Firefox Nearing 20 Million Downloads; 18 Million and growing regardless of recent security issues.

GameSHOUT ^ | Jan. 17, 2005 | Capt. Maverick

[holymoly]

It's hard to believe but to-date, Mozilla's Firefox browser has seen more than 18 million downloads. This appears to be a greater response than even Mozilla had hoped for. Many sources on the Internet are reporting that this is due to a great drive of Firefox user's missionary zeal in spreading the good word. Those people are credited with the unprecedented growth and success of Firefox 1.0.

"We're going to hit 20 million downloads before the end of the month. It's a wild ride and shows no sign of slowing down. Keep spreading the word. You all are the ones taking back the Web," said Asa of spreadfirefox.com. Asa further stated that part of the success of the spread of Firefox was the installation of the browser in libraries and schools, which allows more and more potential users the opportunity to try it before they download the browser for themselves.

Recent reports of security issues with Firefox does not seem to hamper the explosive success of the browser. As reported here on GameSHOUT, 4 out of 5 security issues still remain unprepared since a security report was issued by security research firm Secunia in August of 2004. They also state that 4 of those vulnerabilities found were rated "Less Critical" while only 1 was rated as "Moderately Critical".

[AntiBurr]

I'm one of them and it didn't work for me. After fighting with it for a couple of days I removed it and went back to IE. I wanted something faster and better than IE, but never could get FireFox to connect properly.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Well, now that Firefox is popular it will soon have lots of security problems.

Fine with me. When it does, I'll switch to Opera. When that gets hacked, I'll switch to Avant Browser...when that gets hacked...

Just like battling the Borg...you have to modulate your phaser frequencies to stay one step ahead of them.

[holymoly]

I already had the plug-ins installed BEFORE I downloaded Mozilla. After downloading Mozilla, I downloaded the plug-ins again, thinking it may have been necessary for that browser, too (hey, I'm a cmptr DUNCE!)...& they still didn't work.

Okay, you downloade & re-installed the plugins, and they still didn't work? That's very odd. My system as Adobe Acrobat, Crescendo, Real Player, and a few other plugins, all working fine. You should know that, in my experience, some plugins simply will not work with Mozilla/Firefox (such as Windows Media Player). You may need to check the URL I provided earlier for plugins for Mozilla.

Also, I can't figger out what their "Tabs" (or are they called "Tags", or WHAT???) are all about. People say that is 'sposed to be a major benefit of Mozilla over Windows, & I have no idea what they r talkin about.

Tabbed browsing. It allows you to have several sites/pages open in Mozilla. Try right-clicking on a link. You should see something similar to "Open Link in a New Tab". Also, depending on how you have Mozilla configured, you may be able to right click on the Tab Bar and select "New Tab".

You may want to check this out:
Mozilla Help & Support

[holymoly]

but never could get FireFox to connect properly

I'm still using Mozilla. I'm comfortable with it, and see no reason to move to Firefox (yet). Have you tried Mozilla 1.7.5?

[rwfromkansas]

Big firefox fan here. Sometimes I worry it is almost becoming a religion like Mac-lovers.

[freebilly]

Just like battling the Borg...you have to modulate your phaser frequencies to stay one step ahead of them.

Rust never sleeps....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Look at Xandros V3....working very well for me with Firefox for a dedicated Browsing machine.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Take a serious look at Xandros V3....

[polymuser]

Running Mozilla and T-Bird on W98SE and XPh machines OK. Keeping IE updated for W update and IE-only sites like GM. Looking at dedicated browser/mail machine for both home and small office. I want to isolate data-holding machines, but app's requiring online updating are a problem (vendor issue). The new Linux kernel for Windows looks interesting, but vice-versa would be better.

[MissTargets]

Information, and some good links here for ya. :)

[GodBlessUSA]

I wonder, because I use cable, is there still access to IE from hackers through cable even though I'm browsing through Firefox or is that closed off due to Firefox download? Fire Fox is my default browser. I still have icon IE and I can still get online that way, if I choose to. Do I need to uninstall or do anything to IE to make it safe? Or is just not clicking on the icon keeping IE closed?

I've already had id theft from computer to bank account due to hackers and I don't want to ever go through that again. I've taken all the precautions but I'm still paranoid about it happening to me again.

I downloaded FireFox and it is up and running in less than 5 minutes! So far so good!

Thank you!!

[holymoly]

I wonder, because I use cable, is there still access to IE from hackers through cable even though I'm browsing through Firefox or is that closed off due to Firefox download?

Does your firewall have a rule for IE? If so, I wouldn't worry too much.

Do I need to uninstall or do anything to IE to make it safe?

IE is so heavily integrated into the OS, attempting to remove it may make your system inoperable. If you're particularly worried about IE, you may want to consider the following:

Make sure your firewall has a rule for IE, allowing outgoing traffic only. If you're very paranoid, you may also want to restrict IE to ports 80 & 443.

Visit Javacool Software and download both SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard.

SpywareGuard is a full-time (memory resident) anti-malware/spyware program, which uses heuristics to protect your system (it looks for suspicious activity & warns you).

SpywareBlaster essentially "innoculates" your PC against IE exploits, etc. One way it does this is by setting "killbits" in your registry, which prevents the installation of ActiveX-based spyware.

If you aren't running Spybot - Search & Destroys' "TeaTimer" full-time protection, I recommend that. It protects your system against not only spyware, but also some trojans, as well as un-authorized changes to your registry.

Many people use SpwyareBlaster, SpywareGuard and Spybot "TeaTimer" together, to protect their systems.

The following "how-to" pages contain tons of info on these programs, including explanations of how they protect your PC:

Using Spybot - Search & Destroy
Using SpywareBlaster
Using SpywareGuard

[goldstategop]

There's also Panda Software's TruPrevent, an add on to existing AV software that stops unknown viruses with a behavioral algorithm; Bluetack's Protowall, which is a sort of filtering packet wall; Pivx's Qwik Fix, which is a host prevention software that hardens Windows against attacks by dealing with vulnerabilities at the root even there is no Microsoft patch for it; System Safety Monitor, which is a process guard that makes sure you have authorized programs to run on Windows - and there's Winpatrol which prevents unauthorized changes to your startup programs and also locks down the Hosts File against uwanted changes. The ultimate in security software is I.E Spy-ad, which adds a long list of malicious websites to the Restricted Sites domain of Internet Explorer so they can't exploit Windows' flaws to push ads or unwanted spyware on your computer without your knowledge. And of course as mentioned in this thread, use Mozilla Firefox as your browser whenever possible. Happy and Safe Computing!

[holymoly]

Everything I listed is free. :)

[GodBlessUSA]

Hi Holymoly, I now, have spyware software installed. However, I still feel insecure. We had money stolen from our bank account before all our spyware was installed. I sure paid for ignorance. I believe they went through Active X before I had all these items installed. I also believe, from what I saw on my system, The hacker(I mean, thief) actually used an outdated Anti virus software to assist him. Hacker used my Ip address and I believe was actually online while I was.

I installed FireFox because I keep reading so many security issues with IE. I'm concerned because I'm on cable and IE is still present. Cable is on all the time. I made FireFox the Default Browser. Will this make IE only available if I click on it, correct?
Thanks again!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The real key to comfort is to get Windows off of the "On all the time Internet" , set up a second machine running a Linux variant ( I like Xandros , it's a quick install. less than an hour ). you can share keyboard, mouse and Monitor with a 50$ KVM switch. (Keyboard and Mouse need to have PS2 connectors.)

[holymoly]

Will this make IE only available if I click on it, correct?

I assume you have a software firewall, and are fairly familiar with it, and how to configure it?

Here's what I do:

My firewall has an option (a checkbox) "Ask for action when no rule is found". (The box is always checked.)

Currenty, my firewall does not have any rule(s) for MSIE.

With the "Ask for action..." box checked, when I try to connect to Free Republic (or any site) using IE, my firewall pops up a warning box. It informs me that 'Windows Explorer'...wants to connect to [IP address].

I may then select "Permit" or "Deny" (as well as "Create appropriate filter rule & don't ask me again").

This allows me to use IE to access the Net, granting it "temporary" permission to access each site I may visit.

As always, you may want to double-check your firewall documentation before attempting any changes.

BTW, if you aren't using it, Ad-Aware SE is a free adware/spwyare on-demand scanner. You may want to add that to your arsenal.

You may also want to visit my FR homepage. It's full of PC security-related links.

[WestCoastGal]

bookmark

[GodBlessUSA]

Thank you so much!

I will check into my firewall. I have adaware too. I'm glad you posted this thread. I was hesitant to download Firefox and it was a breeze.

[GodBlessUSA]

Wow, your home page does have a wealth of information!
Thanks again!