Firefox VS. Microsoft IE. Get rid of the leeches.

[472 R/T SE]

Spyware Barely Touches Firefox

By Gregg Keizer
TechWeb.com Thu Feb 9, 2:15 PM ET

Internet Explorer users can be as much as 21 times more likely to end up with a spyware-infected PC than people who go online with Mozilla's Firefox browser, academic researchers from Microsoft's backyard said in a recently published paper.

"We can't say whether Firefox is a safer browser or not," said Henry Levy, one of the two University of Washington professors who, along with a pair of graduate students, created Web crawlers to scour the Internet for spyware in several 2005 forays. "But we can say that users will have a safer experience [surfing] with Firefox."

In May and October, Levy and colleague Steven Gribble sent their crawlers to 45,000 Web sites, cataloged the executable files found, and tested malicious sites' effectiveness by exposing unpatched versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox to "drive-by downloads." That's the term for the hacker practice of using browser vulnerabilities to install software, sometimes surreptitiously, sometimes not.

"We can't say IE is any less safe," explained Levy, "because we choose to use an unpatched version [of each browser.] We were trying to understand the number of [spyware] threats, so if we used unpatched browsers then we would see more threats."

Levy and Gribble, along with graduate students Alexander Moshchuk and Tanya Bragin, set up IE in two configurations -- one where it behaved as if the user had given permission for all downloads, the other as if the user refused all download permission -- to track the number of successful spyware installations.

During Levy's and Gribble's most recent crawl of October 2005, 1.6 percent of the domains infected the first IE configuration, the one mimicking a na�ve user blithely clicking 'Yes;' about a third as many domains (0.6 percent) did drive-by downloads by planting spyware even when the user rejected the installations.

"These numbers may not sound like much," said Gribble, "but consider the number of domains on the Web."

"You definitely want to have all the patches [installed] for Internet Explorer," added Levy.

In the same kind of configurations, Firefox survived relatively unscathed. Only .09 percent of domains infected the Mozilla Corp. browser when it was set, like IE, to act as if the user clicked through security dialogs; no domain managed to infect the Firefox-equipped PC in a drive-by download attack.

Compare those figures, and it seems that IE users who haven't patched their browser are 21 times more likely to have a spyware attack executed -- if not necessarily succeed -- against their machine.

Most of the exploits that leveraged IE vulnerabilities to plant spyware were based on ActiveX and JavaScript, said Gribble. Those two technologies have taken the blame for many of IE problems. In fact, Firefox boosters often point to their browser's lack of support for ActiveX as a big reason why its security claims are legit.

Levy and Gribble didn't set out to verify that, but they did note that the few successful spyware attacks on Firefox were made by Java applets; all, however, required the user's consent to succeed.

Microsoft's made a point to stress that Internet Explorer 7, which just went into open beta for
Windows XP, tightens up ActiveX controls by disabling nearly all those already installed. IE 7 then alerts the user and requires consent before it will run an in-place control.

Good thing, because one of the research's most startling conclusions was the number of spyware-infected sites. One out of every 20 executable files on Web sites is spyware, and 1 in 25 domains contain at least one piece of spyware waiting for victims.

"If these numbers are even close to representative for Web sites frequented by users," the paper concluded, "it is not surprising that spyware continues to be of major concern."

The moral, said Levy, is: "If you browse, you're eventually going to get hit with a spyware attack."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20060210/tc_cmp/179102616

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I pay for the Spyware protection.   But Mozilla Firefox is free.  I just did a scan with the Spyware Doctor, ZERO tracking cookies as usual.
When I ran IE without separate protection, it was common to have up to 200 leeches hangiing on.  No one needs to know what you're doing, right!!
Hope this helps some. 

[Ponch ®]

ive been using Firefox in my home computer for about 2 years. Sometimes getting plug-ins to work is a PITA, but the safety factor is worth it. I wish i could use it here at work, but the 'official' software is IE and we're not allowed to download our own.

[Mopar440+6]

GO FIREFOX! WOOT!

[Telvis]

I decided to try Firefox after reading the post a few minutes ago. It was super easy and it's a LOT faster the IE! Whoah!

[69bananabeast]

I've been using fire fox for probably 6 months now from previous posts. I even put it on all the computers at my moms office where they have a T1 line and employees going online all the time . It's kept the systems a bit cleaner.

[Charger_Fan]

ive been using Firefox in my home computer for about 2 years. Sometimes getting plug-ins to work is a PITA, but the safety factor is worth it. I wish i could use it here at work, but the 'official' software is IE and we're not allowed to download our own.

Same here, my work confuzer is IE only. The upside is that I don't have to pay to have computer geeks come in & fix it.
I've been using Firefox on my one at home for maybe a 1.5 years & I still love it. Like Poncherelli (<sp> ) said, plug-in's are a pain...but way better than the inconvenience of spyware!

[DC_1]

Anyone ever have any experience with Smart Explorer ?

http://www.smarteque.com/

[Andrew]

I just installed firefox... and Im not sure I like it aye.

[my73charger]

I just installed firefox... and Im not sure I like it aye.

It is a little different then IE and like Ponch said sometimes there are issues with plugins, but trust me it is definitely safer then IE.  I have been using it for a little over a year and will not go back to IE.

[Charger_Fan]

Yeah, it takes some getting used to.

I've never heard of Smart Explorer...do you use that Sydmoe?

[Andrew]

The way I have IE set up now, I move my mouse over to the far left and my favourites show up (press [F11] then open favourites and go to a page, when you move your mouse away from the favourites meneu, it will disappear then reappear if you put your mouse over there), but if I press [F11] in firefox the only buttons it gives me are back, foward, home, stop and refresh.

[Troy]

I've been primarily using Firefox for over 2 years. I only use IE if I have to connect to my Hotmail account, my work web mail, or for browser testing. I happen to like the tabbed browsing and the superior support for real web standards. My IE at home has some weird font issue that no one seems to be able to troubleshoot and that alone caused me to switch. As for getting nasty things from browsing the web... turn off scripting when browsing on "questionable" sites and 99.9% of your problems will go away (without changing browsers).

Troy

[sixpack70]

Been using firefox for almost 2 years, my computer crashes way less with win98. IE slows my system down, and sometimes just opening it will crash my system or cause my computer to have to spool up my hard drives freezing my system for about 10-20 seconds. Its faster and I don't get popups at all! IE is junk.

[Andrew]

IMO IE + google toolbar is best.

My computer used to crash too, when I was running win98, but now that I upgraded to win 2000 professional I havnt had any problems.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

I have tried Mozilla on my bro-in-laws PC and I didnt like it for the simple fact that when you are looking at ebay, say you are in the middle of the page of a list of 50 items, you click on an auction, view it and want to click back to the auction list, it brings you back to the top of the page......then you have to scroll back down to where you were.   That alone drove me nutz!
Maybe it was a setting problem or is that the way FireFox is?

[DC_1]

Yeah, it takes some getting used to.

I've never heard of Smart Explorer...do you use that Sydmoe?

I tried their Free Trail version and I kinda liked it.......once it expired though I didn't buy it so I am back to IE

[BrianShaughnessy]

I have tried Mozilla on my bro-in-laws PC and I didnt like it for the simple fact that when you are looking at ebay, say you are in the middle of the page of a list of 50 items, you click on an auction, view it and want to click back to the auction list, it brings you back to the top of the page......then you have to scroll back down to where you were.   That alone drove me nutz!
Maybe it was a setting problem or is that the way FireFox is?

That's what drives me nutz about it too.    I haven't found a cure for it.

I got my choice at work...   I've use / used both.     I haven't noticed anything spectacular about firefox.    I mostly think it's a bunch of MS hating geek hype.

My problem is that our new generation of mainframes is Linux based and I have to use firefox to work on them.   I got a bunch of problems related to that.   I end up going to another XP workstation half the time.     

[dkn1997]

I have tried Mozilla on my bro-in-laws PC and I didnt like it for the simple fact that when you are looking at ebay, say you are in the middle of the page of a list of 50 items, you click on an auction, view it and want to click back to the auction list, it brings you back to the top of the page......then you have to scroll back down to where you were.   That alone drove me nutz!
Maybe it was a setting problem or is that the way FireFox is?

that does not happen for me.  While I am sure that IE has settings you can change for better speed, I actually know for a fact that firefox does.  Go to "garagejunkies.com" and search for firefox.  that's where I got it.  really sped up my browsing.

been using firefox for 2 years and almost never get pop ups.  sometimes when surfing for porn I get them, and not just in my pants.....but those sites are so shady to begine with.  Keep it PG and you won't have any trouble with firefox.

[dkn1997]

Posted on garagejunkies.net, not Dot com.

This should make a noticeable difference for all of you guys running firefox.



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.

OR GO TO THE LINK AND DOWNLOAD:

https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&version=1.0&os=Windows&numpg=20&id=327

[472 R/T SE]

I have that problem with moparts, but not ebay or anywhere else.   

[TK73]

Been on FF for about 2 years, to me it is worth the minor hassles to be free of the damn bugs.  Now I don't have to run 2 spyware programs every day after using IE...

[Troy]

Been using firefox for almost 2 years, my computer crashes way less with win98. IE slows my system down, and sometimes just opening it will crash my system or cause my computer to have to spool up my hard drives freezing my system for about 10-20 seconds. Its faster and I don't get popups at all! IE is junk.

Well, IE may be "junk" in your opinion but you're using an operating system that's 9 years old, is hardly supported by any software, and wasn't exactly the most reliable thing when new. You never mentioned which version of IE you are using or if you ever apply the patches to IE or Windows. Before you blame crashes on a piece of software you should be sure that's where the problem is. On Win 98, IE should be about the fastest browser you can get so my guess is that you've added some plugins or some other gadget that you thought was neat and, quite possibly, that's what killed IE. Just my thoughts after troubleshooting these things for the last 6 years. I'd still rather use Firefox but IE isn't really all that bad - if you discount the security issues.

Troy

[Troy]

I have tried Mozilla on my bro-in-laws PC and I didnt like it for the simple fact that when you are looking at ebay, say you are in the middle of the page of a list of 50 items, you click on an auction, view it and want to click back to the auction list, it brings you back to the top of the page......then you have to scroll back down to where you were. That alone drove me nutz!
Maybe it was a setting problem or is that the way FireFox is?

It doesn't do that for me but I do distinctly remember it happening in the past. I suppose they've fixed it by now. Any way, when I want to follow a link I use my scroll wheel (middle mouse button) to click it which will open the link in a new tab. That way I can just close the new tab when I've seen what I wanted and my original tab is still exactly where I left it. I never use the back button.

Troy

[Ponch ®]

Been using firefox for almost 2 years, my computer crashes way less with win98. IE slows my system down, and sometimes just opening it will crash my system or cause my computer to have to spool up my hard drives freezing my system for about 10-20 seconds. Its faster and I don't get popups at all! IE is junk.

Well, IE may be "junk" in your opinion but you're using an operating system that's 9 years old, is hardly supported by any software, and wasn't exactly the most reliable thing when new. You never mentioned which version of IE you are using or if you ever apply the patches to IE or Windows. Before you blame crashes on a piece of software you should be sure that's where the problem is. On Win 98, IE should be about the fastest browser you can get so my guess is that you've added some plugins or some other gadget that you thought was neat and, quite possibly, that's what killed IE. Just my thoughts after troubleshooting these things for the last 6 years. I'd still rather use Firefox but IE isn't really all that bad - if you discount the security issues.

Troy

not only is the OS old, but the basic code in IE is from MOSAIC, which is a good 15 years old itself.

Firefox is based on Netscape, which was probably the better browser.

[Charger_Fan]

Any way, when I want to follow a link I use my scroll wheel (middle mouse button) to click it which will open the link in a new tab. That way I can just close the new tab when I've seen what I wanted and my original tab is still exactly where I left it. I never use the back button.

Exactly what I was gonna say. That feature right there is absolutely fantastic!

...when you are looking at ebay, say you are in the middle of the page of a list of 50 items, you click on an auction, view it and want to click back to the auction list, it brings you back to the top of the page......then you have to scroll back down to where you were. 

Mine will do that too, but I've noticed that a lot of times if I wait a few seconds after the page loads, it will eventually plunk back down to where I was...don't know why.