Screw Microsoft!

[Phischy]

Everyone,
You may or may not have heard of the new web-browser that is hitting the market today. For those that remember, Netscape was the premier browswer back in '94 until Microsoft started supplying their Internet Explorer packaged with their OS. It was and always has been inferior but they used illegal tactics to combine IE with their OS. Even today you cannot uninstall IE without screwing up the OS.

Mozilla is a Linxu style conglomeration that is fighting 'the man' and their latest product is a new free web broswer called FireFox. I personally am tire of popups and other related crap that IE allows through. I downloaded and installed Firefox last week and I have been extremely happy with it's performance.

If you're tired of security breaches, leaks, spam and popups, give Firefox a try, you won't be dissappointed and it's free.

www.firefox.com

 

[Physh1]

I've been using if since the first beta release. Only has gotten better. No pop ups, smoother running, and no funky os interfering in my browser.

Def. a good upgrade.

Cameron

 

[dragon79]

well...

i have heard of firefox, but being new it's not optimized for all sites, but I'm sure it'll get there. As for pop-ups/ads and things of that sort, just customize IE browser, and you can stop them all. The ones you want to allow you can just hold ctrl while you click a legit link. If you clean your system regularly with spysweeper or ad-aware, the system will be fine. I have been browsing with IE with no problems at all. The more experience you have with it, the more you learn on how to make it work for you!

 

[djconn]

Yeah, the new pop-up blocker thing with the service pack 2 install actually works pretty good. I have not made the switch yet either.

I also use spybot with ad-aware. Both are available at downloads.com.

 

[Phischy]

I never had problems with popups until after I went with MS SP II. Now they're a huge problem! So for me, SP II was a huge step backward. Firefox is the way to go.

 

[djconn]

That makes no sense. I haven't had a single one. You must of had a bad install or something.

I will one day switch over to Firefox. I hate Microsoft as much as you.

 

[Phischy]

I checked all the settings, visited MS website for help etc... now I've got popus when I shouldn't and the damn blocker blocks the ones I want. Arggghhhh...very frustrating. Plus for whatever reason I'm getting alot of error pages these days, also not an issue before the install. Firefox isn't perfect, but it's hella better than Explorer.

 

[dragon79]

That makes no sense. I haven't had a single one. You must of had a bad install or something.

I will one day switch over to Firefox. I hate Microsoft as much as you.

true true, sp2 helped tremendously. Also I should have mentioned a router with a built in firewall, hehe.

Phischy: Technology can save you, not some browser to rely on. Look at what products/software can do for you.

I suggest a clean format, a router with a built in firewall, if you want software protection, use the firewall software. Many options are out there, just takes time to experiment to see what works best with your current setup at home. Good luck!!

 

[Phischy]

That's not the point. Prior to installed SP II everything did work peachy keen. I was using the built in XP firewall and a 3rd party antivirus. I think follow MS advice and install SPII and then everything goes to hell. This is why I'm so sick and tired of the total crap product Microsoft delievers. They are forever releasing patches and updates and do not take the time to test their products throughly before releasing them. It's a big bloated OS and it just pisses me off that by 'fixing' something my PC runs worse.

Back when I had the 95/98 OS I would reformatt and reinstall on a yearly basis, but that was prior to my data files becoming excessively large. In order to be efficient I would have to purchase a DVD RW and it's just not something I had in mind right now. I swear, I'm so close to ditching the PC and getting a Mac.

 

[beefcake]

download ad aware from lavasoft, sounds like you have more a spyware problem than with SP2, they make a great and free (totally free) product.

I know where you are coming from with the whole firefox, mozilla browser motivation, but truth is firefox is NOT bug free or by anymeans perfect in security.

www.cert.org do a search 16 vulnerabilities updated in the last few months

then do a search on IE yes there is more, but consider the difference in the usage. :lol:

 

[beefcake]

download ad aware from lavasoft, sounds like you have more a spyware problem than with SP2, they make a great and free (totally free) product.

I know where you are coming from with the whole firefox, mozilla browser motivation, but truth is firefox is NOT bug free or by anymeans perfect in security.

www.cert.org do a search 16 vulnerabilities updated in the last few months

then do a search on IE yes there is more, but consider the difference in the usage. :lol:

 

[Phischy]

I've already got adaware running, have had it for a year or so. My problems started as soon as I installed SPII. All my previous shields were up and SPII took some of them down. Don't ask me how cuz I don't know.

Competition inspires quality so I encourage everyone to support 3rd party vendors who have a quality product to keep MS on their toes.

 

[Phischy]

from another source

How To Speed Up Firefox

Here's something for broadband people that will really speed Firefox up:

1.Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:

network.http.pipelining
network.http.proxy.pipelining
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.

2. Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.

3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it recieves.

If you're using a broadband connection you'll load pages MUCH faster now!