Tag Archives: firefox

Should your browser remember website passwords?

Computer Aid Posted on by

We have all fallen into this trap, even those of us who should know better

We let IE / firefox / chrome remember a website password, because you are so tired of always entering the same password, sometimes many times per day.

But this is a big problem, particularly if you get infected, or someone gets access to your PC.

By default, anyone who can access your computer (including viruses), can view and use your password to gain access to your accounts… In todays environment, it would be a disaster for most of us.

firefoxHowever, at least Firefox has a way of making the passwords much more secure: a master password.

 

Under tools -> options -> security, just tick the box “Use a master password”, and then enter a password you are sure you can remember.

After that, every time you start firefox, you will be asked for the password. No password, no remembered passwords.

This won’t guarantee that a virus or intruder won’t get your website passwords, but it does make it much more difficult.

youtube html5 doesnt work on firefox

Computer Aid Posted on by

I recently found a strange problem:

I tried looking at a youtube video, but it didn’t work.

After some experimentation, I found that it was partly due to youtube using HTML5, and partly due to firefox (chrome worked correctly, and firefox displayed other non-youtube HTML5 pages correctly).

So what gives?

And how do I fix it?

Well, it turns out that YouTube is using a proprietary codec to show these video… but only Chrome is “licensed” for this particular codec.

So its not Firefox’s “fault”… its google / YouTube who are “breaking” the HTML5 standard… Yeah, ok, technically, they are not breaking the standard, but using a proprietary codec is a good way of turning people away.

I hope this situation doesn’t start to mirror the weird GIF situation from many years ago.

If only Google would release this codec to the public (or use an existing codec), then we wouldn’t have this stupid situation.

Google: get your act together!

problems with firefox rapid release development

Computer Aid Posted on by

I’m starting to get annoyed with the firefox rapid release development cycle.

I’ve known about it for a few months now, and when I first heard about it, it seemed like a good idea.

But then, as I’ve gone through version 4, then 5, and now v6.0, I’m finding more and more add-ons are breaking…

Back when I evaluated all the major browsers, looking for one that I would adopt as my main browser, the main reason I chose firefox was that it had a large number of add-ons, which allowed me to do things that no other browser (including firefox), could do out of the box.

Now, about half of my plugins are disabled, as they are incompatible, and firefox is becoming increasingly annoying to use… it feels like useful aspects are “falling off”.

The version numbering means that firefox no longer needs to support older version… so more effort can go into future development.

Thats great in theory, and users probably don’t care about having firefox V26.0 in 5 years time, but they do care about usability and stability.

For me, firefox is losing useability, and if it gets any worse, I’ll need to have another look around, and see what I can switch to.

The last time I looked, I remember:

  • Chrome didn’t have all the functionality I wanted (and virtually no plugins to add that functionality).
  • IE lost a lot of the configurability that I wanted (I think its a lot better now)
  • Opera had some compatibility issues.
  • Maxthon and various others had a whole range of issues.

I even tried firefox on my android phone for a while, but eventually decided that the speed of the built-in android browser overshadowed any benefit of using firefox sync, and the nicer firefox UI.

disable freecause search in Firefox

Computer Aid Posted on by

For a while now, I’ve noticed that if I type a serch term into the firefox address bar, I get search results via something called freecause.

Since I prefer Google, I decided to find out how to change the default address bar search.

It turned out to be quite simple:

in the Firefox address bar, type:

  • about:config
  • click the button that says: I’ll be careful, I promise
  • in the filter box, type: keyword.URL
  • double-click on keyword.URL (unter the Preference title)
  • In the box that pops up, erase the existing text and then enter: http://www.google.com/search?q=
  • click OK
  • optional: close the about:config tab and restart firefox

 

Strange Firefox behaviour: fixing add-on corruption.

Computer Aid Posted on by

I had Firefox suddenly start to behave strangely:

I would see strange looking tabs, and many blank pages, instead of websites… and the occasional “page not found” message.

Yet IE8 was working fine.

I disabled all the plugins, and FF would then start working normally again.

After a bit of trial and error, I eventually found that the problem was with the tab kit plus add-on.

But the add-on was working fine on another similar PC…

So I thought: maybe tab kit plus has some corrupt data, so I’ll uninstall it, restart FF, then re-install tab kit plus.

Well, it didn’t seem to have any effect.

After some research, I found that this can sometimes happen to Firefox, and the only way out, is to create a new profile.

Since creating a new profile, means you will lose all the bookmarks, plugins, etc from the old profile, I made a backup of the bookmarks:

bookmarks -> organise bookmarks -> import and backup -> backup -> select where to save the backup (and its name).

I then shutdown firefox (restart your PC if you want to be sure).

Then from a command prompt (cmd), I enter:

firefox -ProfileManager

The window that pops up allows you to create a new profile (create profile button), and I also delete the old corrupt profile (delete profile button).

I then Exit, and start firefox normally, and I get an “out of the box” firefox.

I then import the favorites, and re-install the plugins, and the problem is gone.

An interesting side effect of this is:

With the new profile, Firefox seems much faster (even with all the add-ons and bookmarks back to normal!)… I wonder if Firefox needs a “cleanup” function / add-on, to maintain its performance?

Review of the tab mix plus add-on for firefox

Computer Aid Posted on by

The Tab Mix Plus add-on for firefox is what I now use instead of the, now incompatible, tab kit.

Tab Mix Plus has so many features and options, that I decided to do some screen-shots to show how I like to configure it for the best browsing experience.

As a premise, I like to remove the tab close button (on the right of each tab), as I find it easier to close a tab by just double-clicking on the tab.

I also like to remove the “add a new tab” button, since I arrange tab mix plus to automatically open new tabs for just about anything except for plain clicks on links (if I want to open a normal link in a new tab, I right-click, then select “open link in new tab”)… So I don’t need an “add new tab” button.

Here is how I have setup the various options (tools -> addons -> extensions -> tab mix plus -> options).

The change here is: Force to open in new tab: links to other sites, and enable single window mode.

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There are a few changes here: open other tabs next to current one, untick “change opening order”. Then open tabs from: tick all 5 boxes.

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The only change I make here is to untick address bar, as I might want to open a few windows & dont want any to gain “focus”.

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I find it less annoying by unticking “warn me when closing multiple tabs”.

I also like: when closing tab, focus left tab.

I make no changes under the “tab merging” tab.

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I find it useful to increase the max number of closed tabs to remember to 40 or 50

And I like the predictability of ctrl-tab navigation by un-ticking ctrl-tab navigates tabs in the most recently used order.

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Here I untick “new tab button” and “all tabs button”, as well as change “when tabs don’t fit width” to “multi-row”.

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I make quite a few changes here. Click highlight current tab. Untick close tab button. Tab width 22 to 250. Tick “tab width fits to tab title” and “use bookmark name as tab title” (since I use short names in my bookmarks).

Also: click “customize styles” button, and for the current tab, I change the background colour to a light yellow.

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Here, the closed tabs button is effectively an “undo closed tab” button, and you just need to click on the customize button, and drag the closed tabs button to the right of the “home” icon on the toolbar.

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I make no changes to the mouse gestures tab (I don’t use mouse gestures).

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On the mouse clicking tab, I make the following changes (close tab by double-clicking on it, and open a new tab by double clicking on a blank section of the tab bar.

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I make no changes to the “menu” section.

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Although Tab Mix will usually prompt you after it is installed, I usually check that “use firefoxes built-in session restore feature” is ticked.

As you can see, there is a lot that can be customised, with Tab Mix Plus. But if you want to get the most out of your browsing with FireFox, then its worth installing and customising Tab Mix Plus.

Top Firefox add-ons (3.6 update)

Computer Aid Posted on by

Since my previous review of add-ons for Firefox 3.5x, the newer Firefox 3.6.x has made some add-ons unusable, and other add-ons have appeared on the scene.

So I have decided to update my list of top Firefox add-ons.

First, to get the add-ons, you need to start Firefox, then go: tools -> add-ons

From the add-on window (which I have resized to full screen height), click on the “get add-ons” button, then enter the add-on name in the “search all add-ons” box.

  • Tab Mix Plus  is an excellent replacement for “Tab Kit” (which is no longer compatible with FF3.6, and doesn’t seem to be updated any more). Tab Mix Plus has a huge set of configurable items, some of which replace a handful of other add-ons that I once used. I’ll be providing a review, and some configuration hints in a later post.
  • Adblock Plus abp blocks annoying advertising. Just remember that some websites rely on advertising to survive… so if you use Adblock Plus, you should feel a certain level of guilt… but not too much 🙂
  • Close Tab By Double Click. This add-on can be removed, as the same functionality is provided by “tab mix plus”.
  • Flashblock flashblock blocks flash objects, yet lets you re-enable the flash objects with just a click. Great for blocking ads that Adblock Plus cannot block. Also good for making a “busy” website look easier on the eyes.
  • Menu Editor. puzzle I’ve only used this to change the right-click on a link action to: popup a menu that has the option: “Open Link in New Tab” option at the top of the menu.
  • QuickDrag: puzzle when you highlight a few words on a page, then drag the words a few pixels away, a new tab opens with the search results on those works (ie no need to copy and paste them into google). If you highlight and drag a url (eg: computer-aid.com.au ), then that url is opened in a new tab.
  • Remove New Tab Button. This add-on can be removed, as the same functionality is provided by “tab mix plus”.
  • SearchStatus searchstatus will display some ranking information about each site you visit. Once installed, I “move” it to the menu bar (at the top of the window). By right-clicking on the “q” logo, I select “highlight nofollow links” so all nofollow links show up as pink. I also enable pagerank, alexa, compete, mozrank.
  • Split Browser splitbrowserworks well on widescreen monitors. You can view 2 websites side-by-side, and I often enable the “sychronously scroll” option when comparing 2 versions of the same website.
  • Tab History Menu . I find I don’t use this add-on much.
  • Tab Kit. This add-on can be removed, as the same functionality is provided by “tab mix plus”.
  • TabRenamizer. This add-on can be removed, as the same functionality is provided by “tab mix plus”
  • Undo Closed Tabs Button. This add-on can be removed, as the same functionality is provided by “tab mix plus”.

Firefox navigates to reported attack site c.ppcxml.net

Computer Aid Posted on by

Another infected PC. This time, Windows XP also got corrupted.

So, as well as removing the infection, I also need to do a repair install of Windows.

But after all that, clicking on any google results (using Firefox) brings up a Firefox “reported attack site”… looking at the url, it seems I get redirected to c.ppcxml.net … regardless of which link I click on.

I quickly find the solution:

Use windows explorer to navigate to something like:

C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxextensions{CAFEEFAC-0016-0000-0017-ABCDEFFEDCBA}chromecontentffjcext

Note that there might be more than 1 folder that starts with “{CAFEEFAC-“… you might need to look at all of them.

I ended up renaming any file that ends in .XUL (I changed the extension from .XUL to .LUX).

You might need to try a few combinations, as its a fairly important file for Firefox.

Review of the tab kit add-on for firefox

Computer Aid Posted on by

The tab kit add-on for firefox has many features that allow you to customise the way that tabs look and behave.

tabkit

Here is how I have setup the various options (tools -> addons -> extensions -> tab kit -> options)

tabkit1

The most obvious change I make is to have the tab bar along the top, and to show up to 4 rows at once (useful while using entrecard).

tabkit2

In this section, I like to have a minimum tab width of 80 pixels, tick all the appearance options.

tabkit3

Here, I disable all mouse gestures, and I like having scrollbars instead of arrows.

tabkit4

In this option window, I make sure I automatically group new tabs, but I don’t like collapsing inactive groups. I also like having ungrouped tabs to the right of the current tab.

tabkit5

And I tick all the options under open tabs by default.

Top Firefox add-ons

Computer Aid Posted on by

Since switching to Firefox, there are a few add-ons that I found essential to making Firefox quick and easy to work with.

I thought I’d share my list of addons, and explain how some work very well together.

First, to get the addons, you need to start Firefox, then go: tools -> add-ons

From the addon window (which I have resized to full screen height), click on the “get add-ons” button, then enter the add-on name in the “search all add-ons” box.

  • Adblock Plus abp blocks annoying advertising. Just remember that some websites rely on advertising to survive… so if you use Adblock Plus, you should feel a certain level of guilt… but not too much 🙂
  • Close Tab By Double Click. puzzle You don’t have to waste time closing a tab by aiming to click on the tiny “x”. Now you can close a tab by just double-clicking anywhere on the tab. This addon works well with the tab kit add-on (by activating: options -> tabs -> close buttons -> don’t show any close buttons)
  • Flashblock flashblock blocks flash objects, yet lets you re-enable the flash objects with just a click. Great for blocking ads that Adblock Plus cannot block. Also good for making a “busy” website look easier on the eyes.
  • Menu Editor. puzzle I’ve only used this to change the right-click on a link action to: popup the a menu that has the option: “Open Link in New Tab” option at the top of the menu.
  • QuickDrag: puzzle when you highlight a few words on a page, then drag the words a few pixels away, a new tab opens with the search results on those works (ie no need to copy and paste them into google). If you highlight and drag a url (eg: computer-aid.com.au ), then that url is opened in a new tab.
  • Remove New Tab Button puzzle will remove the annoying “new tab” button that hangs around at the end of the tab bar. Works perfectly with the tab kit add-on and the close tab by double click add-on.
  • SearchStatus searchstatus will display some ranking information about each site you visit. Once installed, I “move” it to the menu bar (at the top of the window), by right-clicking on the “q” logo, I select “highlight nofollow links” so all nofollow links show up as pink. I also enable pagerank, alexa, compete, mozrank.
  • Split Browser splitbrowserwork well on widescreen monitors. You can view 2 websites side-by-side, and I often enable the “sychronously scroll” option when comparing 2 versions of the same website.
  • Tab History Menu tabhistorymenushows the tab history. Its just like the drop-down list near the forward – back buttons on the top-left, but you get the list when you click on the tab instead.
  • Tab Kit tabkit is like a Swiss army knife of tab organisation. There is too much to explain here. I’ll probably make a separate post that shows my tab kit options and how they make firefox easier to use. In the mean time, you can install it and try it out yourself.
  • TabRenamizer tabrenameizer renames tabs to something more reasonable that what the website decides for you. This might not work well for most people. Why? I use it to automatically rename tabs based on my bookmarks. But when I create a bookmark, I give it a short name (eg If I bookmark computer-aid.com.au, I make sure I call the bookmark “ComputerAid”… but I suspect most people don’t rename any bookmarks that they save. Otherwise you can manually rename tabs, or even have them renamed automatically to a “random” name!
  • Undo Closed Tabs Button undoclosedtabs just makes it easy to recover a tab that you might have accidentally closed (I seem to do it often). its just easier than going to history -> recently closed tabs -> then pick the tab you want resurrected.

You will probably notice that some add-ons will duplicate some functionality (eg remove tab close button). I’m not sure if I should make sure these duplicated options should all be set the same way, or if only 1 add-on needs to have the option set… but so far, I’ve not seen any add-on conflicts.

Firefox: a (not so) quick evaluation

Computer Aid Posted on by

This is another of my browser quick evaluations.

This time, I’m evaluating Firefox, to see if its a suitable candidate in my quest to replace Maxthon as my default browser.

I’ve been using Firefox while working with Entrecard blogs, so I know it lacks multi-threaded tabs… its annoying, but not a huge problem.

The border width is the standard windows width… good.

firefox

Now for customisability:

At first, there doesn’t seem to be the ability to create your own toolbar, but I eventually find it: view -> toolbars -> customise -> add new toolbar.

OK, I’ll start by installing a pagerank add-on…  I install SearchStatus, and it can be placed on any toolbar/menu bar available to firefox… its an excellent addon.

Now onto advert blocking: I installed adblock plus, and flashblock, and using the standard settings, I hardly saw and adverts and all flash content was blocked until I pressed the “play” button. This is the best ad blocking I’ve seen so far, with hardly any training required from the start, and a simple ABP “button” to switch ads on and off.

RSS feeds worked, but the built-in feed reader (looks like an extension to bookmarks) doesn’t allow you to “mark bookmarks as read”… so I can’t be sure what I’ve already seen and what I haven’t. Looks like I’ll need to use an “external” feed reader (I’d rather use the reader built in to the browser).

Unfortunately, typing a URL into the address bar, and pressing enter caused the website to be loaded into the current tab… Alt Enter will open it in a new tab, but will activate the new tab… I tried the tabnavigator addon, but it didn’t do anything that I wanted. Next, I tried the “tab kit” addon. It worked, and it has some nice features (tabs on multiple lines, typing a URL in the address bar opens it in a new tab, grouping tabs, etc)

I wanted to switch between tabs by using ctrl-right arrow & ctrl left arrow. I tried tabnavigator, tab kit, and keyconfig (to remap the keys), but none worked. Its disappointing, but not a major problem

I wanted to close tabs by double-clicking on the tabs, and found a plugin to do just that (close tab by double click).

I also added an “undo closed tabs button” … nice.

drag and drop urls from a web page only works if you drag the url all the way to the address bar… I’d like to just drag it slightly, and it looked like it couldn’t be done, until I accidentally found what I was after (QuickDrag).

spellcheck: like opera, FF will check spelling in input boxes… but it only started working once I installed a dictionary (Australian).

I also installed the SearchStatus add-on… it displays pagerank (plus a few other ranking figures) on the toolbar… great for SEO work.

I installed firebug (web developer tools)… its nice, but I’ve found that Operas “developer tools” (dragonfly) is just so smooth and seamless. Dragonfly is so good, that I’ll happily switch browsers every time I need to do some website development/alterations.

Other add-ons I added are: “Menu Editor”.. when right-clicking on a link, I have now moved the option to “open link in a new tab” to be the first option in the context menu…. Remove New Tab Button” removes the unneeded “+” button at the end of the bar of tabs.

Exporting favourites from Maxthon & importing them (into Opera & Firefox) is a simple process.

So far, the biggest advantage of Firefox, has been the wide range of plugins… but that’s also its biggest problem, as its difficult to know what FF can do unless you’ve heard about a feature before.

Finding the quickdrag add-on is a good example of this… I knew what I wanted, but it took a day of idle searching before I found what I wanted.

I’ve heard that Firefox still has problems with memory leaks and memory bloat, but I didn’t really look carefully enough to make a conclusion.

But I can say that Firefox 3.5.3 has crashed, locked up, frozen, or just simply disappeared (gone from task manager as well) more times than all the other tested browsers, combined.

So, the final verdict: (Many people will say “I told you so”) I’ll be switching to Firefox as my main browser(with Opera as a website development aid). Its not perfect, but its my best option.