Goodbye Internet Explorer!

You may have heard about the many security holes in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as well as Outlook Express over the years.  By far, these two applications have been attacked and exploited by hackers for many reasons.  By far, it is because they are the prevalent browser and e-mail application in use today so, they have the most potential for hackers to maximize the number of machines that they can access.  It is because of this that I have used 2 applications to avoid these opportunities and have found that I have eliminated pop-up ads as well.  As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen a pop-up ad for over two years, which, in and of itself, is a major victory after hearing of the experience of others. 

My (and it should be yours as well) choice for Internet browser is called Firefox.  It is an open source program developed by many dedicated programmers and is an ongoing project because the Internet is an ongoing project as well.  I have found that it is very safe, easy to use and infinitely customizable to meet your needs.  It also features something called “Tabbed Browsing” which will become a necessity to your after you see just how convenient it is.  As a matter of fact, Microsoft is going to follow suit on this feature with the next release of Internet Explorer 7.0.  Another thing that I really like about Firefox is that when a security hole is discovered they do not try to issue a patch to fix things.  They issue an entirely new version for download.  I think that most of us that have used the “other” browser have found that patching just doesn’t work very well.  Patch after patch for years on end just haven’t made things safe enough for me considering that a hacker can take your machine over via an exploit of your browser. You can also inport your favorites list, that you have spent years accumulating , from Internet Explorer.

You can find Firefox’s free download by clicking here.

Now, for a safer e-mail client for those of you that use Outlook Express.  It is an integral part of the Open Source browser Firefox.  It is called Thunderbird and it has all other e-mail clients beat hands down!  First of all, it doesn’t seem to be as big a target for hackers trying to gain use of your PC.  Secondly, it has a built-in Spam Filter, which is very effective and trainable.  Thirdly, as with all open source materials that I am describing on these pages---it’s Free!

 Click here to download a copy of Thunderbird.

Again, as with Firefox, the look takes a little adjustment from what you may be used to but it’s really no big deal.  In a few days, you’ll never notice that.  But once you have used the features, see all of your tidal wave of spam disappearing, and get things set up your way, you will never again use anything else.

I am going to be devoting some additional pages to each of the above programs in order to get you around to setting up some of the more popular features of each of them.  It may take me a while, but it will be worth the trip.