Cedar Rapids Computer Repair

Firefox Version 42 Gave Me a Wake Up Call

Yesterday around 10 PM, retired from a hard day’s work on my websites and blogs thinking life was good! Woke up this morning, clicked the bookmark to view one of my blogs and it was a rude awakening! This is what happens when one does not stay abreast and keep up to date on changes in the world of information technology. Having recovered from the initial shock, set out on a quest to see what had happened while I was visiting with Mr. Sandman.  My research revealed that *Firefox now blocks ads and trackers in Private Browsing mode*. If you did not know that, now you know! Not a geek type. Just your average everyday consumer / Internet user / home business entrepreneur - trying to generate some income from my online activity. IF I visit my website or blog using the Firefox browser, Google ads (via Adsense) and even the images for some of my affiliate (3rd party) referral advertisements are either not visible or screwed up (mages don’t show but the referral links do direct properly). Makes the site look like crap! When I visit the same site using Google Chrome, everything is beautiful.  It’s a visual delight. If in Firefox, it becomes necessary to click a button in order to view the website or blog, the same way that it is seen when viewing in Google Chrome. SO? What should I understand by this contrast and compare exercise? I DON’T KNOW!  Cause I’m clueless.  Guess this “improvement” satisfies privacy concerns. Link below is to a very informative article. Can’t say the changes are wonderful and marvelous but … Eh! Progress!

Reference: Firefox now blocks ads and trackers in Private Browsing mode - Firefox Browser Usage and Support forum at WebmasterWorld - WebmasterWorld. (n.d.).

If you want some personal recommendations on computer security things…

PC Scanners:

Malwarebytes Anti Malware is a fantastic program. It’s free for just the scanner, and you can get a trial or pay for active protection so it’ll watch your shit if you’re going to virus websites

Super Anti Spyware is another good scanner, it looks a little sketchy, almost like one of those phony virus anti viruses but it’s a good program.

Combofix will also wreck house on viruses but can potentially cause problems, so I’d recommend only using it if you really think you need to.

CCleaner is not a virus removal tool, but another great cleanup tool that’ll get rid of space hogging temp files and other junk.

For more active protection free stuff like Avast is perfectly fine. Retail anti-virus programs like McAfee and Norton aren’t the inherently awful things they used to be, but still aren’t great, plus they cost money. I’ve also heard good things about Panda anti-virus which has both subscription and free options. On older lower end computers Microsoft Security Essentials is also not bad, although I’ve heard some iffy things about it lately with it not finding as much as other scanners. Still a good choice for lower end computers that get bogged down by Avast and others.

With the superfish thing happening also go here to see if you’re affected and take some steps above to protect yourself as well https://filippo.io/Badfish/

If you’re a Mac User there are Anti-virus programs for Mac but I’ve never seen them do too much good. I’ve seen plenty of computers with Avira and McAfee still have adware and viruses. Macs don’t have nearly as much of a problem with viruses, but it can happen, and adware on Macs is fairly common. My best recommendation for Macs would be Adware Medic. It’ll go in and remove everything related to common Mac adware, and so far I’ve had a 100% success rate with it. 

For all the PC tools I mentioned above you can get most of them bundled together at Ninite which is a fantastic bulk installer you can also use to keep everything up to date. https://ninite.com/