Bit OT broadband switch

[Big Les Wade]

F posted

I resist upgrading my software for as long as possible because IME the newer versions always turn out to be worse than the earlier ones, in some respects at least.

Nevertheless I have taken your advice and upgraded to 28.0, and hey presto, the BT e-billing site now works.

However, as expected, Firefox 28 has drawbacks that its aged predecessor didn't have. In particular, you can't easily turn off Javascript, which is something I have to do a lot in my work (I can't be bothered to explain why). You have to do it via about:config instead of Tools.Options.Content.

[Mike Barnes]

You could do what I did and get yourself a Toggle JavaScript toolbar button. You'll find one (and a lot more useful buttons) here:

I develop web pages that must degrade gracefully in the absence of JavaScript, and such a button is indispensable for testing.

[Big Les Wade]

Excellent, thanks.

It appears I can't actually add them to my bookmarks toolbar - there's no space, they just disappear when I try - but it's a nice thing to have.

[Mike Barnes]

I don't have a Bookmarks toolbar displayed but I do have a Navigation toolbar and they work there just fine.

[John Rumm]

While I sympathise with the sentiment in many cases, its a risky approach for software that you are going to use to reach out to untrusted web sites. There are too many security vulnerabilities in older versions of most browsers to be worth the risk.

You could install the NoScript addon. That will give far more control over active content.

[Big Les Wade]

I did that and it worked. Thanks.

[Big Les Wade]

But don't most of these vulnerabilities rely on you having Javascript switched on?

[John Rumm]

A good many will, but there are a whole range of vulnerabilities. These days they tend to be more in the "plug in" add-ons (PDF, Flash, Java etc) rather than the browser core (hence why newer browsers are better than old). However there are a good number of cross site scripting attacks that need nothing more than HTML to function. Also note that many email clients will render HTML and that can include JS exploits in some cases.

[Iain]

... and now I have just discovered that their 24-hour support no longer is. BE's support is now only 7am to 11pm. Presumably Sky wanting to economise.

[Big Les Wade]

Yes, it works. But when you close FF, the next time you start it up again it goes back to the 'JS on' state, which is unwelcome. (It even does this if you had previously disabled JS in about:config rather than nusing the toggle button.)

Anyone know if there is a way to set up FF so that it defaults to 'JS off' when you start it up?

[Vidcapper]

But if you could call outside those hours, you'd only get stuck with some foreign call centre whose operators have only the barest grasp of English...

[alan]

I've been with a few over the last 20 years or so and in every case a takeover has always resulted in a much worse service.

The worst experience was when Talktalk took over freedon2surf and they started switching off access to ports during peak periods (6 to 10 hours a day). This text only Usenet group was deemed to be a bandwidth hog!

[Big Les Wade]

Big Les Wade posted

And here's another one: when I restart FF, it *always* reverts to the "Show my windows and tabs from last time" option from "Options

->General". It does this no matter *what* I choose in the "When Firefox Starts".

Could be embarrassing if my wife's watching when I start it up and it displays the Daily Mail home page.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd agree with that.

Yes. ISTR they wanted to move Usenet to a paid for service.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Do you quit Firefox before shutting the computer down?

[Huge]

They weren't targeting this group, but the copyright thieves who download Gb of stuff from Usenet. Tiscali used to do the same.

[Mike Barnes]

Tab Mix Plus Options: Session: When Browser Starts: Don't Restore.

For browsing activity I'd rather keep private (I know what you're thinking, but I'm thinking of online banking) I use Chrome instead of Firefox. In stealth mode.

[Big Les Wade]

"Dave Plowman (News)" posted

Yes.

[Big Les Wade]

Big Les Wade posted

[wrap-up] In the end I decided to switch to Plusnet, both broadband and phone, since they were offering a cheap introductory deal. Also, I have used them before at a different address, with satisfactory results.

The broadband changeover did not go as smoothly as it should. Plusnet notified Sky to disconnect my broadband before we had received the Plusnet modem (and without warning me), so the household was without Internet access for several days.

Then, when the Plusnet router arrived, it would not allow Windows Vista machines to connect to the Internet. This is apparently a known problem with some types of router, but it hadn't been a problem with the previous router supplied by Be.

We couldn't solve the problem, but I have an old router that I configured with the new Plusnet settings, and that allowed the Vista machines to get Internet access.

What I would like to do now is install XP on the Vista machines but I don't know how ...

[Johny B Good]

====snip====

Is this to take advantage of the end of extended support from Microsoft[1]? Has the endless grind of updates/seemingly endless reboots with Vista/win7 finally worn you down? :-)

[1] The best thing that ever happened with windows 2000 just over 3 years 4 months ago. Two less services to leave running in the background.