Why you should dump IE

[snooker]

Lockergnome is probably familiar to many of you. If you don't subscribe to their Internet newsletter, you haven't seen this; another vote for replacing IE:

http://tinyurl.com/2grga


Written by Daniel Miessler for Lockergnome

The time has come to dump Internet Explorer. I know, I know — you may have heard the same thing before from those that think it’s cool to hate Microsoft; but I’m not one of those guys. I’m actually an MCSE and I happen to like quite a few of Microsoft’s products. Rather than lump me into the Microsoft-basher category, consider for a moment why you use the browser you use, and humor me by entertaining the notion — if even for a second — that switching to another might be worth your while.

My argument is simple: the benefits of using IE are too few - and the faults too great — to put off the adoption of an alternative any longer.
Security

Since information security is my hobby/job/obsession, this particular topic is near and dear to my heart. Just about everyone reading this has seen computers that have been beaten down with spyware - the evil junk that hijacks IE and renders a system virtually useless. How many times have you been called to a family member’s house to clean up their system? Or had to call your techie friend to come clean yours? It’s often quite awkward - the system slows to a crawl and every other mouse click conjures up some species of perverse, obscene image. What most people don’t realize, however, is that there is a very simple and powerful way to defend your system (and/or the systems of your loved ones) in one fell swoop.

Don’t use Internet Explorer.

What makes other browsers better than IE at protecting vs. spyware and other attacks? Well, it’s simple really - most other browsers don’t make it so easy to install malicious software on your system without you knowing about it. IE makes it relatively trivial through two features called ActiveX and Active Scripting. These technologies were designed specifically for the purpose of giving websites more control over a user’s computer. Unfortunately, as we have seen with exploit after exploit - that’s not always a good thing.

In addition to the spyware issues, IE in general has had a terrible track record when it comes to all types of serious security issues. For years now, it’s seemed like every time you turn around there is a new way to have your computer taken over via Internet Explorer. Put “internet explorer” and “allow an attacker to execute commands” (with the quotes) into Google and you’ll see what I mean.

In IE’s defense, many anti-Microsoft types will claim that it’s not possible to lock down IE at all. This is not true. It is possible — but if and only if you have a fair amount of technical know-how on the subject, and the time to do it. My personal view, however, is that tools such as Internet browsers should not require expertise and configuration time to be able to use them safely.
Standards

This is likely to get me in some hot water with my fellow security enthusiasts, but I find this issue to be of even more concern than that of IE’s security. The Internet works for one simple reason - everything at its core has been built on agreements that bind it together. Whether a computer is connected from California or Sri Lanka, it’s going to speak the same language and obey the same rules - the rules defined by standards. If this weren’t the case there would be no Internet at all. These agreements are forged by a body of people whose goal is nothing short of designing a better and more efficient Internet for everyone. Microsoft, for some odd reason, seems bent on breaking stride with these agreed-upon standards. Case in point: the next time you’re in a bookstore, head over to the technology section and pick up a book on XHTML or CSS. These are two major web standards that deal with how web pages are displayed to users, and within any book on the subjects you will find one common theme:

The absolute worst browser when it comes to supporting the standards is Internet Explorer.

Page after page in these books will reveal features supported in other browsers, but not in IE. Ask yourself why a company would choose not to support standards that benefit everyone? The way I see it, it’s for precisely one of two reasons — either they are unable to, or they don’t want to. Given the fact that they are a multi-billion dollar company (one of the richest on the planet), I can’t help but lean toward the second option. Without going into too much detail (See Longhorn), they have their own plans, and those plans involve implementing their own standard and forcing it upon the world. Call me a geek/hippie, but the idea of a multi-billion dollar corporation snubbing its nose at agreed-upon standards is nothing short of infuriating.
Options

Lucky for us, we have alternatives. The good news is that the alternative browsers are actually as good or better than IE. There are many out there, but in my opinion the Mozilla products are the best. I personally prefer and recommend Mozilla Firefox. Not only does it keep your browsing sessions a lot more secure and spyware-free, but it also supports the standards religiously and has a wide range of powerful features. Arguably the biggest benefit to using a Mozilla-based product is something called tabbed browsing. What this allows you to do is have multiple pages open within a single browser window. Rather than going from window to window in the taskbar, you can simply switch between clearly visible tabs, all within the same view. You can even do this and many other commands via the keyboard if you are into that sort of thing.

Using Firefox will not require any major shift in your daily browsing habits. It’ll import your favorites automatically, and you can benefit from the improved security starting the first time you open it. With the popup blocking enabled, you can breath quite a bit easier when browsing to unknown sites. Attempts to install garbage on your system that could have easily succeeded if you were using IE will simply be ignored by Firefox. Plus, the whole time you’re browsing you’ll know that you are doing your part to keep the soul of the Internet alive by choosing to use a browser whose developers actually care about standards.

Of course, I still use IE. (pause for effect) …it’s how I get my Windows security updates. : Seriously though - Windows Update is a must, and it only works in IE, so that in itself is a good reason to fire up IE once in a while. Aside from Windows Update though, there is still the occasional site that I go to that doesn’t look right in any other browser. Those sites, by the way, are all the more reason to not use IE. They weren’t written according to the standards, and they look bad in any browser other than IE as a result of that fact. Using IE all the time just because the occasional site is designed so poorly as to look like crap in other browsers is utterly bad form. I implore you not to give into this temptation.
Wrapping It Up

So, in closing, I leave you with two thoughts:
Due to the combination of ActiveX, scripting, and its integration with the Windows operating system, Internet Explorer is more vulnerable to attack than many other browsers.
The designers of Internet Explorer have purposely turned their back on the standards designed to benefit the Internet as a whole. They have done this for years, continue to do it today, and appear to have nothing but their own interests at heart.

I ask that you consider these points and pull down a copy of Firefox, Opera, or another alternative browser. Run it for a week and see how it feels. As mentioned above, I personally recommend Firefox due to its excellent development team and large user base. Once you have had some time to get to know your new onramp to the web, I think you’ll find that you’ll wish you had switched sooner. No longer will you have to worry about garbage clogging up your system because of your browser, or having to make a mad rush for a patch every time an IE vulnerability is released.

Finally, and most importantly - spread the word. It’s time now for us to put alternative browsers on the map and let it be known that we are aware of our choices. We need not settle for what we are being fed when there are better, more secure alternatives out there.

If you have any questions, feel my position is flawed, or would just like to give some feedback, I can be reached at daniel@dmiessler.com.

[bigandy]

That's the main reason I've been using either Mozilla or Firefox for quite some time now.

[glc]

Thank you VERY much for posting that. I'm tired of preaching to deaf ears.

As a side note, IE6 is a dinosaur now anyway - it's been out for 3 years with no functional upgrade, just patch after patch.

Got anything you can post that shows why Outhouse Express is just as bad?

[kram 2.0]

Originally posted by glc Got anything you can post that shows why Outhouse Express is just as bad?

LMAO! Outhouse Express - I can't stop laughing at that nickname! I use both MSIE and MS Outhouse Express and although they're sys resources hog, they're usable for me.

kram

[lil Jimmie]

snooker, thank you for posting this info althought I have stopped using IE a few years ago, this is info others need to be aware of.

[Panama Red]

Ok, I'm convinced. I just downloaded Firefox ver 0.9 to my desktop. Before I install it I just want to check. Is that the latest version?

[jimmyrules712]

convinced me to switch, never thot it was worth it b4

[mikeL]

Very good post snooker

I don't know how many calls I get, from people who can't get on the internet, or their computer is running as slow as molasses in January.

They will ask how can I keep this from happening? and of course my reply is don't use IE, try any mozilla browser, or Opera.

A week or two goes by, and the phone is ringing, the process repeats itself again.

Mike

(edit) Panama Red 0.9 is the current release of Firefox

[ghost2003]

you should sticky this

[snooker]

Hi... i am glad you all like it ... I am curious if use's would like to try a little test ??? Its to test the speed of the browser here is my result with high speed cable connection on a router as well

Opera >>> 8.77 seconds
IE6 >>>>> 22.36 seconds

all i did was select the OS and click start ... Give it a try and post back ...

http://www.24fun.com/downloadcenter/...s/benchjs.html

I should mention my computer specs

Asus P4P800 Deluxe Motherboard >>> Intel 4 2.40CGHz Processor >>> Seagate 120 GB >>>. Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-105 >>> DDR DIMM MEMORY 400MHZ 1.024GB PC-3200 >>>> Asus Ge Force FX 5200 video card >>>> Antec Performance Plus 1080AMG 430 watt Case >>> Viewsonic VP191s LCD Monitor >>> Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS >>> Logitech Z680 speakers >>> Windows xp pro full SP1 all updated

[autodidact]

You geeks got room for a dummy ? The reason I and I assume many others don't change is what going to happen to everything I've got set up the way I want it now ? am I going to be forced to make many changes to any software do you have to go to school to learn how , or does everything get put into place when you download Firefox ? See how much I know , I don't evern know the right questions .

Ps: I just got over a hijack of my homepage that took two days of sceaming hardship trying to fix , it would replace itself with another type as soon as you tried to rid of the old one now I have that old feeling of I don't want to mess things up after going through that , actually I feel paranoid going online now leave alone changing my browser ! Now you can call me chicken .

[snooker]

Autodidact Hi ... If you start to use firefox or opera first you wouldn't get hijacked in these browser and i am sure that was a pain in the neck... Do you need to change any software because you are a beginner ??? I doubt it if you have any that would need to be change .... Also i myself like using Opera and i know its not free but you don't need to do anything at all with using it and its safer when it comes to surfing the internet ... The only thing that i am not crazy about firefox would be that you need to download plugin thats it , its not big deal but for some novice user it can cause a little confusion .... Again its still a solid browser... Also if you download it nothing bad is going to happen to your computer everything will still be the same .... Now when you do use a different browser its not going to look the same as internet explorer but this is where the fun part comes , is setting it like how you want it to be and it does take a little time to get use of it but its worth it ... Again you can always come to these tech chat rooms and post a question before trying anything that you are not sure of and i am sure someone will be kind of enough to help you out ... Just because if you do decide to install any of these browser doesn't mean you have to use then all the time you can switch back and forth ... But paid attention when you do start the browser it will ask you whether if you would like to make it your default browser , I would say for novices user just to say no when it asked and this way there wouldn't be any change at all ... Then once you are more familar with the new browser and would like to use it as your default browser then do so ... I hope this answer your question and if i forgot something i am sure the other members here will give there opinion and help you out .....

[autodidact]

Ok Snooker You got me snagged , I'm going to try it. I'll be back in a few days or less to let you know how I liked and made out with it. While reading this post I remembered Leo on Techtv talking about Linux and I didn't even know which was the correct download , that's why I was nervous about this one.

[TennBikeBerk]

Well I took the plunge and went for Firefox 0.9 and so far am liking it. When is 1.0 coming out? EDIT: Loos like July.

Somebody mentioned IE being a resource hog, but it actually takes more memory than Firefox does. I woudl think it would be more of a resource hog though.

[glc]

I have never used IE for my primary browser - I was using Netscape before M$ even acknowledged that the Internet existed. I stuck with Netscape till 4.x was no longer working properly on a lot of sites (6 was out then but it was garbage) and switched to Opera at that time. I use Opera as my default, and I have both Mozilla and Firefox - I do have IE 5.01 (on Win2K) but only use it when all else fails or I need Windows updates.

[AerynSedai]

the problem with netscape and the mozilla organization is their testing philosophy (or lack of). i really don't think they have any full time testers, and rely on the public to do it. that is why you have 1000 different versions of mozilla, then you have to report bugs.

i won't even go into the problems with bug reporting, but suffice it to say that the bug reporting process has bugs.

so, what is wrong with this you ask? well, you get thousands of people, mostly the self-proclaimed "power users", all reporting on the same 10 bugs which are all so obvious that a single tester given 5 minutes would have seen it. once in a while, you get someone who actually reports some hidden malicious bug, but certainly not often. so, they get thousands of bugs, they probably ignore all but 20 bugs, because they inevitably show up in the next release.

that said, yes, i unfortunately do use communicator / mozilla / phoenix / firebird / firefox, whatever it is fashionably called now.

that is my rant. sorry, but i just read an article on this and had to say something.

AS

[Floppyman]

Oh yes, how true this is.

The other day I was on a lab machine with Internet Explorer 6 and clicked on a link on webpage. And just to be sure this was a legit link to some computer help, not porn, XXX, warez or something like that. As soon as I clicked on the link a ton of pop ups came up and things started installing left and right-- all of which I had practically no control over short of hitting the power button.

The end result: I spend 2 hours plus cleaning all this darn spyware off running adware, killing processes, manual deletion, and deleting things out of the registry. And yet, I'm still not fairly convinced I got everything cleaned off this computer.

All this just by clicking on a link.

Folks, do yourselfs the favor and don't use IE.

[kram 2.0]

Well, for my new computer, which I set the date to sometime this month, I was going to go online and download MSIE, now I'm kinda skeptical. After being around HTML and programming for more than 4 years, I've learned that MSIE is the best/most forgiving browser for reading webpages. However, I've only seen it be compared to Netscape. Do you see any problem accesing webpages with Mozilla and is it a big sys resource hogger like MSIE?

Thanks,
kram

[glc]

That's exactly how all open source projects are developed. If this concept is foreign to you and you can't or don't choose to deal with it, then don't use open source software.

Try Opera, that's commercial software and if you don't feel like ponying up the $39, deal with the ad banner.

[glc]

The only webpages Mozilla and other standards-based browsers generally have problems with are pages that do not comply with the applicable standards. If the page doesn't display properly, it's usually the coder's fault, not the browser's fault. Yes, IE is very forgiving of many types of coding errors, but you pay the price many times over with other issues.

[Floppyman]

Oh how funny:

http://developers.slashdot.org/devel...tid=187&tid=95

[snooker]

glc >>> None of yet but in time i am sure one will come but i must say i can't stop laughing at your comment there


Outhouse Express LOL thanks for the many laughs LOL

Also have a look at my recend post in the System Security and Privacy its very helpful as well

[AerynSedai]

netscape was not open source, at least not until very late 90's. and thankfully most open source projects have a little more shame than that. releasing dozens of revisions one after the other is looked down upon. but, why try to argue? i am unlikely to change anyones' opinion.

the funny thing is, microsoft stopped web development because of its popularity. they want people to use their windows api and not platform independent web applications. that is very close to the business reasons Microsoft had for stopping IE production. think about it.

anyway, does anyone really use activeX?
it always seems to have more trouble than it is worth.

AS

[Panama Red]

Ok, I downloaded and installed Firefox and encountered my first 'bug' during the install. One of the features is the ability to transfer all you IE favorites and stored passwords, but the program errored out while doing the transfer. I used in anyway for a while and I like it. Going to try uninstalling and downloading again to see if I can get the transfer thingy to work.

[raftero]

i downloaded firefox 09, so far it works good, pcmech now loads fast like it should ,only bug is on many things (google,and several others) i get an error-cannot find the file or one of its components.make sure of the path (you know the rest)-they load and all is well but the error keeps coming up. any ideas?

[HAL9000]

Blah blah blah... I have yet to receive a spyware browser hijack or virus thru IE... mebbe some people just need to learn safer internet habits.

[doctorgonzo]

Originally posted by AerynSedai netscape was not open source, at least not until very late 90's. and thankfully most open source projects have a little more shame than that. releasing dozens of revisions one after the other is looked down upon. but, why try to argue? i am unlikely to change anyones' opinion.

Believe me, I very much prefer new versions released one after another to fix bugs. What's M$'s alternative? Release patches: (a) when the publicity becomes too bad to ignore, or (b) never. There is nothing wrong with constantly improving on software; it's the only way you can deal with complex software.

That article was well-written and to the point. Nobody should be using IE for anything other than Windows Update.

[Statica]

Originally posted by HAL9000 Blah blah blah... I have yet to receive a spyware browser hijack or virus thru IE... mebbe some people just need to learn safer internet habits.

Hal, the article points to issues that have been on the core of Internet security and standards for years and years now, it doesnt matter what you call as "safer habits", by using IE one is severely making the computer vulnerable to an exploit. Sometimes a person might have no choice when accidentally coming upon a site that was coded with ulterior motives. In any event, consider that you not getting a vulnerability with IE may have been an act of coincidence than of design. We all know that pretty much every virus out there is designed with the assumption of Outlook Express; and yet I use it, it isnt my security morals that have kept the virus writers out of my system; I would still call it sheer coincidence and dumb luck - not bravado of my internet habits. Mozilla is generically a safer browsing engine; in fact any browser that isn't so wound up with the OS or isnt fueled by ActiveX for its eye-candy would be a better alternative.

[WhatsThisBoxFor?]

Next year when I make a internet browser in ICT it will be safer than internet explorer just because people look for exploits in IE, there are probably exploits in Firefox but people don't look for them and updates are released more often.

I used IE for years without getting spyware, but then I kept to a few known and trusted websites, but my brother kept getting spyware when I changed to Firefox the spyware problem is gone.

[HAL9000]

Whatever you want to call it Statica, but every reason why I'm supposed to switch over from IE or Outlook has yet to cause me an issue.... until it does, I see no need to switch nor do I need to have a writer preach to me why I "must" switch.