260.dll

The install created a folder as Windows\Temp\~rnsetup\
during the install, but would DELETE ALL FILES (except 2) UPON COMPLETING THE INSTALL. The 2 were NOT nppl3260.dll.

I launched 2 instances of Windows Explorer: one in the install folder and the other in C:\Windows\Temp\.

Upon running NSRP8.EXE I switched to the Explorer in C:\Windows\Temp, refreshed with F5, went into the ~rnsetup folder, and copied nppl3260.dll into another folder QUICKLY before it was DELETED by the INSTALL process.

When the install was complete, I moved the file to C:\Program Files\Mozilla\Plugins. "about:plugins" showed it was installed and I was able to listen to Realplayer streams.

alternate mozilla + realplayer8 installation said @ 02/28/2003 09:24 PM EST

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