Viruses

[itschris]

I was doing a lot of research last night on a project I'm working on for work. Firefox works pretty well, though I did notice it hanging sometimes. It would hit a site, then sometimes comeback with message box that said something about the server not being found. I'd close and try again and website would fire right up. That was pretty annoying. Beyond that though, it works just fine, though I don't see any super big benefit over IE. It's not faster or anything and works just about the same.

 

[Shock]

Opera is my browser of choice. It is solid, and the tab interface is the best of all the browsers. You can reclaim closed tabs as well very easily. It's just all around my favourite browser.

 

[itschris]

Opera is my browser of choice. It is solid, and the tab interface is the best of all the browsers. You can reclaim closed tabs as well very easily. It's just all around my favourite browser.

I think I'm gonna give that a shot. Firefox keeps hanging. If click my Facebook tab, it tells me the server is unavailable and I have to type it in. It doesn't seem to work well with homepages that have logins. It doesn't do it for Audioholics but it has for several others. I'll try Opera tonight.

 

[itschris]

Opera is my browser of choice. It is solid, and the tab interface is the best of all the browsers. You can reclaim closed tabs as well very easily. It's just all around my favourite browser.

Hey Shock, I installed Opera, and I think once get past the initial "hmmm... this is different..." things and figure things out, I may just like it a lot.

2 quick things... is there an ad block add in like Firefox has? And how do I get my favorites as a drop down on the toolbar... or can I. After futzing around, I got bookmarks as a tab but it's not really efficient the way it works. I would think there would be a way to have it as part of the toolbar like in IE.

 

[10010011]

I think I'm gonna give that a shot. Firefox keeps hanging. If click my Facebook tab, it tells me the server is unavailable and I have to type it in. It doesn't seem to work well with homepages that have logins. It doesn't do it for Audioholics but it has for several others. I'll try Opera tonight.

Strange as I use Firefox as my primary browser and facebook and Audioaholics work fine.

I can not think of a website that does not work in Firefox.

Fact is more sites I visit don't work right in IE8 (forced to use IE at work) and need to run in the IE8 the compatibility mode

 

[itschris]

Strange as I use Firefox as my primary browser and facebook and Audioaholics work fine.

I can not think of a website that does not work in Firefox.

Fact is more sites I visit don't work right in IE8 (forced to use IE at work) and need to run in the IE8 the compatibility mode

I don't know what the deal is with Firefox. I was using it again a bit last night and it seems like certain sites just time out, not just ones where you ahve to log in. It happens about 3 or 4 times in the course of about an hour of doing research.

Opera is pretty cool... it's different. It's not intutive like IE or Firefox, but it seems to have some benefits. I'm not sure yet though if it's worth the aggrivation of figuring things out with it. It doesn't quite act like you think it would as far as setting it up goes. For instance, I can't figure out how to get my bookmarks as a simple drop down that doesn't open up a whole big panel that covers a good section of my page. I can only get my links by having it as a tab. I'm sure there's a way, but my point is, it's not terribly straightforward. Also, in IE for instance you can just list the sites you want to automatically open tabs. I don't think you can do that with Opera. There's a tab that's called speed dial that has several sites you choose on it, but I have to open that tab first rather than having what I want already opened on the tabs. Again, I'm sure I just haven't found my way yet, but I'm also not very patient either, so if I have to spend a lot of time figuring out stuff, I'll probably just keep using IE

 

[lsiberian]

I don't know what the deal is with Firefox. I was using it again a bit last night and it seems like certain sites just time out, not just ones where you ahve to log in. It happens about 3 or 4 times in the course of about an hour of doing research.

Opera is pretty cool... it's different. It's not intutive like IE or Firefox, but it seems to have some benefits. I'm not sure yet though if it's worth the aggrivation of figuring things out with it. It doesn't quite act like you think it would as far as setting it up goes. For instance, I can't figure out how to get my bookmarks as a simple drop down that doesn't open up a whole big panel that covers a good section of my page. I can only get my links by having it as a tab. I'm sure there's a way, but my point is, it's not terribly straightforward. Also, in IE for instance you can just list the sites you want to automatically open tabs. I don't think you can do that with Opera. There's a tab that's called speed dial that has several sites you choose on it, but I have to open that tab first rather than having what I want already opened on the tabs. Again, I'm sure I just haven't found my way yet, but I'm also not very patient either, so if I have to spend a lot of time figuring out stuff, I'll probably just keep using IE

Opera invented tabbed browsing. I can assure you there is a way to do all that.

 

[s162216]

Hey Shock, I installed Opera, and I think once get past the initial "hmmm... this is different..." things and figure things out, I may just like it a lot.

2 quick things... is there an ad block add in like Firefox has? And how do I get my favorites as a drop down on the toolbar... or can I. After futzing around, I got bookmarks as a tab but it's not really efficient the way it works. I would think there would be a way to have it as part of the toolbar like in IE.

If you click on the red 'opera' button in the top left corner below 'open' and go to 'settings' and then 'quick preferences' you can set the pop up block level, go here to block most ads, just follow the instructions:

http://my.opera.com/Tamil/blog/ad-block#NoURLFilterFile

To get a bookmarks dropdown, right click next to the 'home' button at the top of the screen and click 'appearance'. Go to the 'buttons' tab and to browser view (second one down) there should be an icon marked 'bookmarks'. Drag this icon next to the home button and let go. You will then have 'bookmarks' button which will drop down.

Hope this helps - I much prefer Opera to any other browser its just much quicker and nicer to use.

 

[itschris]

Ah HA! Now I'm getting it. Thanx! That was a big help. I'm a bit shakey on the ad block thing but I can probably figure it out once my buzz subsides.

 

[lsiberian]

If you click on the red 'opera' button in the top left corner below 'open' and go to 'settings' and then 'quick preferences' you can set the pop up block level, go here to block most ads, just follow the instructions:

http://my.opera.com/Tamil/blog/ad-block#NoURLFilterFile

To get a bookmarks dropdown, right click next to the 'home' button at the top of the screen and click 'appearance'. Go to the 'buttons' tab and to browser view (second one down) there should be an icon marked 'bookmarks'. Drag this icon next to the home button and let go. You will then have 'bookmarks' button which will drop down.

Hope this helps - I much prefer Opera to any other browser its just much quicker and nicer to use.

Firefox has caught up with Opera almost. Both leave IE in the dust though.

 

[pzaur]

Ah HA! Now I'm getting it. Thanx! That was a big help. I'm a bit shakey on the ad block thing but I can probably figure it out once my buzz subsides.

I would create these filters if you don't have them already. They'll be "custom" filters.

http://edge.quantserve.com/* [url]http://ad.doubleclick.net/* [url]http://images.intellitxt.com/* These are my biggest offenders right now. The intellitxt should rid you of the annoying underlined words that pop up additional information. Ignore the [url] at the beginning. I removed half of the link-rule so it wouldn't link automatically. -pat

 

[Shock]

Hey Shock, I installed Opera, and I think once get past the initial "hmmm... this is different..." things and figure things out, I may just like it a lot.

2 quick things... is there an ad block add in like Firefox has? And how do I get my favorites as a drop down on the toolbar... or can I. After futzing around, I got bookmarks as a tab but it's not really efficient the way it works. I would think there would be a way to have it as part of the toolbar like in IE.

I use the speed dial feature and rarely keep sites in the bookmarks drop down menu. I found it to be a lot more convenient than a simple drop down menu and it allows up to 24 pages right there at your finger tips.

As far as ad blocking, it has a built in content blocker. You right click anywhere on the page and click "block content" then you simply click the things you want blocked and it will block those types of things. It works really well too, although it's one of those things you have to fool around with for a while before it knows what you want to block.

I think I'm going to try what s16 said as well.

 

[s162216]

I have been using that adblock feature for about a week and find its quite effective as I have yet to see any ads anywhere, I PM'd itschris some more detailed instructions about how to implement it after he asked me via PM, the instructions on the web link are a bit confusing.

Webpage with instructions:

http://my.opera.com/Tamil/blog/ad-block#NoURLFilterFile

Heres what to do:

1. Go to the main opera folder in C:/program files you should see another folder marked 'opera 10.50' or something, go in this
2. Right click and go 'New' then go 'Text Document' Open this
3. Go to the webpage that I linked to and scroll down to "If you don't have urlfilter.ini file, create a text file with the following, place it inside profile and restart Opera." Copy the below text into the text document
4. Underneath '[Exclude], copy and paste the list of ad sites from the webpage
5. Go to 'save as' and call the file urlfilter.ini , where it says encoding, select UTF-8. Before pressing save shut opera.
6. That should work then but if not click on the 'urlfilter.ini' link on the webpage and browse for the file you just created. Select it and press 'save', restart opera and that should work, it works fine for me!
7. Relax in an ad free world!

 

[itschris]

I have been using that adblock feature for about a week and find its quite effective as I have yet to see any ads anywhere, I PM'd itschris some more detailed instructions about how to implement it after he asked me via PM, the instructions on the web link are a bit confusing.

Webpage with instructions:

http://my.opera.com/Tamil/blog/ad-block#NoURLFilterFile

Heres what to do:

1. Go to the main opera folder in C:/program files you should see another folder marked 'opera 10.50' or something, go in this
2. Right click and go 'New' then go 'Text Document' Open this
3. Go to the webpage that I linked to and scroll down to "If you don't have urlfilter.ini file, create a text file with the following, place it inside profile and restart Opera." Copy the below text into the text document
4. Underneath '[Exclude], copy and paste the list of ad sites from the webpage
5. Go to 'save as' and call the file urlfilter.ini , where it says encoding, select UTF-8. Before pressing save shut opera.
6. That should work then but if not click on the 'urlfilter.ini' link on the webpage and browse for the file you just created. Select it and press 'save', restart opera and that should work, it works fine for me!
7. Relax in an ad free world!

This has worked brilliantly. I pretty much have Opera running just how I like it. I only wish I could figure out how to have say two or three tabs automatically open instead of just the homepage. In IE, I had 4 tabs load with varying financial indicators that I view every night. Beyond that, I like it. I don't know that it's overly superior to IE, but it works well and it's likely that given some investment in time, I'd probably get a lot more out of it.

BTW - can some please REP s1. I keep gettig a message that I can't give it out right now.

 

[pzaur]

Don't forget to adjust your cookie settings to deny specific sites/companies like doubleclick and such.

Now, if anyone has suggestions for blocking pop-UNDER ads I would love to hear them!

-pat

 

[haraldo]

Very sorry to hear about this trouble Chris....

There is a way of practically making a bulletproof setup of browser so that it's physically impossible for viruses to get to your machine, even in windows.

TAKE AWAY PRACTICALLY ALL PRIVILEGES from the account that runs browser.

I only tested this on older versions, like XP and windows server 2003

It requires quite a lot of tweaking and.... well I don't use it anymore coz my main platform is Linux now, but this really works

You need to make an unprivileged user "browser" without even user access to system
Make sure that the user only do have read access to any files on operating system
User must of course have write access to it's local profile folder and files
I don't have this setup available now so I can't say exactly which privileges must be there

Alternatively, if it's XP or you run Vista or Windows 7 with UAE disabled and the user you use have administrator rights, you will be a lot safer, by creating this browser user with standard user rights than to run browser with Administrator rights!

Alongside this I made sure that all operating system files are not writeable for ordinary users.

Create a batch file with the following command:
runas /user:browser “c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe"

Make a shortcut for this file to your desktop or sth.

To start browser, doubleclick this shortcut, unfortunately you have to write the password for the browser user every time you start this, but this is the price to pay to be safer

Now windows will protect itself because the user does not have access to write to protected file system, memory is protected by ordinary mechanisms and browser cannot get to protected memory

So even if antivirus doesn't catch virus, this will stop it.
You have to realize that now your browsing environment runs with another user than what you have logged on as interactively and this could possibly be troublesome with handling of favorites, documents and so on.....

It's not so easy, and it's quite a lot of work, but it works and is bulletproof