Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
February 4, 2007

Volume 2, Number 34 — Sunday, February 4, 2007

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

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7.  Installing SeaMonkey - Getting Started with SeaMonkey

Let's take a look at the steps needed to install and use the SeaMonkey Internet Suite.

Like all modern programs, the 12.7MB SeaMonkey install file arrives as an executable file, ready to be double-clicked to install it. I prefer to download first and then install as a separate step (I created a DL directory into which I save the downloaded programs.)

The first two things you will see after double-clicking on the seamonkey-1.1.en-US.win32.installer.exe file are the installer's splash screen, which urges you to close other programs, and the license. Since SeaMonkey is an open-source project, meaning that anyone can download the source code and modify and use it themselves, the license is mainly focused on the source code and requirements if you use the source code or distribute the source code, modified source code or installable versions of the software.

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

The Setup Type screen allows you to select if you want only the web browser installed, want everything installed, or want to pick which items. Go ahead an click on Custom and then the Next button. You can see all the available items — and then pick a few to install or click the Back button to return to the Setup Type screen.

The Quick Launch option is a nice touch. My point is that it is an option. Too many programs are arrogant and presume that you want to automatically run their quick launcher. Unfortunately, each of these quick launchers takes available memory and some CPU cycles, as well as slowing up the boot process, whether you want to use the application or not.

I usually let quick launch functions install, but then I disable them from automatically starting.

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

That's all to installing the SeaMonkey web browser. If you aren't running your Internet connection through a proxy server (and you should know, if you are), you'll see the "Getting Involved with SeaMonkey" window. You'll probably get a "Do you want to make SeaMonkey your default web browser?" message. Just decline that, for now. You can always change it later in the Edit/Preferences screen or when it asks again (if you didn't tell it not to ask again).

You're ready for some web surfing!

In the right image below, I want to set up the email functions. I need to click on the Window entry in SeaMonkey's menu bar. This will give us a pull-down menu to use to switch between SeaMonkey's functions: Navigator (the web browser, originally known as Netscape Navigator), Mail & Newsgroups, Composer (the HTML editor), Address Book and IRC Chat (another chat system that is not the same thing as AOL Messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger).

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

The next two screens are pretty obvious. We want to set up and email account. Then, we need to give the account a name — for our own purposes on our own computer. This may be, but isn't required to be, the same as the email address.

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

On the next screen, we need to input the "From" name that will show on our emails and the From email address for our emails.

Now, we need to set up our POP (POP3) mail server and SMTP mail server. These are for emails inbound to your computer and outbound from your computer. In most cases, these will be the same (such as mail.example.com), although your Internet Service Provider might use different servers (such as pop.example.com and smtp.example.com).

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

Next, we get the screen to enter our email user names. These are the names of our email account(s) at our email server(s). For most people, these will be the same.

However, by separating the options into two selections, SeaMonkey allows us to receive emails from one ISP and send via a different mail server, perhaps run by a different company.

For example, you might set up SeaMonkey to get your email from Gmail.com (who allows POP3 access to emails) but doesn't allow you to use your own email program to send from their servers -- so you'd have to pick your locak ISP as the SMTP (outbound) mail server. Since you probably have different user names for the two, this makes the operation easy.

Then, we get the "Congratulations" screen where we can review our settings. If we need to, we can click Back to go back and change some settings.

I recommend Unchecking the "Download messages now" box. If you download them now, they will be deleted off the mail server. I presume that you'd like to get them into your regular email program, also, at least until you decide that you want to shift to SeaMonkey's email client.

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

That finishes the initial setup process for the email. But, I've got one more setting to change!

Under the Edit menu bar item, click on Preferences to open the Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings window.

Then click on Server Settings in the left-hand column of the window. For now, put a check in the "Leave messages on server" checkbox and click OK.

That way, you can download your emails into SeaMonkey and later can still retrieve them with your current email program. Your current one is probably set to delete messages after downloading.

(click on the image for a larger version)

(click on the image for a larger version)

That's all there is to it. You can now surf the web and do email in SeaMonkey.

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Volume 2, Number 34 — Sunday, February 4, 2007

Copyright © 2007 Terry A. Stockdale.  All rights reserved.