Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

when you visit a web page?

long post, skip it now unless you are interested in what happens when you visit weather sites as you plan your next river trip etc etc.

My computer cpu finally got to the point where I could not reload the operating system, just picked up another CPU and it came with Vista. What this means is I am reloading a bunch of stuff.

When I reloaded my web browser (Firefox) they recommened an add on called noscript.

I loaded it up. What this software does is show you all the java scripts that are running in the background on each web site you visit. With noscript, you have the option of turning them off or letting them run.

It has been a pain to take the time to get web pages set up to the point I can use their features but not disclose as much personal information to all the advertisement servers.

I bet most of you do not know that your web visits are being monitored by google, yahoo, doubleclick and the list goes on. If you ever wondered why you get a bunch of advertisments as you surf the internet, this is a prime reason why. Also google keeps track of every thing you search for and feeds you advertisements. There is a program that allows you to keep this cookie cleaned out.

Bottom line, these days when you buy a new computer it comes loaded with all sorts of bloatware that tracks everything you do and sends that information back to some ad server. This plus the fact almost every web site collects a ton of information about you as soon as you open the web page.

The good thing about the ACC page is so far I have not found any outside routines running that collect information for ad serving. One more good thing about our site! Any where else I have been (especially the free weather sites) has beacons, cookies and java script routines tracking every thing that is done and they know where you are. All these companies (google, yahoo, doubleclick) promise they will never use individual information for anything but research. This is total B/S in my opinion.

If you want to find out and have the time to set up Noscript, you will be surprised!

NoScript is a FireFox plug-in available for that browser only. I know a few who have installed it, and they seem satisfied with its performance.\
MS Internet Explorer 7 uses a new Phishing Filter, that falls short, but their IE 8 version is suppose to have another new feature in it similar to NoScript, we'll see.
Meanwhile, their are some serious settings that everyone should have set in their IE 7 Tools/Internet Options/Security section using the Custom option. The default parameters as the program comes installed, are weak. You can find these settings on various websites with tips for IE. I contiune to run IE 7 with XP here and have no problemsof any type using some custom set settings in XP and Kasperky Anti-Virus.

I've been using Firefox for almost three years.
It is the bomb as for custom configuration.
Also with almost 80 percent of the users using MS Explorer,
All of the known virus have been written to exploit the holes
in Explorer. I haven't had a virus since installing Firefox.

If you want even more help in tweeking your computer put
in a simple easy to understand format I suggest you monitor
the website Lifehacker.com.
Use their search box at the upper right corner to search for
past articles on streamlining the running of your computer.