by Kevin Sanchez

Created on: December 02, 2009

Mozilla Firefox is an extremely popular browser that became a threat to Internet Explorer more and more. However, lots of people still use Internet Explorer these days. Mainly because they don't even bother, if they can browse the web it's fine. But people who care about their browsing experience and want to get the most out of it while staying secure will browse using Mozilla Firefox.

Mozilla Firefox is known to lots of users to be the safest web browser out there. While this is true, that doesn't mean that Firefox is already 100% secure. Browsing the web with a standard Firefox browser without any add-ons could still end up in getting infected with lots of malware flying around on the web, mainly because a clean installation of Firefox allows JavaScript. But don't fear, developers made add-ons that strengthen the weak sides of our beloved browser! I'll show you two add-ons. The first improves your security on the web and the last improves your privacy. If you would like to try one out, you can click on the title of that chapter to visit the site where you can download the add-on.

= NoScript =

Like I said already, JavaScript is enabled on any web page you visit. Lots of websites put JavaScript to a good use, but you might stumble on a web page that abuses the power of JavaScript. Even if you only surf to websites that are legit, you should think about it: one of these legit websites could get hacked and hackers can inject some malicious JavaScript code into the website.

That's where NoScript comes in. NoScript prevents the execution of JavaScript code, and upon doing so, it'll inform you that it blocked code and it'll also show you what code has been blocked. If one of your favourite sites using JavaScript malfunctions because of NoScript blocking JavaScript, you can add the page to your white-list with just a few clicks. You're protected when navigating to unfamiliar sites, and it is then up to you to decide whether or not the site seems legit enough to add to the white-list of NoScript.

= ABP (short for Ad-Block Plus) =

If we may believe Mozilla's stats, this is the second favourite add-on of Firefox users next to FlashGot which is the most liked add-on. Anyone who used this add-on before will tell you that this is indeed true.

Ad-Block Plus allows you to subscribe to a list of your choice containing advertisements to block. You can see this list as a virus library that an anti-virus program uses to detect and remove any viruses. Why does this add-on improve your security, you might ask?

Well, advertisers could track user behavior across the Web and it is for sure that many users do not like this. Ad-Block Plus is able to block 99% of all advertisements found on the web. Not only does this improve your privacy, but web pages will also load faster since you're not downloading the advertisements. If you find an advertisement that isn't yet blocked by Ad-Block Plus, you can add the advertisement to the block list yourself.

I must warn you though: some sites prohibit the use of Ad-Block Plus, simply because webmasters earn revenues through ads. Blocking them means that you are using their site without supporting them, they'll not earn money from your views because you do not view the advertisements. Just like NoScript, you can disable Ad-Block Plus for specific websites.

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