[Users] console confusion

my desktop system is running centos6 with downloaded firefox 10. i downloaded and compiled spice-xpi 2.7. i can interact with the console one time, then i have to log out of the portal and back in again in order to get the icon and popup menu to not be greyed out anymore. so i have a few questions: 1. is this just an issue of using an unsupported browser? 2. ie9 seems to be supported, but i obviously need something more to be able to view the console. i don't get an error, so i'm not sure what i should install. the spice viewer i find at spice-space needs libraries and the libraries there are just a zip file. does something need to go on the server to auto-download code? 3. i figured i'd try vnc, but in that case the icon and menu option are always greyed out. just trying vnc to the appropriate host requires a password and none of the ones i'd suspect seem to work. is there a default? or some way to find the password? 4. i saw some vague discussion of display networks in the manual, but nothing in the interface seems to jump out at me. it seems like for most uses, a simple web based console is what is needed. java or active-x (or javascript/canvas magic). is this something that is in the commercial version, but not the free one? 5. or am i just missing something painfully obvious?