Web browsers....

[OhioBeachBum]

So what if you have AOL...can you still use Firefox?

1st, "what SJ said" (with a caveat I'll cover below). If you have a dial-up (56K) AOL account, if nothing else, you're getting ripped for functionality available elsewhere for at or under $10 a month.

Once you connect to the ISP (AOL or anybody else), you have an active internet channel, and you can use any browser you want to. AOL's "installer" (at least the dial-up account one I've had to deal with when I'm unscrewing a friends system) basically just heavily customizes a stock browser - in addition to dumping a bunch of unneccessary garbage onto your system that tends to wrap it around the axle eventually).

If you're using a dial-up AOL account, shop around for another dial-up provider. Just about anybody.

So, here's the caveat: a co-worker (who over the past decade has used TimeWarner & AOL interchangeably in concert with various strings of expletives, and who is a 3-decade nutz&bolts developer like myself) recently plugged into an AOL offering involving "sorta-high-speed" internet. It's basically RoadRunner with the throughput throttled down (about 50%) for about $15-$20 a month. He likes it, and claims the only time he notices a difference between work (we have multiple T1 network channels) and home performance is when he's moving substantially sized files (over a couple of MB) across the net channel. That might be something to look into if you're price sensitive.

 

[Ocean Lover]

You need to get out of A O Hell. Get out of there!

Sorry, SJ but I like it. Free firewall,virus protection,parental controls, and seven screen names. I'm guessing I could still use Firefox if I signed onto AOL and then switched over to Firefox for browsing.

 

[Ocean Lover]

I've had AOL Cable/Broadband since it was first offered...probably 3 years???

Looks like my guess was right. Thanks OBB.

 

[Ocean Lover]

WowWay offers that same kinda deal. Different levels of speed cable connection. When AOL was recently advertising this new high speed for $27 a month I called to make sure I wasn't over paying. He explaining it wasn't as fast of a connection as what I already have. Roadrunner came for the install but it's all the same, I just get AOL with mine. This sparks another question...new thread to come...

 

[Smiling JOe]

I've tended to waffle back & forth between Computer Associates and McAfee over the past few years, with Norton (and the remaining bit players) always a distant 3rd.

CA stuff has been on my work desktop (I don't have any choice there) for near a decade - enterprise grade stuff.

Used CA at home until about 4 years ago when I switched to McAfee. First of this year (when I switched ISP to RoadRunner), I downloaded the CA "Internet Security Suite" TimeWarner makes available to RR subscribers (for free), and I'm now back in the CA camp again.

Even if I had to pay for it, I'd stay with CA now. Firewall is tight as a drum out of the box - so tight that you have to specifically tell it (in the beginning) that it's OK for things like Outlook & so on to use the net. Very friendly non-technoid oriented pop-up's guide you through the process. BTW - 3rd party firewall S/W is an absolute must if you're running a high-speed (DSL or cable) link to your desktop. The CA product had logged a couple of hundred "probes" of my system within the 1st 90 minutes after I lit up the the RoadRunner channel on my home system.

The included anti-spam product is ok (I have a separate discourse on anti-spam products; I don't think anybody has got that "right" yet) - it does cleanly separate the s*** from the apple butter.

I haven't spent any time fiddling with PestPatrol (though it's installed on my work desktop, again by fiat). In that department, I tend to just use SpyBot and AdAware (both freebies) periodically, but you do have to be careful what you tell either one to "burn" (a few things AdAware ID's as suspect are needed for certain IE & related functionality - go figure).

Final note on the AntiVirus component (any vendor's product): Make sure it's configured for "heuristic" scanning (in addition to the primary "signature" type scanning). Shaves a bit off performance (barely detectable on 3GHz+ processors) but worth it.

(whew - that sure turned into a "download" )

Sorry, I thought you meant AV, as in audio/video, and thought I was missing the boat. ;-)

 

[OhioBeachBum]

Sorry, I thought you meant AV, as in audio/video, and thought I was missing the boat. ;-)

I wondered about that, since I'd seen previous posts that suggested you were rather knowledgable in that area.

I might be trying to bone up on the AV you're interested in later this summer.
Son's going to be involved in some stuff next school year I want to capture on video and edit later - and I'm a babe in the woods in that arena (video editing on the desktop) at this point.

Any tips you (or others) might be inclined to part with in that respect would be most appreciated.

 

[Rita]

OL,

Cancelling AOL seems to cause problems for lots of people. They seem to operate a sort of "scam" in which they will get an extra couple months fees out of people. (They have your credit card #.)

I think there is another thread in which several people shared their experiences with cancelling AOL. Maybe they are not doing this anymore, but I could never recommend them to anyone. Lots of people have had similar problems so hopefully the public is catching on to their tactics.




.

 

[Unplugged]

Firefox - hands down. Been using Mozilla browser product (as primary browser) for years. Switched to Firefox as primary around V1.0.4 (current is V1.5.0.2).

As SJ pointed out, there are still some sites that continue to produce non-standards (W3C) compliant, IE-centric HTML (IMHO, the scarlet red letter of the amateur developer). I keep IE around only for when I absolutely must deal with such a site (and those are few and far between, since I treat them like I would treat a 40 year old biker with a social disease trying to date a teenaged daughter of mine ;-)).

Tabbed browsing is a major productivity booster for me, popup blocking is stellar (and improves with each release), and there's a wealth of extensions available to further tune the product to fit your needs. Some of my favorite extensions:

• Tabbrowser Preferences (V1.2.8.9): Provides additional Tab features, like opening a new tab in the background, opening page embedded links in a new tab, etc.
• Copy Plain Text (V0.3.2): Lets you copy just "text" (cut & paste) from browser. For when you just want the text, not the 64 point bold italics purple font and other similar noxious markup.
• IE View (V1.2.7): Provides a context menu that lets you open a link in IE (launches the selected page in a new instance of IE) instead of in Firefox. Another context menu item configures the browser to always open that page in IE (so you don't have to select that option all the time).

Security wise, more like Brink's armored car vs. wallet-on-a-chain (IE).
Windows, Linux, and Mac variants all behave & present uniformly.

Firefox is the number two "do first" modification to an out of the box Windows installation I recommend to all who ask (number one is AV software ;-)).

This is EXCELLENT info OhioBeachBum THANKS!! I'm ready to give it a shot ;-)

 

[Cil]

OL,

Cancelling AOL seems to cause problems for lots of people. They seem to operate a sort of "scam" in which they will get an extra couple months fees out of people. (They have your credit card #.)

I think there is another thread in which several people shared their experiences with cancelling AOL. Maybe they are not doing this anymore, but I could never recommend them to anyone. Lots of people have had similar problems so hopefully the public is catching on to their tactics.




.

We did not have this problem at all--they kept giving it to us for free (believe me, we keep track--we only own one credit card) because they did not want us to leave. This was about 5 years ago.
But yeah, I do not recommend AOL--that's why we left.

 

[Unplugged]

OL,

Cancelling AOL seems to cause problems for lots of people. They seem to operate a sort of "scam" in which they will get an extra couple months fees out of people. (They have your credit card #.)

I think there is another thread in which several people shared their experiences with cancelling AOL. Maybe they are not doing this anymore, but I could never recommend them to anyone. Lots of people have had similar problems so hopefully the public is catching on to their tactics.




.

AOL is the PITS !!!