Sunday, October 17

How to secure firefox for safer browsing

We all are accustomed to using firefox. But, have you been giving any thoughts to browsing safely using firefox. Just keeping it updated will not secure your browsing. To achieve a good degree of pc security, you need to know how to secure your brower. This is not going to be a comprehensive post about firefox, I'm sure a lot would be left unsaid, still, I'll help cover the basics. Using the points described, you'll be able to secure your firefox to a good extent. Let's go...

Things to notice

The default firefox installation. There are few things to tweak right in the default firefox installation. Like, if you have been storing a lot of passwords, it is a good idea to set a master password to prevent other users from accessing your passwords easily. The other users could be your friends, officemates, brother or anyone else you'd not like to disclose your passwords.

Other things to take note of are history, cookies and saved form information. Firefox by default saves form information and history and cookies also (sadly you can't eat these cookies, they're just for the browser to relish!). If you feel the need, you can delete your browsing tracks, cookies and other information from Tools -> clear recent history. This comes very handy if you're using a friends' computer or accessing internet from outside in an internet cafe etc. Although if you're continuously using internet from a machine other than users, I will strongly suggest you activate the built in 'Private browsing' mode from Tools menu.

Firefox with addtional addons for security and privacy

Now, lets put some addons to increase our pc security and privacy.

Prefbar  Let's start with Pref bar which comes very handy when you have to change firefox settings on the fly. This is the one I always install with my installation of firefox. With pref bar, you get the power to control and change firefox options on the fly. You can disable or enable popups, cookies, referer, fonts, colors, javascript, java, images, flash and a lot more. Do not miss this. While browsing, just make sure you avoid java, flash unless absolutely necessary. You could also try turning referer unchecked for a little more security. Although, you'd be needing it on some sites.


NoScript  - Next comes noscript which has been around for years and one of the main addons for safer browsing. As the developer says, The best security you can get in a web browser!
It'll allow active content to run only from sites you trust, and protect yourself against XSS and Clickjacking attacks. You can enable and disable script on per site basis with this. That means you can selectively allow which sites can run scripts. The other ones could then be blacklisted.

Adblock plus - Looking to block adds and those nasty popup and popups and all types of flash and stupid image banners that you don't like seeing. Adblock comes to the rescue.
A very handy and effective tool to block advertisements and other online nuisances. Install Adblock Plus now to regain control of the internet and change the way that you view the web. The add-on is supported by over forty filter subscriptions in dozens of languages which automatically configure it for purposes ranging from removing online advertising to blocking all known malware domains. Although it has been found to leave some trail as some sites are found to be identifying that adblock is installed on the browser and request users to switch it off before allowing access.

Needless to say, with a very little effort by installing above addons and modifying firefox settings a little, you'll be able to attain a good level of browsing security. And, safer browsing means better pc security.

Friday, October 15

Ccleaner Enhancer for Ccleaner makes PC cleaning even better

You may very well be acquainted with the nice little ccleaner utility which helps clean up junk residing in your pc and helps in pc optimization and privacy. It frees up disk space by removing unused / unneeded files and makes your computer run better. Now, the problem with Ccleaner is little number of programs it supports (though they are enough for most of the pc users). Did you know there is another nice tool available that enhances ccleaners' power and makes it one of the most comprehensive pc cleaning tool available. Meet Ccleaner Enhancer, This small tool adds support for over 270 new programs into CCleaner which is more than sufficient for any serious junk file removal.

ccleanerenhancer.png

Download ccleaner enhancer and install over your already installed Ccleaner and it'll automatically integrate itself to the application expanding its cleaning capabilities manifold. Now, next time you think of removing crap from your pc, you know where to turn to. :)

Monday, October 11

Secure your Windows XP in 5 minutes

I know what you're thinking, the world is moving to Windows 7 and I am still blabbering about Windows XP. While the world is busy moving to a supposedly better, faster, stable next generation Windows 7 platform, there are a many of us who are still sticking to Windows XP and I think there is a reason for that as well. We love Win Xp!

Its' a great operating system if you ask me and it's been with me for all these years. So here's quick trick to make it faster, safer to use. No, we'll not be manually hacking and tweaking registry settings here. We'll be using a fantastic software SafeXP to increase pc performance and pc security. Beginners and Experts alike, both will love it. With SafeXP, you can...

  • Disable unnecessary Windows services.
  • Prevent Internet attacks.
  • Remove Microsoft Windows Messenger (MSN) application completely.
  • Disable tracking of your document history.
  • Disable Messenger antispam, spyware-like data traffic of System, Internet Explorer, Media Player, Error Reporting and much more  functions into a single easy to use software.
and do much more...Lets' first download it from here:- http://www.theorica.net/download.htm

Run the program and click recommended settings button and you're done. You can ofcourse do more if you wish to, just make sure you do not disable any windows service that you've been relying on. Many keep windows update enabled and that's a good thing, so just keep an eye on it in the general column.

Now tell me, did it take more than 5 minutes? I bet. :)