How safe are IE compatible browers?

registered · Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 5:24 am

Browsers such as Avant and Maxthon are very cool browsers that almost seamlessly transfer over IE features such as your favorites. I've also seem claims that IE vulnerabilities become minimal, if existant at all, by using these browsers.

Is this true? How safe are we by using an IE spinoff?

Please spare the 'use FF' comments because FF really does blow and does not handle displaying websites very well. Yes it's secure, but it's slow and hates trying to handle code LOL.

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:04 am

Think about it..........
You are saying you dont want to use FF because it won't tolerate any old crap being given access to your PC such as DOM Active X etc.

I have used Avant browser myself and I actually quite like it but if we forget we are talking about browsers for a moment and refer to it simply as 'software'...
When you compare software A with software B there are always differences in its functionality or ease of use depending on what the user wants to do with it.

Because Software B is not susceptable to the same *issues* that plagues Software A, it does not always mean that Software B is better. Software B may have 'different' issues.

In breif, Avant etc may not be susceptable to the same kind of exploits used in IE but it doesn't mean it is *not* susceptable to other exploits.
More often than not, exploits are aimed at the most popular software around simply because, if you can exploit the software, you have more victims to annoy or, in the mind of a script kiddy, you get more fun for your effort.

registered · Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:19 am

Yeah, I always *chuckle* at the FF/IE debates and even O/S, and yet we still see numerous security alerts and frequent updates. The bottom line is that software is written by humans and humans are not perfect and so, therefore, no software will ever be perfect.

Therefore, you are left with using what you like and what you can tolerate from a security / risk standpoint. Everyone has their own tolerance for "pain". I choose to use either IE or FF because at least there ARE regular and automatic updates... gives me a sense (probably "false") of "security". killing me

registered · Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6437

I like Maxthon and use it in environments where anal retentive IT administrators only know how to use limited MS tools for monitoring Internet usage (i.e. they can't monitor other browsers because they only have MS tools, so they disallow non-MS browsers). It has some nice features, but has the same security issues and display problems as IE. These IE-based browsers might enhance security by blocking popups and JS, but as long as they use the IE browsing engine, they are subject to the same security issues as IE.

Speed is relative, but you should consider using the Adblock Plus extension (among MANY other excellent FF extensions) that can significantly improve speed by not loading useless, bandwidth-sucking ads. If you LIKE ads or don't want to deal with extensions, you might consider Opera, which is focused on speed.

To me, productivity is the most important factor for choosing a browser, and FF's combination of built-in features and extensions make it the browser of choice. For developers, take a look at the view formatted source - with inline mode. That can save HOURS of time trying to resolve issues. But even for non-developers, FF provides tools and productivity enhancements that beat the rest hands down (I'd be happy to provide a list). And, if you have no choice but to visit sites that use non-standard, proprietary MS extensions, you can get the View in IE tab extension and use IE inside FF!

New Member Joined: Sep 19, 2006 Posts: 3

Maxthon is great, I'd give it a try if you haven't already done so.