I've tried Firefox and find it... intriguing.?

Question

If I decide to keep it and use it instead of IE, what are some good ad-ons that I can download from Firefox's web site?

Is there any way I can get my Norton Password Manager to integrate with FF? For some reason it just doesn't work with FF

Thanks for any tips or tricks to use with FF

J W,

I was trying to use IE7 before,... but for some reason I'm having problems with its load speed and also when it loads graphics (i.e. when you click on the "enlarge" link at Circuit City or Best Buy to get a closer look at an item)

I have cable modem and it should be almost instantaneous, but for some reason it's taking 15 to 19 seconds for the pop up window with the image to load.

Firefox, for me at least, is lightning quick doing this one simple task, and when opening pages it's much quicker than IE.

But thanks for your input none-the-less :-)

Answer 1

Intriguing indeed. I know what you mean about speed--I have dial-up (my only option due to location) and after I used Firefox, IE suddenly seemed prohibitively slow. It seems that I have become a kind of walking advertisement for Firefox. I've been using FF for a year or two now and I love it more every day. In that time I have picked up a few extensions and tricks that make my browsing experience much faster and easier.

My favorite extension is definitely Tab Mix Plus. This extension has an almost overwhelming number of settings and features, so I’ll list a few of my favorites. Tab Mix Plus let’s you merge windows, duplicate tabs (very useful), highlight tabs you haven’t seen yet (great for keeping track of a large number of tabs--I have it highlight the text blue), highlight the currently selected tab (which can make it easier to see which one you’re looking at--I have it bold the text), and display a progress bar on each tab (since I have dial-up, this is a great feature to let me know how far a tab has left to load without having to leave the tab I’m on--I have it use a progress bar with a white background so I can still read the text). Tab Mix Plus also has an undo close tab feature and a session restore feature; both of which are newly included in FF 2, but I still prefer to use Tab Mix Plus for these (the session restore gives you the option to restore the previous to last session in addition to the last). Any or all of these features can be used, and I am excluding quite a few of them.

I also use and recommend the following extensions:

Adblock Plus; which--when you sign up to a filter subscription (which is absolutely free and doesn’t require giving any information about yourself [in case you’re wondering])--stops most ads on the internet from loading (this is especially important to me since ads take up so much precious bandwidth).

Google Notebook; a tool from Google that makes it easier to add notes to your Google Notebook account (which you can get for free and access from any computer with an internet connection).

IE Tab; which--since not every webpage supports FF--can embed IE in a tab in FF. The pages load just as slowly and you are just as insecure as if you were using IE in its own window--but it can make things easier when you’re forced to use IE. IE Tab also lets you easily open the page you are currently viewing in FF in a real IE window

CustomizeGoogle; which can change the way different Google sites are displayed. I use it mostly to remove the ads from Gmail, but it can do a lot more.

Download Statusbar; which puts a list of your current downloads on a bar at the bottom of the screen.

And finally Image Zoom; with which you can easily zoom pictures on websites in and out by holding down the right mouse button and scrolling up and down (most pictures become too pixilated for this to be of too much use, but I still like it).

Don’t forget the search bar! I use it much more often that I thought I would at first. My most often used search engines are: Google (which is included), Wikipedia, FILExt (which tells you what the file extension [such as .exe or .txt] you searched for is used for), and, of course, Yahoo! Answers.

I use the find bar (shortcut: Ctrl + F) all the time; it lets you find a string of text in the page you are viewing very easily. This is especially great when you come across one of those webpages that seem to have no end or means of organization--but really, I tend to use it everywhere.

I love the page source viewer (shortcut: Ctrl + U)--which also has the find bar. If you know HTML you’ll probably agree that it is much better that IE’s page source viewing system (open in notepad).

The new spell-check-as-you-type feature is nice. If you want FF to spell check a field that it isn’t checking, right-click the text field and select ‘Spell check this field’.

You can also drag and drop the tabs to reposition them (if find this very useful).

Another feature I thoroughly enjoy is the keywords field in the bookmarks. To use it, all you have to do is right-click a bookmark, select ‘Properties’, type a word in the ‘Keyword:’ field, click ‘OK’, and when you type that word in the address bar and press enter it will take you to that bookmark (for instance: when I type ‘radar’ in the address bar and press enter, it takes me to my favorite weather radar loop site [which has a very long and impossible to remember URL]). This is perhaps my favorite feature of FF (with the possible exceptions of speed, security, extensions, and tabs); I have a very large folder just for these bookmarks (which I don’t have to worry about organizing or sorting through to find one) and use this feature at least five times a day.

This isn’t exactly a feature, but I thought I’d mention Firefox Portable. Firefox Portable is Firefox that you can install on a USB flash drive and use on any computer without installing. With the right settings, it won’t even create any files on the computer it’s running on. It runs kind of slow (compared to regular FF), but I love being able to carry Firefox (and all my settings, bookmarks, and passwords) with me wherever I go.

Unfortunately, I don't know how to integrate Norton Password Manager into FF (my best guess is that Norton doesn't support this--I’m fed-up with Norton right now). As Bill M mentioned, FF does include a password manager--you can view and delete saved passwords under 'Tools' --> 'Options...' --> 'Security' --> 'Show Passwords'--so you don't really need Norton (I know, it will be annoying to have to remember or access your passwords to get them saved in FF, but I think it is well worth it). If you really want your passwords in FF without having to save them manually, you could try to export them from Norton (I've never used this program so I don't know how to do this--or if it's even possible) and then use some compatible extension to import them into FF. I've been satisfied with FF's password manager so I've never used any password managing extensions, but I did find the extension Password Exporter. It says that it can import CSV and XML files (although according to one of the comments, it can’t import XML), so if Norton can export to these formats you might be in luck.

If you have any other questions regarding FF, feel free to contact me (or ask another question here--there are a lot of users who can give you a good answer). I sincerely hope you decide to continue to use Firefox--it’s a truly remarkable program.


WHEW! That was long! I guess I can never really say enough about Firefox. Sorry for any spelling or grammatical errors; I only read through it once due to the length. Below is a list of websites regarding what I have mentioned in the order they appeared (for the most part):

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features.html (A list of some of the features of FF 2. You may have already seen this but I thought I’d include it anyway.)

Extensions:
Tab Mix Plus: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1122/
Adblock Plus: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1865/
Google Notebook: http://www.google.com/notebook (This is the Google Notebook website. When you create an account or access your account in FF I think it will give you the option to install the extension.)
IE Tab: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1419/
CustomizeGoogle: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/743/
Download Statusbar: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/26/
Image Zoom: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/139/
Password Exporter: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2848/

Search engines:
Short list of common search engine downloads (including Wikipedia and Yahoo! Answers): https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/search-engines/
More search engines: http://mycroft.mozdev.org/
FILExt search engine: http://mycroft.mozdev.org/download.html?name=FILExt&sherlock=yes&opensearch=yes&submitform=Search

Firefox Portable: http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

Answer 2

Firefox has tons of extensions which can do anything you want, at one point I had about 22 installed to do various things. I haven't used any password managers myself (far too security paranoid) but I'm sure they exist as extensions. And ditch Norton ;) Go Linux or even Mac.

Answer 3

I experienced something very bizarre when I was sleeping in my room about 2.5 years ago I heard knocking or banging sounds on my window outside but you see there is a bush right outside my window. I didn't really think much about it then. I think it was a bird flying into the window outside because later in the morning there was a feather and the window screen outside got bent like the impression of a bird. Later, that same morning I found out that my great aunt had died in the hospital.

Answer 4

Firefox has it's own password manager, so you can dump the norton (all norton products, they suck), and after using using firefox for a while, you'll won't miss all those messages prompting you to install spyware at all.

Answer 5

I have used FF for a while, but find it to be crashing more with each update. IE7 is pretty close in experience with the tabs and anti-phishing.