Bill Hely's "Computer & Online Security" BlogSearch results for 'Firefox' (page 1 of 2)

Firefox & Windows/Microsoft Update

Bill Hely — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 07:45:17 +0000

I’m still getting variations on questions related to performing Microsoft/Windows updates, so perhaps it’s time for a brief refresher.

If, in any Microsoft operating system, you follow the sequence

Start –> Programs –> Microsoft Update

you will end up staring at the Microsoft browser which of course is Internet Explorer.

Abandon Internet Explorer!

It is my strongest and oft repeated recommendation that for many reasons you should abandon Internet Explorer in favour of Firefox. Firefox is not only a far better and more usable browser, it is also much safer. Or, use Google Chrome if you like, but it’s a bit spartan for my tastes. The main thing is to get away from Internet Explorer as your default browser.

Unfortunately in its raw state Firefox cannot process updates for you from update.microsoft.com or windowsupdate.com, or any variation that accesses the Microsoft/Windows update website.

Without getting into a lot of unnecessary detail, the reason is that the Microsoft update websites require an ActiveX control (follow that link if you want more info), and Firefox doesn’t “do” ActiveX — which is one of the reasons it’s much safer than Internet Explorer. ActiveX is a security nightmare.

Now many people are still under the impression that, while they prefer to use Firefox as their day-to-day browser, they have to switch to Internet Explorer to perform their Microsoft/Windows updates.

That hasn’t been the case for quite some time, and here’s how to make it not apply to you either. What we need to do is…

Fool the MS Update Websites

If you don’t already have it installed and configured as your default browser, download Firefox from http://www.mozilla.com and install it. If you are already using Firefox make sure you are using the latest version. Very often new versions are released for valid security security reasons, not just to present a new feature or two.
Locate the Firefox plug-in “IE Tab Plus” at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10909/ and install it.
In Firefox, go to: Tools –> IE Tab Plus Options.
Select the Site Filter tab and ensure that the following entries are present. From memory I think they are there by default, but if not it’s easy enough to add them:

/^file:\/\/\/.*\.(mht|mhtml)$/
/^http:\/\/[A-Za-z0-9]+\//

http://*update.microsoft.com/*

http://www.windowsupdate.com/*

Click OK to close the options dialog.

So What’s All That Mean?

What it means is that from now on, whenever you point Firefox to update.microsoft.com or windowsupdate.com, Firefox will load the Internet Explorer Rendering Engine to display those sites, and everything should work just fine.

But You CANNOT Ignore Internet Explorer!

Please please please be aware that Firefox add-ons such as IE Tab Plus aren’t the only software that call upon some part of Internet Explorer code, so it is vitally important that you keep Internet Explorer up to date even if you’re not using it as your day-to-day browser.

Need more explanation? Want to offer a viewpoint? Please use the Comment Box below.

Firefox: Critical Patch Alert

Bill Hely — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:47:24 +0000

If you are a Firefox user, please do this immediately:

Click “Help” on the menu bar, then click “Check for Updates…”

The latest patch for Firefox is described as Critical, as it fixes a known vulnerability.

The patch will update your Firefox to version 3.0.8. To find out what version you are currently running, click “Help” on the menu bar, then click “About Mozilla Firefox”.

It’s Browser Upgrade Time!

Bill Hely — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:16:38 +0000

If you are running Firefox as your preferred browser you should UPGRADE NOW! The latest version 3.6 continues to improve on an already excellent product.

If you’re not running Firefox as your preferred browser, WHY NOT?

And if you’re still sticking to that bloated, troublesome dog Internet Explorer — well, words fail me. Know what a masochist is?

Installing Firefox for the first time is a trivial exercise. No explanation needed. Just click here (it’s free), download to your Windows desktop, double-click to install.

Upgrading a current installation to the new version is also commendably easy (10.6MB download). In Firefox just click Help –> Check for updates... and follow the prompts.

There’s just one thing I’ll give you advance notice about. Immediately after choosing to perform an upgrade from the Help menu, you may see a dialog with the following message:

“Some of your add-ons won’t work with Firefox 3.6, and will be disabled. As soon as they are made compatible, Firefox will update and re-enable these add-ons.”

And below that will be a list of your current add-ons that are currently incompatible (if any). If you can’t live without the add-ons mentioned, you can back out at this point.

Thanks to my experimental nature I have quite a large number of add-ons installed — probably more than most people — and only four of those were listed as being currently incompatible with Firefox 3.6, none of them of any real consequence. And anyway, they’ll be automatically updated and re-enabled in due course.

PS. If you insist on continuing to use Internet Explorer as your browser of choice then you are wasting your time reading a blog that focuses on computer and Internet security! You can’t have both.

A WordPress Problem & How to Fix It

Bill Hely — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:08:32 +0000

It appears that quite a few readers of this blog may have been confused and inconvenienced when trying to post a comment to one of my posts.Turns out it was a bug in the WordPress software that I use for this blog.

It wasn’t until I was notified of the details by a reader that I was even aware of the problem and thus able to take steps to rectify it. Many thanks to Jeff Fine for sending me details of the problem as it appeared to him, and then testing my fix. I really appreciate it when people take the time to report their problems or share their observations.

Any readers who publish a WordPress blog might want to take note of this for future reference. I’ll provide plenty of detail so you can test for and fix this yourself, because going by my experience you won’t get much help from WordPress on this one.

NOTE: the rest of this article will only be meaningful to those with some experience of databases, particularly MySQL, and the internal workings of browsers. Anyone else just needs to know that the problem with posting comments to my articles has now been fixed.

OK, here are the details:

SYMPTOMS

The reason I wasn’t aware of this problem before being notified by Jeff is that I follow my own advice and, for very good reasons related to overall security, I use Firefox as my day-to-day browser. After testing with Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome 3 it became obvious that the problem was only encountered by those using Internet Explorer.

While the actual error encountered may vary, the problem boils down to this WordPress error:

WordPress database error Data too long for column ‘comment_agent’
at row 1 for query INSERT INTO wp_comments

Or something very similar. You can use the same fix described below if a similar error refers to a different column/row.

What it amounts to is that WordPress doesn’t like the User Agent string being sent by Internet Explorer.

THE FIX

Putting it briefly, I fixed the problem by changing the MySQL data type for the field “comment_agent” from VARCHAR(255) to TEXT, which has a field size limit of 65,000 bytes.

HOW TO DO IT

If you are a Webmaster who is quite comfortable with phpMyAdmin then good for you — you already understand what needs to be done. Personally I don’t like phpMyAdmin at all, and maybe you’ll change your mind too, if you try what I use.

If you need to work with MySQL databases you really need to know about a great little application called HeidiSQL. Once you try it I doubt you’ll ever want to call up phpMyAdmin again.

I’m not going to turn this into a HeidiSQL tutorial, because you really don’t need one. Any help you may need is readily available in the website and their forum.

Oh, and by the way — HeidiSQL is completely free.

http://www.heidisql.com

You can enlarge these images with the
keyboard combination: Ctrl+

Firefox 3.5 Inches Past IE7 As World’s Most Popular Browser [Web Browsers] (lifehacker.com)
Useful User Agents (ezrasf.com)

Don’t Be a Silly Ass about JavaScript

Bill Hely — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:33:41 +0000

There’s a new attack targeting Internet Explorer, and it affects versions 6 through 8 inclusive.

But that’s not what I want to comment on — unhappily there’s nothing new about new exploits against IE.

No, I want to draw your attention to this gem of wisdom from Symantec. It’s their recommendation on how to handle this exploit:

“Internet Explorer users should ensure their antivirus definitions are up to date, disable JavaScript and only visit Web sites they trust until fixes are available from Microsoft.”

You’d be hard pressed to find a more asinine statement from an actual ass (if asses spoke English, that is). But, considering it comes from the publishers of the most troublesome “security” software on the planet, I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised.

Look, if you really want to almost completely cripple your online experience, by all means disable JavaScript.

But if you’re not a masochist and you don’t want to be constantly bothered by the never-ending stream of Internet Explorer threats, then ignore that nonsense and…

Keep your Microsoft Updates & Patches right up-to-date;
Properly configure your anti-virus and keep it up-to-date:
USE MOZILLA FIREFOX AS YOUR DAY-TO-DAY BROWSER (or Google Chrome, though it currently offers a lot less functionality than Firefox).

Your choice of web browser is critical to your online safety and security. So much so that when members login to the new membership site, their browser version will be checked and they may receive a warning that their current choice of browser is not a good one.

Please share this article on any social networking sites you frequent (see buttons below).

Microsoft Patches & Updates for April 2010

Bill Hely — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 03:35:01 +0000

On the second Tuesday of each month Microsoft releases software patches & updates for their various products, so this is a very important day for all Windows users who care about their privacy and security [full summary here].

Why? Well..

Often a Microsoft patch or update will close a vulnerability that, if left unaddressed, could allow an attacker to take complete control of your computer.

And that’s something you REALLY don’t want!

Keeping your installation patched up-to-date is so important that, whether or not you have Automatic Updates enabled, at this time of each month it’s still wise to manually double-check that everything that matters has been installed. Don’t be put off by the word “manually” — it’s a quick and easy process.

HERE’S HOW:

Point your web browser to: http://www.update.microsoft.com
Click the Custom button.
Install any high-priority updates that are reported.

But Don’t Stop There!

In the column on the left-hand side you will see links for:

Software, Optional (n)
Hardware, Optional (n)

The number in brackets indicates how many updates of that type are applicable to your computer. If the number is anything other than (0) then click that link and investigate, installing the update if necessary (or if in doubt). Similarly, you may find relevant updates in one of the links under “Select by Product”, so do the same with any of those.

WEBCAST:
Each month, in association with PatchTuesday, Microsoft presents an online Webcast to address customer questions on the bulletins for that month. Webcasts are usually initially presented on the Wednesday, the day after Patch Tuesday, at 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada). They are also recorded and available for later viewing. To register for a Webcast or to view Webcasts that have passed, click this link.

By the way… SymmTime is a great on-screen world time utility for anyone who needs to check or convert times around the world. It’s free and highly configurable.

Did you know…

Many of the malware threats that you are frequently warned about in the various news and information media, on and off-line, should never be the slightest threat to you.

How come? Well, because…

If you made a habit of applying the patches & updates that are issued by Microsoft every month, you would be IMMUNE from infection by many of the tens of thousands of threats currently circulating on the Internet, with more being churned out by the cyber-grubs on an almost daily basis.

The vast majority of these threats get into your computer by exploiting some known vulnerability in Windows. When one of these vulnerabilities is patched by Microsoft, the threat becomes benign — but only if you have applied the free patch to your version of Windows.

So remember…

You Ignore Patches & Updates at Your Peril!

PS: When you read some of the related articles below you will encounter numerous instances of “Microsoft recommends updating Internet Explorer to version 8″ and “Microsoft recommends avoiding blah blah blah” and etc. Listen up! You’ll be orders of magnitude safer if you take my advice instead — download the free Firefox browser and give Internet Explorer the flick. IE has been a real security problem for a long time and it’s going to continue to be so well into the future. Firefox is a far better browser in every respect.

Very Important Security Update

Bill Hely — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:03:02 +0000

January 21 saw the release by Microsoft of a very important out-of-band security bulletin to address recently publicized flaws in Internet Explorer.

So-called “out-of-band” bulletins are those released at a time other than Microsoft’s traditional Patch Tuesday — the second Tuesday of each month. Out-of-band announcements are bulletins/patches/updates that Microsoft believes are too important to delay action on until the next Patch Tuesday.

If Microsoft admit the extra importance of a new “fix” then you should definitely sit up and take notice.

These most recent exploits have been well publicized worldwide (believed to have originated in China and possibly with government sponsorship) and can also cause problems via other applications such as the Adobe PDF Reader.

You must take action NOW!

I strongly suggest that you take immediate action as follows:

Visit the Microsoft update website and perform an update on your PC.
Visit the Secunia website, download the Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI), install it, run it and update any out-of-date applications it reports. Thousands of computer users are being compromised/robbed/impersonated every day because they continue to use out-of-date/unpatched applications.
If you’re still using Internet Explorer (sigh!) download and install Firefox and set it as your primary browser. Look, Internet Explorer doesn’t hold a candle to Firefox in ANY respect. Firefox is better, safer, faster and far superior in the usability and productivity stakes.
If the Adobe Reader is your PDF reader of choice, disable JavaScript in that application only. You’ll find numerous suggestions to disable JavaScript in your browser, but that’s a self-defeating move. So many websites rely on JavaScript for functionality that you will effectively cripple your browser by disabling JavaScript. However, disabling JavaScript in Adobe Reader is a different matter altogether. Very, very few PDF files utilise JavaScript, and if you should encounter one (very unlikely) you can enable JavaScript just for that document (if you’re absolutely sure it’s safe). To disable JavaScript in Adobe reader, open the reader and proceed as follows:

Edit –> Preferences
Select the JavaScript entry in the left column
Uncheck Enable JavaScript in the right column

And remember this:

The vast majority of damaging exploits rely on you taking some action such as clicking a link or opening an attachment. In my e-book The Hacker’s Nightmare I discussed these ploys in some depth under the heading of “social engineering”.

DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE SOCIALLY ENGINEERED!

Microsoft Security Updates for September 2009

Bill Hely — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:18:07 +0000

It’s that time again folks — Microsoft has just released their Security Bulletin Summary for September 2009.

To have your system is scanned for relevant products & updates, and to receive update recommendations customized to your installation
Click Here Now

There are a number of updates to be considered, ranging up to the severity level “Critical”, across a wide range of products, so please don’t ignore. There’s also a new version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool.

Stay safe – patch now!

Did you know…

Many of the malware threats that you are frequently warned about in the various news and information media, on and off-line, should never be the slightest threat to you.

How come?

Well, because…If you made a habit of applying the patches & updates that are issued by Microsoft every month, you would be IMMUNE from infection by many of the tens of thousands of threats currently circulating on the Internet, with more being churned out by the cybergrubs on an almost daily basis.

So remember…

You Ignore Patches & Updates at Your Peril!

An Important Browser Update

Bill Hely — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:13:11 +0000

Mozilla has released an important new update to Firefox — v3.5.1.

If you’re a Firefox user then you should definitely implement this upgrade ASAP, as it addresses certain security flaws that you really don’t want to be exposed to any longer than necessary.

Upgrading is as simple as opening Firefox, clicking the Help menu, then selecting Check for Updates from the drop-down list.

If your operating system is Windows and you’re NOT a Firefox user, you should be.

Firefox is cleaner, faster and safer than Internet Explorer, is completely free and there are is no problem with having multiple browsers installed at the same time. I have Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Firefox all installed on my personal PC, with Firefox as my main day-to-day Web browser.

To download Firefox from scratch just go to http://www.mozilla.com and follow the prompts.

And remember…

ALWAYS reboot your computer before and after any software installation, regardless of whether or not the install process tells you to do so. It’s not always absolutely necessary, but making it a habit will save you grief in the long run.

Fixing Internet Explorer Problems

Bill Hely — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 02:21:41 +0000

One of the most common browser-related questions I receive is about Internet Explorer v7 or v8 misbehaving in some fashion. Even seeing the browser refuse to start up at all is not that uncommon.

Internet Explorer does not provide an uninstall option on the Windows Start menu, and it’s not all that unusual to find there is no entry for Internet Explorer in the Control Panel’s Add or Remove Programs applet. For an explanation of why this might be so see my article Understanding & Troubleshooting the Add or Remove Programs Applet.

So what to do?

Here is a process that will more often than not resolve such problems and get you back to the latest Internet Explorer version behaving as it should.

To save covering the same ground twice, I’ll assume we are starting with a broken IE8, but if IE7 is your current version just skip the first step.

Proceeds as follows…

Download IE8 to your desktop. Don’t execute it yet, just leave it there ready.

Now please note that in the following steps it is MOST IMPORTANT that you reboot your PC every time you are prompted to do so. This is CRITICAL. No matter how tiresome the repeated reboots, DO NOT DEVIATE.

STEP ONE

Remove the current non-working IE8 using this file that should already be on your computer:
C:\WINDOWS\ie8\spuninst\spuninst.exe

When that’s finished (and after rebooting) your system will default to IE7 if it was installed before IE8, or otherwise to IE6.

STEP TWO

If IE7 is the new default version, and whether it works properly or not, remove IE7 using:
C:\WINDOWS\ie7\spuninst\spuninst.exe

After a reboot your default version should be IE6, which hopefully will run OK.

STEP THREE

Now double-click the IE8 file you downloaded to your desktop, thus starting the IE8 installation.

With any luck at all, after the mandatory reboot IE8 should be running OK, but you’re not finished yet.

STEP FOUR

Open IE8 and navigate to the menu item Tools/Windows Update, and download any updates that are offered. You will probably be prompted to reboot after updates are installed.

Keep going back to Tools/Windows Update after each reboot until there are no updates left for you to retrieve. By default Windows Update will only offer you updates of type “High Priority”, but if you look in the left-hand menu, under the heading “Select by Type” you will see that there are also selections available for “Software, Optional” and “Hardware, Optional”. You may have to go into Windows Update several times to retrieve all the updates that are available.

That’s it! With any luck at all you will now have a clean working copy of Internet Explorer v8.

But in the interests of both security and productivity I really can’t finish without adding this comment…

If you look around the ‘net you will find countless reports of problems with IE7 and IE8, many similar in one way or another, some quite different altogether.

But these are not potential problem you will likely have to face if you make your day-to-day browser the far superior and far less problem-plagued Firefox web browser.

I’m not saying you should ignore Internet Explorer altogether. Unfortunately it is still necessary for some operations. I strongly recommend you make a habit of keeping Internet Explorer updated, but never use it unless absolutely necessary.

There is no problem at all with having more than one browser installed at the same time, or even running simultaneously. I have Internet Explorer 8, Google Chrome and Firefox 3 all installed, but rarely ever use anything but Firefox.

You will be doing yourself a considerable service by adopting the same policy.

Bill Hely's "Computer & Online Security" BlogSearch results for 'Firefox' (page 1 of 2)

Firefox & Windows/Microsoft Update

Abandon Internet Explorer!

Fool the MS Update Websites

So What’s All That Mean?

But You CANNOT Ignore Internet Explorer!

Firefox: Critical Patch Alert

It’s Browser Upgrade Time!

A WordPress Problem & How to Fix It

SYMPTOMS

THE FIX

HOW TO DO IT

Don’t Be a Silly Ass about JavaScript

Please share this article on any social networking sites you frequent (see buttons below).

Microsoft Patches & Updates for April 2010

You Ignore Patches & Updates at Your Peril!

Related articles:

Very Important Security Update

You must take action NOW!

Microsoft Security Updates for September 2009

You Ignore Patches & Updates at Your Peril!

An Important Browser Update

Fixing Internet Explorer Problems

Firefox is quite simply a more useful, more versatile, less troublesome AND MUCH SAFER web browser.