Internet Explorer Vs. Firefox

[superfly]

fine. visit secunia.com.

 

[wayfaring man]

Okay , well let's say there may be some added vulnerability in the Firefox Browser because of the " open source code " , would having good firewall protection keep would be hackers at bay ?

 

[flashwizard]

Unfortuantely I wish that was true. But having a good firewall is irrelevant because it must open ports that the browser uses to make persistent connections. And that is how it gets exploited through the firewall.

 

[SirKenin]

Okay , well let's say there may be some added vulnerability in the Firefox Browser because of the " open source code " , would having good firewall protection keep would be hackers at bay ?

It would, and so would having spybot with teatimer. Thing is if you're going to use that you might as well use Internet Explorer and view the entire web the way it was meant to be seen (unless you're a fanboy that is).

 

[SirKenin]

really? according to http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/10/ie_sp2_exploit/ and http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/30/ms_phel_vuln/ and http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/18/ie_security_bugs_again/ your statement is wrong. you're obviously not looking in the right places for your sources.

Oh no. Three!!! How many for Firefox in the same time period using the same SP2??? I'll let you guess.

I have no use for fanboyism and painting only one half of the picture to justify the bias.

 

[wayfaring man]

Unfortuantely I wish that was true. But having a good firewall is irrelevant because it must open ports that the browser uses to make persistent connections. And that is how it gets exploited through the firewall.

Okay , then what do you recommend for the sake of safe internet browsing ?

 

[wayfaring man]

It would, and so would having spybot with teatimer. Thing is if you're going to use that you might as well use Internet Explorer and view the entire web the way it was meant to be seen (unless you're a fanboy that is).

Actually , I don't " know " enough to be a " fanboy " in the PC realm .

But I do have the " teatimer " that comes with Spybot .

Is there anything else , you could recommend ?

 

[SirKenin]

Actually , I don't " know " enough to be a " fanboy " in the PC realm .

But I do have the " teatimer " that comes with Spybot .

Is there anything else , you could recommend ?

Yup. Microsoft Antispyware Beta is very good. If you have XP check it out.

 

[superfly]

Oh no. Three!!! How many for Firefox in the same time period using the same SP2??? I'll let you guess.

i don't *guess* like you. i go according to the facts... that's only 3 of the many news articles around. the thing is that we don't make such a fuss about ie and windows holes BECAUSE THEY ARE SO COMMON.
i certainly can go and rip out a whole bunch more articles for you. but let's go and see what secunia has to say...

http://secunia.com/product/11/ - ie
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 with all vendor patches installed and all vendor workarounds applied, is currently affected by one or more Secunia advisories rated Highly critical.
Currently, 19 out of 79 Secunia advisories, is marked as "Unpatched" in the Secunia database.

http://secunia.com/product/4227/ - firefox
Mozilla Firefox 1.x with all vendor patches installed and all vendor workarounds applied, is currently affected by one or more Secunia advisories rated Moderately critical.
Currently, 5 out of 14 Secunia advisories, is marked as "Unpatched" in the Secunia database.

oh dear.... there are less security advisories (i.e. security holes) in total for firefox than the number of unpatched security advisories for ie. hmmm....

get the facts.

 

[superfly]

use firefox or opera as your browser (no matter what others say: look at facts, not at what people say). use a virus checker (antivir or avg are two free ones that work well). use some anti-spyware software (ad-aware from lavasoft, spybot search and destroy). use a firewall, even if you only use windows' builtin firewall.

on the other hand, you can do what i do, and just not use windows at all. i use linux (suse linux), and i don't worry about any of the above, plus i have a computer that never hangs, crashes or gives me useless, encrypted error messages.

 

[Jatopian]

w00t for Firefox! The open source method lets everyone customize and repair it.

 

[SirKenin]

get the facts.

I have the facts. I make it my business to know them because I like contradicting fanboys. I know for a fact that there is quite a few exploits out there for Firefox at the moment. You're just not presenting them because it would blow your argument out of the water. Understandable really.

You have to use Firefox because you had to be a rebel and use Linux. No soup for you.

 

[flashwizard]

on the other hand, you can do what i do, and just not use windows at all. i use linux (suse linux), and i don't worry about any of the above, plus i have a computer that never hangs, crashes or gives me useless, encrypted error messages.

Using linux is an option, but with the expense of using linux as your sole connection to the rest of the world you are extremely limited; the software solutions that can be run on that platform is small compared to a pc or mac. Linux is good for platform independant systems, such as servers.

 

[flashwizard]

Okay , then what do you recommend for the sake of safe internet browsing ?

Best way that is most overlooked -> be educated and not skeptic. There is a huge difference. Skeptics are the types of people that shut of cookies and javascript in there browser because they're afraid that something bad is going to get them because this is what they have "heard." Being educated is knowing what sites to stay away from, what content can exploit your machine, and when to give out your credit card number for shopping (e.g. is the site SSL secured and what is their reputation?), and how to go about a problem when and if something suspicious pops up.

 

[wayfaring man]

Yup. Microsoft Antispyware Beta is very good. If you have XP check it out.

Yea , Downloaded that one a few months ago .

Also run 3 firewalls at the same time & have Adaware , Spybot , Spywareblaster + AVG Anit-virus . Plus go online as " User " , and a few other little tips picked up here and there .

 

[wayfaring man]

Best way that is most overlooked -> be educated and not skeptic. There is a huge difference. Skeptics are the types of people that shut of cookies and javascript in there browser because they're afraid that something bad is going to get them because this is what they have "heard." Being educated is knowing what sites to stay away from, what content can exploit your machine, and when to give out your credit card number for shopping (e.g. is the site SSL secured and what is their reputation?), and how to go about a problem when and if something suspicious pops up.

Yes , education is good , but what happens when our " educators " do not agree ?

Like now , for example , since I can't tell which is better , IE or Ff , I'm using them both !

In the hope that experience will be a gentle , but thorough teacher .

The proof is in the performance .

( Individual results may vary , and the author of this post assumes no responsibility for loss or injury to anyone's data or demeanor .)

Appreciate the many replies

wm

 

[Beatle]

I like them both personally

 

[Confused and alone]

I use IE when i have to but i love firefox and while it does have it problems you don't have to wait on microsoft(who is typically slow and lazy about fixing problems) to get them fixed. In fact they are working on in proving FF's built in pop-up blocker to stop the few pop-ups that are bypassing it at the moment and which program has more issues? IE does.

 

[ldicdican]

agree with you! :thumb:

firefox is the best browser i ever use, since they started with phoenix.
i love their tab-browsing, pop-up blocker, java REALTIME-disable/enable feature(if you use ie, you should restart its browser for the changes to take effect WHICH is very slow).

 

[Aya-kun]

I only use Firefox now, since my IE has been giving me problems lately. It just won't load anything and keeps asking if I want to connect. It's very, very annoying.