Internet Browsers

[CaleyMad]

Just a bit of fun to get away from all the negativity on the forum at the moment.

Theres a list of the top 10 internet browsers as choosen by this site

I currently have Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari and Maxthon. Maxthon would be my favorite for me out of them.

[ICTFCkev]

I prefer Chicken & Bacon.

[CaleyMad]

I prefer Chicken & Bacon.

I don't get it :sleep01:

[Scotty]

I currently have Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari and Maxthon. Maxthon would be my favorite for me out of them.

Maxthon - a chinese add-on to IE rather than its own browser. Is Maxthon2 less buggy than Maxthon was and less full of potentially malicious scripts ?

Firefox, IE8 & Opera for me - FF at home, no choice but to use IE8 at work and Opera on the iPhone.

[Georgeios]

IE for me, Im lazy though, Plug and play, ive used it for years and dont like change... Firefox was fine to but it was already installed when I bought the laptop off my mate, now adays as ive said im lazy, I user IE at work so when i go home IE it is...

[Libero]

any one of these depending where i'm accessing the web: firefox, IE8, google chrome or safari

[SMEE]

My preferrence is for Firefox. I find IE clunky and unreliable to say the least!

[Jay_7]

Firefox on my computers and Fennec on my Touch HD.

[Ritchie Sacramento]

Firefox for moi.

[ICTFCkev]

Internet Explorer for the same reason as Georgie

[Scotty]

Kind of funny really .... most who have posted in this thread have indicated FireFox as their browser yet the site stats (google analytics) we use and which form the basis of our development decisions indicate a very different picture. Maybe FF users are just more technical

3 pictures here:

1. Browsers
   
2. Browsers & OS
   
3. Screen Resolution
   

[CaleyMad]

I currently have Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari and Maxthon. Maxthon would be my favorite for me out of them.

Maxthon - a chinese add-on to IE rather than its own browser. Is Maxthon2 less buggy than Maxthon was and less full of potentially malicious scripts ?

Oh yeah, am using Maxthon2. I noticed some things were Internet Explorer like. Also the Icons remind me of the 'AMSN' icons i had on my messenger while running Ubuntu.

[Scotty]

Maxthon started life as "MyIE" and then "MyIE2" .. at the time I believe they were full of "partner offers" which most people would call spyware.

Having done a few more checks, it seems like Maxthon still sends info to its "update servers" every hour even if you set all the updates to NO. I would be quite wary of this one personally. Even if there is nothing malicious, they are, at the very least, data mining your browsing habits and you cant stop them at the browser level even if you turn off every possible setting that controls that. The only way to stop the info drain is to explicitly block your system from connecting to the specific external IP addresses using a firewall.

[CaleyMad]

Maxthon started life as "MyIE" and then "MyIE2" .. at the time I believe they were full of "partner offers" which most people would call spyware.

Having done a few more checks, it seems like Maxthon still sends info to its "update servers" every hour even if you set all the updates to NO. I would be quite wary of this one personally. Even if there is nothing malicious, they are, at the very least, data mining your browsing habits and you cant stop them at the browser level even if you turn off every possible setting that controls that. The only way to stop the info drain is to explicitly block your system from connecting to the specific external IP addresses using a firewall.

Suppose i better choose a different browser because i have only the windows firewall.

I dont have any anti-virus software but Logic Computers in Elgin was adiment that i didnt need it on a Windows XP Proffesional Edition because all viruses and malware are made for Home Edition. If that is true or not i dont know.

I might go back to firefox or even start using safari...

[The Fly]

I dont have any anti-virus software but Logic Computers in Elgin was adiment that i didnt need it on a Windows XP Proffesional Edition because all viruses and malware are made for Home Edition. If that is true or not i dont know.

That's certainly not the case - AIUI all the Windows versions use basically the same code, and the Edition pretty much refers to how much of it is activated on your PC. If you've got no AV then you're at risk - there are free AV programs you can get if you don't want to pay.

[CaleyMad]

I dont have any anti-virus software but Logic Computers in Elgin was adiment that i didnt need it on a Windows XP Proffesional Edition because all viruses and malware are made for Home Edition. If that is true or not i dont know.

That's certainly not the case - AIUI all the Windows versions use basically the same code, and the Edition pretty much refers to how much of it is activated on your PC. If you've got no AV then you're at risk - there are free AV programs you can get if you don't want to pay.

My 192Mb of RAM cant cope with any background activity so Anti Viral software.

I am getting a laptop with my 1st or 2nd pay so then ill get AVG or something similar...

[Scotty]

I dont have any anti-virus software but Logic Computers in Elgin was adiment that i didnt need it on a Windows XP Proffesional Edition because all viruses and malware are made for Home Edition. If that is true or not i dont know.

What utter crap, whoever told you that is totally clueless and it is scary that it is someone from a computer shop saying that !!!! A combination of Antivirus, Firewall and Spyware/Malware detection programs are essential. they wont guarantee you wont get infected but they will give you a good chance of detecting nasty stuff before intrusion or installation

You can get all of them for free by using a combination of things like

• Antivirus: AVG Antivirus, Avast, Avira
  
• Spyware: Spyware Blaster, Ad-Aware, Windows Defender, SuperAntiSpyware
  [note - many people are no longer recommending Spybot S&D as development has not kept up with the others]
  
• 'software' Firewall: Windows Firewall, Comodo, ZoneAlarm. Ashampoo
  

Most of these free products also have "pro" versions or "suites" that do it all - Norton Internet Security 2010 has just been released and it is getting good reviews, Comodo have a suite as does AVG and ZoneAlarm ....

It is also a good idea to have a hardware firewall in your setup. A correctly setup router between your internet modem/router/cable box and your PC will do this job for you very well and allow you to block ports, prevent intrusions or control who can connect to your network.

Back to the browsers ..... Maxthon may not be doing anything dodgy but it certainly seems they are at the very least data-mining your browsing habits. If you still want to use that browser then do some google searching and you will find the IP addresses that it sends to mentioned on many web pages, you should be able to block those IPs. Also be very careful with any browser add-ons - and this goes for all browsers not just maxthon - especially search toolbars as they can sometimes bundle some bloated stuff or even spyware with them.

If you are not paranoid about security on your PC, then you arent protected enough :crazy07:

[Scotty]

My 192Mb of RAM cant cope with any background activity so Anti Viral software.

disable or uninstall any un-needed windows features, get rid of your desktop wallpaper, get rid of as many icons on the desktop as you can, use msconfig to check startup processes for ones you dont need/use and disable them (careful not to disable essential ones though) .. this will all be affecting available memory.

For Browsers, I would suggest Opera as this uses the least system resources or if you want to use Maxthon, downgrade to Maxthon V1. Of course, having fewer tabs open will also help. On your current system, and although it is my favourite browser, I would say dont touch Firefox with a barge pole .... It is a memory pig and also suffers from memory leakage ... If I have 4 or 5 tabs open on my home PC on a matchday, listening to streaming audio and updating pages I can be using 400Mb of memory to run it after about half an hour .....

[CaleyMad]

Totally wiped my computer when i got Professional Edition, No unwanted programmes starting up upon start up, took my desktop wallpaper off and icons are deleted.

I kinda think its the o2 connection manager that i use because it is recommended at 1 GB. It seems to be only when i am connected to the net.

[Scotty]

I kinda think its the o2 connection manager that i use because it is recommended at 1 GB. It seems to be only when i am connected to the net.

Given that you only have 20% of the recommended memory, you are probably right ! I couldnt find a spec for the minimum memory required but considering you can run it and not much else its probably quite close to what you have !

[CaleyMad]

Yer Opera seems much better... now i can run Windows Live Messenger AND Internet at the same time.... I feel so privelaged.

Safari is decent aswell but i dont use that as much...