Hello

Its a new year and I thought it might be time to make some improvements to my system security, so I went out and purchased the lastest 2005 editions of anti-virus and firewall packs.

I am also looking at installing the firefox browser, but I`m a little undecided at the moment...I have read a few postings on sites about the speed of page loading and other things about new holes...so I might put this upgrade on the back burner for the moment.

I need some advice though on a little gadget I have found while looking around, its a PCI card called "Juzt Reboot" - hdd recovery device, from Juzt-Innovations (.co.uk) - has anyone any experience with the device or even better still has anyone got the card installed?

I would recommend upgrading Firefox. Putting all the extra features aside, it -is- a more secure browser with less security holes - the people writing these exploits don't bother writing them for a browser that only gets used by 8% of the internet population. However, you've always got to remember that they still exist. You shouldn't become complacent. It still needs frequent patches.

As for speed, I find it takes longer to load (the first time) and occasionally it seems to stall and hammer the disk before it will respond. But once its loaded, its definately noticably faster at displaying pages.

Also remember that this isn't an 'upgrade' as such - Firefox and IE will run together. Install Firefox, play with it for a while. Give yourself some time to get used the tabbed interface. See what you think. If you dont like it or find a site that wont work properly (there's a few, but its getting less and less) then you can easliy load IE for a quick session.

I beg to differ. I tried Firefox and it's not only slow to open, but also to load web pages too, especially with images. I'm on a broadband connection, yet in Firefox images seemed so much slower to load and I don't like the image placeholders either. My favourite browser is Avant Browser - it uses IE so still has the security risks but it has so many extra features too, like browsing in different tabs, a pop up blocker, ad blockers, and much more, all without slower page loading. Unless you frequent dodgy sites (porn, warez, patches, etc) then you're highly unlikely to be affected by any malicious code within a website.

I am in the process of trying out Firefox and Opera browsers. I looked at Avant, MYIE2 etc.. but as they are just a shell wrapped around IE i decided against using any of them (For now).
After ploughing through the Mozilla help forums, i had found enough tweaks to make Firefox the fastest browser i have ever used.
Then i turned my attention to Opera and found it to be just as fast as Firefox without even needing any tweaks.
I still have one or two issues with Opera that need sorting (Pages not loading etc...) but Opera will probably be the browser of choice for me in the future.

Just my opinion :thumbsup:

Just a quick note..

You still need to use Internet explorer to access and use Windows Update...

That doesn't mean you'll automatically get some virus or trojan by using it on MS's site... :suspect:

Also, you can bet that Firefox will soon become a top priority target for virus writers now that everyone is banging on and on about how secure and how much better it is... Up until now, hardly anyone has bothered... That will change... Or do you want to bet against me? :loopy:

Agree entirely Martin_s, but I believe we will never see as many (of equal size anyway) holes in any newer browser as we currently see in IE. IE is fundamentally flawed and patches on top of flawed code is simply that - patches.

Hopefully (only time will tell), Firefox and any other of the newer browsers will cope better than IE has.

Originally posted by LL200
Agree entirely Martin_s, but I believe we will never see as many (of equal size anyway) holes in any newer browser as we currently see in IE. IE is fundamentally flawed and patches on top of flawed code is simply that - patches.

Hopefully (only time will tell), Firefox and any other of the newer browsers will cope better than IE has.
Having been dealing with a few bits of fun and games with Firefox this past couple of weeks and the recent upsurge in published exploits for the browser I thought it was worth returning to this topic just to deliver the somewhat deserved "I told you so" for all those who were happily bandying around Firefox as bombproof in various threads.

All software will have some form of vulnerability inherent and it's more the response time to such issues that's quite telling... On that front the Firefox team have been somewhat impressive in their speed.

BUT... One thing that should be highlighted is the lack of automatic or in your face "update now" message when the patches came out...

Firefox only includes the little arrow in the top right of the window to show that there is some form of update and I know there's a whole slew of people who just miss it completely, leaving themselves wide open to exploit still...

So, just to reiterate an oft repeated point, the ONLY thing that will save the end user from security exploits and other issues is awareness, common sense and a little effort...

Following on from what Martin has posted.....

Everyone should now be using Firefox 1.0.4 !!! This release covers some of the exploits that have been found to date.

www.mozilla.org

Originally posted by t020
I beg to differ. I tried Firefox and it's not only slow to open, but also to load web pages too, especially with images. I'm on a broadband connection, yet in Firefox images seemed so much slower to load and I don't like the image placeholders either. My favourite browser is Avant Browser - it uses IE so still has the security risks but it has so many extra features too, like browsing in different tabs, a pop up blocker, ad blockers, and much more, all without slower page loading. Unless you frequent dodgy sites (porn, warez, patches, etc) then you're highly unlikely to be affected by any malicious code within a website.

Thats a very scary way to look at the internet (i dont frequent dodgy sites so im ok) NOBODYS ok, "real" sites have plenty of spoof sites with loads of exploits just waiting to bite you, firefox is looooooooooads more securer than using IE and using a browser that uses IE is no better, yes firefox is slower, yes a few sites have problems with it, yes it has a few holes (hundreds less than IE tho) tbh id rather be safe than sorry.

Originally posted by Martin_s
Having been dealing with a few bits of fun and games with Firefox this past couple of weeks and the recent upsurge in published exploits for the browser I thought it was worth returning to this topic just to deliver the somewhat deserved "I told you so" for all those who were happily bandying around Firefox as bombproof in various threads.

All software will have some form of vulnerability inherent and it's more the response time to such issues that's quite telling... On that front the Firefox team have been somewhat impressive in their speed.

BUT... One thing that should be highlighted is the lack of automatic or in your face "update now" message when the patches came out...

Firefox only includes the little arrow in the top right of the window to show that there is some form of update and I know there's a whole slew of people who just miss it completely, leaving themselves wide open to exploit still...

So, just to reiterate an oft repeated point, the ONLY thing that will save the end user from security exploits and other issues is awareness, common sense and a little effort...

tbh i dont want an in your face update button appearing, id rather find an update myself rather than getting hasselled, the thing is, it should be drilled into PEOPLE to use firefox AND look for updates periodically, rather than having pop ups and stuff which annoy people who use it a lot......still, even with a few holes its STILL got hundreds of holes less than IE

Originally posted by melthebell
yes a few sites have problems with it,



Only poorly coded (usually by using a M$ product - FP, Word etc) sites;).


FF has an extension to help with this (open in IE).




Originally posted by vidster
Everyone should now be using Firefox 1.0.4 !!! This release covers some of the exploits that have been found to date.


The NoScript extension doesn't work in 1.0.4 yet:( (or didn't yesterday when I performed the UD)!

Originally posted by sccsux
The NoScript extension doesn't work in 1.0.4 yet:( (or didn't yesterday when I performed the UD)!


Yaaayyyy..

NoScript works flawlessly with FF 1.0.6:thumbsup:

Originally posted by t020
I beg to differ. I tried Firefox and it's not only slow to open, but also to load web pages too, especially with images. I'm on a broadband connection, yet in Firefox images seemed so much slower to load and I don't like the image placeholders either. My favourite browser is Avant Browser - it uses IE so still has the security risks but it has so many extra features too, like browsing in different tabs, a pop up blocker, ad blockers, and much more, all without slower page loading. Unless you frequent dodgy sites (porn, warez, patches, etc) then you're highly unlikely to be affected by any malicious code within a website.

not true and totally the wrong attitude to take......YOU DONT have to frequent dodgy sites to get hacked, viruses, trojans, dialers, web bugs, browser hijcked etc etc

tbh id rather be protected and have a miniscule slower loading of pages.......but then its down to user preference AND machine

some people find it slower, some find it faster.........the thing we all agree on is IE is riddled with holes, firefox has a few

If you're worried about speed, give Opera a try (ok, you have to pay for the version without adverts, but you can try it with ads for free). It always feels like the snappiest browser to me, and beats the pants off the others in one respect - cached page rendering, firefox seems to take an age when you click Back on complex pages... (I think it's meant to be supported in v1.1, but not at present) And in lots of other ways, it just feels like web browsing ought to be :)

(You sure firefox is actually slower? It doesn't just feel like it is because of the way it deals with progressive jpgs?)

Does avant support mouse gestures? That's another feature I couldn't live without now, and makes me love opera (I think firefox supports with an extension, like it needs for every decent feature ;))