Category: Internet

Google has offered to boost your security by offering to turn on the 2-step verification system in your Google accounts. The 2-step verification requires that you enter a verification code received on your phone in addition to the usual password. But the 2-step verification is not available for all the Google services like AdSense. Also some of the phones are hard coded to ask only for username and password. If you feel uncomfortable using the 2-step verification, then you can choose to turn it off.

Facebook is the top social networking site all over the world. Many millions of people use it everyday to share their pictures, videos and comments with their friends and family. But there are cyber criminals also tapping into the popularity of Facebook by posting links about scams and phishing sites. If you are a Firefox web browser user, then you can use the FB Phishing Protector add-on to prevent such scams on Facebook.

We all are familiar with the desktop backgrounds or wallpapers in Windows. But now people are spending more time using their web browser so why not set your favorite pictures as browser backgrounds. Now you can change the backgrounds for your Firefox web browser using the Browser Backgrounds add-on. This add-on lets you set background images for the newly opened tabs in Firefox. You can also set random backgrounds for each new tab.

Google Chrome has a large collection of extensions, designed both by Google and third parties. You can install these extensions by visiting the Google Chrome webstore which also has many apps and themes in addition to extensions. After you are done testing an extension and decide that you do not like it, you can uninstall it very easily.

Most of the websites store information in your web browser using the cookies. These cookies can improve the way a website interacts with your web browser. For example, a forum stores the login information in form of a cookie so that you do not have to login everytime you visit that site. But there are other sites which use cookies to track your browsing behavior. If you do not want to remove all the cookies from your Firefox browser, then you can selectively remove only a few of them.

Some sites are very aggressive about redirecting you to different pages or even different websites. One possible reason for them to do this advertising but some attack sites may also redirect you to phishing or malware infected websites. If you do not want to be redirected by websites, then you can make use of the NoRedirect add-on in Mozilla Firefox. This add-on prevents websites from using HTTP header to redirect you.

Starting with the version 19 of Mozilla Firefox, the popular browser has started to show the PDF files right inside your web browser using an in-built PDF viewer without using any third party plugins from Adobe or any other company. The in-built PDF viewer in Firefox has an option to download the file too. But this in-built PDF reader cannot handle all kinds of PDF files as some of the PDF files have advanced features in them.

A DNS server converts the readable form of web addresses like google.com into numerical IP addresses like 66.102.7.104. Norton has introduced Norton ConnectSafe public DNS servers for free public use. Norton ConnectSafe DNS servers can block malicious sites, phishing sites, scam sites, in addition to pornographic and non-family friendly websites. Anybody can use the Norton ConnectSafe public DNS servers for free if they properly configure their internet settings.

A DNS server translates the readable form of web addresses like google.com into numerical IP addresses like 66.102.7.104. The Sunbelt Software, the makers of the popular Vipre Antivirus software, has started ClearCloud – a new DNS server service which offers free public DNS server for everyone. ClearClound claims that their DNS servers give safer web browsing experience.

In all the web browsers you can press the hotkey Ctrl + F5 to force reload a webpage, but not in Apple Safari. This is why if you use Safari browser and you want to reload a webpage from the website (and not from the local cache), then you must clear the history, cookies and cache of Safari browser first. However, clearing the cookies and the cache (and other items) is relatively easy in Safari compared to other web browsers.