Business Must Be Cautious With Firefox

Computerworld ^ | JANUARY 24, 2005 | Michael Gartenberg

[KneelBeforeZod]

firefox bonks all the time when I use excite mail. but its probably something with excite...they have a lot of cookies and spyware I think...blocking all those seems to make firefox load the mail page funny

[Phsstpok]

ping for later reading

[libertyman]

Can anyone explain to me (in very simple English, please) why I'm unable to run RealPlayer, Quicktime, or Windows Media when using my Mozilla Browser, & what I can do to fix this problem? They work just fine on Internet Explorer (well......not excatly, considering that I am using a terribly slllllllllllllow 56k modem, but I can handle that if I can just remember to be patient).

Thank you!

[JoJo Gunn]

T-bird is fair, and they've finally gotten past that goofy folder tree with two sets of "Sent" and "Trash" and "Drafts", etc, but it still lacks common sense things, such as a "Save As" button ala OE, and the ability to set a "save as" default and the type as an .eml file.

When you save a piece of mail, what the heck is "all files"?

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Publius6961]

But business users need to think twice about making the switch from Internet Explorer, since Firefox lacks the ability to run Microsoft ActiveX code.

Of course it does.
That's why Microshaft created it!

[ApplegateRanch]

If they aren't dependent on Internet Explorer technology, however, some end users could use Firefox for their daily Web surfing while reserving Internet Explorer use for sites that require it.

My "solution" is to ignore (boycott) sites that "require" MSIE. So far, in the rare cases I tried to use an MSIE-required site,I have never been unable to get what I needed from a different site that doesn't rquire IE.

[holymoly]

Can anyone explain to me (in very simple English, please) why I'm unable to run RealPlayer, Quicktime, or Windows Media when using my Mozilla Browser, & what I can do to fix this problem?

Windows Media Player will not work as a plugin with Mozilla/Firefox. That's all there is to it.

As far as the others, you may need to uninstall & reinstall them.

Mozilla (and I believe Firefox) contains a "plugins" subdirectory; when Real Player & other plugins are installed, they place their respective plugin files in that directory.

If you've installed Mozilla to its' default directory, any Mozilla-compatible plugins should be installed to C:\Program Files\mozilla.org\Mozilla\plugins

[Revel]

"If they aren't dependent on Internet Explorer technology, however, some end users could use Firefox for their daily Web surfing while reserving Internet Explorer use for sites that require it."

Dump those sites. Do not visit...do not do business with them.

[holymoly]

Dump those sites. Do not visit...do not do business with them.

I agree. They're only harming themselves, by alienating the millions of people who do not, and will not, use MSIE.

[El Gran Salseron]

"I use Firefox and Thunderbird and I'm not all that pleased with them."

Not only that. Firefox is open source. Wait until it becomes a little more popular and the virus writers start looking at the code.

Hello?

[facedown]

Can anyone explain to me...

Not me, for sure. All three work for me. I see that holymoly has given you some advice but these other folks may have some more.

[edchambers]

use Firefox for their daily Web surfing while reserving Internet Explorer use for sites that require it.

That's exactly what I do.Sometimes I turn my computer on and Firefox simply doesn't work, so I switch to IE.Sometimes IE doesn't work so I switch to Firefox.I still haven't figured out why my only XP machine will not maintain a reliable internet connection while all the 98se machines in the house do without fail.

[holymoly]

All three work for me.

You got WMP to work with Mozilla? I never could. As I recall, it was the only one I could never figure out. Of course, with alternatives such as Crescendo (handles MIDI & MP3), I didn't spend a great deal of time on the problem.

http://www.armadilloweb.com/Crescendo/crescendo_download.shtml
http://swingera.net/Crescendo.html

[Dysfunctional]

Download firefox...

then go get spywareblaster. It's free and works great with firefox!
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

[Utilizer]

Sorry, but I am very happy with Opera. Then again, I might play with it a bit, but overall I just do not see any reason to abandon what works perfectly well. Spywareblaster does not have what I like most from ATGuard: connect-only-if-agreed-to sites. No matter what site is pointed to, a little window pops up and asks "Allow, deny, always allow, always deny". Best thing since sliced bread. :)

[raybbr]

Dump those sites. Do not visit...do not do business with them.

Unfortanately one of the sites is my 401K manager. What should I do then. I spoke to them and they say they "may" rewrite their site to accept Mozilla.

[KoRn]

I've never had any problems running Windows Media in Firefox using the default settings. I don't use RealPlayer or Quicktime so I can't speak of those. I may have missed it, but I don't see any settings for playing media in FF.

Are there any websites you can give as an example of not working?

[holymoly]

Here you go, all about plugins for Mozilla/Firefox.
http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/windows.html

According to the above site...

"If you are using Windows Media Player 7.1 or later, Mozilla will detect and use the Windows Media Player plugin if it is installed."

You may want to check what version of Windows Media Player you have installed.

As far as QuickTime, it states:

"The QuickTime 6 installer will automatically detect your browser's plugins folder and install the plugin."

RealPlayer (10 and later, RealOne Player):
"The RealPlayer installer will automatically detect your browser's plugins folder and install the plugin."

You may want to check what versions of Real Player & QuickTime you have installed. Perhaps they're older versions, not supported by Mozilla? Or perhaps they were installed before Mozilla? (In which case they may need to be re-installed.)

[ShadowAce]

Can anyone explain to me (in very simple English, please)...

It sounds like you do not have the correct plugins installed, or you installed the plugins before you installed Mozilla/Firefox.

Go to this site and follow the directions listed for the application you would like to run. You can install more than one, just for clarity's sake.