I should add that I have used IE without any problems with the exception of 1 virus. (Not a worm BTW)

I haven't had any good reason to change browsers but maybe time and boredom will change that.

IP: How dare you!!

I sowwie

wait, no I m not!

yeah...

no..

yes.

no

I'm so confused



IE is ok fine really. Secure your system and you're not going to have a problem. Though it's a bit klunky when you've a number of things to do while admin hat is on.

Tabbed Browser allows you to have multi-pages from different areas open at one time so you can just click or tab between them.

That is one area it would be a help to you really..

Thank you everyone for your info and suggestions. I'm gonna put a lot of thought into this and let ya'll know.

>IPlural

I dont like the tab browsing either. Even though I can with firefox. I use the mouse gestures to open links in another window.(right click and move mouse down) I use the large button on the left side of my mouse to cycle between windows, and I use another mouse gesture to close windows when I am done with them (right click move mouse down and then right) Mouse gestures for forward and back are easy too.

I went to symantic to check security on my machine while using firefox. It told me that I had to be using IE to check security. Does that mean something??? Even Norton internet security needs IE to try to hack your computer.

NIS does not "Hack" your computer in the least....

No it does not hack the computer, the test from Symantics web site looks for holes that hackers or other ill intented ppl can get into. And it needs IE to look for those holes.

ahh, I see your meaning.

Unless it's changed since I last used it, Symantec's online checker (like many if not most online scanners of this kind) needs IE because it uses ActiveX. It downloads an ActiveX component (which is a amall program really) to your computer to do its thing.

ActiveX allows websites to do cool things however if you have it completely enabled (not set to prompt where at least you can choose whether or not to let a site run an ActiveX control on your PC although that can be a pain when you get a lot of prompts), that means any site you visit can use ActiveX to put stuff on your PC without your knowledge. Which is how a lot of spyware gets on PC's. (Also javascript can also be used to load exploits through the browser.)

Some of the newer known IE vulnerabilites, not entirely yet patched by MS, can allow exploits if any scripting is enabled. Of course you'd have to actually run into a site that has such exploits on them. But a recent incident where "good" sites (which were not publicly named) had their servers compromised and included a malicious script that apparently planted a keylogger on visitors' PC's showed that it's not just going to known "questionable" sites that can result in problems. http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5247187.html?tag=zdfd.newsfeed While MS issued a patch, it reportedly doesn't really prevent these sorts of exploits and the recommendation is to disable all scripting, including javascript, while using IE. Bummer. >

Anyway, just be careful out on the WWW.

Now I'm confused...................

Anyone have any thoughts about Netscape?

MGiff....yrag and IPlural have listed in other threads what amounts to the "practice safe browsing" Guide. Maybe one of them will indulge us here with a list of must haves to be running to keep our PC's from getting knocked up with a little unwanted critter, while still using IE

I use IE6 and stay up to date with MS's updates. Norton's Antivirus and firewall, both up to date. I run adaware and spybot on a regular basis. My ISP...earthlink also provides me with a popup blocker, cookie killer, spyware blocker and a favorites stripper (strips tracking info from links you save). Also they scan my mail for viruses and spam, before it gets to my PC. My email addy is readily available through searching google and I only get about 3-4 pieces of spam a week and haven't been attacked by a virus, since I stupidly used my old email address on the MS newsgroup almost a year ago. Even then Norton's caught all the attacks.

Why are you confused, MGiff? If you're going to use IE or an IE shell (like MyIE2 my favorite IE shell) you should tighten up IE's security settings. I posted a couple links above to help. As I mentioned the more secure your settings the more likely some functionalities will be limited on some sites. Unfortunately browser security involves some tradeoffs of general functionality. Some really trusted sites can be put in IE's trusted zone, but IMO that should be used sparingly. (By the way, I recommend that one should tighten up IE's settings as long as IE is still on the PC, including installing all IE security updates since IE is part of the OS and some shared components are likely running or IE components can be invoked by another program or perhaps something on a web site one may visit. Even if you don't use IE to browse the net.)

Using another browser like Firefox, Mozilla or Opera generally is considered safer than IE for some of the reasons I noted above. That doesn't mean they make you absolutely safe on the net, nothing doees that unless you unplug your PC. But they are considered safer than using IE since so many b*stards have geared spyware and exploits to IE which is used by the vast majority of people online.

I also use Proxomitron, a web filtering app, to block ads, popups, etc. And some folks have made some filters that block some javascript stuff from doing things it shouldn't be doing. (I use JD5000's Proxomitron filter set, just in case anyone's interested.) I use this with all browsers and I think it does add a bit to security while I still have some functionality.

Online security is a matter of tradeoffs and risk management. No silver bullet. Sorry if I confused you, and don't want to scare you, but if you can be more specific about what's confusing you? It's just I spend some time on security forums and gads there are so many people who have been zapped by spyware, etc and it sometimes can be a nightmare to clean up some of this stuff. I don't claim to be an expert but I've learned a bit from people who are.

MGiff, why don't you just try out a couple alternate browsers and decide which one YOU like best, after all only you can make the final decision. I've tried Opera, Mozilla, and Firefox. My personal favorite is Firefox, with Thunderbird as Email client [nice built in spam filters] One of the extensions I addes to my Firefox is called IEVIEW which allows you to view any toublesome pages in IE. ALL Mozilla browsers also allow you to import all your IE Favorites. I'm sure with a little experimenting you'll find what the one that works best for you.

my apologies sig for not including you in the above post, MGiff...sig knows her stuff ....I'll go sit in a corner now.

bordfryr: Netscape is part of the Mozilla clan, an ancestor so to speak. I may be stating it a bit broadly, but basically the Netscape code was made open source and given to the Mozilla folks. So the Mozilla and Firefox browsers are the descendants of Netscape. Netscape is a bit old now so a number of Netscape fans have switched to Mozilla since it's still being developed and supported.