Firefox

[Guest J273]

Is firefox as safe as IE for online shopping/banking .etc Thanks

[Guest 12speed]

Is firefox as safe as IE for online shopping/banking .etc  Thanks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Firefox i hear is safer bin around longer i use it and i think it is much better live news feeds (Modaco supports) tab browsing weather pulgins..........and it seems faster

10/10 in my book

[Guest ShaneBoyd]

I was considering making the switch to Firfox as well. I've heard a lot of people talking about how much they like it. I know nothing about it's security though.

[Guest J273]

So is at safe as IE with like online shopping/Banking as thats the only thing im worried about,Thanks

[Guest Disco Stu]

Let's put it this way; the US Government recommends you use a different browser than IE for security reasons and Firefox is raved about by those that know about these things.

[Guest ShaneBoyd]

Why does the US governemnt say you should use something other than IE?

[Guest pwest13]

I use Firefox and recommend it, it is far superior to IE.

[Guest Disco Stu]

Why does the US governemnt say you should use something other than IE?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can't remember the exact quotes, but it was probably the Homeland Security department looking at IT security issues. Basically they evaluated IE and found so many security holes that they advised US citizens not to use it at all. Given the importance of MS to the US economy that's one hell of a statement !

Tabbed browsing on Firefox is another good reason for using it.

[Guest ShaneBoyd]

That must have made Bill Gates rather unhappy. I wonder what they will do to upgrade IE. I will probably give Firefox a shot.

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Why does the US governemnt say you should use something other than IE?

Because they are idiots. Microsoft releases patches for any security hole long before it is exploited (you _do_ have automatic updates turned on in Windows don't you?).

Other than that Firefox uses exactly the same encryption methods and algorthms as IE (128bit SSL). So banking etc is just as secure on either.

The only issue is end users blindly clicking "ok" to any window or dialogue box that pops up without reading it. Like with anything in life, if you agree to something without reading the small print then you get everything you deserve.

I've been using firefox for a while now (since Xmasish time) and its a decent browser, tabbed browsing is a nice feature, but i hardly use it tbh. And generally it creates more hgassles than its worth as there are still many (large) sites that do not fully support Firefox.

All in all, try it, see what you think. In terms of anything other than how you get on with it and the odd annoying incompatable webpage the browsing experience is exactly the same....

[Guest beersoft]

i use firefox, but ive been a fan of netscape from before version 1 (yep, before tables and frames and you could get away with the blink tag)

ie is getting better, and from a webdesign point of view you can get away with sloppy coding, but its full of bugs

later

Owen

[Guest ShaneBoyd]

I've never been a fan of netscape though. if you like netscape and Firefox, will I not like Firefox?

[Guest bdmoore]

Both have their benefits. Firefox does remind me of the old Netscape browsers (I'm sure it shares the same basic components??) - although tabbed browsing is cool, I stick to IE cos while it may not be 100% standards compliant, a lot more sites are optimised for it and you can get better functionality.

As for security, as Mono says they both use similar technologies and a browser is only as secure as it's user!!

Give it a try and see for yourself, it's personal preference really!

[Guest J273]

I think i will be switching to firefox,But i have my computer set up so that my cookies/cache/History got to my second hard drive,Do all browsers point there cookies .etc to the same place as IE as id like to have my cookies with firefox to the second hard drive if you get what i mean,Thanks

[Guest tudor]

Isn't Firefox safer just because it has scripting and ActiveX disabled or limited by default? That's what I know - correct me if I'm wrong. In this case, Internet explorer is as safe if you increase the security level to disable any malicious code to run on your machine.

I've installed only once Firefox, and it was on a Linux machine. It crashed a couple of times, so I decided that I'm wasting my time with it.

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Again, thats nothing special. IE on XP SP2 blocks it by default and prompts the used discretely if they want to continue. Pre-XP you can change the security settings to stop it running them by default...

[Guest tudor]

@ Monolithix:

I meant "by default" as in "the default initial settings you get after installing the software". There are lots of people who don't know how to customize the settings or what they mean, so they just use the "defaults"

[Guest ShaneBoyd]

I'll probably give Firefox a shot once the weekend rolls around, but I just don't have the time to fiddle with it during the week. I hope I like it b/c I'm getting sick of IE.

[Guest Imacellphone]

from what i hear....its just as safe if not more so. i use both....but i think you're fine using it.

[Guest ShaneBoyd]

Is it hard to get setup initially, or is it really easy to get going on?

[Guest chucky.egg]

Nah, it's really easy

It imports your passwords, favourites and stuff (if you want it to), and it doesn't look much different from IE

The "Tabs" are useful too - open the pages you visit often in "tabs" (like the tabs on an Excel spreadsheet) save the lot in your favourites and you're 2 clicks away from all those pages at once.

Even better, you can set that "Tab Group" as your homepage and it opens when you open Firefox.

[Guest ShaneBoyd]

It will import all my favorites and passwords? I din't know that and was wondering about it. I'm excited to try out the "tab" feature, I think i'll probably like that a lot.

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

@ Monolithix:

I meant "by default" as in "the default initial settings you get after installing the software". There are lots of people who don't know how to customize the settings or what they mean, so they just use the "defaults"

If you're too lazy to learn how to use a piece of software then again, you get what you deserve. The only difference is that it won't prompt you when theres something dodgy. And it's not difficult to find the security settings (tools > options > security). There is absolutely no reason to be bugged by viruii or popups or anything like that as long as you are careful and don't blindly ok everything that you're presented with.

[Guest beersoft]

mono,

shouldnt that be to stupid to learn new software or maybe to stupid to use software that even my cat can use safely

later

Owen

[Guest ShaneBoyd]

What's the deal with pop-ups on Firefox? Are they less prevalent. i rarely get them now with IE, but I wondered if there are generally fewer with Firefox or if it doesn't make any difference.