Firefox add-ons may help increase the security of your computer

I am a diehard Firefox junkie and I have countless plugins that just make my life better each and every day that I surf the net. Recently I have been plagued with various spyware infections obtained from different websites. It looks like many of the sites were running scripts such as ActiveX scripts or a site that forced me into downloading a so-called update to my flash player. So I set out to see if there were any Firefox plugins that assisted me in adding some additional security to my web browser.

If you are like me then you are in luck. Below are 5 of my favorite security and privacy plug-ins/add-ons for Firefox that assist you in keeping your computer secure.

1. Dr. Web anti-virus link checker: This is an excellent plug-in tool where it actually checks any download that you initiate via the Firefox web browser. If you find yourself downloading files from a source that you are not too sure of this may ease your mind by scanning the file for viruses before download.
2. NoScript 1.7.8: A great tool for limiting websites from running active content or scripts from sites or domains that are not trusted. Lets you choose the domains that you wish to run scripts on such as banking or other personal account sites.
3. FormFox 1.6.2: A plug-in that displays the site that your “entered information” will go to or be sent to. Allows you to check the source that will be receiving your personal or entered text such as in search boxes or order forms.
4. Distrust 0.8: Firefox plug-in that hides your surfing trails that the browser leaves behind. Great tool of you utilize a publicly access computer or network.
5. CookieSafe 3.0.3: Gives you the ability to control cookie permissions. You can block or allow sites to write cookies on-the-fly with a status bar showing the status for each site.

Most of us already know that surfing the web can be just as dangerous as loosing your wallet in a bad neighborhood. Utilizing plug-ins or even 3rd party software that is reputable or tested by security vendors is always a big step to protecting your own interest when it comes to using the internet.

The internet can be your best friend or worst friend if you do not use common since in some situations. Visiting websites that are deemed as malicious and downloading rogue software is something that we should never do but many times we cannot help the circumstances. We are in process of testing additional plug-ins that aid in the security of your computer when surfing the web so that we can help you feel better about your personal safety online. Look for our follow-up post when we test other Firefox plugins that may make your life better.

Many of the Firefox add-ons may not protect you 100% but they are a big step in helping prevent infection or theft of your information. We cannot fully rely on just an anti-virus program to keep us protected all the time.

If you’re a regular reader, you probably know by now that we just love performance and can’t get enough of server performance-improving software/code… Especially when it comes to WordPress.

Donncha has recently released a great plugin for WordPress, called "WordPress Super Cache." It builds on the original WP-Cache plugin by Ricardo Granada - except that it fixes all the bugs in the original implementation and has been written in enough pure PHP that it’ll also run on Windows servers - both IIS and Apache for that matter! <cue applause>

At the moment (as of version 0.3.1) it needs a bit of work to make it run, but not much. So here goes - 10 easy steps to get cached content on your IIS or Apache server under Windows:

We’ve just finished uploading the latest versions of our XCache and eAccelerator plugins, now at version 0.6.

For those of you that missed the initial announcement, we’ve written two plugins that let WordPress communicate directly with memory-resident opcode PHP variable caches that are used in XCache and eAccelerator to boost performance and decrease I/O activity.

eAccelerator and XCache are the two most-popular open-source opcode caching engines for PHP, and we highly recommend that any and all hosts use them to improve PHP performance by several folds. In particular, we recommend XCache for best performance.

In this episode of “The Never-Ending Quest for Better Server Performance,” we follow our heroes’ journey through the dangerous and murky woods of PHP opcode caching engines, where they aren’t content with just installing an opcode caching engine, but <gasp> becoming one with it too!

Yep, you heard that right. We’ve just released two new plugins for the WordPress users out there, that take opcode caching to the next level. If you haven’t already installed an opcode caching engine like XCache (our favorite!), eAccelerator, Turck MMcache, Memcached, APC, or PHPA then you really need to do that right now before even continuing this article. Really, what were you waiting for!?