Surf Safe
A safe surf setup should be your first priority before hitting the net, the best surf setup should start with a safe browser; lessening your chances of Spy-ware infection;while maintaining fair speed by using a browser less prone to picking up and running additional background software.
Safe Web Browsing
A good start would be to Use the The Firefox Web Browser.Utilizing a tighter default browser setting when using this browser will lessen the likelihood of kicking IE from windows Explorer etc.
You can get this when using tools that depend on Internet Explorer's main core files of dll's if you click a link within the browsers that use them.
(Not being forced into something would make things a lot more appealing for me.)
If you prefer Firefox ( pat yourself on the back now ); make sure you get the clean download from Mozilla dot org, no chrome, just the straight browser for a more compact start, you can build with the add on's to suit you own taste and privacy as you move along,
Get Browser addons
You can always go to the add-on's page at any time to look through and then add the tools you want.Firefox add-on (s) I use.
no script.
ad block or ad block plus. For sites that choke page loads by using more ad's than content
If you work with web pages, The Web Developer once an add on is now built in.
Use ad block Plus
Some ways I use the above:When using it to block ads I generally allow ads on a new page until I am tired of seeing the same ads over and over, then I sometimes allow them after many visits except when I am busy doing something specif. (Ii can also be use to filter out porn, perversion and abominations.) or just about anything a nagratiser can dish out. I rarely ever turn the allow all on in No script unless it has to do with one of my own pages or a specific test. Most sites that demand you use java script or active-x ; generally because they have ads dependent on those, so go figure. Some of the spycurb pages May say java script is required ( by default and hard coded ) when you have java script disabled ;but the links work either way, they just don't put on a light show when JavaScript it is off, I guess some sites are just too greedy or silly to fix their own pages so links work without java script; but it kind of tickles me that they would knock themselves out of clicks to more of their pages over a thing as simple as down and over states for links.
For those of you whom have not yet figured this out: Surfing with IE ( Internet Explorer with Active-x wide open ) after a spy ware cleanup; is something like shooting yourself in the foot after bandaging it up, from the last time you shot yourself in the foot. (Wise up and stop that crap.) "Until now; I've just been trying to be polite about it while throwing you hint after hint after hint.! Yada yada yada. Now go engage IE; turn everything off; and then see how long it takes you to pick up some spy-ware,then ask yourself this question: what is it I need IE for??
(Answer: Active-x driven sparklers mostly utilized by nagratisers.)
IE Unsafe Secretes
Here are a few Secretes:IE WITH ACTIVE-X IS The SPY-WARE doorway
IE WITHOUT ACTIVE-X ON WITH ITS DEEP INTEGRATION INTO WINDOWS AND BAD WEBMASTERS THAT DEVISE WAYS TO CHANGE SETTINGS con you in to using online checks etc.IS SPY-WARE IN THE MAKING
WINDOWS OS WITHOUT IE ENGAGED WHILE USING WINDOWS EXPLORER STILL USES IE AT SOME POINT AND THE ABOVE STILL APPLIES
(They are as good as one and the same.)
Now there ; I finally said it!
Now take a deep breath; and congratulate yourself for finally wising up. I ran windows with Firefox no-script, ad-blocker and a (good firewall) for better than six months straight with no spy-ware infiltration, engaged and fired up IE with minimal settings and had spy-ware in practically no time flat. (in less than one hour)
In short; IE is like a loaded gun around idiots; you can unload it and feel somewhat safe; but it is safer to unload and lock it up some place, and then destroy the key.
