Help! Some browser questions....

[Nadrojj]

Ok guys, heres my story...


I don't know a ton about browsers, or even the internet for that matter and I am pretty scared of getting hacked if/when I decided to install FFXI on my laptop. I've always used IE as my default web browser and it never really did me wrong, but I heard everyone started using FireFox so I decided I wanted to be like all the cool kids and use it too. So here I am using FireFox and I'm liking it quite a bit, with all these little add ons that they have it makes for a great browsing experience.

Now for the meat and brotatos.

I currently play (well not in two months due to having wireless only) FFXI on the PS2. Well the apartment I am staying in only has wireless access which means I can't play FFXI since I don't have wireless for the ps2.

I want to install ffxi on my laptop and play it safely, what are some of the add-ons i need to install into firefox to make sure my account does get hacked? I have heard of something like no script or something but I was using IE at the time so I didn't really pay much attention to it.

Also looking for anti-virus program that i could run on my machine before I install ffxi to make sure there aren't any pre-existing viruses on my computer that would end up in my game info being ganked.

Any suggestions? I welcome them all. Feel free to call me a noob or flame me if I sound like an idiot, just please offer some helpful advice in turn. Also comments like end your life or get off my interwebz won't be taken seriously, but I might get a good laugh out of it.

[Killgannon]

ok, you dont sound like an idiot, and im not going to flame you or call you a noob, but here is my best advice

1) your best defense against viruses and trojans and the like is yourself, what I mean is stay away from sites you do not trust, dont follow links posted on other message boards, or for anything that sounds too good to be true, be EXTREMELY careful following links on bit.ly and tinyurl and any other jump service (you can't really tell where these are going and can redirect you to malware sites)

2) things that are geared at stealing your account are typically found on sites related to what they want to steal, so stay away from less reputable sites (stick to otherwiki, bg, alla, etc something with a huge name.... windower and ffxiah fall in a gray area here)

3) you dont really NEED addon's in firefox, i do not suggest noscript for you (adblock plus you may like though) as it will disable ALL javascript and flash on EVERY page you visit until you enable it for that page specifically (noscript is a whitelist, not a blacklist)

4) you dont already have antivirus on your computer? this sort of scares me, because you should have it at ALL times regardless of wheher or not your gaming or just browsing... viruses arent always designed to steal information so you could be infected with something thats attacking people and not even know it, installing an AV now won't help these problems as the scanner won't likely detect an already infected system

I think that's about all I got, others will add more I'm sure

[fishstix]

I used to use AVG for my antivirus but it seems to not be as good lately and switched to Avast!

[Cephius]

KG basically summed most of it up, though I'd like to offer you an alternate suggestion. Buy a wireless bridge, so you could then run a CAT5 to your PS2 and continue playing it on there. No risk of getting your account hacked, and you won't have to buy the PC disks.

Something like this would be what you're looking for.

[Nadrojj]

Thank you very much guys. I am going to take all the advice you guys are giving me. First thing is to update my anti-virus. I have pc-cillin which came with my dell out of the box, however it's gone out of date. I am thinking I might check out AVG see whats up with that. I've heard things like casperkey and what not work really well, I guess it's time to step out of the stone age and into browsing the web with a rubber on, I don't want to catch an internet STD.

The wireless bridge looks pretty cool, however my living situation is only temporary (just moved to a new town for a new job and am currently surfing a futon) however I would really like to start playing on pc and using this crazy windower thing all these guys are talking about lol. Imagine one macro to equip all my gear instead of having to hit three consecutive macros to put the gear on that I want to be wearing.

Again thanks guys. Any other suggestions are welcomed!

[Solefald]

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

Free if you have a legit copy of windows, and a lot less intrusive than AVG/Avast

[fishstix]

I didn't find AVG/Avast terribly intrusive, it's definitely not as bad as Vista's UAC at least. As for the wireless bridge, if you buy a Linksys router that can have the custom firmware DD-WRT installed (most popular is the WRT54GS) then you can set the router in a wireless bridge mode. That way, when you do move and get internet from a modem, you can still use the router in a normal fashion.

You'll probably love playing on a PC or laptop, if it's anything decently built within the last 2 years or so, the graphics will be better than PS2

[virusiidx]

I never really had a problem with AVG free. And yes, you'll love playing on PC compared to PS2. You might not even be able to go back to PS2.

Good advice given by Killgannon. Though I would at least try the noscript extension on Firefox and see how it works for you, especially if you're that worried about it. It's not thaaaat bad having to whitelist the sites you visit often. Ok maybe sometimes, especially on a fresh install.

[Caiyuo]

Just as an alternate suggestion to the free AVs, I really Avira Antivir. Needs a little working to disable the pop-up, but other than that it's light-weight and effective.

[bungiefan]

I'm one to vouch for enjoying FFXI on PS2 more than on PC, because it's less headache to run and keep working on the PS2. All it took was one update to break my PC so the graphics card won't run the game at more than 12 FPS, and often less than 5 when I'm in combat. The only fix is to get a different AGP graphics card, which isn't easy to find nowadays, and definitely not inexpensive while trying to keep my current system capabilities or better.

Wireless can be added to a PS2 (or any wired-only device) with a simple wireless bridge. The gaming ones and N ones just tend to run you $100+, but you may be able to find an older one running G from when they were $50. Otherwise, if your computer will actually run FFXI without complications, you can certainly try that. All I miss from the PC version is being able to replace the map files with ones from the wiki so I don't have to manage tons of markers. That wasn't worth it to me trying to land my heals in my CoP set with my interface running at 5 FPS and my keypresses not registering, and my chat lagging horribly. A 256 MB Radeon 9600 Pro shouldn't lag on this game, and yet whatever they added with WotG broke my card so that I have this problem. No alternate drivers fix it, I'm stuck unless I spend more money on a new computer or an upgrade to my computer that I play no other games on except the occasional Command & Conquer that I bought this graphics card for.