PLEASE NOTE:
• (Windows users only) If you reach a screen to input your name and company in the installer process, just enter "home" for the “company” item and continue.
• (Windows and Mac) If you see a “Registration” screen when you first run FirstClass, you ARE NOT on AERIE but on the FirstClass® company site. Cancel and choose “home.fc Setup...” from the “Collaborate” menu and continue below..

• Click the “Advanced” button - at the bottom left of the FirstClass login window.
• Click the “Setup...” button at the right side of the Advanced settings that dropped down from the login window.
  
• Enter the server address for AERIE (aerie.montgomeryacademy.org) in the “Server:” field in the Setup window. If you put in the wrong server address, it won’t work (just like a web page).
• Leave all the other fields blank (except the Login ID, if you’re setting up a computer which only you use - and you don’t want to have to put in your ID each time you login). We recommend that you do NOT enter your password in the Setup window unless you’re the only person who ever uses that computer.
  
• Click the “Save” button when you’ve entered the server address.
• (optional) add your NEW password (after you’ve changed it; see below) to the field for “Notifier password” and check the box there to be notified when a new message arrives in your AERIE mailbox. As in the password fields in other places, you’ll just see dots instead of letters when you type your password.
  

• Start FirstClass (we assume you’ve correctly entered the AERIE server’s server address when you installed it: aerie.montgomeryacademy.org).
• Enter your User ID and password, if necessary, and click the “Login” button.
• Double-click your Mailbox to see sent and received mail and drafts, and on other conferences to see “non-personal” information.
• Make a new message (or send or unsend or view history or any other message options) using the “Message” menu items or the icons on the mailbox window’s toolbar. All your messages (drafts, received messages, sent messages, etc.) appear in your mailbox together.
  
• If you received a temporary password, change it the first time you login in the “Collaborate” menu. Passwords must be at least 8 characters long, and can contain letters, numbers, punctuation, or spaces (and capitalization matters). Your new password can be up to 30 characters long, but only the first twelve are significant.
  
• Change your AERIE desktop view to or from “List” or “Icon” (or other strange choices) in the “View” menu.
• Messages about AERIE or the MA network in general will automatically open every time you login, until you’ve read them. Read them - it might be important info!
• A red flag on a conference (or your mailbox) indicates an unread message in that conference. If you want to turn off that notification for all unread messages in a conference (or for a single message), click the conference icon once (don’t open it) and choose “unread” from the message menu.You can turn the flag back on the same way - as a reminder to look back at something you’ve already opened.
• If you need to connect to AERIE from another AERIE user’s computer, you should login with YOUR OWN login ID and password, not theirs. Just delete their login (and password, if it’s there) from their login screen (not the Setup screen!) and type your own into those fields; it won’t affect their saved preferences. They don’t even have to log out first - just choose “Connect” from the ”Collaborate” menu and enter your own ID and password to login. Choose “Log out” from the same menu when you’re done.
  

• Start Safari, Internet Explorer, or Firefox (or whatever you use to get to web pages) as usual.
• Enter this address for the AERIE server in the Address or Location blank: http://aerie.montgomeryacademy.org/Login/
• Enter your name and password as prompted.
• Follow on-screen prompts; click on your Mailbox to see sent and received mail and drafts, and on other conferences to see “non-personal” information.
• Log out BEFORE you close the last browser window.