[Doug]

Users of the world's most common web browser have been advised to switch to another browser until a serious security flaw has been fixed.

See this story on the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7784908.stm

So if you're looking for a new browser, check out Firefox now - Click here. It's actually a better browser anyway.

 

[Doug]

More news here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008...to_explore.html

This could really be a problem for some. The hackers target Microsoft like no other company. Firefox is a better browser - at least for the moment. Free and easy to use and configure. Built in spell checking should help some forum members

 

[ebaykal]

Although still a beta version I would also highly recommend "Google Chrome".

Baykal

 

[neil_s_wood]

QUOTE (ebaykal @ 17 Dec 2008, 05:34) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Although still a beta version I would also highly recommend "Google Chrome".

Baykal
What's a beta version?

I did try Firefox at the recommendation of other forum users a while back and gave up pretty soon after as I was not very impresssed with it. Has it improved?

 

[dwb]

QUOTE What's a beta version?

I did try Firefox at the recommendation of other forum users a while back and gave up pretty soon after as I was not very impresssed with it. Has it improved?

Beta, second letter of the Greek alphabet and the "bet" in alphabet. Used to describe a product that's almost ready for prime time but not quite, so don't be surprised if it does something weird. Given the saying "Don't buy anything which is version x.0", you could be forgiven for wondering if it releasing beta software really does the job

I'm now on Firefox 3.x and it doesn't have any quirks I don't like and it's not IE. I discovered at work today that Firefox 2.x handled an Internet page I needed better than whatever flavour of IE ships with Vista.

David

 

[neil_s_wood]

Might give it another try then.

 

[Richard Johnson]

QUOTE (Doug @ 17 Dec 2008, 03:30) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>More news here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008...to_explore.html

This could really be a problem for some. The hackers target Microsoft like no other company. Firefox is a better browser - at least for the moment. Free and easy to use and configure. Built in spell checking should help some forum members

***These vulnerabilities have always existed and they are not limited to IE, so the answer really isn't one browswer or another, its that you really must have a good interactive anti-virus programme in place and operational including daily automatic updates.

IE remains at a guesss 90+ percent of all browswers in use, so its always going to be a prime target both statistically and because hackers can get a bigger thrill / potential profit from attacking a large corporate target. Because of this, Microsofts issues are always front page... other browser types simply aren't discussed or worried about by the press, so I sort of discount such things a lot every time....

Anyway, I'm actually forced to use IE as my main browser as I'm rebuilding the website .... (perversely this is because an IE change fritzed my menu system)

I stay with it as pragmatically, above all the website must present OK in that browser. The curse is that later I will need to try to "patch" some pages for the others.... The big problem for me is that Firefox and all the others tend to not display some forms of fonts/graphics/images all that well (especially if there are scaled images or gradients or odd font sizes or things like italics on the page).

So - having a good antivirus + having used IE for years as the primary browser (and BTW I have all the others on the desktop too) I'll stay with IE7 and my trusty antivirus package, and simply not worry... as if after 12 hours a day online for may years I've never had an infecction, its unlikely one will happen now!

Richard

 

[Doug]

I actually develop this site and others using Firefox as the main test browser as it handles HTML better than IE. I do check that a review or article looks OK in IE, but invariably there are slight differences and the two browsers handle tables and picture formatting differently.

I encourage people to use Firefox as I think that it is a genuinely better product than IE. I've tested other browsers. Chrome is OK, but the add-ons and extensions of Firefox make it stand out. I use BBCodeXtra which is great for forums, FireFTP, French and English dictionaries, Google bar and Gmail notifier plus a couple of other add-ons.

For anyone who may be interested, I subscribe to a paid up anti-virus program (Norton). I've done this since the late 80's and I've never had a virus problem on my main computers. Regarding anti-virus solutions, you get what you pay for.

 

[80class]

I still think that most web pages look better in IE than Firefox due to the greater range of text supported by IE, however I recently converted to Firefox purely because of the add blocker add-on that automatically blocks all "in page" adds. This has sped up my internet browsing considerably!

Rob

 

[Doug]

I hope that you don't block our ads. We use them for competitions too so you'll miss out if you do.

 

[Chinahand]

Does Hotmail work with Firefox ??

 

[poliss]

According to the BBC news Microsoft are releasing a security update at 6.00pm tonight.

 

[steam-driven boy]

QUOTE (poliss @ 17 Dec 2008, 15:43) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>According to the BBC news Microsoft are releasing a security update at 6.00pm tonight.

Hi all,

Glad about that news, as a PC'phobe I'm happy to leave these things to those who should know far better than I do

Regards,

 

[poliss]

The security fix is out now on the Microsoft Update website here http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdat...t.aspx?ln=en-us