Browsers

[C.R. Ripshit]

What are some good reccamended browsers?

I am sick of having to use Internet Explorer and MSN Explorer.

I've heard Safari is a pretty good one so I might download that one but I want your guys' opinions and suggestions.

Basically one that runs good and has never had any problems for you.

[DoctaD]

Firefox

I may as well close the topic now... :P

Pretty much all of 'em have their downfalls, but Firefox has less than the rest IMO

[Adrian_Faythe]

I second Firefox.

[blaksun]

Firefox

I may as well close the topic now... :P

Pretty much all of 'em have their downfalls, but Firefox has less than the rest IMO
Yes agreed. Firefox is, doubtless, the best way to internet.

www.getfirefox.com

[torcher]

agreed. ive also got firefox. ive never had a single problem with it.

[Eulux]

I use IE mainly cause I fucked with the registry, and it runs faster than firefox now...that helps with an online game I play that is browser based.

[Stone]

Safari is a Mac only browser.

IE sucks, plain and simple.

In my honest opinion, Firefox is the best. It actually can be slower than IE at times, and having multiple tabs open does eat more RAM than multiple IE windows (AND!!! when you close the IE windows [bar one] the RAM is released, but with Firefox, open 20 tabs and close all except for the window, FF still keeps the RAM! They'd better fix that soon biatches!) Still, it is just so superior overall to other browsers I have to use it.

Eulux, if IE is faster for the games, have you tried an alternate gecko browser? K-meleon perhaps? It is way faster than anything I've seen, but it's kinda buggy and FF beats it for user-friendlyness anyday.

Opera is a good browser but you have to pay for the ad-free version (unless you find a serial number online and don't mind being registered to other people's name)

[Eulux]

I've tried it, but with the reg hacks I've made, I see no reason to switch...it runs as smooth as a caddy.

[THErAPIST]

maxthon. originally based on IE, but has alot of things i really like. it used to be called My IE 2, but then they upgraded it and shit so now it's better.

windows tabbed as option
custom url quick keys (i can hit F2 and go to google)
custom url aliases (i can sinply type g into the url bar and then hit enter and go to google
custom mouse actions: hold down the right mouse button and move the mouse left to go back, opposite for forward. hold right mouse button and left click and the current window close
has a button to save flash files from web pages
built in pop up blocker (that actually works)
optional, minimizes to system tray in right corner near clock, or to start bar at the bottom of the screen
doesnt have the vulnarabilities that IE does (they seem to get fixed)
faster than IE

[SayItAintSo014]

I also must agree with Firefox, it hasn't failed me yet

[Armalite]

What reg hacks have you made?

[Eulux]

I just want to add a huge fuckin disclaimer to this...hence I will give you a day before I post anything about fuckin with the registry.

I wouldn't do any reg changes if your knowledge of windows is shit...unless you are comfortable with starting over (this is how I learned, I had a friend school me)...or making a backup of the reg.

*know what? I found a website that explains it much better than I could...I'll let it be your choice if you wanna try it or not.

http://www.the-scream.co.uk/html/resources/ie_reg_tweak.html

[Stone]

Would be cool if you could do it as a seperate thread/tutorial that could be converted to a textfile for the site!

[Eulux]

*cough* sorry, I got lazy and searched...always someone who's done it before. he beat me by a few years...

[DoctaD]

I never had a problem with speed while using IE, I just plain don't trust it... tweaking the registry doesn't combat IE's other problems, does it?

[Eulux]

No, but being behind a hardware firewall helps...

[Biovore]

Not really.

A hardware firewall will deny all unrequested incomming connections, unless told to forward all corrospondance to another machine, firewall, router, whatever.

The main issue with a hardware firewall is it allows *any* machine to send outgoing connections without inspection of the packets. This is called Stateful inspection if you want to read more about it. You could click on a link thinking its right, when it is hijacked to a spyware install which uses the latest firefox/IE exploit. A firewall is going to do jack shit about exploits. It wont stop them, as you are allowing a connection to start with.

FF and IE are just as bad as each other. The main reason why IE is "buggy", is active X, if you use IE DISABLE active X.

Last year, FF had more exploits than IE, ATM FF has less. its a much of a muchness...

I'll streamline that now for the site.

[Eulux]

my hardware firewall sends everything to a linux box, then that sends to my computer...at least when my network is up, which is every other week due to me taking it down constantly...and active X is not enabled.

well, I had typed out a long explanation of how my system works, but there are storms in houston ATM...and a surge just happened. to sum it up, I am notified of all downloads prior to it downloading. and the pix has stateful inspection...learned about it in net security...from what I've heard pix is good..haven't looked too much at other brands besides cisco though.

[Lynked]

Opera is hands down my broser of choice. Fully standards compliant, and very light weight.

Here's a good explanation from Fravia+ :

http://www.searchlores.org/tuttiope.htm

Need anything else be said?

Biovore:-

It's nice to read from someon who understands hw firewalls and stateful inspection... There are so many that think address translation = firewall.

To add to the help you gave:

Biovore is on the money, a firewall performing stateful packet inspection won't protect you against most browser exploits (although 99% of them can be avoided by using Opera ;-)

I think I'll start a firewall thread, for more discussion on stateful vs filtering etc. since this thread was about browsers. Here's a good link about deep packet inspection, wherein the firewall does protect against things such as browser exploits and virus threats:

http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1817