November 2001 Review of Web Browsers

The situation with web browsers is very dynamic.

Microsoft issued Version 6 of its IE. Like all MS products it is suspect (previous MS IE versions proven) to have many security problems. As I discovered last week, the Version 5 on my computer had unacceptably short encryption key so that the credit card numbers that I had used could have been easily stolen.

Netscape Version 4, the most frequently used browser in our department has a very decent Email Program but is incapable to display most of the recently designed web pages. You may continue to keep Netscape Version 4 as a backup to Opera browser. Do not forget to upgrade your version to 4.79, it will bring you the acceptable encryption key.

Netscape Version 6 is not easy to install and takes a lot of the computer resources, it is reputed to be slower than IE. The use of it is not advised.

The best reputation among the web browsers belongs to Opera. Opera Version 6 is the fastest browser. It is as fast as Opera Version 3 that has been all times speed champion. The distinctive advantage of Opera is that you may open numerous webpages *inside* the main Opera window which dramatically reduces the resources used by this program and allows you to have dozens of open webpages not slowing down the computer.

The trick with Opera: while an index/home page is loading, with a long listing of links, you may CTRL/SHIFT/Click on numerous links and they will download and display in their own windows in the background. When you finished reading the index/home page, you already have all the links of interest opened in the background.

Opera also has a good inbuilt Email Program that can import messages from your existing Netscape or MSOutlookExpress Email Programs.

The use of Opera Version 6 is strongly encouraged. It may be downloaded from "http://www.opera.com".

I am also using this opportunity to warn about the ability of MS Outlook to infect your computer without any warning if the message contains certain types of viruses. And these viruses become more mean and meaner, they will erase the information on your computer. -- Migrate from MS Outlook to Netscape Messenger or Eudora or Opera.

Opera's Email Program is capable of maintaining several different email accounts so that you can read and send messages independently from, for instance, your VCU, VAMC, and private accounts -- you manage them all switching with pressing a single button.

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11/29/2001