Looking For Replacement For Avast Secure Browser

NewW7User · 14 Dec 2022

I use Avast Secure Browser but I am now getting pop-ups that there will be no more updates coming unless I go to Win 10. I don't like - and don't want - Win 10 and will not be coerced into going to it by Avast. Can someone recommend a good replacement browser? Yes, I know about Firefox but there are significant problems with it (e.g. all bookmark folders get closed every time its updated so one cannot locate any bookmarks that are in folders; some websites just won't work correctly with Firefox), hence my using Avast.

Uitlander · 15 Dec 2022

Just get a good router with NAT and SPI. Have it configured by a pro, and the updates are meaningless. Nothing ever reached my XP Pro in five years of running it at least six hours, pretty much every day. I'd focus on disabling the popups. As for browsers, my current crop for test-driving are Comodo Dragon, Comodo IceDragon, and Epic Privacy Browser. So far no problems with any of them. Considering Epic got crappy reviews nearly everywhere, I'm impressed with it, and had none of the problems reported by many.

file3456 · 15 Dec 2022

NewW7User said:

I use Avast Secure Browser but I am now getting pop-ups that there will be no more updates coming unless I go to Win 10. I don't like - and don't want - Win 10 and will not be coerced into going to it by Avast. Can someone recommend a good replacement browser? Yes, I know about Firefox but there are significant problems with it (e.g. all bookmark folders get closed every time its updated so one cannot locate any bookmarks that are in folders; some websites just won't work correctly with Firefox), hence my using Avast.

Google Chrome support ends for Windows 7 and 8.1 in early 2023

I use Firefox (one of many browsers) and have had no issues once so ever on the modern Internet. If anything, it should be more compatible than something niche like Avast's browser of what ever. Just know you were probably sending loads of telemetry to Avast by using it.. Same would be true for Comodo's Dragon crap.

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Uitlander said:

Just get a good router with NAT and SPI. Have it configured by a pro, and the updates are meaningless. Nothing ever reached my XP Pro in five years of running it at least six hours, pretty much every day. I'd focus on disabling the popups. As for browsers, my current crop for test-driving are Comodo Dragon, Comodo IceDragon, and Epic Privacy Browser. So far no problems with any of them. Considering Epic got crappy reviews nearly everywhere, I'm impressed with it, and had none of the problems reported by many.

I'm sorry, but this has NOTHING to do with the question at hand. I mean, SPI? NAT? No, just no.

While SPI and NAT will help at layer 3 (network) of the OSI model, it will NOT protect you at layer 7 (application). For example, does SPI or NAT prevent malicious Java Script from hijacking your browser? Understand layer 7 now?

For the record, I ran XP on a Dell Mini 910 24/7 and had no issues. It's because it wasn't a surfing Internet machine. It's all on how you use the computer...

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Full disclosure. Today's' modern mainstream browsers are all crap.

Uitlander · 15 Dec 2022

Today's' modern mainstream browsers are all crap.

At least we agree on something. As I understand it, the main reason to use any 'secure' browser is for...well, hows about security? Now according to pretty much everyone, XP Pro was just ever so insecure since reaching the magical EOS/EOL date of 2014. According to the Cvedetails site, it has/had 685 vulnerabilities. All this everyone was always keen to tell me constantly over the five+ years I used it, along with how awful insecure the only three browsers that worked on it was. So where were all them bigtime virus, keyloggers, trojans and other bugaboos that I was always being threatened with by them that knew (or thought they knew) more than me? Apparently on every rig but mine! Why not mine? Did my state-of-the-art antivirus save me? Newsflash! Each one of the four I tried was uninstalled within a few days (too annoying). Could it of been my latest&greatest software firewall (Agnitum Outpost Firewall 2009)?

Yeah, I'm gonna credit my being bulletproof to the NAT & SPI hardware firewall of my MikroTik router, which I had a pro configure. So if security is the goal (and reason for wanting a secure browser), then I'd say it has A LOT to do with the question at hand. And in case I was not clear before, my XP Pro was a "surfing Internet machine", at least six hours pretty much every day, for over five years. That's around 10,000 hours of "you just got lucky", as one diehard tried to explain it away. As for "layer 7" monsters, where were they for the five+ years I was relegated to using Mypal, Centaury, and an outdated version of crappy Firefox? MIA. Yep, I sure must of been lucky alright. Not only dodging the bullet 685 times with XP Pro, but also all them layer 7 bullets too. Must be a miracle. Until proven otherwise, I'll stick with my assessment....all browsers are crappy, but so long as one has a strong hardware firewall (properly configured), all this OCD-like fixation on the newest&bestest and most updated is unnecessary. All browsers "are all crap", and all browsers send telemetry to one degree or another, and Mozilla is not that much better than Chromium:

https://digdeeper.club/articles/mozilla.xhtml

It just has better spin doctors, PR liars, and a larger herd of volunteer fanboys. I'll stick with Comodo Dragon over Chrome, and IceDragon over Firefox, and Epic Privacy Browser for when I'm too lazy to deploy Kodachi Linux, TENS, or TAILS. Firefox/Mozilla has well proven itself untrustworthy in the past, as the link well shows, and I'm not seeing anything to even suggest they are changing their tune these days. Not about telemetry (Google search 'firefox telemetry'), or forced updates, nor removing/disabling ever more choices to customize the browser from endusers. I'll pass on this feral puppy.

file3456 · 17 Dec 2022

Uitlander said:

Apparently on every rig but mine! Why not mine? Did my state-of-the-art antivirus save me?

The One and Only said:

It's all on how you use the computer...

Again, SPI and NAT aren't protecting you at level 7, the application layer. That kind of defense is about routine patching and what not. It also encompasses anti-virus, sandbox programs or what ever. So don't think for a moment your NAT and SPI in your router is protecting you from a RAT (Remote Access Trojan) or some nefarious drive by Java Script that gets rendered in your browser or email client. It won't. SPI and NAT and even NAT64 is great in their OWN RIGHT. It's just one of several security tools to utilize.

At layer 7 you can have ring 0 attacks, too. Think UEFI firmware take over or what ever. SPI and NAT won't protect you from that.

OSI model - Wikipedia

Uitlander · 26 Dec 2022

F22 Simpilot said:

Again, SPI and NAT aren't protecting you at level 7, the application layer. That kind of defense is about routine patching and what not. It also encompasses anti-virus, sandbox programs or what ever. So don't think for a moment your NAT and SPI in your router is protecting you from a RAT (Remote Access Trojan) or some nefarious drive by Java Script that gets rendered in your browser or email client. It won't. SPI and NAT and even NAT64 is great in their OWN RIGHT. It's just one of several security tools to utilize.

At layer 7 you can have ring 0 attacks, too. Think UEFI firmware take over or what ever. SPI and NAT won't protect you from that.

OSI model - Wikipedia

It's all on how you use the computer

I would assume pretty much the same as anyone else...research topics on the internet, listen to Darkness Prevails on Youtube, watch the increasingly rare movie or TV show on Putlockers, look over the porn sites, check email, do online shopping, explore the Darknet, etc. I'd doubt nothing out of the ordinary, and certainly nothing overly cautious.

That kind of defense is about routine patching and what not. It also encompasses anti-virus, sandbox programs

High on my to-do list whenever I get a new used rig is to take it down to the local shop, and have them do a full SAD scan on it, to insure it is a clean OS. Next I have them install software that locks out M$ (for Win 7 it's Win Updates Disabler), so there were no patches during the years I had XP. As said, the antivirus was a major pain, and was jettisoned within days. While I had Sandboxie installed, I never got around to figuring out how to use it. Obviously I was just incredibly lucky to of spent so much time on the internet over the years, on such a total malware magnet as XP Pro (with its horribly insecure browsers), and never had anything more to deal with than a few PUPs. Rather like winning the lottery? I'll credit the miracle to the hardware firewall. You can give the credit to the TechnoGods