Son insisting I change IE

[cig19335]

My 12 yr. old son, who plays and participates in diablo hacking forums, insists that I immediately change browsers. He said there is a very bad vunerability in IE that allows someone to download programs into ones computer whenever you click on a link. He said this one was just found.
I am not computer literate so this would be a very big undertaking and I don't want to undertake it unless absolutely necessary.
Does anyone know what he is talking about and is it imperative that one trash IE until they make a patch?

[mnosteele52]

Welcome to Speedguide cig19335 , your son is pretty much right, Internet Explorer is one big security hole. There are patches released on a regular basis to repair the it's security issues. I haven't heard of any new issues in the past 2 weeks but I have read where the latest issue that is supposedly fixed by a patch is still vulnerable. Personally I only use Mozilla for a browser, check it out, I bet you will like it.

[lobosblanco]

Heres a tutorial for switching over. if you decide to

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ ... utorial=79

[AuDioFreaK39]

As a 13 year old, I would say the same thing. I just got Mozilla Firefox last week because everyone was reccomending it had better security. Turns out it did and had a lot of extra features that IE couldn't even compare to. The only thing I didn't like was the interface when I was changing browsers. So I found one that looks just about like IE. I also changed the Mozilla Firefox shortcut icon on my desktop to the IE one cause im used to it. Although some pages (like online gaming websites) won't work with Firefox, you can always view them back in IE.

[YARDofSTUF]

Ya I try to get everyone off of IE.

[KuRe]

Well a more immediate danger is your son being in those diablo hacking forums. What he believes to be hacks could end up being trojans or virii.

Just a thought

[Sava700]

Very true I agree with that forum... hiden scripts in pages etc.. Go to the wrong site and you pick up all kinds of bad stuff I use IE and Netscape and I don't have problems with either on security I just keep everything patched up and checked over.. normal maintaince ya know..do that and you shouldn't have any problems!

[cyberskye]

I just keep everything patched up and checked over.. normal maintaince ya know..do that and you shouldn't have any problems!

With IE, it's only a matter until the next time. In their anti-trust case, they insisted they cannot remove IE from the OS without damaging both. IE is tighly integrated into the kernel. Linking an app whose sole purpose is to download files from the internet is a perpetual risk. Can be mitigated, but will always be there. It's a design flaw, those are hard (if not impossible) to fix by patching.

Skye

[MadDoctor]

Personally I only use Mozilla for a browser, check it out, I bet you will like it.

Say..... this is nice (Mozilla)!

Thanks mnosteele52

[j0ey]

So is it mozilla or firefox?

[j0ey]

I was just wondering which one you guys like? Does firefox come with themes?

[KuRe]

Firefox does come with themes!

http://update.mozilla.org/themes/?application=firefox

[j0ey]

Right on! I downloaded mozilla and used the BlueZilla and its off the hook! Is firefox better than mozilla? And Sava700 that Avatar is killing me, truly killing me hehe. I need to figure out how to get mine up.

[Usul]

Firefox is more of a striped down version of the Mozilla browser, It does not include the Mail Client / IRC Client / Composer / Address Book. Also firefox is missing a few options found in the full Mozilla client. I can't say what the differences are under the hood but I must attest it does load and run faster.