Internet browser

I load the Microsoft patches as they come available. I really like IE & OE. I tried Netscape and it wouldn't work well with Bellsouth. They discouraged us from using it. It wasn't as user friendly to me either.

Diane

 

IE, latest version, latest service pack, all the patches. A dedicated hardware firewall, many sites blocked and strong cookie management. The domains I know to block are the ones who sneak their cookies in on me and the sites that love to use popups.

I will check the properties of a popup, then block that domain. It helps a little.

Dave.

 

Mozilla!!! It has tons of great features, especially the built-in popup blocker and tabbed browser windows. I don't understand why IE simply won't implement these fantastic features.

 

there are lots of good brtowsers out there, I am positively schziphrenic about them, I change all the time... some I have used and still use from time to time are the following:

Mozilla Firebird is good http://texturizer.net/firebird/ or, if you want the whole suite, browser and email etc together in one prog then just regular Mozilla 1.6 http://www.mozilla.org/ ... something I like about several browsers, including this one, is that it has tabbed browsing, but even more convenient, is that you can set up groups of pages to open all at once, so when you go to tools, options, general, then there is the option to "use current pages", so you go through opening all the pages you check regularly, get them all opened up, and then go to the above option, and select "use current pages" and then every time you start your browser, all the pages you have selected will open automatically.... I like this because I am active at 5 different forums.... and when I log on, all 5 come up at once...

K-Meleon is another freeware mozilla based browser, http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/start/ that is pretty cool...

Crazy Browser is a freeware tabbed browser and opens several pages at a time by choosing "groups", in this case, you again open all the pages you want, and then select groups, and the drop down menu has the "save all pages as a group" choice, if you want, you can have several different groups formed, say all the forums you belong to in one group, all the homeschool sites you like, all the apologetic sites, etc etc http://www.crazybrowser.com/

Flashpeak Slimbrowser is very similiar to Crazy browser, multiple groups are possible. the blurb says "Slim Browser is a tabbed multiple-site browser. It incorporates a large collection of powerful features like built-in popup killer, skinned window frame, form filler, site group, quick-search, auto login, hidden sites, built-in commands and scripting, online translation, script error suppression, blacklist / whitelist filtering, URL Alias. It brings you convenient and comfortable browsing."

one of the wildest browsers out there is Phaseout... I am still learning to use this one! its at http://www.phaseout.net/

another fun browser is Neoplanet, an IE based browser but with lots of extras, lots of different skins..... http://freewarearena.org/PHPNuke/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=18

you can find many of these browsers (and tons of other freeware) by first downloading the Freeware Book, and then you have many sites to look through, and nearly every freeware site will have a section devoted to internet stuff, browsers, email etc, its at
http://freewarearena.org/PHPNuke/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=18

have fun!!!

 

oh, I forgot to mention, a couple of freeware options for the lazy (ie me) I like that are for IE are...
IE Quickstart, which gives some fields to cut and paste web addresses into, and then saving these so that you can launch all the browsers you want to open with one click, and you can have numerous groups, group 1 for one set of pages, group 2 for another set, etc, the prog is at http://freewarearena.org/PHPNuke/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=18

another is IE New Window Maximizer, this is so that whenever you do a search or open a new Explorer page for any reason, it automatically opens to a full sized window, you can find it at http://www.jiisoft.com/

lastly is the mouse gesture function, by holding down on the rt mouse button and moving to the left or right you can go forward and backwards through the pages you have been to.... there are several of these out there, I currently use go back, but that could change tomorrow! LOL!!

blessings

 

Mustn't forget Opera (www.opera.com), which comes in both free (ad-supported) and pay-for-it versions. Same features as Mozilla, but less clunky.

For whatever reason, Mozilla is slow like Netscape. Mozilla Firebird, however, is pretty fast.

I'm forcing my family to make the switch from IE to other browsers. What I suggest to everyone is to try any and/or all of these browswers, and then stick with the one you like.

I guess my main complaint about IE is having to download the patches. All I've had to do with Opera and Mozilla Firebird is download the occasional upgrade.

 

Let me put the story this way (I may have already told this story on this board; for those that have already come across this, my apologies for putting you through it again).

I was using Internet Explorer because it was what my family was familiar with. However, one day, after downloading some old games like Lemmings, I started to see some odd things. I really don't know if it was the software downloads, or some web site my kids visited, or what. But I would enter information in a form, and when I hit the "Enter" key, my title bar would gray out (the window would lose "focus").

Then it got worse: On one of the message boards I sometimes visit, I posted a message, and went back an hour or so later to see if anyone had responded. To my surprise, I had all kinds of responses, mostly with the words "you pervert" in them. To my horror, I discovered that something was adding links to porn websites in my messages. I checked my personal profile on the web site (using Internet Explorer), but couldn't find where the links were being injected into the messages.

Mind you, I have ALWAYS had an antivirus program running in the background. But I learned a lesson about antivirus programs with all this.

To trace the problem, I installed several different spyware programs, but they picked up nothing. I went and installed Netscape and Opera at that time, and went back and checked my profile on that web site; to my surprise, in the entry for my favorite web site, it now showed a link to a porn web site. Whatever virus was on my machine was using a hole in Internet Explorer to not only provide links to web sites, it was exploiting that hole to keep me from being able to do anything about it with Internet Explorer. With Netscape, I was able to see the link, and delete it from my profile, thus "scrubbing" my profile.

So next I ran the on-line antivirus Panda (http://www.pandasecurity.com/activescan.htm), and right away it detected a trojan keylogger (the reason my Internet Explorer window was losing "focus" whenever I hit the "Enter" key while filling in a form). I was using AntiVirus Guard (AVG) from GriSoft, but the free version is barely supported any more (I've found out the hard way).

I then downloaded MacAfee's ViruScan (free to military members through AFCERT), but it's constant scanning kept interrupting everything. I ended up downloading AntiVir (http://www.free-av.com/), which immediately detected two more viruses that MacAfee didn't detect.

I ultimately downloaded Norton Antivirus (free to military members, but you have to download it at work and burn it to a disk to bring it home), and currently have it running.

So, to sum everything up:
Browsers --
IE - NO; if you want it secure, you have to continually watch for new updates
Netscape - Okay (clunky)
Mozilla - Okay (clunky)
Opera - Good
Mozilla Firebird - My favorite so far--but I'm gonna try that PhaseOut

Antivirus Programs --
AVG - although free, poorly supported, so NO
ViruScan - NO; interrupts what you're doing, and didn't catch
Panda ActiveScan - good; but you've got to be on-line to use it, so it can't prevent you from getting viruses
Norton - Good (but not free; costs about $50 for the general public)
AntiVir - Good (since I'm using Norton, I haven't experienced the support yet)

 

Hey, this PhaseOut is pretty funny. I've changed the skin to the Star Trek one, and am about to change to the "Kittens" one....

Yup, it meowed at me....

But it seems to be based on Internet Explorer....

 

Don, can you describe more your experiences with AVG? I use it (the free version) and think it's pretty good. I get updates all the time (I manually check every couple of days), and it's been nuking all the email viruses (like the recent MyDoom) like a charm. What do you mean by "poorly supported"? What support do you need, besides updated lists?

I also update and run both Ad-aware and Spybot on a regular basis. I also use ZoneAlarm. I also wear rubber gloves when I surf the net (just kidding).

 

Yep, there it is: PhaseOut requires Internet Explorer to run (in other words, if you don't have IE on your system--which is pretty much impossible--you can't use PhaseOut).

Brian, I had the personal version of AVG (version 6). I had it set for automatic updates, and I also went in and manually updated every so often. It didn't catch the trojan keylogger that Panda got, or the other two viruses on my machine that AntiVir caught.

At GriSoft's website, you'll find the following restrictions for the personal free version of AVG:

The AVG Free Edition is fully featured anti-virus software with the following restrictions:
* Basic user Interface only
* Disabled Advanced Scheduling of Tests
* Disabled Creating of Your Own Tests
* NO TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Hope that answers your question.

And the rubber gloves aren't a bad idea. I've taken to spraying the keyboard with Lysol every once in a while....

 

Thanks Don, I'll check out AntiVir.

Also, it's worth checking out http://www.majorgeeks.com/ every day or two. Always lots of new goodies there.

 

Don,, thats a good point, re some browsers being based on IE and thus, having the same security issues.... or at least, it seems this would follow, I do not know if the folks using that base have something in place to take care of those flaws.... probably better safe than sorry...

of course, this point beings up the fact that the same issues will be germane for the folks who have recently switched to Avant, as it is based on IE as well.... again, unless Avant has take precautions of their own....

anti virus progs???? still can't decide, I recently switched to AVG, but you have me concerned...

 

Mozilla Firefox is the best browser I have used. Plus I can use it on Linux, Solaris, and Windows.

If you are still using IE and OE, Look Out (pardon the pun) the security holes in Windows itself are bad enough, without using two applications that seem to have almost been designed to allow unauthorized access to your system.

www.mozilla.org has several browsers, firefox being the best, thunderbird mail client.

Evolution is a good mail client as well, by ximian

I really don't care what you use, but stop the madness and get rid of any Microsoft products that you can replace with something else. Hopefully in a year or two, Sun or someone else will have a totally ready for home use Linux distro. Right now you have to know what you are doing, and have to learn how to make some of your own drivers. I am about 85% off Windows, I use Sun's Java Desktop System, a SuSE linux kernel with a very Windows like Gnome skin. It comes bundled with Mozilla, Star Office, Evolution, etc. It is great for corporate implementations, but not quite ready for the average user.

Moving to Linux is also the best way to avoid the whole Virus/Security issue. Since Linux and all other UNIX variants were designed a long time ago to be on a shared network instead of Security being an afterthought, it is actually architected right into the OS.

 

I posted this on My Site called "Kristi Ann's Haven" Last month. I Like Opera 7.23 better than Mozilla Firefox. I have IE, Firefox, Opera, and Juno. *YUCK* IE

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"Opera 7.23 - Free Download"



"Mozilla Browser - Free Downloads"



"Netscape Network - Free Downlload"



"Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 - Free Download"



"Apple Safari - Free Downloads"



"Hot Java - Free Downloads"



"America Online - Free Downloads

I fogot one! If there's other's Please Do let me know pretty Please!



"Avant Browser - Free download"

 

At work, on windows (yuck): Firefox

At home, on Linux: Firefox

At home, on my Mac: Safari and Firefox

jason

 

Hi Kristi... just a reminder... Avant is based on IE... there are numerous other freeware browsers available, some are based on IE, but are like Avant and have lots of extras, pop up blockers etc...

Crazy Browser http://www.crazybrowser.com/

another is called "MYIE" its at http://www.snapfiles.com/get/myiebrowser.html

in fact, the above site has at least 21 freeware browsers, which they also rate...

http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/misctools/fwbrowser.html

(incidently, the above page is a link to SnapFiles, formerly Webattack)

blessings

 

BTW, I cannot sing the praises of AVAST's freeware virus detection program, it automatically updates, has an email scanner... and it has saved me on a number of times! It is awesome...

http://www.avast.com/i_idt_153.html

also the latest Kerio firewall stopped a mydoom attack today... it has been a good prog for me as well....

http://www.kerio.com/us/kpf_home.html

 

Don,

Thanks for the posts. I knew IE had problems, but did not know they had that many. I'm going to have to lose my comfort zone and try some new browsers. I'm just glad I have Norton AV.

Kim