Are your using Internet Explorer

W

whiteflyer

Guest
So your still using Internet Explorer then, well maybe you should have a quick read of the following BBC news item HERE

The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security.

The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google's systems.

Microsoft says the security hole can be shut by setting the browser's security zone to "high", although this limits functionality and blocks many websites.

However, German authorities say that even this would not make IE fully safe.

Speaking to BBC News, Graham Cluley of anti-virus firm Sophos said the warning applied to versions 6, 7 and 8 of the browser
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I doubt any browser is totally safe but IE has been a weak link ever since it's conception.
 
I've always used IE and thought it was the best, i have used Firefox found it strange but i use Roboform for ALL my passwords and i doubt it will work with anything else.
 
Hmmmm there are different stories every week about how bad Internet Explorer is.....this is just one in a long line.

Firefox all the way!!!
 
I find Firefox has become bloated and slow over the years, so I now use Google Chrome which is based on Mozilla technology. I find it quite quick.
 
Google Chrome - the hackers haven't bothered yet
 
mbscad said:
I find Firefox has become bloated and slow over the years, so I now use Google Chrome which is based on Mozilla technology. I find it quite quick.
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:plus1:

seems much better so far, though some things such as webmail are totally spooned on it. General usage and speed get a big (y) from me
 
mbscad said:
I find Firefox has become bloated and slow over the years, so I now use Google Chrome which is based on Mozilla technology. I find it quite quick.
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On what Mozilla technology would Chrome be based on?
For rendering (X)HTML and CSS, it uses WebKit, which is what Apple made from KHTML. It has it's own Javascript engine (V8).

Firefox has actually gotten faster for me with version 3 and has been faster than Chrome on my Athlon 64 3000+. On my new Core i7 860, Chrome finally feels faster sometimes, but not all the time.

I think that perhaps you might want to try something like SpeedyFox by CrystalIdea or just optimising its SQLite databases using a small script (which issues the vacuum command for the databases) and a sqlite binary (the script can be found by googling, the binary can be downloaded from sqlite.org). You can also try tuning it - try Fasterfox (a Firefox extension) or tune it by hand (which is what I have done, I can share my user.js if someone wants it).

That said, I use Firefox, Opera, IE8 (at work for testing our intranet), sometimes Safari or Chrome. Arora wasn't too bad either.
 
neil_g said:
some sites are just not coded very well for anything other than IE.
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Your right there, pity the websites did not code properly, as in the past (don't know about 8) IE did not follow fully HTML protocols. If a site has been correctly coded and validated it should work with any browser.

There are issues with all browsers I suspect, but the biggest problem is people not upgrading, there was a call a while ago to ban IE 6 from the web as it was said to be slowing the whole internet down, yet still millions of people were not upgrading.

The current IE issue is said to be so serious that speculation is growing that the Microsoft will issue an out-of-band patch as its next regular update release is scheduled for February 9.
 
it wouldnt be the first time MS have released an out of schedule update and it certainly wouldnt be the last time, but you dont always hear about those in the news... storm in a teacup whipped up by the media (AGAIN) in my opinion.

RosiePrecious said:
so do people on here recomend firefox as i just use IE?
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i used to but these days FF is slow and bloated.
 
I moved from IE to FF and then to Chrome, each progression being better than the last. IE is slow and unreliable, esp if you have loads of tabs open at once. IE just can't handle it - too resource hungry. Google Chrome uses a fraction of the memory and doesn't crash.
 
This vulnerability came to light following the attacks on Gmail in China. It was a very specific and highly technical attack. This is not a hack that could be performed by some bored student with a few "script kiddie" tools.

If IE had 10% of the browser market and FF or Chrome had the other 90% then we would be reading about a vulnerability in one of those browsers. Let's not over react here. The hacking community is yet to fully turn its attention away from Microsoft and towards things such as Chrome, FF, Opera and the like, in the same way Linux and MAC OS have so far escaped serious attention. Until all these supposed "more secure" products actually face the full scrutiny of the people who really want to break in, they are not "more secure" they are simply "as yet untested".
 
IE hasnt been up to speed for years.
Firefox is the way forward :)
 
mtracerz said:
IE hasnt been up to speed for years.
Firefox is the way forward :)
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Oh sorry - I didn't realise that. Thanks for the heads up :)
 
I avoid IE when I can.

On my PC I use FireFox and on my Mac I use Safari.

Saying that, I bought a new laptop the other day with Windows 7 and I am using IE on that - it seems OK but I don't trust it security wise !
 
RosiePrecious said:
so do people on here recomend firefox as i just use IE?
Click to expand...

If you're happy with IE, stay with IE - there're always going to be tests showing one as less secure than another or faster or with more sparklies, then they'll be patched and there'll be tests showing they're more secure or faster, with even newer sparklies.

If you want to try another browser there are plenty to choose from and it all comes down to what you like. Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Flock, Iron Browser, K-meleon, or the umpty two others you could opt for. Personally I use Opera with IE8 for windows updates.

Keep up-to-date with your antivirus/spyware software and you should be fine, no need to panic.
 
Wow! It seems that if we can't argue about operating system we argue about web browsers. It's the same, try all the options and stick with what you like best, there is no right or wrong browser to use.
 
Been using Firefox for a while now but, as others have commented, it's getting very bloated, been having a go with Safari, quite fast, it takes a bit of getting used to though.

Pete
 
Firefox + noscript on the Windows PC and the Windows Mac mini
lynx on the linux boxes
telnet sometimes on any platform as required
 
IE is an abomination. I work as a web developer and it's been a thorn in my side for 5 years. The sooner the planet switches to Opera / Chrome / Safari / Firefox (In that order of preference) the better. it's not just about security, it's about working around asinine non-standard bugs, glitches and nonsense that should have been boycotted by the industry a decade ago.
 
I switched to firefox about 6 months ago, the latest version with a few extra addons is really nice to use.

I have all the power & functionality of firefox but I have it skinned much like Chrome (A look I really like). I regularly run 8+ tabs in firefox while running photoshop/lightroom and a windows 3D game and I genuinely don't find any slowdown.
I tried similar thing with IE8 when it came out but it just made everything sluggish - it's is frankly a clunky heap of crap that is trumped by pretty much any other browser available.
 
M$ has been 'difficult' since the days when Win 3.1 gave an error message when loaded onto DR-DOS rather than MS-DOS, they always make their products just a little bit non-compliant with standards so we developers have to bend over backwards to make sure our sites work with their browser just because it's used by so many people.

Think different! download and try a new browser today and see the difference, here's a few suggestions . . .

safari
chrome
opera
firefox
 
Everyone likes to moan about IE. Truth be known IE8 is one of the most secure browsers going. I'm totally disappointed with Firefox. It's become bloated with every point release to the stage where it's actually stressful to use for me now. I'm looking into Chrome and Safari as viable alternatives.

Sure, IE had a security issue, but so do most pieces of software. It's just a question of finding them and being able to exploit them. So if it wasn't IE in this case it could just as easily have been something else.

I do wish though that they'd done the upgrade rollout of IE8 instead of releasing 7 and 8 as separate applications.
 
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