Firefox?

[flagflyfish]

I was thinking about changing to Firefox, However i'm not that computer saavy.
I've been using MSN for years, but am unhappy with thier service as of late( read: I'm tired of paying thier bill for nothing). If I change to Firefox do I need to transfer all of my E-mail data to another account? Does anyone have any info on this?

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Redneck Repairs]

firefox is just an internet browser not a service provider . If you are changing service providers ( isp ) you will need to change any email that you have with them but hotmail or yahoo or gmail accounts will remain the same . If you use outlook or outlook express for email it will have to be reconfigured for your new isp if that is what you are doing . If you are not changing isp then just install firefox and allow it to import your bookmarks and set its self as default browser and your done changing over .

[retsupt99]

I decided to change computers...went from a PC to an iMac...all my problems have disappeared...OMO, but I love the iMac...

[flagflyfish]

I guess what I'm trying to do is lessen my costs of communication, I was figuring to go with a free E-mail address, and drop an ISP altogether. I think I can do that with Yahoo.

[Cupcake]

My friend, I'm afraid you're confused.

ISP= Internet Service Provider

Without one of those, you won't be able to access the internet to check your email or get to Yahoo. (Yahoo is a web page that you visit, much like Defensivecarry.com)

Yahoo does offer free email accounts that you can access from anywhere, as long as that place has a computer that can access the internet via an ISP. (the other advantage is that if you change your ISP your email address stays the same).

Think of like whoever offers your phone service: I have a phone, but you can't talk to me unless you have a phone service and a phone at you place.

Hope that makes sense. You don't have to keep MSN, but you need someone and I'm not aware of anyone offering free ISP service anymore. I take it you use dialup?

EDIT TO ADD:

You could do what you want, but you'd have to go to a library or somewhere with access. It wouldn't be from home.

[Ram Rod]

All of my e-mail addresses are internet based. You can use gmail and forward your mail from your old addy, or add it as a pop3 server and still access the old mail addy. Hotmail, gmail, yahoo mail, mail.com all have free mail service. You'll have problems registering on some forums though--alot of them like a nailed down ISP address which in my opinion is unreasonable, but they need to protect themselves from spammers. You'll need to continue to pay somebody for internet access no matter what your chose of browsers are. I deleted MSN from my computer, won't use IE if I can help it, use Firefox mainly, and do Opera, maxthon2, Netscape, and Safari once in a while.

[edr9x23super]

I have been using Firefox since it first came out and it is vastly superior to IE; Actually, the guys that wrote Firefox were the same folks that wrote Mozilla and Netscape.

All in all, Firefox is a much more secure browser than IE could ever hope to be. IEs huge weakness has always been their extensive use of the "ActiveX" graphics platform which has been full of security holes since day one. every time they come up with a patch to one vulnerability, hackers find another.

Of course, you can go with an iMac as one other poster has, but they are still vulnerable to viruses just like any windows machine. Probably the most virus resistant machines out there are the ones that run Linux. The laptop I am using to post right now is a Linux machine, and is pretty much immune to all of the trojans and viruses out there....

It is also immune to registry problems that destroy hard drives, file fragmentation, etc. The operating system is far more stable and efficient than Windows will ever be, and even the mighty mac machines' operating systems are not nearly as reliable as Linux. In fact, a large percentage of the critical servers running on the internet are running Linux.

If you really hate Bill Gates and Microsoft, think about Linux.

[Rock and Glock]

Firefox is also recognized by many secure corporate servers that used to be "de-facto" IE "only" sites - I've run Firefox now for several years, and it is a joy to have left IE unused.

You can download and learn about Firefox here:

Mozilla | Firefox web browser & Thunderbird email client

Good luck!

[flagflyfish]

Thanks for the info guys!
Let me see if I have this straight
I am hooked up to the internet via a Acess mobile link card from Altell, and have been for years. My quandry is that I am in the process of going on the road for awhile and with the card in my laptop I can get internet access anywhere I can get a cell phone signal. I believe that since the Alltell card had it's own cell # it is a dedicated ISP address. Am I correct in thinking that?

[Resurgam]

+1 on Firefox. So many great add-ons and tools. Dump that PC, too. I know the mac CAN get infected with viruses, but it's never happened to any of mine over the past 8 years that I've been making a living on them.

As to your question, switching from IE to Firefox is not going to lower your cost of living at all. I think you are looking for free internet access. If you find some, let me know.

Wait - what am I thinking - get a macbook, one of these, and use everyone else's wireless networks!

[Bumper]

Thanks for the info guys!
Let me see if I have this straight
I am hooked up to the internet via a Acess mobile link card from Altell, and have been for years. My quandry is that I am in the process of going on the road for awhile and with the card in my laptop I can get internet access anywhere I can get a cell phone signal. I believe that since the Alltell card had it's own cell # it is a dedicated ISP address. Am I correct in thinking that?

Alltel in this case is your ISP. You should be able to simply download Firefox and use it as you would IE....

[Cupcake]

Sounds like Bumper is correct. I'll only add that if your laptop and alltel most of the time (and can use it from home), there is no reason to also pay MSN for the dialup connection. You only need the one.

[BlueMerle]

Thanks for the info guys!
Let me see if I have this straight
I am hooked up to the internet via a Acess mobile link card from Altell, and have been for years. My quandry is that I am in the process of going on the road for awhile and with the card in my laptop I can get internet access anywhere I can get a cell phone signal. I believe that since the Alltell card had it's own cell # it is a dedicated ISP address. Am I correct in thinking that?

Yes, that is correct. You would only need to pay for another ISP if say you wanted cable access at your home. But for your laptop your Altell account is all you need to access the web.

BTW I would highly recommend you switch to the FireFox browser if you are comfortable installing it. It is much more secure than IE.

Good luck with what ever you decide.

[nn]

I tried firefox and could not get forum script so it wasn't hard for me to read.
Safari is better in that issue.

[BlueMerle]

I tried firefox and could not get forum script so it wasn't hard for me to read.
Safari is better in that issue.

I'm not clear on what you mean in the first part of your post. But I've used FF on both Mac and PC for years now and have no problems.

As to the second, Safari is not anywhere near as secure as FF.