Set number of posts on front page, but not other pages

Hi,

I am thoroughly confused. I have been blogging for two months now, and am getting there, but now find that there are too many posts on the front page. I have read that I need to set the ‘Blog Pages shown at most’ under settings to a number, which I have done, without any result on the main page, but it also limits the number of posts displayed on the archive and category pages, which I do not want.

I want only the latest three posts displayed on the front page, but the rest available under archives and categories.

How do I do that? Can somebody help please?