Monday, August 17, 2009

Why doesn't AT&T Yahoo support Firefox?

My ISP is AT%26T Yahoo. They will give you the entire Norton security suite, firewall,antivirus,antispyware, for free just because you are a customer. But they don't support Firefox! What don't they understand. This is a very popular browser %26 safer than IE, but I can't use Norton because AT%26T are behind the times.



Why doesn't AT%26T Yahoo support Firefox?network security



Forensic, Firefox is indeed safer than IE. The main reason is that IE is targeted more. However, the other is that IE is the default shell for windows explorer in general. So when IE is compromised your entire windows install is. Firefox is a separate entity from the rest of the install, so if Firefox gets infected, only Firefox needs fixing. IE usually, from what i've found, gets browser helper objects that attach itself to IE, and so windows in general. This usually results in the browser helper object having full access, again where Firefox would be fine.



It is not that the code of Firefox is cleaner and more safe, in fact its probably worse than IE. However, it is Firefox's separation from windows, as opposed to IE's integration, that make it safer. That, and i have yet to get a direct infection from Firefox.



Of course, nothing from a browser perspective, will protect you from trojan downloaders, spyware, and virus's that spread by the user downloading and/or installing random things.

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