The most SECURE browser?

UsernameIssues · 25 May 2014

Perhaps they don't want to talk to the forum member that stated that "Their style/hype of communicating things is worse than Chicken Little's and Steve Gibson's."

exitPr0gram · 25 May 2014

UsernameIssues said:

Perhaps they don't want to talk to the forum member that stated that "Their style/hype of communicating things is worse than Chicken Little's and Steve Gibson's."

LOL.

There is always a number to call them and explain to them what the issue is.

Callender · 25 May 2014

Same problem for me. After running a ProcMon capture I couldn't figure out what caused the crash.

Then I figured that "DuckDuckGo" doesn't use a web prediction service or auto suggest as it's a search engine focused on privacy.

After some messing about trying to change the default search engine to Google which I managed to do - searches from the Whitehat home page for aabbcc.com still resulted in a DuckDuckGo search followed by a crash.

The solution was to change the home page to:

https://encrypted.google.com/

and search engine to google.

Then everything seems to work.

EDIT: Meant to add that searching for aabbcc.com results in the page in the screenshot below being shown but typing something like yhoo.com into the address bar now redirects to yahoo.

exitPr0gram · 25 May 2014

Callender said:

Same problem for me. After running a ProcMon capture I couldn't figure out what caused the crash.

Then I figured that "DuckDuckGo" doesn't use a web prediction service or auto suggest as it's a search engine focused on privacy.

After some messing about trying to change the default search engine to Google which I managed to do - searches from the Whitehat home page for aabbcc.com still resulted in a DuckDuckGo search followed by a crash.

The solution was to change the home page to:

https://encrypted.google.com/

Then everything seems to work.

What in the world made you think of that solution??

Callender · 25 May 2014

It just seemed likely when I thought about reasons why it might not be working.

I reckon that probably it would be better to drop the "encrypted" part from the home page URL for smooth operation!

Like I said before it's a privacy issue for me and I tend to keep such things disabled anyway. Depending on what I'm searching for I use Google most of the time but for other stuff I'll switch to Opera browser with DuckDuckGo or possibly I'll be using Aviator as it's growing on me.

The only thing is that I'm still learning about it and not spending a lot of time using it yet. I'd like to know what it does with Etags and the like. I expect that given a few months some bright sparks will have it all figured out!

exitPr0gram · 25 May 2014

Callender said:

It just seemed likely when I thought about reasons why it might not be working.

I reckon that probably it would be better to drop the "encrypted" part from the home page URL for smooth operation!

Like I said before it's a privacy issue for me and I tend to keep such things disabled anyway. Depending on what I'm searching for I use Google most of the time but for other stuff I'll switch to Opera browser with DuckDuckGo or possibly I'll be using Aviator as it's growing on me.

The only thing is that I'm still learning about it and not spending a lot of time using it yet. I'd like to know what it does with Etags and the like. I expect that given a few months some bright sparks will have it all figured out!

Is DuckDuckGo a good search engine? If so, why? More privacy, etc. vs Google?

I'm glad its growing on you. I've learned a lot from this thread.

Callender · 25 May 2014

Check out the following:

Fix Tracking!

Under the logo click the banner and select Chrome. Scroll down.

It's a matter of personal preference. I don't much like being tracked even if a lot of that tracking doesn't personally identify me.

If you happen to use FF or a FF variant check out:

Lightbeam

You need the add on bar enabled in order to use it. For me - with all anti-tracking methods enabled the chart remains blank and that's how I like it!

For Chrome:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...lfmcfigp?hl=en

Note: Discussing some of those methods breaches the Forum Rules so it's not a discussion that I will engage in.

That's just the way it is!

UsernameIssues · 25 May 2014

Callender said:

...but typing something like yhoo.com into the address bar now redirects to yahoo.

yhoo.com is not a valid typo test. It is a domain owned by Yahoo. The yhoo web server returns pings and it is doing the redirection to yahoo.com --- not the Aviator browser or the "web service" in option being tested.

aabbcc.com is a domain owned by MIS... but there does not appear to be a web server using it. Hence the navigation error. (You might get ping results for aabbcc.com or any website depending on your DNS service/setup.)

I get the same navigation error if I use wwwwwwwhat.com
which does not appear to be owned by anyone.

I'll stick with the simpler aabbcc.com for testing.

With the option named "Use a web service to help resolve navigation errors" turned OFF...
...this is what I see in Aviator vs. Chrome:

The most SECURE browser?-avaitor-vs-chrome-off.png

Callender said, "The solution was to change...."
I'm not sure that your solution to Aviator's crashing works if the end result is the same as turning off the option. Or maybe I'm missing something.

With the option named "Use a web service to help resolve navigation errors" turned ON...
...this is what I see in Aviator vs. Chrome:

The most SECURE browser?-avaitor-vs-chrome-.png

Avaiator is not remembering the size of the last window closed. See the video below.

Setting aabbcc.com as the homepage, Avaiator ignored that setting after a crash. The setting was still there, but Aviator took me to the default customized search page. I have to start Avaitor a second time to get it to honor my settings. I show this twice at te end of the video. Once where I go into the settings window and once without that step.

Having to restart twice to get back to your settings is not a big deal, but it night have explain some of Callender's findings.

Notice that both browser windows start off as the same size.

I have Process Explorer's Difference Highlighting Duration* set to 9 seconds. The apps turn red once they exit, but I want to see that red line for a while. It is not taking 9 seconds for these apps to exit RAM.

*the option is called Difference Highlight Duration elsewhere.

In the video, the W7 pro 64bit VM's DNS is set to 8.8.8.8 to avoid my OpenDNS service that provides its own navigation errors help. Also, a number of MS services** are disabled just to get the list in Process Explorer smaller and to stop the list from changing (thus moving up/down) more than is already does in the video.

**services like Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service and Windows Search. I get the same results with all MS services set to their default start up values.

exitPr0gram · 26 May 2014

Callender said:

Check out the following:

Fix Tracking!

Under the logo click the banner and select Chrome. Scroll down.

It's a matter of personal preference. I don't much like being tracked even if a lot of that tracking doesn't personally identify me.

If you happen to use FF or a FF variant check out:

Lightbeam

You need the add on bar enabled in order to use it. For me - with all anti-tracking methods enabled the chart remains blank and that's how I like it!

For Chrome:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...lfmcfigp?hl=en

Note: Discussing some of those methods breaches the Forum Rules so it's not a discussion that I will engage in.

That's just the way it is!

For your first entry in "Fix Tracking" Aviator already has "Send do not track request feature" if that is what you were getting at... I was not to find the thing to click on when you told me to find Chrome and "Click on it" ...

But i'm wondering if Collusion is an overkill, or maybe even redundant, to add to Aviator as this is currently my browser of choice with Chrome as my backup.

*UPDATE*

I looked at that site again and didn't find nothing to click on but it stated which options to disable in Chrome for increased security within the "Advanced Options" ... Which is basically to uncheck all within that section except for "Send do not track".

exitPr0gram · 26 May 2014

exitPr0gram said:

Callender said:

Check out the following:

Fix Tracking!

Under the logo click the banner and select Chrome. Scroll down.

It's a matter of personal preference. I don't much like being tracked even if a lot of that tracking doesn't personally identify me.

If you happen to use FF or a FF variant check out:

Lightbeam

You need the add on bar enabled in order to use it. For me - with all anti-tracking methods enabled the chart remains blank and that's how I like it!

For Chrome:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...lfmcfigp?hl=en

Note: Discussing some of those methods breaches the Forum Rules so it's not a discussion that I will engage in.

That's just the way it is!

For your first entry in "Fix Tracking" Aviator already has "Send do not track request feature" if that is what you were getting at... I was not to find the thing to click on when you told me to find Chrome and "Click on it" ...

But i'm wondering if Collusion is an overkill, or maybe even redundant, to add to Aviator as this is currently my browser of choice with Chrome as my backup.

*UPDATE*

I looked at that site again and didn't find nothing to click on but it stated which options to disable in Chrome for increased security within the "Advanced Options" ... Which is basically to uncheck all within that section except for "Send do not track".

By the way... the option that we were discussing within Aviator, the one to "
Use a web service to help resolve navigation errors" .... if it poses a risk, as stated in your post, in Chrome... Shouldn't we just leave it disabled?

I've added HTTPS Everywhere to Chrome. Niiiiice

That whole FixTracking for Chrome link was awesome. I feel like my Chrome is so much more secure now

The most SECURE browser?

Web Prediction Service crash

Inspiration?

Tracking issues