This depends on the Mozilla product you are using: - Firefox and Thunderbird: Select Tools -> Extensions to open the extension manager which allows you to view, update and remove extensions. - Mozilla Suite: Some extensions offer uninstallers. To remove these extensions, select Edit -> Preferences and look for the extension's name. If it does not appear in this list / does not come with an uninstall function, you can use Extension uninstaller to view and remove installed extensions.Extension uninstaller has not been updated as of June 12th, 2006 to work with the Seamonkey Suite. Note: If you are developing an extension, you can use the extension uninstaller API to add uninstall functionality for your Mozilla Suite extension: Extension Uninstaller API. Improve Internet Speed as well as get Computer tech Support online by Microsoft certified technicians 24x7.. More on Mozilla>> Extensions In Mozilla Using Junk Mail Controls Mozilla's Spam filter perform better than Mail Shield's Mozilla’s spam filter
Jul 16, 2008
Jul 9, 2008
Extensions In Mozilla
Adblock:AdBlock is an image filtering plug-in for Mozilla. It can essentially be seen as a program that allows more fine-grained image-control than Mozilla's built-in "Block images from this server"-function. It's capable of removing both images and flash animations. - Yahoo companion for Mozilla: This is the Yahoo Companion toolbar for Mozilla. It does not (yet) contain all the features of the original Yahoo Companion Toolbar (which is currently only available for IE and Netscape 4.x), but is is getting there and it has the same look and feel. Please note that Companion for Mozilla is not released by Yahoo, but rather by a Mozdev project. - MozTweak: Moztweak provides instant access to a variety of Mozilla settings that can be altered from [a] GUI interface. This add-on lets you access and change a wide variety of hidden prefs, not only for the browser but for the mail and news client, as well. - Googlebar: Googlebar is a toolbar for Mozilla that lets you use the Google search engine. It is similar in functionality and appearance to the official Google Toolbar that is available for IE. It offers many features such as specialty searches, configurable toolbar buttons, in-page-search (simply mark text in a web page and right click. You will see several Googlebar options for the marked text such as "web search" or "translate") and much more. Computer Support and Technical Support will always be provided by Microsoft certified technicians 24x7 ..Live More on Mozilla >> Extentions In Mozilla Using Junk Mail Controls Mozilla's Spam filter perform better than Mail Shield's Mozilla’s spam filter Mozilla Bookmarks Extensions
Jul 3, 2008
Extentions In Mozilla
Bookmarklets for Zapping Annoyances. This site has many bookmarklets that - as the name implies - help you "zap" many of the annoynaces you encounter in websites. - Cosmic Cat Creations. This site has many useful Mozilla and Mozilla Firebird extensions like e.g. Statusbar Clock which adds a clock to your browser's status bar that can display the time and date in a fully customizable format. See what it looks like in the screenshot below. This is a very useful extension for those who (like me) hide the Windows task bar to free up screen space. - Jesse's Bookmarklet site. This site features many useful bookmarklets. - Spiegel Sidebar Tab: "Der Spiegel" is considered by many to be Germany's premier News Magazine. Get the latest news (in German) from "Der Spiegel" in your Mozilla or Netscape 6/7 sidebar . - Preferential: The Preferential project aims to provide all users of Gecko browsers (eg. Mozilla, Phoenix) with a simple, accessible GUI (user interface) that allows the modification of any preference set within that browser environment.. Mozilla contains countless preferences that can only be changed by manually modifying the "prefs.js" or "user.js" files. Preferential lets you see and edit these preferences in a convenient tree sturcture. Explanations what many of them do are given, as well. Preferential is a highly recommended add-on for those who want to tweak and customize their Gecko-based browser. A word of caution: Be careful what you change. - Tabscroller: When you click with your right mouse button, then scroll with your scrollwheel, you get a menu with all the open tabs. Advantage is, that you can see the whole title of the page, and that you have a nice overall view of the pages you got open. It's a nice feature that allows you to navigate quick and easy through your tabs, and it will cause you less mousemeters. Improve Internet Speed as well as get Computer tech Support online by Microsoft certified technicians 24x7. More on Mozilla >> Extensions in Mozilla-I Extensions In Mozilla-II Using Junk Mail Controls Mozilla’s spam filter Mozilla Bookmarks Extensions
Jun 27, 2008
Extensions in Mozilla
Mozbraille. "MozBraille is an extension to transform Mozilla or Firefox to a stand alone accessible Internet browser designed for blind or partially sighted users". It adds support for Braille Output, text-to-speach output, and a big characters view.
- Spellchecker Extension. This extension allows you to use Mozilla's spellchecker for checking the spelling in textarea fields which are e.g. used for message boards. A very useful extension.
- Companion for Mozilla. Companion for Mozilla is a clone of the Yahoo Companion Toolbar. Please note that this is not offered by Yahoo but rather a clone.
- BBCode. Adds a context menu for easy access to BBCODE formating (e.g. font size, color, weight,...) in PHBB Forums (Firefox/Mozilla Suite/Netscape 7.x)
- GMailCompose. Adds a context menu link for opening a GMail compose window when clicking on mailto: links and when marking plain text email addresses (Firefox/Mozilla Suite/Netscape 7.x)
- Mozilla Amazon Browser (MAB). If you are an Amazon customer, this is a very useful add-on.
The MAB is a tool for searching the Amazon catalogs and browsing their products. For the time being users can search in Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.jp. MAB lets users search for products (by keyword, ASIN/ISBN, UPC code, author/artist, and so on) and retrieve information about each product found, including its title, author/artist, and release date (the latter two for books/music), along with its suggested retail price, Amazon's price, and the price of a used copy sold through Amazon (if available). It also displays comments from other Amazon users about the product.
I especially like the print function, which creates an ordered list of your search results with pictures (if available).
Computer Support and Technical Support will always be provided by Microsoft certified technicians 24x7 ..Live
Jun 24, 2008
Extensions In Mozilla
Thunderbird Static Desktop Icon. "With these .reg files, you can add a Thunderbird icon to your desktop with extra abilities. Simply run Thunderbird-On.reg and refresh the desktop to enable the icon, and run Thunderbird-Off.reg to remove it."- Accessibar. "Accessibar is a toolbar extension for the Mozilla browser which aims at providing various accessibility features for users who could benefit from them. These features primarily focus on the dynamic manipulation of the visual display of the web page in addition to the integration of a text to speech reader which can read out loud the browser's user interface as well as web page content." - FoxyTunes. This has to be one of the coolest, if not the coolest extension for the Mozilla Suite, Firefox and Thunderbird. It allows you control a large variety of Media Players such as e.g. Winamp and Windows Media Player from within Mozilla by adding a set of controls to one of your Mozilla toolbars. Foxytunes is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX. Note to Netscape 7.x users: I tested FoxyTunes 1.0 with Netscape 7.2 and it did not work properly (icons were not displayed). - Chromedit. This very useful extension is a user file editor that lets you customize your Mozilla application (Mozilla Suite, Firefox, Thunderbird). It allows you to easily edit your user.js, prefs.js, usercontent.css and userchrome.css files from within the browser. Computer Support and Technical Support will always be provided by Microsoft certified technicians 24x7 ..Live More on Mozilla>> Using Junk Mail Controls Mozilla’s spam filter Mozilla Bookmarks Extensions
Jun 19, 2008
Using Junk Mail Controls
Mozilla’s Junk Mail Controls feature can evaluate your incoming messages and identify possible junk (or unsolicited) messages. The feature uses the Bayesian classification method, which requires that you first train Mozilla by showing it a bunch of mail that is junk, and a bunch of mail that is not.Then, you let it auto-classify new mail for you. If Mozilla makes any mistakes, you can correct them.
Do not be alarmed if the feature appears to do nothing when you first use it; the system will become very accurate if you use it often enough.
To use Junk Mail Controls:
+First, train Mozilla to recognize Junk messages and Non-Junk messages. There are three ways to toggle junk status of the selected message(s):
+Open the Tools menu, and choose Mark Selected Messages or Mark Selected Messages as Not Junk.
+Click on the Junk toolbar button.
Click to toggle the Junk Status column in the message list. (If you do not see it, click the right-most button in the list header bar and select Junk Status from the pop-up menu.)
+When you toggle junk status, a trash-can icon will appear or disappear in the Junk status column to indicate the junk status of the selected message.
+Open the Tools menu and choose Junk Mail Controls.... Enable the feature for your mail account, and Mozilla will automatically classify incoming messages.
+If you have trained it on virus mail, consider disabling the white listing (many mail viruses send bulk messages to people in the address book of the infected computer). Watch it catch messages that might contain a virus (e.g. klez)
+Make sure to correct the Junk control when it incorrectly labels messages either as junk or not junk.
+To analyze existing messages, select messages, open the Tools menu and choose Run Junk Mail Controls.
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Jun 16, 2008
Mozilla's Spam filter perform better than Mail Shield's
According to the review, Mail Shield uses a points-based filter where each word is assigned a point value. If a message exceeds a certain number of points, it is automatically classified as Spam. Mozilla's Spam filter, on the other hand weighs words, i.e. it analyzes, how often certain words or combinations of words appear in Spam and in "good" messages. This is why it is so important to train Mozilla with Spam as well as with messages that are not Spam. To do that, mark messages that are already in your inbox (Windows users: hold down the "Shift" key and select the first and last message to mark all messages in between) and select Message -> Mark -> As not Junk from Mozilla Mail's menu bar. Alternatively, you can right-click on a message and select Mark -> As not Junk.
In my opinion, having a "Junk" icon but no "Not Junk" icon in the toolbar is a great usability shortcoming of Mozilla. This way, many users only train the Spam filters with Spam but not with "good" messages, leading to results that are less good than those obtained with a properly trained Spam filter. Getting back to the summary: So where Mail Shield just counts individual words, Mozilla's Spam filter analyzes words in context. The disadvantage of Mail Shield's approach is the fact that if a Spammer e.g. writes "e.n.l.a.r.g.e" instead of "enlarge" Mail Shields's filter will not detect it, i.e. not accord it any points. Mozilla, on the other hand is not thrown off by unknown words since the rest of the message will most likely follow a Spam pattern. Hard Tecs 4U also observed that after a while Mail Shield's results actually got worse - it started identifying all messages as Spam. According to Hard Tecs 4U, the second big advantage of Mozilla's Spam filter vs. static filters is that it contiuously learns - if Spammers change individual words, Mozilla will learn to recognize them due to the context they are used in. In short, they think Mozilla's Spam filter works great and they highly recommend both Mozilla as a browser and a mail client. My personal results with Mozilla's Spam filter after training it properly are as follows: - False positives: Zero - Spam automatically recognized: on average 70-80% The important thing here is that no "good" message was falsely recognized as Spam. For me, Mozilla does not automatically recognize all Spam messages as such. This is due to the following reasons: - There is a trade-off between recognizing Spam and having false positive results. This means that a very agressive filter will probably recognize close to 100% of Spam messages, but also give you many false positives, i.e. you may accidentally lose important messages. I personally prefer Mozilla's slightly less agressive settings. - Sometimes, there are new variants that Mozilla's Spam filter does not (yet) recognize. Once it has learned their composition, they, too will be detected. - Some "Spoof" messages, like "update your account information" (never enter your password or follow links in those types of messages! are virtually indistinguishable from offical messages since the criminals who send them try their best to make these messages look like they originate from Ebay, Paypal, your bank,... In conclusion, I am very impressed by the capabilities of Mozilla's Spam filter, but it is important to note that it is not 100% bulletproof. Before the Spam problem has not been fixed on a regulatory level, you still need to be careful who you give your email address to, avoid posting it on the Internet (e.g. message boards) and be careful with attachments (virii), "Click here to opt-out" links in Spam and with entering personal information (Spoof messages).
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More on Mozilla >> Mozilla’s spam filter Mozilla Bookmarks ExtensionsJun 10, 2008
Mozilla’s spam filter
Mozilla's Mail fiter was trained with 300 Spam messages and 2700 "good" messages. Then, they let Mozilla automatically analyze 280 new Email messages. Here is a summary of their findings:
- The analysis of the 2700 "good" training messages took about 1 Minute.
- The subsequent automatic classification (Spam/not Spam) of the 280 new Email messages took only about 2-3 seconds
- 107 messages were correctly identified as Spam and moved to the "Spam" folder. Most importantly, not a single "good" message was classified as Spam!
- The remaining 173 messages were identified as not being Spam and moved to the Inbox. Of those, 30 messages (17 per cent) were Spam but not identified as it.
These results are already very encouraging, especially when considering that Mail Shield's initial error ratio was 50 per cent and even after manual tweaking, it was still at 25 per cent.
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More on Mozilla>>
Importing and Exporting Bookmarks
May 29, 2008
Mozilla Bookmarks Extensions
Are you missing a bookmark feature, like e.g. creating a shortcut to your favorite site on your Desktop? Firefox's bookmark functionality can be improved / extended by installing some of the many extensions that are available for it.
One extension that I particularly recommend for those of you who have created large bookmark lists (e.g. for a research project) is Bookmark Backup from Pike. Bookmark Backup is a simple extension that helps to keep your bookmarks (and optionally other Firefox settings) safe. Each time Firefox is closed, a copy of your bookmarks file will be made to a backup location. If Firefox's bookmarks become corrupted or lost, find the most recent uncorrupted backup and copy it into your profile folder. Firefox 1.5 and up now automatically creates backup copies of your bookmarks file.
Computer Repair and Computer Technical Support will always be provided by Microsoft certified techs 24x7.
May 23, 2008
Importing and Exporting Bookmarks
Importing Bookmarks If you have previously used a different browser or want to e.g. import your bookmarks from a memory stick or other media, Bookmark Manager's Import function is what you are looking for. To open Import, select File -> Import in Firefox's Bookmark Manager window. A new window will appear, asking you where you want to import your bookmarks from. If you want to import your IE favorites, or if you want to import bookmarks from a Mozilla Suite or Netscape 6/7 profile, select the appropriate option. Firefox will automatically find and import your favorites/bookmarks for you. If you want to import bookmarks from another browser, backed up Firefox bookmarks, or bookmarks from any other source, select From File. In this case, a dialog window will appear that allows you to select the file you wish to import. Please note that it may be necessary to export your bookmarks first, depending on the browser you want to import them from. Exporting Bookmarks Want to take your bookmarks with you or make a backup copy (highly recommended!)? In this case, Firefox's Export function comes in handy. To open Export, select File -> Export in Firefox's Bookmark Manager. A dialog window will appear asking you where you want to save the file to.
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Source-mozilla.gunnars.net
May 16, 2008
Live Bookmarks
icon for Live Bookmarks. This allows you to easily tell which bookmark is a regular (static) or live (dynamic) bookmark.
Adding Live Bookmarks
When a site that offers RSS feeds lets Firefox know that it does, adding a live bookmark is easy:
You can tell that a site offers an RSS feed when you see the live bookmark icon in the lower right hand corner of Firefox's browser window.
If you want to add a live bookmark for that site, simply click on the icon an then on Subscribe to...
Select where you want to save the live bookmark and click on OK.
Firefox has now added a new live bookmark for BBC News. Click on it to see their latest headlines.
Manually creating a new Live Bookmark
If the site does not tell Firefox that it offers RSS feeds, you can manually create a live bookmark.
Usually, these site have links that say "RSS feed" or "Atom feed".
Right-click on the link and select Copy Link Location.
Next, open Firefox's Bookmarks Manager and select File -> New Live Bookmark.
Enter a name for the live Bookmark under "Name". Then, right-click into the "Feed Location" field and select Paste. Click on OK and you have manually created a new live bookmark.
More on Mozilla's Bookmarks>
Firefox's Bookmark Manager Bookmark all open tabs Basics: Bookmarking a page Mozilla’s Bookmarks Toolbar
Source-mozilla.gunnars.net
May 13, 2008
Sorting Bookmarks
Firefox's Bookmark Manager allows you to sort your bookmarks, as well. There are two ways to do this:
You can manually sort bookmarks by dragging & dropping them to a new position
You can use Bookmark Manager's automatic sort function.
To access the automatic sort function, select View in Firefox's Bookmark Manager.
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More on Mozilla Bookmarks>>
Firefox's Bookmark Manager Bookmark all open tabs Basics: Bookmarking a page Mozilla’s Bookmarks Toolbar
Source-mozilla.gunnars.netMay 2, 2008
Firefox's Bookmark Manager
Firefox's Bookmark Manager is a very useful tool when it comes to managing your bookmarks. It allows you to rearrange, automatically sort, edit and to import or export bookmarks. To open Bookmark manager, select Bookmarks -> Manage Bookmarks. The Bookmark Manager window will open. Moving and Editing Bookmarks Firefox's Bookmark Manager has several buttons that will allow you to edit and move bookmarks: New Bookmark: This allows you to manually add a new bookmark. New Folder: This allows you to create a new bookmark (sub)folder. New Separator: This will allow you to add a new separator. The separator will be placed above the bookmark/folder that you have selected in Bookmark Manager. In this example, we have added a new separator to our Bookmarks Toolbar. Separators can help distinguish different bookmark categories from each other. Move: This will allow you to move the bookmark to a new position/folder in your bookmarks file. When clicking on this button, a "choose folder" dialog will appear: Select the folder you wish to move the bookmark to and click on OK. (note: you cannot move the bookmark out of your bookmarks file, i.e. this function cannot be used for exporting individual bookmarks). Alternatively, you can also drag & drop bookmarks to a new location. Properties: This opens the bookmark properties dialog. Rename: This will allow you to rename the bookmark, i.e. change the name that appears in the bookmark list. Delete: This will delete the selected bookmark. Computer Repair and Computer Technical Support will always be provided at any time by Microsoft certified techs 24x7. More on Bookmarks> Bookmark all open tabs Basics: Bookmarking a page Mozilla’s Bookmarks Toolbar Source-mozilla.gunnars.net
Apr 29, 2008
Mozilla’s Bookmarks Toolbar
Mozilla’s Bookmarks Toolbar is a good place to save your most commonly used bookmarks. The easiest way to create a bookmark on your toolbar is to mark the site address (URL) and drag & drop it to the toolbar.
To do that, select the URL, hold down the left mouse button and move it to the position on the toolbar where you want the bookmark to appear. Alternatively, you can also add a bookmark to the toolbar by using the "add bookmark" dialog.
If you want to rearrange the order of your toolbar bookmarks, simply drag & drop the bookmark from its old position to a new one. To do that, click on a bookmark and don't release the left mouse button until the arrow is where you want the bookmark to be.
When you right-click on a toolbar bookmark, you can easily access the context menu.
Options marked in orange (note: this is not how it looks in Firefox) are for the bookmark you just clicked on, options in grey affect all bookmarks on the toolbar.
Individual bookmark options are:
Open: This opens the bookmark in the current browser tab/window.
Open in New Window: This will open the bookmark in a new browser window.
Open in New Tab: This opens the bookmark in a new browser tab.
Cut: This will remove the bookmark from the toolbar and copy it to the clipboard, i.e. you can paste it somwhere else.
Copy: This will copy the bookmark to the clipboard.
Delete: This wil delete the selected bookmark.
Properties: This opens the bookmark properties dialog (please see below).
In Mozilla’s bookmark properties window, you can enter or edit the following:
Name: This is the bookmark's name that will appear on the toolbar. It is prefilled with the page's title. Since the title is sometimes a bit on the long side, it is a good idea to edit the bookmark name to free up space on the toolbar.
Location: This is the web address (URL) of the site/page you bookmarked.
Keyword: Using a keyword is a great way to easily access your favorite sites. You can e.g. enter "news" as the keyword for your favorite news site. Once you have done this, simply typing "news" in Firefox's address bar (where you would normally enter the site's address) will then take you to this site. Think of the keywords as a "shortcut" to your favorite sites.
Description: You can enter a description for your site here. This can be useful when you have many bookmarks or the site's address or name don't indicate what the site is about.
Load this bookmark in the sidebar: When checked, this will make the bookmarked page load in Firefox's sidebar instead of in the browser window. This option is especially useful for live bookmarks, but perhaps less useful for the majority of sites.
Computer Repair and Computer Technical Support will always be provided at any time by Microsoft certified techs 24x7.
More on Bookmarks>
Source-mozilla.gunnars.net
Apr 23, 2008
Basics: Bookmarking a page
What would we do without bookmarks? With all the things we need to remember, not having to remember a site's address (URL) is a good thing, especially when the address is not as easy as "www.mozilla.org".
With the help of bookmarks, Firefox remembers your favorite sites for you.
Apr 18, 2008
Bookmark all open tabs
You can bookmark all open tabs into a new bookmark folder. Open the Add Bookmark dialog (Ctrl+D or "Bookmarks -> Bookmark This Page" or "Bookmark this page" in context menu). Check the "bookmark all tabs in a folder" checkbox. Change the name to be the name of the new bookmark folder you wish to create, and then select a parent folder. Finally, click OK.
A folder with bookmarks to all open tabs will be created. You can later reopen the tabs you saved by middle-clicking the folder or selecting the "Open in Tabs" menu item.
Source- kb.mozillazine.org
Apr 14, 2008
Using Mozilla Features and Customizing Mozilla
Mozilla Custom Keywords ROCK! Not just for making shorthand for bookmarks but also for searches and queries. Simple keywords allow you to type a short string in the Location Bar and load its corresponding Bookmark URL.
An example is my bookmark for http://www.mozilla.org to which I've added the keyword m.o. So, with that set, I can type m.o in the Location Bar and it loads http://www.mozilla.org. Using keywords combined with autocomplete in Mozilla and I seldom type more than about three or four characters for all of the sites I regularly visit.
To set a keyword you must first create a bookmark for the URL. Then you add the keyword to the bookmark. Open the Bookmark Manager (Ctrl+B), choose your bookmark, and then open the Bookmark Properties window (Ctrl+I, or from the context menu). In the window simply add a short string to the Keyword field. Now close that dialog and you can type the keyword in the Location Bar, hit enter, and Mozilla will load that URL.
But that's just the beginning. Custom keywords can be used to create shortcuts for your favorite search engines too (the 'this ROCKS!' part). Here's how it works.
I'll use Bugzilla Bug Report lookup as an example.
- Bookmark https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=%s , where the %s will be replaced by the bug number (query string)
- Give the bookmark the keyword bug
- Now typing bug 12345 in the address bar will load that bug.
The keyword "bug" followed by a space and the bug number will load the URL "https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=" + the bug number "12345".
There are probably other great uses for this, just try a query at your favorite search engine and look at the URL it generates. If you can replace your search string in that URL with "%s" you can probably make this work. Throw in a little java script and it's off to the races :)
Source- www.mozilla.org
Apr 10, 2008
Installing extensions in Mozilla
By default, extensions are installed for the current user only, but they can also be installed across multiple profiles and even globally.
Once installed, extensions can be configured by opening the Extensions Manager ("Tools -> Extensions") or by selecting "Extensions" from the the Add-ons Manager in Firefox 2.0 ("Tools -> Add-ons -> Extensions") selecting the extension from the list, and then clicking the "Options" button. (If this button is disabled then the extension is not user-configurable.)
Single-user installation
- Firefox: To install an extension in the current user profile, simply click the Install button on Firefox Add-ons or by saving the extension (which has a ".xpi" file extension) to your computer and dragging it into any Firefox window or opening it from the File menu.
- Thunderbird: Download the extension, open Add-ons and click its the Install button.
- Details...
Extensions installed in this way will not appear in any other profiles which currently exist or which are later created.
Multi-user installation
Multi-user installations are useful if more than one person uses your application. You should install and use the Mr Tech Local Install extension to configure your extension installations for multiple users. Alternatively you could simply allow multiple users to use the same profile; you must ensure that the profile folder is accessible to each of them on your system.
Global installation
A global installation will install an extension to the application directory rather than within a profile, so it will be available to all users. To perform a global installation you should not activate the .xpi installer file within your Mozilla application. Instead, download and save it to disk and ensure that you close the application completely.
Then follow one of the following options:
- Restart your Mozilla application with the following command line arguments:
-install-global-extension "
where "extname.xpi" is the name of the installer file.
- Copy the .xpi file into the
\extensions folder. When you start your Mozilla application again, it displays an installation dialog, asking "The following items were found in your Extensions folder. Do you want to install them?"
Depending on the extension, each user may need to configure a globally-installed extension independently.
Apr 2, 2008
How to configure Mozilla's privacy and security features
People have various reasons for choosing Mozilla, be it that they want to try a "different" browser, they like Mozilla's features such as tabbed browsing or because they appreciate Mozilla's privacy and security features such as the Cookie Manager, encryption of saved data, the Spam filter and much more.
Mozilla in my opinion is very secure browsers, even in their "out of the box" state. Still, with the right settings, you can make it even better at preserving your privacy and security while you are surfing the Net. Please note that there probably is not such a thing as perfect security, i.e. there may be security-related bugs that have not yet been discovered. Plus, safe use of the internet is always also the individual user's responsibility.
>Taming the Cookie Monster
> Popup Windows
> Passwords
>Scripts and Plugins
Keeping the Cookie Monster in check:
Cookies are small bits of information your browser remembers for a web site. Your browser saves your cookies in a text file on your harddrive. Cookies by themselves pose no security risk: They cannot contain a computer virus, nor can they be used to spy on you by reading your harddrive's content. They can be very useful and make surfing the Internet easier when used properly by making sites remember who you are and in some cases what you like. However, some companies use cookies to track you across various websites, thus recording your user behavior. What makes it worse is that often those are companies you never directly dealt with, which means that you neither gave them the permission to track you, nor do you know what you get out of the deal.
With older browsers such as Internet Explorer 5.x or Netscape 4.x, you only had the choice of either completely disabling cookies, losing their benefits, allowing all cookies or having to say "Yes" or "No" to endless alert windows asking you if site "x" was allowed to set a cookie. Fortunately, newer browsers like Mozilla, Netscape 7, Opera 7 and to some degree Internet Explorer 6 give you the option to selectively allow and disallow sites to set cookies.
IMHO, the ideal setting is to check "Enable all cookies" and "Ask me before storing a cookie". This will make you answer "yes" or "no" to quite a few cookie dialogs, but with Mozilla you only have to do it once per site. Simply make sure "Use my choice for all cookies from this site"" is checked.
There are several alternatives, depending how you surf the web:
- If you don't visit sites that need to remember who you are, or if you don't care for that feature, but you visit sites who only allow you to enter with cookies enabled, select
"Enable all Cookies", check "Limit maximum lifetime of cookies to - current session" and uncheck "Ask me before storing a cookie".
This way, Mozilla will accept all cookies but they are automatically deleted once your session is over (i.e. you close Mozilla).
- As an alternative to the general recommendation, you can also select "Enable cookies for the originating website only" or "Enable cookies based on privacy settings". This should work in most cases and especially with larger sites, but it may not work properly with all sites.
If you have accidentally blocked or allowed cookies from a site, you can easily change that by using Mozilla's Cookie Manager.
Either open Cookie Manager by selecting "Manage Stored Cookies", which will show you all cookies that are currently set and site permissions ("Cookie sites"), or (un-)block cookies for the site you are currently visiting by selecting "Block Cookies from this site" or "Unblock Cookies from this site".
Source-mozilla.gunnars.net
Mar 28, 2008
Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2007-38
Title: Memory corruption vulnerabilities (rv:1.8.1.10)
Impact: High
Announced: November 26, 2007
Products: Firefox, SeaMonkey
Fixed in: Firefox 2.0.0.10
SeaMonkey 1.1.7
Description
The Firefox 2.0.0.10 update contains fixes for three bugs that improve the stability of the product. These crashes showed some evidence of memory corruption under certain circumstances and we presume that with enough effort at least some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code.
Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2007-39
Title: Referer-spoofing via window.location race condition
Impact: High
Announced: November 26, 2007
Reporter: Gregory Fleischer
Products: Firefox, SeaMonkey
Fixed in: Firefox 2.0.0.10
SeaMonkey 1.1.7
Description
Gregory Fleischer demonstrated that it was possible to generate a fake HTTP Referer header by exploiting a timing condition when setting the window.location property. This could be used to conduct a Cross-site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack against websites that rely only on the Referer header as protection against such attacks.
When navigation occurs due to setting window.location the Referer header is supposed to reflect the address of the content which initiated the script. Instead, the referer was set to the address of the window (or frame) in which the script was running, and this vulnerability arises from that tiny difference. Using a modal alert() dialog Fleischer was able to suspend the attack script so that it did not load the target URI until after the attacker's initial content had been replaced by the intended referring page. When the Referer is set to the current URI of the script's window it is no longer the correct one.
For more info>>>
Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2007-37
Source- mozilla.org
Mar 26, 2008
Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2007-37
Title: jar: URI scheme XSS hazard
Impact: High
Announced: November 26, 2007
Reporter: Jesse Ruderman, Petko D. Petkov, beford.org
Products: Firefox, SeaMonkey
Fixed in: Firefox 2.0.0.10
SeaMonkey 1.1.7
Description
The jar: URI scheme was introduced as a mechanism to support digitally signed web pages, enabling web sites to load pages packaged in zip archives containing signatures in java-archive format.
Jesse Ruderman and Petko D. Petkov point out this means that sites that allow users to upload binary content in zip format are effectively allowing users to install web pages on their site, and these can be used to perform Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks.
The blogger at beford.org noted that redirects confused Mozilla browsers about the true source of the jar: content: the content was wrongly considered to originate with the redirecting site rather than the actual source. This meant that an XSS attack could be mounted against any site with an open redirect even if it didn't allow uploads. A published proof-of-concept demonstrates stealing the GMail contact list of users logged-in to GMail.
Support for the jar: URI scheme has been restricted to files served with a Content-Type header of application/java-archive or application/x-jar. Web applications that require signed pages must make sure their .jar archives are served with this Content-Type. Sites that allow users to upload binary files should make sure they do not allow these files to have one of these two MIME types.
Mar 25, 2008
Unable to save or download files
If you are unable to save or download files in mozilla than-
Clear the download history
Click "Tools -> Downloads -> Clean Up" in the Mozilla Firefox menu. If if clearing the list doesn't help or it causes Firefox to hang or crash (or if the Downloads window is already empty), you will need to manually delete the download history, as follows:
Manually delete download history
1. Exit Mozilla Firefox completely
2. Open the Firefox profile folder.
3. Delete the downloads.rdf file (it will be regenerated when needed).
Prevention
You may be able to prevent this problem by setting Mozilla Firefox not to save a download history:
- Mozilla Firefox 2: Click "Tools -> Options -> Privacy / History" and uncheck "Remember what I've downloaded". (As an alternative, under "Privacy / Private Data" select "Always clear my private data when I close Firefox", then click the "Settings..." button and select "Download History" in the "Clear Private Data" window.)
- Mozilla Firefox 1.5: Click "Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Download History" and select either "Upon successful download" or "When Firefox exits" from the "Remove files from the Download Manager" drop-down list.
Mar 18, 2008
Updating add-ons
In Firefox and Thunderbird, add-ons (extensions and themes) can be updated using the Software Update feature. To perform an update check:
- Firefox and Thunderbird: "Tools -> Add-ons -> Find Updates"
Settings to automatically check for updates to installed add-ons are found under "Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Update" in Firefox and Thunderbird and under "Edit -> Preferences -> Software Installation
Updating incompatible add-ons for a new application version
The Add-ons dialog will inform you if an existing add-on is incompatible with the current version of your application. Thunderbird will also disable the add-on and prevent you from enabling it by right clicking on the add-on in "Tools -> Add-ons" and pressing the enable button. The first thing to try is to check for updates to see if a new version is available. If one isn't found, you can override the compatibility check. Most add-ons will work if you do that, but it can cause the application to behave improperly. If that happens disable or uninstall the extension from the Add-ons dialog (from Safe Mode if necessary).
Mar 11, 2008
Migrating from Netscape 6 or 7
Your Netscape 6 or 7 profiles will be available to Mozilla. However, sharing profiles between Netscape 6 or 7 and Mozilla can cause problems.
Mozilla automatically uses your Netscape profile unless you have multiple profiles, in which case Mozilla prompts you to choose a profile. To avoid accidentally opening Mozilla with your Netscape profile, create a new, extra profile using your Netscape’s Profile Manager before installing Mozilla.
It is worth repeating that you should not share profiles between Mozilla and Netscape 6 or 7.
AOL Mail and Netscape WebMail
You can use Mozilla's mail client to access AOL Mail. To set up your AOL account on Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups, create a IMAP mail account, set the incoming server to imap.aol.com, and set the outgoing server to smtp.aol.com. For accounts with AOL outside of
Netscape 6 and 7 has Netscape WebMail integrated into its mail client. Mozilla does not have such integration, but you can access Netscape WebMail via the Web at http://webmail.netscape.com.
Importing user data from AOL
Mozilla cannot import data from AOL directly. To import mail saved on your computer (Filing Cabinet) and addresses from AOL, you must use third-party utilities to export your data in formats Mozilla can import. You may try the utilities listed in:
http://www.emailman.com/conversion/
(mozilla.org does not recommend or support any software listed on the Web page.)
For general instructions on importing mail and addresses, read Migrating from another mail client.
Migrating from Microsoft Internet Explorer
Migrating from Microsoft Internet Explorer is easy. Mozilla automatically imports your Internet Explorer Favorites. To access them, open the Bookmarks menu and select Imported IE Favorites.
Synchronizing your favorites and bookmarks manually
Mozilla automatically imports your favorites only once. If you have changed your favorites, you can re-import your favorites manually.
First, you need to export your favorites in HTML format. On Mac OS,
1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Open the Favorites menu and select Organize Favorites.
3. Open the File menu and select Export Favorites.
4. In the dialog that appears, save the file.
On Windows, to export your favorites,
1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Open the File menu and select Import and Export.
3. Follow the instructions in the wizard that appears to save your favorites to a file.
To import your favorites to Mozilla,
1. Open Mozilla. In Mozilla Navigator, open the Bookmarks menu and choose Manage Bookmarks.
2. In the Bookmarks Manager, open the Tools menu and choose Import.
3. Open the HTML file you just saved in the file picker.
Migrating from Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express
To import your old mail settings, mail, and addresses:
1. Open Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups: open the Window menu and choose Mail & Newsgroups.
2. In Mozilla Mail & Newsgroups, open the Tools menu and choose Import.
3. Following the instruction of the Import dialog.
Note: importing settings, mail, and addresses from Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express requires that the program is still installed on your computer. You may uninstall Outlook or Outlook Express afterwards.
Note: Mozilla does not support special characters (e.g. / and #) in mail folders. If you receive the following error: Unable to import mailboxes, cannot create proxy object for destination mailboxes, then open Outlook (or Outlook Express) and rename your folders. Then try importing again.
Source- www.mozilla.org
Mar 3, 2008
What's New in Mozilla 1.7
New Features and Fixes
- Official Mozilla 1.7 builds for Windows, Linux, and Mac all contain the Talkback crash reporting utility. Help us make 1.7 the most stable release yet; please submit your crash reports.
- A new option to prevent sites from using JavaScript to block the browser's context menu.
- A new set of icons for files that are associated with Mozilla on Windows.
- Password Manager has a "show passwords" mode which will display saved passwords. You will need to enter your master password if you are using one.
- The "Set As Wallpaper" feature now has a confirmation dialog.
- Linux GTK2 builds have improved support for OS themes.
- Cookie dialogs have been reworked to make them more usable.
- Date handling, especially on OS X, has been improved.
- It is now possible to fine-tune Mozilla's pop-up blocking using two preferences (dom.popup_maximum and dom.popup_allowed_events) but there's no UI for that yet. Even without a UI, users should notice a greater variety of pop-ups blocked (primarily mouseover pop-ups) and a limit of 20 or so open at one time - regardless of whether pop-up blocking is active. This will provide some protection from sites that open hundreds of windows in a loop.
- Downloaded files are now moved to the target directory as soon as the user selects the desired location. This was the frequently reported bug 55690.
- There is now user interface to activate Smooth Scrolling (Preferences -> Appearance).
- Mozilla now supports basic FTP upload.