Which internet browser is best & why?

[flybytes 34]

Not sure if I'm in the correct forum category, but web browsers & OS software do seem highly relevant to hardware control?

 

Have not updated my MS IE for a long time - believe I was on IE8 (not easy to confirm), but now due to experiencing problems with it have upgraded to IE11 despite being unable to confirm if it would be ok with my win7-64 OS.

 

Fortunately all looks ok & my recent problems such as slow browsing & hang-ups appear to have been resolved with IE11.

 

Have dabbled with other 3rd party browsers - Chrome, etc but always returned to the more familiar MS browser.

 

Look forward to any feedback on this issue.

 

Ray.

[IZ0JUB 162]

Hi Ray,

 

I have tried out most of the web browsers over the years and always seem to come back to Chrome as it appears to be the easiest to use and fastest. Cheers, Mike

[MyPC8MyBrain 273]

you should really do a poll with this sort of question

its FF for me

 

 

[allardjd 1,853]

I did what you did, except the last step - I haven't gone back to IE yet - still using Chrome.  It's not great but less troublesome than IE was at the last.  I'd be more comfortable with a MS browser on an MS OS, but it was just getting too troublesome.  I believe I was using IE10 at the last.

 

Have had a recurring problem with Chrome "Extensions" being downloaded and enabled, causing some aggressive adware things, but have learned that they are easily turned off and uninstalled when seen.  Those are annoying but not harmful (so far) and easily dealt with.  Google needs to do something about that, but haven't yet.

 

John

 

 

[wain 879]

IE is very problematic, stooped using that last year, for the issues John explains I stopped using Chrome, currently use Firfox, seems ok to be and unlik IE is reliable...

Wayne

[MyPC8MyBrain 273]

i uninstall IE from my PC completely!

by the way chrome and such variants are all based on Mozilla (FF is the in-house flavor for Mozilla);

it’s essentially an open platform chrome is based on

 

[J G 927]

I don't think that one browser is better than another. They all have their weaknesses. I have Chrome, Fireox and IE installed on my PC.

 

For example, I mostly use Chrome, it is probably the faster browser when used with the Google search engine. There are some very annoying aspects of it. The good people at Google think it is good that chrome can analyse downloaded files and block those that it thinks are dangerous.  All well and good until you want to download a file that you use for your work that you know is safe but Chrome disagrees.  Look for a way around - there isn't one, no "its OK this time" option, the only option is to use a different browser.  

 

[MyPC8MyBrain 273]

did you try looking through setting in chrome://about?

chrome://settings

chrome://settings/advance

instructions how to disable "Safe browsing"

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95572

you might also want to take a look on how to disable Phishing & malware alerts

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/99020

[Corsaire31 419]

Using mainly Chrome but also have Firefox installed.

[flybytes 34]

Not sure if I'm in the correct forum category, but web browsers & OS software do seem highly relevant to hardware control?

 

Have not updated my MS IE for a long time - believe I was on IE8 (not easy to confirm), but now due to experiencing problems with it have upgraded to IE11 despite being unable to confirm if it would be ok with my win7-64 OS.

 

Fortunately all looks ok & my recent problems such as slow browsing & hang-ups appear to have been resolved with IE11.

 

Have dabbled with other 3rd party browsers - Chrome, etc but always returned to the more familiar MS browser.

 

Look forward to any feedback on this issue.

 

Ray.

 

An update to my MS IE problems - IE11 has gone the same way as IE8, ie becoming slower & slower after a few hours, even hanging up for 5-minutes or more.

 

Now downloaded the Chrome browser after seeing its popularity on this topic & discovering that my sister (an IT trainer in the UK National Health Service) also uses it.

 

Apart from a pop up saying that my version of Java script was incompatible with Chrome before steering me to download a more suitable version, I have now gone more than 2-days without problems, & yes, this is way faster than MS IE even when working apparently OK - hope this is a permanent improvement.

 

Ray.

[MyPC8MyBrain 273]

most of us didn’t go much into why they use what they use

for me it’s mainly privacy concerns when selecting FF over Chrome

im glad you found the browser that works for you

[flybytes 34]

Chris B,

 

Started this topic due to very little discussion about internet browsers in recent years - at one time it was a hot topic.

 

Stuck a finger out of the window to see which way the wind blows, so thanks for the intelligent feedback - which makes MH forum such a friendly & useful site.

 

Have to agree about privacy being up there in importance when selecting software or especially payment methods involving the internet.

 

Ray.

 

[TomDangeroux 4]

If you like Chrome but don’t want the baggage of Google’s snooping, you can always install Chromium instead. Chromium is the open source browser on which Chrome is based.

I personally prefer Firefox with NoScript installed for everyday browsing, Safari for banking, yes that’s banking and Chromium for any sites that insist on still using Flash Player for video, as I uninstalled Flash Player system wide some time ago.

[MartinW 0]

 

Not sure if I'm in the correct forum category, but web browsers & OS software do seem highly relevant to hardware control?

 

Have not updated my MS IE for a long time - believe I was on IE8 (not easy to confirm), but now due to experiencing problems with it have upgraded to IE11 despite being unable to confirm if it would be ok with my win7-64 OS.

 

Fortunately all looks ok & my recent problems such as slow browsing & hang-ups appear to have been resolved with IE11.

 

Have dabbled with other 3rd party browsers - Chrome, etc but always returned to the more familiar MS browser.

 

Look forward to any feedback on this issue.

 

Ray.

 

An update to my MS IE problems - IE11 has gone the same way as IE8, ie becoming slower & slower after a few hours, even hanging up for 5-minutes or more.

 

Now downloaded the Chrome browser after seeing its popularity on this topic & discovering that my sister (an IT trainer in the UK National Health Service) also uses it.

 

Apart from a pop up saying that my version of Java script was incompatible with Chrome before steering me to download a more suitable version, I have now gone more than 2-days without problems, & yes, this is way faster than MS IE even when working apparently OK - hope this is a permanent improvement.

 

Ray.

 

 

Something not quite right there!

 

I have IE and Chrome installed. My son and daughter use Chrome as they prefer it.... but I like IE.

 

I have the latest IE and have no issues with it at all. It is a fraction slower than Chrome but no big deal. Not a single issue with it.

 

I presume you've done the obvious and carried out some system maintenance? A decent virus scan is essential I would say, especially considering you've been running with an older version of IE for a protracted period. It may have been up to date in terms of updates, but being an older version it was more vulnerable.

 

I'm sure I'm preaching to the converted, but do run a thorough virus scan. No way should it be becoming slower and slower and hanging!

[flybytes 34]

Martin,

 

Have done a full system scan, including external drives using the latest Norton Security - took about 3-hours or so - nothing apart from the usual tracking cookies found, which it deleted.

 

All pc systems function ok except this IE problem. Chrome is still fine & stable.

 

Have used Norton for a few years now & it always performs background scans when the PC is idle.

 

Bit of a mystery, but I've never been a fan of Microsoft - the memory management in their numerous versions of Windows has never been sorted out since I used win 3.1 so many years ago.

 

Ray.

 

[bilirubin 50]

Hi Ray,

 

From my experience you may have answered your own question without realising it..........................................Norton.

 

Norton Antivirus is a very bloated and ponderous bit of software and if you put into Google "does Norton Antivirus slow down my PC and Internet" you will see why. I was having the same problems as you and following some very good advice from our IT team at work I uninstalled Norton and moved over to AVG.

 

My PC regained it's youth and my Internet speeds picked up so I have stayed with AVG ever since.

 

Norton gets into everywhere on your PC so much so that I had to download a free "Norton removal tool" because the built in uninstall would not get rid of it. AVG is free to download and you might want to think about downloading Malwarebytes as well if you do not have it.

 

Malwarebytes seemed to pick up a lot more problems than Norton ever did and it contains some good PC tweak tools as well.

 

Good luck

 

Mike   

[flybytes 34]

Mike,

 

Suspect there is some truth in your posting.

 

Have given MS IE another go this morning & it has been working flawlessly for a few hours.

 

As it happens, the only manual changes to my PC since I last tried IE was to download Chrome & renew my subscription to Norton which expired at the weekend.

 

Unlike my renewal last year, where I simply typed in a new product key & Norton gave me another 365 days, this time the new product key would not work & I eventually received a message that a completely new download of Norton was neccessary. After the download, the install software completely removed my old version.

 

So perhaps Norton has been the cause of my IE problems, who knows?

 

Cheers,

 

Ray.

 

[wain 879]

I find with IE on PC and our 2 laptops that it regularly just hangs or just doesnt load, if Firefox didnt work then I would be tempted to say its my Internet but i have tried one against the other on different machines and IE regularly has issues...

Wayne

[Quickmarch 488]

My favorite is Chrome - with a few extensions installed to get rid of the ad stuff. Look into "AdBlock", FlashControl", and "Crumble". I also have "Https Everywhere" installed for obvious reasons. I'm afraid I'm one that totally ignores IE(pick a number), but I keep it on the machine as there used to be some websites that were crippled without it - not so much anymore and I think it's easily been a year since I used IE for anything.

 

I also have Firefox installed, but I don't know why - I never use it.

 

Get rid of Norton!!!! Use ESET or something similar. YMWI (Your Mileage Will Improve)

[flybytes 34]

John M,

 

This posting is becoming interesting,

 

Never heard of ESET, but did dabble with Firefox.

 

At the moment my initial reason for raising this issue appears to have been resolved.

 

I'm a bit of the opinion that if 'it ain;t broke don't fix it' unfortunately in computing you have to stay at least one step ahead of the bad guys.

 

Ray.

 

[Quickmarch 488]

Sorry, ESET is German (best of my knowledge) anti-virus software. Often referred to as NOD32. Nowadays it's ancient - been around since sometime the mid '90's. However, it differs in that it does not front-end load a bunch of definitions every time you boot your computer. Only loads what is different from the last load, so it is pretty non-intrusive. The boys and girls at ESET keep a wary eye on what baddies are out there and update your system daily (takes about five seconds). Been working for me since the late '90's. Anything you try to download that is on their "sh*t list, doesn't make it to your computer.

[flybytes 34]

March,

 

Thanks for that. Have been involved with computing since the 1960's & still learning!