Firefox plugins

Niceguyeddie616

Ok, so I'm sick of IE8 crashing on me whenever I leave it open for a while, and would like to use Firefox as my default browser. Only thing is, I know you need certain plugins for Firefox to be safe, I don't want to get a ton of spyware/popups after switching my preferred browser.

Can anyone recommend me some plugins to use to make sure I'm protected from viruses and spyware while using Firefox?

JAEF

NoScript blocks all scripting of java, flash, etc. on a page unless you expressly allow it. You can whitelist sites so that they will be permanently allowed in the future. Very keen.

AdBlock gets rid of.. well.. annoying ads all over the place. Good with EasyList which will give you a huge base of blocked ads so that you'll almost never see any unless you're browsing the tiny corners of the web. Just grab #1 and don't bother with the rest.

mastman

Noscript is going to make a ton of websites not work normally. You don't really need something like it unless you're looking for trouble. Plus firefox can do this automatically

Adblock is the win
locationbar is a good one, it highlights the actual URL you are at so there's no tricky . play

flatlinegraphics

Niceguyeddie616 wrote: »

Ok, so I'm sick of IE8 crashing on me whenever I leave it open for a while, and would like to use Firefox as my default browser. Only thing is, I know you need certain plugins for Firefox to be safe, I don't want to get a ton of spyware/popups after switching my preferred browser.

Can anyone recommend me some plugins to use to make sure I'm protected from viruses and spyware while using Firefox?

you really don;t NEED any plugins. for the most part, virii and adware are installed as activeX scripts that interface directly with the IE api. if you are not using IE, guess what? they don;t work.

plugins just help more. between adblockplus and flashblock, you can see what the web used to be like. entertaining instead of a chore.

also, look up "adblock hosts" on google.

jotate

If you've been using IE this whole time, you're likely to run into pages that only work properly on IE (I use the term "properly" very loosely). IE Tab will help with this. It puts an icon at the bottom right corner of the browser that you can click which loads the page your looking at in a tab (in the Firefox browser) as it would if you were loading it in IE. I've found it to be pretty useful.

embrik

jotate wrote: »

If you've been using IE this whole time, you're likely to run into pages that only work properly on IE (I use the term "properly" very loosely). IE Tab will help with this. It puts an icon at the bottom right corner of the browser that you can click which loads the page your looking at in a tab (in the Firefox browser) as it would if you were loading it in IE. I've found it to be pretty useful.

This is what I use as well. I barely ever touch IE anymore. Windows Update will even work with it.

tony_important

for ease of use: mouse gestures.

opening tabs, going back/forward, closing windows are all a bit faster to do, AND less enegry consuming when using a laptop touch pad.

Daedalus

embrik wrote: »

jotate wrote: »

If you've been using IE this whole time, you're likely to run into pages that only work properly on IE (I use the term "properly" very loosely). IE Tab will help with this. It puts an icon at the bottom right corner of the browser that you can click which loads the page your looking at in a tab (in the Firefox browser) as it would if you were loading it in IE. I've found it to be pretty useful.

This is what I use as well. I barely ever touch IE anymore. Windows Update will even work with it.

You don't even need IETab. Use WindizUpdate.

jotate

Daedalus wrote: »

embrik wrote: »

jotate wrote: »

If you've been using IE this whole time, you're likely to run into pages that only work properly on IE (I use the term "properly" very loosely). IE Tab will help with this. It puts an icon at the bottom right corner of the browser that you can click which loads the page your looking at in a tab (in the Firefox browser) as it would if you were loading it in IE. I've found it to be pretty useful.

This is what I use as well. I barely ever touch IE anymore. Windows Update will even work with it.

You don't even need IETab. Use WindizUpdate.

From what I'm reading about that, I doubt it fixes the pages that are made with exclusively IE-only features. God knows how many shitty forums I've been to that are totally misaligned and cluster fucked because they were built for IE and no one thought to see what it looked like in FF.

Of course, that goes all the way back to the <marquee> tag when it was IE vs. Netscape Navigator. Ah, the beginning of IE un-standardizing the standards.

Daedalus

jotate wrote: »

Daedalus wrote: »

embrik wrote: »

jotate wrote: »

If you've been using IE this whole time, you're likely to run into pages that only work properly on IE (I use the term "properly" very loosely). IE Tab will help with this. It puts an icon at the bottom right corner of the browser that you can click which loads the page your looking at in a tab (in the Firefox browser) as it would if you were loading it in IE. I've found it to be pretty useful.

This is what I use as well. I barely ever touch IE anymore. Windows Update will even work with it.

You don't even need IETab. Use WindizUpdate.

From what I'm reading about that, I doubt it fixes the pages that are made with exclusively IE-only features. God knows how many shitty forums I've been to that are totally misaligned and cluster fucked because they were built for IE and no one thought to see what it looked like in FF.

Of course, that goes all the way back to the <marquee> tag when it was IE vs. Netscape Navigator. Ah, the beginning of IE un-standardizing the standards.

[personal anecdote warning]

One day, I was looking for something (don't even remember what, maybe MUGEN characters or something, I don't even remember) on the Internet. I ran into a site that demanded that I use Internet Explorer before I could use it. So, against my better judgement, I fired up ol' IE6, and went to go use the site, and it exploited a yet-unpatched security hole and I spent the rest of the day cleaning shit off of my computer.

The moral of this story is that if a site mandates using Internet Explorer, the solution isn't to change your browser, it's to change what site you're using.

MotherFirefly

Usually when you get firefox they redirect you to a start page with recommended add-ons. Adblock is one of the ones I have, I'm also a digg user etc. so they have add-ons for that as well.

Captain Vash

Have you heard of the "block firefox" movement?
Some people are so stupid.

http://whyfirefoxisblocked.com/index1.php
Warning: Only click if you want to read some extremely stupid things.

powerss

No one that matters is explicitly blocking Firefox.

Non-IE browsers make up close to 60-70% of the internet that matters.

Drop the browser that makes me want to strangle children (I'm a web developer) and go Firefox. You don't need to worry about security unless you do absurdly retarded things.

Dark Shroud

I use IE7 on Vista, Opera 9 fully updated, and Sea Monkey. If you don't like IE I'd recommend checking out Opera. If has everything I've ever needed built in, includeing Ad-block.

I only use 3 plug-ins in Mozilla Sea Monkey. Ad Block Plus, Open in IE instead of IE tab, and Linkification.

I thought the opening comment about IE8 was funny since it doesn't exsist. IE7 on Vista is pretty good, the protected mode is really great. IE7 setting the never used ActivX opt out to default was needed 7 yeats ago.

I'll just point out that IE7 Pro add-on, it makes IE7 a lot more useful and it's worth checking out just once to see what's going on with IE.

Niceguyeddie616

lol, IE8, sorry I didn't catch that, I'm just tired of using it because the longer you leave it open it gets slower and slower it seems. Also, when I leave it open for long, and i try to close it with multiple tabs open, it insta-crashes. It's fine other than that little problem, but I was sick and tired of having it crash like 90% of the time. It's like Microsoft doesn't even test their shit before throwing it out the door

Blake T

Out of curiosity does the new version of adblock now filter out the tremendous amounts of flash based ads you'll see at websites nowdays? Personally I don't mind ads but I get a bit annoyed when due to the massive amounts of system resources they take on my old computer.

TychoCelchuuu

I'd second Opera, because you don't need to fiddle around with extensions and stuff that'll increase your chance of a conflict/crashes/whatever.

Janin

Blaket wrote: »

Out of curiosity does the new version of adblock now filter out the tremendous amounts of flash based ads you'll see at websites nowdays? Personally I don't mind ads but I get a bit annoyed when due to the massive amounts of system resources they take on my old computer.

Adblock has always filtered flash, if you've configured it to. By default it filters nothing. You have to either define filters yourself, or download an existing filter list. You can also install Flashblock, which will replace all flash content with a "click to play" button.

Reiten

I personally use filterset.G (get the extension w/ the autoupdater) with Adblock and don't see any popups or ads. Love it.

However, if you have some favorite website, you might consider white-listing them. I do that w/ Penny Arcade. I see their rather unintrusive ads, occasionally click on one and help them earn some money.