Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Portable Apps – Firefox and Firefox Portable Settings Part 2

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This is a follow up of my 31AUG06 Portable Apps – Firefox and Firefox Portable Settings Part 1 posting, in which items in the General and Privacy settings were discussed.

Part 2 is concerning Content settings, subsequent postings will contain the information for the Tabs, Downloads and Advanced settings.

I use the same settings for both the local and portable versions, for the most part. See the tables below:

Firefox and Portable Firefox Contents Tab
Option Secondary Comments My Preferences
Block Popup Windows
Checked: Popup windows blocked.
Unchecked: Popup windows not blocked
Checked.
Allowed Sites
A section to list exceptions to the above.
A very few sites, that use Popups are set up in both local
and portable versions I use.
Warn me when web sites try to install extensions or
themes
Checked: Warning given if website tries to install
extensions or themes.
Unchecked: No warning.
At the time of the warning you can give permission or not.
Checked.
Exceptions
A section to list exceptions to the above.
None, I always want to know what extensions or themes are
being installed.
Load Images.
Checked: Images loaded..
Unchecked: Images not loaded.
Checked, but if using Portable Firefox somewhere with only
dial up access I change this before accessing the Internet.
Exceptions
A section to list exceptions to the above.
None.
For the originating web site only
Checked: Images will only be loaded for the originating web
site.
Unchecked, not sure what the advantages or disadvantages
would be.
Enable Java
Checked: Java enabled.
Unchecked: Java disabled.
Checked.
Enable JavaScript
Checked: JavaScript enabled.
Unchecked: JavaScript disabled.
Checked.
Advanced
More detailed JavaScript options.
Allow:
Move or resize existing windows.
Raise or lower windows.
Fonts & Colors
Control default fonts and colors.
 
Default Font
Drop down of available fonts.
Times New Roman.
Size
Drop down of available point sizes.
12 points.
Advanced
More detailed font option controls.
Proportional: Serif: – 12 points.
Serif: Times New Roman.
Sans-serif: Arial.
Monospace: Courier New – 13 points.
Display resolution: 96 dpi.
Minimum font size: None.
Allow pages to choose their own fonts, instead of my selections
above: – Checked.
Default Character Encoding: Western (ISO-8859-1).
Colors
Controls default colors.
Text: Black.
Background: Light Grey.
Use system colors: Unchecked.
Unvisited Links: Blue.
Visited Links: Violet.
Underline links: Checked.
Allow pages to choose their own colors, instead of my selections
above: Checked.

As you can see the Content settings, are rather involved and give you quite a bit of control. Try out different settings for yourself, to see what works for you; you can always put it back the way you had it.

Let me know what works for you that is different from my preferences, maybe it will work better for me also.

Internet – Ixquick Search Engine

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Today I read the posting September 1, 2006 “Search Engine Embraces Privacy” on Sandy Berger’s Blog “Keeping It Short and Simple” and the related Compu-Kiss article “Ixquick Search Engine Embraces Privacy”.

I was intrigued enough by these, to try out Ixquick myself; from what I have seen and experienced so far I think that I will be using this myself, along with my current favorite Google.

My reasons are not so much privacy related. If the Justice Department really wants to know my surfing habits, I am sure they can find out by other means anyway.

I like the star system to show the relevancy of the search results, see the Compu-Kiss article for more details. As Ixquick is a Meta Search Engine, you are actually searching multiple search engines at the same time and the stars indicate how many of those turn the result up in their top 10.

All in all, at this point, I think the Ixquick Meta Search Engine, is well worth trying out.

Once you have tried it out, let me know what you think.

Portable Apps – Firefox and Firefox Portable Settings Part 1

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People who know me know that I am partial to open source software. In this posting I want to describe a few setting differences in using the Firefox browser locally, as opposed to the Firefox Portable browser, which I run from a thumb drive.

Both the local copy and the portable versions of Firefox, being used at the time of this posting, are version 1.5.0.6. I have been using Firefox locally since shortly after it became available and the portable versions for the last year or so. The different settings are configured from various Tools>Options tabs.

I use the same “General” options tab settings in both instances, except for the “Connection Settings”. The local Firefox is a “Direct connection to the Internet”, while the Firefox Portable is set up with the “Manual proxy configuration” settings to allow me to access the internet at work and usually using the “Auto-detect proxy settings for this network” gets me access at a library or similar non direct location.

As for the Privacy options tab settings, neither instance is set to save the browsing history, forms, download history, cookies nor cache, beyond the current session. Both instances have been set to “Remember Passwords”, but have differing master passwords.

None of the saved passwords are for anything sensitive, like online banking or anything of a like nature; even so, additions or updates to the passwords on the Firefox Portable are only done when running from my own local computer and the master password is frequently changed.

Setting differences for the “Content”, “Tabs”, “Downloads” and “Advanced” options to be described in future posts.

Of course, these are the settings that I feel work best for me, and suit my security comfort levels, depending upon whether it is the local or the portable Firefox being used.

You may and probably do have different settings for your Firefox, however it is used. If you have a set up you think is better, or just have a question requiring a more in-depth look at the settings, feel free to let me know by leaving a comment to this posting and I will get back to you as soon as possible.