[SteveA]

Originally Posted by eeyore

I agree that you shouldnt mess with the firewall and Anti virus if they work for you.

Sorry, eeyore, I disagree with you there - I've lost count of the number of machines I've worked on that have had the A/V, firewall, security disabled by malware/trojan applications such as the type at the heart of this thread.

Always better to download the A/V and updates anew, as well as a fresh version of your firewall and go offline to reinstall them, if you can reinstall them in Safe Mode, all the better, - you'd be surprised what they find when they're allowed to work properly after an infection.

Originally Posted by Tamworth Weather

What about if you avoid using the web altogether? Then you will be immune to the vast majority of malicious we based software.

Now you're being silly.

Originally Posted by Tamworth Weather

IE is as secure as YOU want to make it, all you got to do is change the settings - no different to FF or any other browser. OK they may not be set by default but security and accessibility is always a fine balance.

Ok, what settings do you suggest?

Then what happens if you need to download and install say, the latest version of Windows Media Player?

Yes, you guessed it - you have to undo most of your settings.

Originally Posted by Tamworth Weather

If you care to quote me fully I explained the reason IMO that Opera should be avoided - compatibility issues.

And why is everyone so keen to bash MS products all the time in preference for FF and Opera?

Who's bashing?

We're just suggesting that, 'out of the box' for most users, Opera and FF are safer.

You find one of them doesn't display a page or site correctly, you open that page or site in IE.

Originally Posted by Tamworth Weather

Both FF and Opera have there faults and security risks in exactly the same way as IE does. Yet when they are highlighted someone always says "Were they current versions?" It doesn't matter what browser you use, you should always be uptodate on the following things:

Browser version
Security updates
Anit Virus updates
Firewall and spyware/adware/malware

You could go further, of course with popup blockers, whitelists and blacklists and what about categorisation, privacy and certificates?

The internet is only as safe as you make it - its not IE's fault.

No, you're mistaken. IE allows 'drive-by' installations of software - as it was designed to do.

I do go further, on every machine I build, fix or setup. FF has pop-up blockers built-in, white and black-lists can be added to it easily (or added by Spybot/Spywareblaster, etc.).

Originally Posted by Tamworth Weather

Oh and I use IE and FF on a daily basis - although I do prefer to avoid Opera whenever possible, but there is always somebody who thinks they are clever by using it.....they are usually programmers or linux bods.

You forgot Macs - I do those too .