IE and anti-spyware? or firefox (and anti-spyware?)

[mboud]

hello all,
so, after a few days of analyzing and fixing, rebooting, restore-pointing, installing, and lots of help and patience from ken545 (thanks again!), i started going thru the suggestion for how to avoid getting any malware in the future.
what i have done so far is, installed all anti-malware suggested by ken545 here and on the other websites he pointed me to and installed all windows updates.
one of the items mentioned is to use firefox over IE. my questions are:

- if i went thru all the anti-malware installations for IE, do i need to do it seperately for firefox? if so, how to do it differently so it applies to firefox?

- or, if i choose to use firefox instead of IE, do i need to do anything else extra at all, or is it that much safer using firefox?

- if i install firefox and import all settings from IE, does that include all the malware settings i have made/installed for IE?


i ask all these questions because now i want to do this for my wife's computer, unless there is a better way.

thanks for all your help!
m

[drragostea]

Hello mboud. Glad to hear that your problems were resolved.
- if i went thru all the anti-malware installations for IE, do i need to do it seperately for firefox? if so, how to do it differently so it applies to firefox?
Can you explain a little more about the "anti-malware" installation? There is no such facility/function in Internet Explorer, unless you are referring to a program such as Spybot.

In my perspective, Firefox does have the bells and whistles that IE lacks. It is also more detailed and more flexible in customization and allows the user to add add-ons. Mozilla Firefox is a browser far more better than IE in my perspective. Find out for yourself at Mozilla's Homepage:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
-
If you should import from IE, it does not really import 'everything' from IE. It does not import any settings, but just your favorites and bookmarks.

[mboud]

the installations weren't exactly for IE, i simply meant that the reason that i installed, S&D, spywareblaster, spywareguard, etc, was because IE itself was vulnerable and needed those extras to make my surfing safer. at least that's what i understood.

what i was asking, basically, is if i chose to use firefox, would i need to bother with all those extra programs?

if i do, since they have already been installed, does that mean they will function properly with firefox without any further steps on my part?

if i need to do more, what do i need to do?

the way it sounded to me was that firefox performed in such a way that all the extra anti-malware programs weren't necessary, but i wanted to make sure.

thanks
m

[drragostea]

what i was asking, basically, is if i chose to use firefox, would i need to bother with all those extra programs?

if i do, since they have already been installed, does that mean they will function properly with firefox without any further steps on my part?

if i need to do more, what do i need to do?

the way it sounded to me was that firefox performed in such a way that all the extra anti-malware programs weren't necessary, but i wanted to make sure.
mboud, if you chose Firefox, it would be up to you to decide whether to add the protection. The main goal of the SpywareBlaster and the Immunization is to harden your system's defenses.

Mozilla Firefox will function normally with or without the extra protection.

Like I said, it'll be up to you to decide. No one knows your machine better than you do.

Of course, the extra protection will do nicely and it will not interfere with your browsing or work in anyway. SpywareBlaster does not run in the background, nor does it use memory. Just Immunize and you're done.

[ME_2&]

As noted, Fx is a pretty decent alternative to IE - and if your wife likes Fx also, then life is good :)

Possibly you might also like to try extensions (".. would you like fries with that?") .. if so, might I suggest NoScript, CookieSafe Lite and possibly AdBlock Plus. These add further enhancements for dealing with basically what their names imply (and can alert you in realtime to possibly intrusive behavior of websites). They're nice additions to Fx.

SB41 will also need to have the protections enabled for Fx (much like SSD's immunizations) - SG (SpywareGuard) is pretty much a judgement call as it's heuristic in nature but does add a bit of extra protection at little overhead.

Or one may also consider Opera :D:

[drragostea]

Yup. The Internet is scary these days O.O
I finally found out how to enable my Hardware Firewall for my modem :fear:. Both a software and hardware firewall should strengthen your defenses.

Mozilla Firefox is indeed a good alternative because it makes up what Internet Explorer lacks. From ME_2&'s suggestion AdBlockPlus is the most I would recommend, if you do not use the others. Just note that you'll have to disable it when you watch CNET videos (Download.com). My browsing seems a lot cleaner with AdBlockPlus.

Safe Surfing.