[Kenny1]

I've been using Internet Explorer 6 for ages and I'm perfectly happy with it, but some sites I visit keep advising me that my browser is outdated and will soon be ineffective on some sites, such as facebook. I keep getting advised to upgrade to a "modern browser" such as firefox or IE8 or some other one, I forget which. Anyway, I don't really know which one I should be upgrading to, having been using IE forever I'm inclined to just get their latest version, but I thought I'd make an effort to look into the alternatives. Soooo, my question is, what are the pros and cons of different browsers and is there one that stands out above the rest that you'd recommend, and why?? Thanks much for any advise or guidance.

[1002richards]

Hi,
Based on what I read at TechSupportAlert (free independent, ad free reviews) I went with Firefox, no problems with it.
Here's a link to that review which discusses pros/cons of several browsers.
Worth a read while waiting more suggestions from TSG:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best...eb-browser.htm

Richard

[TOGG]

I'm not sure there is a 'best' browser, but there should be one that you are comfortable with and which does what you need it to do. There is no substitute for trying the various options yourself because that is how you will find out (as long as you give them all a fair trial and don't reject them after a few hours because you don't like how they look!).

Personally, I would suggest you try Opera 10, because that's what I like, others will suggest Firefox with about 50 addons or extensions, while some will root for IE 8. All are valid options.

Whatever you ultimately decide, it is important that you stop using IE 6 because it is hopelessly out of date and insecure and probably exposes you to needless risk.

[flavallee]

Kenny:

Once you get your infection problem resolved in this thread, you really should upgrade to IE7 or IE8 because of the added security features and other enhancements and because some sites are going to require it.

---------------------------------------------------------------

[valis]

I agree with togg........too many flavors to have a 'best' one. 99% of the time I use a highly tweaked firefox browser, the other time lynx, which has GOT to be the safest browser out there.

[DaveA]

I still use the IE line and we have not had any of these so called issues that one should avoid IE.

I am not sure where all of the scares are coming from, other than to get one to use a different product.

Yes, I have tried out several of the others, and found that they all have issues of some type, so as I said I have stuck with IE.

Yes, you need to upgrade to IE 8.

[Kenny1]

Hi and thanks for all the feedback. I installed both Firefox and IE8 and I'll try them both for awhile. I didn't even realize you could do that. Hey, up front IE8 has an annoying habit of throwing up this "view and manage add ons" window just about everytime I open a new page. How can I stop this?

[Kenny1]

At the advice of just about everyone I finally have upgraded from IE6 which I've been quite happy with but which is apparently "hopelessly outdated", so I've been told repeatedly (even though it did what I wanted fine). Sooo, after spending a bunch of time trying to decide which direction to go, I've installed both IE8 and Firefox (I didn't even know you could run different browsers on the same PC!). Well, admittedly I just installed them yesterday, but straight off they both have problems I don't know how to fix!!

IE8 is giving me grief as follows: One- I'm getting a constant window popping up called "view and manage your IE add ons". Every time I close it, it pops back up. I don't know how to make it go away, or what it wants me to do exactly. Two- IE8 seems to have a pop up blocker problem. Even when I turn the pop up blocker OFF it still continues to block every pop up, even if I set it to the lowest setting. In IE6 there used to be a handy option allowing you to select "allow pop ups temporarily" or even "always allow pop ups from this site" just by right clicking on the alert bar. IE8 doesn't have this that I can see. It does offer the option "turn pop up blocker off" but even if I select this option the pop up I need to use continues to be blocked. For example, one of my online banking sites security verification measures involves the use of a pop up menu where the user must select security information. Well, I can't log in to that banking site using IE8 because it will not allow those pop up menus to execute, no matter what I do. I even tried to add that site to my "allowed sites" but it still blocks all pop ups. The wierd and frustrating thing is that it continues to block the pop ups even after I turn the pop up blocker OFF!! So, that's been my experience with IE8 after my first day with it. (PS. my pop up blocker is currently OFF and it still won't even allow me to use the Notification Type menu below. There's definitely something wrong here!!)

As for Firefox, the immediate problems with that are: One- it doesn't have a favorites menu. It has something else called bookmarks, but it changed the order of all my links and folders, organizing them alphabetically by default. This is not a huge problem of course, I could probably get used to it. Two- a bigger problem is that I use a program called Roboform where I store all my passwords and such, so that when I visit various sites, Roboform will pop up and offer to fill various forms automatically. I have come to rely on Roboform to do this task and I rarely have to remember any user names or passwords in particular. The handy thing also about IE is that it includes Roboform in the toolbar options so I can have it there handy at all times. With Firefox however, not only is Roboform not available as a toolbar, the pop up function does not work either, so basically Roboform appears to be incompatible with Firefox, at least at first glance. Further to that with toolbars, Firefox only appears to have 2 toolbars available, Navigation and Bookmarks. I've played with the customise feature but with no success as yet. But the biggest drawback so far with Firefox is not being able to use Roboform.


These issues alone are enough to make neither of these browsers attractive to me if they cannot be rectified. Any advice appreciated.

Cheers,
Kenny

[1002richards]

You could use Xmarks (free) to sync favourites/bookmarks between IE and Firefox. I use it and it keeps the order the same in both my IE & Firefox.

http://www.xmarks.com/

Hope this helps with part of the problem?

Richard

[kenpodad]

Kenny, Go back to using IE 6 and choose one browser at a time to download and try out.If it fills your needs, Keep it. If not,than remove it and choose another and try it out.I use IE 7 and Google Crome.

[new tech guy]

Originally Posted by kenpodad

Kenny, Go back to using IE 6 and choose one browser at a time to download and try out.If it fills your needs, Keep it. If not,than remove it and choose another and try it out.I use IE 7 and Google Crome.

Why are you reccomending such an outdated browser, you should run ie8, 6 is just a disaster in terms of usability and security.

[kenpodad]

My thread Made no recomendation to keep IE6. Read it again and you will see that I made a suggestion to use IE6 while looking for a brower which will fill his needs.There are better browsers out there which are just as secure as IE8 with out all the fluff.

[raybro]

Once you get Firefox configured as you want, it runs real smooth and does everything I need. I, too, use RoboForm. All you need to do is install the RoboForm Toolbar add-on. Firefox also has a really neat add-on called AdBlock Plus which stops banner ads and almost any ad on any wen site. I also have another add-on called IE Tabs, which lets Firefox function on site where IE is required (like Windows Update). One last add-on I use is Flashgot. It allows me to run my downloads using Free download manager, which I prefer over the built in download manager in FF.

Finally, I also run Firefox Preloader, a free download from Sourceforge. This little item eliminates the delay when opening FF by storing pages opened in memory.

Lastly, you can import all your IE Favorites into FF Bookmarks. Different name, works the same.

The ONLY downside to FF I've found is the constant updates for both the browser and add-ons. Not a problem as such, but a bother. I suppose its a good thing really, but they sure do a lot of it.

Speak of the devil... As I was typing this up pops a notice that v3.5.5 is available. I just installed v3.5.4 a couple of days ago.

Raybro

[Rich-M]

Originally Posted by Kenny1

At the advice of just about everyone I finally have upgraded from IE6 which I've been quite happy with but which is apparently "hopelessly outdated", so I've been told repeatedly (even though it did what I wanted fine). Sooo, after spending a bunch of time trying to decide which direction to go, I've installed both IE8 and Firefox (I didn't even know you could run different browsers on the same PC!). Well, admittedly I just installed them yesterday, but straight off they both have problems I don't know how to fix!!

IE8 is giving me grief as follows: One- I'm getting a constant window popping up called "view and manage your IE add ons". Every time I close it, it pops back up. I don't know how to make it go away, or what it wants me to do exactly. Two- IE8 seems to have a pop up blocker problem. Even when I turn the pop up blocker OFF it still continues to block every pop up, even if I set it to the lowest setting. In IE6 there used to be a handy option allowing you to select "allow pop ups temporarily" or even "always allow pop ups from this site" just by right clicking on the alert bar. IE8 doesn't have this that I can see. It does offer the option "turn pop up blocker off" but even if I select this option the pop up I need to use continues to be blocked. For example, one of my online banking sites security verification measures involves the use of a pop up menu where the user must select security information. Well, I can't log in to that banking site using IE8 because it will not allow those pop up menus to execute, no matter what I do. I even tried to add that site to my "allowed sites" but it still blocks all pop ups. The wierd and frustrating thing is that it continues to block the pop ups even after I turn the pop up blocker OFF!! So, that's been my experience with IE8 after my first day with it. (PS. my pop up blocker is currently OFF and it still won't even allow me to use the Notification Type menu below. There's definitely something wrong here!!)

As for Firefox, the immediate problems with that are: One- it doesn't have a favorites menu. It has something else called bookmarks, but it changed the order of all my links and folders, organizing them alphabetically by default. This is not a huge problem of course, I could probably get used to it. Two- a bigger problem is that I use a program called Roboform where I store all my passwords and such, so that when I visit various sites, Roboform will pop up and offer to fill various forms automatically. I have come to rely on Roboform to do this task and I rarely have to remember any user names or passwords in particular. The handy thing also about IE is that it includes Roboform in the toolbar options so I can have it there handy at all times. With Firefox however, not only is Roboform not available as a toolbar, the pop up function does not work either, so basically Roboform appears to be incompatible with Firefox, at least at first glance. Further to that with toolbars, Firefox only appears to have 2 toolbars available, Navigation and Bookmarks. I've played with the customise feature but with no success as yet. But the biggest drawback so far with Firefox is not being able to use Roboform.


These issues alone are enough to make neither of these browsers attractive to me if they cannot be rectified. Any advice appreciated.

Cheers,
Kenny

I think you are overreacting here. Give the new browsers a chance.
As suggested you can use an addon called XMarks that will keep IE Favorites and Bookmarks exactly the same.
http://www.xmarks.com/
http://download.xmarks.com/download/ie

If you use the fix at the bottom of this site, Firefox will save every password and logon perfectly better than any 3rd party software.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/0...auto-complete/

[Kenny1]

Originally Posted by raybro

I, too, use RoboForm. All you need to do is install the RoboForm Toolbar add-on.
Raybro

Raybro, I believe I have the RoboForm toolbar installed because I'm using it with IE, but I don't know how to access it with FF. Also, with IE, when I open a page which has forms to fill Roboform automatically pops up and offers to fill in, and all I have to click is fill and submit which is very convenient. Having it in the toolbar is almost as good I guess, but you have to do twice the work, opening the menu then selecting your action. Can FF allow Roboform to function normally? (ps. I was born in Santa Barbara!)

Thank you very much to everyone for all the constructive advice and feedback. Very helpful!