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Thread ID: 52564 2004-12-22 03:08:00 IE6 vs Opera and Firefox, OE vs Thunderbird Mike S (1766) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
306694 2004-12-22 03:08:00 OE and IE6 are said to have scary vulnerabilities. PCW authors suggest drop both. I’ve tried Opera and struck one or two problems. F1 responses sorted those – otherwise Opera great with multiple tabbed windows. The ad panel was slightly irritating in the free version but I soldiered on, getting more used to it. Then one day I opened it and found everything at default values again: bang goes all my laborious customising. I saw red and uninstalled it.

Now I’m trying Firefox 1.0. Fairly comfortable but:-
· No multi tab windows, which I loved in Opera.
· I haven’t discovered how to stop it dialling up my ISP instantly on start-up without asking me first. Can I turn this bit off? ‘Help’ is no help with this.
· It seems unable to call up previous web pages from ‘memory’, to view without connecting to the Internet. This is important to me. Using IE6 I can run some web programs without any phone line connection.
· If I click on any Bookmark it starts dialling immediately without consultation. I want control of what happens. The phone line is for the phone primarily.


For e-mail, Thunderbird is just as high handed about dialling up on start-up. If one treads on that at start-up it just sulks for a while then sneakily connects a bit later when I’m not looking. Otherwise I might get used to Thunderbird 0.8.
· The other thing I find odd is that I cannot forward a received message other than as an attachment (which explains why I get e-mails with copies within copies and so on!).
· If I click Help then Mozilla Thunderbird Help, nothing happens.

In short, can any of these things be fixed? Am I asking too much of free software?


Is it worth contemplating the use of MSN Explorer instead, or does that involve vulnerabilities like IE6 and OE? Why don’t we hear much about MSN Explorer? Isn’t it meant to be a replacement for IE6/OE? Does it require me to divulge all sorts of private information?


All I’m looking for is to enjoy this modern marvel of the Internet whilst maintaining peace of mind. Too tall an order perhaps??

Any suggestions?
Mike S (1766)
306695 2004-12-22 03:19:00 Can't think of anything regarding your connection problems, but you could update Thunderbird to version1 Rob99 (151)
306696 2004-12-22 04:17:00 hmmm... my thunderbird/firefox combo don't auto connect

*goes to find setting*
Edward (31)
306697 2004-12-22 04:27:00 Right-click on Internet Explorer and choose Internet Options
Click on the Connections Tab and tell it to "Never dial my default connection".

Im with Rob99, get the latest Thunderbird - Looks slightly nicer and has MANY bugfixes which have made a difference for me!
Chilling_Silence (9)
306698 2004-12-22 04:47:00 Shouldn't that be "Dial whenever a network connection is not present", so that it auto-connects?

I need to investigate whether that setting applies for Firefox and Thunderbird too, because right now it's somewhat annoying having to manually open the Network Connections dialog etc...
agent (30)
306699 2004-12-22 06:37:00 You asked why Thunderbird doesn't permit "forwarding". This could be due to a newish mail protocol that may or may not be implemented that is designed to reduce spam. The new server side protocol is meant to use DNS to determine that the IP address corresponds to the @hotmail.com (purely an example) which will reduce the instances of spoofing.

The way "Forwarding" is handled produces output guaranteed to fail DNS and would automatically consign your mail to /dev/null

Basically your choice. Support this new protocol and reap benefits from reduced spam clogging the internet or go with something else.
Simply_Si (354)
306700 2004-12-22 07:01:00 Now I’m trying Firefox 1.0. Fairly comfortable but:-
· No multi tab windows, which I loved in Opera.

I have never run Opera, but if you are talking purely about "Tabbed Browsing" go to Tools > Options > Advanced to set up tabbed browsing.

· I haven’t discovered how to stop it dialling up my ISP instantly on start-up without asking me first. Can I turn this bit off? ‘Help’ is no help with this.

As Chill suggested I would think that that is the setting for Dial on Demand and net controlled through Firefox.

· It seems unable to call up previous web pages from ‘memory’, to view without connecting to the Internet. This is important to me. Using IE6 I can run some web programs without any phone line connection.

History doesn't do what you require?

· If I click on any Bookmark it starts dialling immediately without consultation. I want control of what happens. The phone line is for the phone primarily.

See Chill's suggestion.
Simply_Si (354)
306701 2004-12-22 07:15:00 Ah, well now I see what your problem is.

If you don't want Firefox and Thunderbird to automatically establish a dial-up connection, do what Chilling_Silence suggested. However, this can be incredibly annoying, because it means you have to open up Network Connections and establish a connection manually. I think it would probably be better if you used "Dial whenever a network connection is not present", and don't save your dial-up password. It's good security practice to not save your password.

Firefox does support viewing pages offline, however, it only works for certain pages in my experience. Try disconnecting and opening something that you know for sure is in your cache, or click File -> Work Offline and do the same. Note that some websites tell your browser not to cache the page, so these won't work.

It's very easy to blame applications themselves when there are external factors at play, and I'd hazard to say all of your problems have external factors causing them - there is nothing inherently wrong with Firefox or Thunderbird.
agent (30)
306702 2004-12-22 07:18:00 Apparently Firefox's offline capabilty is something still being worked on. It suffers from the fact that always on internet is more common overseas.

Some of the dialer softwareused by IE is integrated into IE and can't be used by non MS programs. There is another MS dialler that shares settings but isn't as developed. That is why dialup on demand when Firefox goes on line isn't as reliable as the IE one and to get the connection to drop when Firefox closes needs 3rd party software.
PaulD (232)
306703 2004-12-22 19:32:00 For tabbed browsing in Firefox use this add in.

addons.update.mozilla.org
paulw (1826)
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