borfast 0 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 You've probably heard about a particularly nasty Trojan horse attack recently which exploited several vulnerabilities in Microsoft Internet Explorer and Internet Information Services. While viruses and Trojans have been around for years, this particular attack was new because it used several vulnerabilities at once, and it didn't require the user download or install any programs or visit any malicious Web sites. It's time to say goodbye to Internet Explorer and its security flaws forever. Here's how to do it. http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/07/01/123233.shtml?tid=78&tid=82&tid=90 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DarqFlare 0 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Hmmm... Symantec will eventually grab some protection against all of that, and I'll be good again. I can't get rid of IE. There are too many websites I visit that require it because of some coding or scripting that is ONLY IE compatible. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCH-Bruce 16 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 I can't get rid of IE. There are too many websites I visit that require it because of some coding or scripting that is ONLY IE compatible. I agree with Robert. I just don't see IE going away anytime soon if ever. You just need to stay informed and keep applying the patches. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
borfast 0 Posted July 2, 2004 Author Share Posted July 2, 2004 (edited) Well, I prefer to educate IE-only website owners and make them fix their websites so they become real websites and not IE-only websites But that's just my humble opinion. I know that not everyone is willing to try and change things, even if they complain about them. I'm an example of that, since I only contact site owners if I really need their sites. For my part, I haven't used IE for ages (except for testing websites I build, and I do it on an old disconnected laptop ) and I have nothing to complain about. I don't think I even know what a virus is anymore Edited July 2, 2004 by TCH-Raul Quote Link to post Share on other sites
borfast 0 Posted July 2, 2004 Author Share Posted July 2, 2004 Robert, I'm curious, could you please tell me a few sites that need IE to work? I'm not saying they don't need IE, I'd just like to see what needs to be changed to make them work out of IE, to see if it's really that hard for their owners to make the changes Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCH-Dick 25 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 I dont use IE at all anymore, its been disabled for months Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mike 1 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 I've been on Firefox 9 for awhile and I like it just fine. Rock Sign Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hockeypuck 0 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 What says that as people start swiching over to browsers like Firefox and the like that hackers and virus writers won't find vulnerabilities in those browsers and target them? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MikeJ 0 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Most likely they will be more targeted in the future. However, the way the mozilla team and Microsoft approach security in their browsers is significantly different in my opinion. Microsoft in the past has often focused on functionality first, security second (and in some cases standards third). They are slowly getting better, but still have a ways to go. Again, though... this is my opinion on the matter. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCH-Rob 0 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 What says that as people start swiching over to browsers like Firefox and the like that hackers and virus writers won't find vulnerabilities in those browsers and target them? They will if more started using it. Gotta remember it has alot to do with bragging rights. Who cares if I target the ten Mac users on the planet when I can hit 10 million windows users with IE. You will remember if I take down 10 million systems and not just 10. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
youneverknow 0 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Here is a site that looks bad with Firefox: http://fredmeyer.inserts2online.com/pageLa...&drpStoreID=457 you can see the graphics run on top of the verbage on the right hand side... youneverknow Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCH-Thomas 25 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Robert, I'm curious, could you please tell me a few sites that need IE to work?I'm not saying they don't need IE, I'd just like to see what needs to be changed to make them work out of IE, to see if it's really that hard for their owners to make the changes Doesnt visitors to most sites that have functions for lets say visually impaired need I.E? I have not seen one site yet that have those functions that works in Mozilla, Firefox etc... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
vengavenga 0 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Looking at the fredmeyer site nowin Firefox 0.9.1 and it looks fine - I might just be looking in the wrong place, but it does seem OK. I've tried abandoning IE on and off over the last couple of years, but until recently have always had to use it on a daily basis for one site or another. Things seem to have much improved in the last 2 or 3 months though - both Opera and Firefox seem much more capable than they were before. Used Firefox around 12 hours a day for the last month or so and think I've probably only had to use IE once or twice. Just my 2 centimos worth. Ali. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DarqFlare 0 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Raul, Many of the websites that deal with student access for UNLV and CCSN require IE. unlv.edu and ccsn.edu, online registration system requires it. My websites all work in FireFox, so don't point any fingers at me! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
youneverknow 0 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Here is a screen shot of the Fred Meyer site I see... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCH-Dick 25 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Heres a screen shot of the fred mayer site i see using firefox .9 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCH-Dick 25 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 heres another with the add Quote Link to post Share on other sites
youneverknow 0 Posted July 2, 2004 Share Posted July 2, 2004 Mike click on the ad to get the BIG view and see if it looks like my shot ( that is if you have nothing else to do) youneverknow Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Virtual Imager 0 Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 One doesn't hear much about Netscape anymore... is it just too outdated? Looking at my stats it seems that almost no one who visits my site is using it. I still have it (version 7.0) on my machine and with all this scary stuff going on I'm thinking about using it again instead of IE... at least untill I get another browser altogether. Any thoughts? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
borfast 0 Posted July 3, 2004 Author Share Posted July 3, 2004 Well, Netscape Navigator is based on Mozilla but Netscape is slower to update their Navigator product, whilst the Mozilla team is constantly releasing new versions of their products. So why should you use an outdated copy when you can have the up-to-date original? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCH-Don 0 Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 Have you looked the full list for your browsers? I still see a few hundred hits with older NS version 4.x Which is why I want keep my site looking the same in all browsers. Browsers Versions Grabber Hits Percent NETSCAPE 1776 2.2 % Netscape 7.1 No 1093 1.3 % Netscape 7.02 No 195 0.2 % Netscape 7.01 No 31 0 % Netscape 7.0 No 179 0.2 % Netscape 6.2 No 6 0 % Netscape 6.1 No 47 0 % Netscape 4.79 No 27 0 % Netscape 4.77 No 13 0 % Netscape 4.75 No 24 0 % Netscape 4.61 No 151 0.1 % As to another browser FireFox is so nice I haven't used IE in weeks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Deverill 0 Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 I have some trounble with Firefox on Microsoft's site (go figure). Especially the knowledge base. On the page support.microsoft.com/default.aspx if I click "Search the Knowledge base" at the top it reads then stops and it's still where it was - nothing changes. I saw one other sign-up or pay-online page that did that too recently but those are almost non-existant. I use Firefox when I can, IE when I have to and it's pretty rare. One good thing about Firefox is that with it being open source any holes are (will be) found patched in record time. How many times have you read "I told Microsoft about this problem 20 weeks ago and they never did anything. Now someone is exploiting it and they are scrambling to patch it?" I have - many times. Now for my soapbox that I've not been on here yet. I am a programmer above all other professional titles I may go by. I fully understand programming concepts and have been doing programming since 1977 with a degree in 87 and have been doing it professionally ever since. With that said, the kinds of problems that Microsoft says they have are inexcusable! I'm sure you've heard several times that exploits take advantage of buffer overruns. I'll not bore you with details but if you program you probably know that there is no excuse for that. If you have a buffer that's 255 bytes long and someone feeds you more than that and you don't handle it then you're an idiot! One fairly recent problem was if you rename an exe to an audio file then Windows Media Player will launch, see it's an exe and just for your convenience will run it as an exe. What idiots! This is one reason that open source doesn't have as many problems - if one guy writes something stupid like that and the source is available, another person will see it, call him a moron and fix it. Microsoft with their "be everything to everyone" attitude has so many lines of code and so much pressure on the programmers to produce that they don't have the time to be careful and do it right. No one is going to tell someone that he's fired if Firefox comes out a week late with a bunch more security in place. Rob's right that it's also about popularity, use and bragging rights. I would be totally surprised if Firefox took over dominance and had nearly as many problems as IE for the reasons I state here. Too bad so many businesses are lemmings and just follow the Microsoft leader. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
vengavenga 0 Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 Should also mention that there's an extension available for Firefox that adds a "View this page in IE" option to the right click menu, so if you do happen to come across a problem with a site then it's just takes 2 clicks to load the page you are trying to view. Ali. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Alan 0 Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 lol, Me being a young webmaster I am stupid when it comes to browsers, since my sites are not really businesses, I just prefer to do it and if someone can't see it o'well its their problem not mine lmao. I have started inch by inch getting more and more into CuteSITE Builder, so I guess all goes well now, since I put my Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 disk in the rack of the rest of my trash disks. And CuteSITE Builder/CuteFTP into my active CD-Rom Shelf lol. O'Well, just thought I would add my comment, I love IE, but I have like 500 security patchs from Microsoft I have to do someday for my computer lmao, if a hacker targeted me and got past my Norton I would be done for. lmao. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
tattoovampire 0 Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 I use Firefox 99% of the time. I used to be an Opera user but believe Firefox is faster and more stable, and seems to be able to handle some sites that make Opera die. The only time I use Explorer is when testing web pages or doing my online banking. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Virtual Imager 0 Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 Question: The title of this thread is "Replace and Disable IE Now" ... is it really necessary to disable it or is it enough to simply not use it, but leave it on your machine for 'emergency' uses like testing sites and viewing sites that are otherwise not viewable? VI Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TCH-Don 0 Posted July 3, 2004 Share Posted July 3, 2004 It might be difficult to disable and still have windows working. Its possible, but not worth the effort. I think its enough to just not use it until you find a page that will not work other wise. (like MS ) I have found that my online bank sites work just fine in FireFox. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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