Originally posted by: sisooktom
Ditch that piece of garbage known as IE and step up to Firefox. When you tell it to delete everything, it does. IE leaves tons of stuff floating around in Temp Internet files even after you supposedly just told it to clear them.
On a more serious note - completely agreed. Plus, and here's the biggest reason - IE is so chock full of security holes, your machine will probably be "0wn3d" in no short order, even if you "patch regularly". The *last* thing that you need, to have to explain to the Other Half, why there is an international phone call to Bermuda for $400 on the phone bill. Some sites use auto-downloadable "pr0n dialers" that re-route your dialup intenet access through an overseas long-distance number. (Granted, this may not apply if you no longer use dialup. The new hazard for broadband users are "spambot" trojans, that give control of your machine over to those that send mass e-mails. In some states, you could find yourself in jail if anyone takes over your machine this way and it starts sending spam.)
Also, newgroups can be slightly safer, and certainly easier to DL "stuff" en-mass. There's a lot of spam though on newsgroups these days. They are not perfectly safe though either, because sometimes people post binaries containing questionable files (virus-infected images, binaries contiaining trojans, etc.).
Best to never, ever, use a Microsoft-written program to open any sort of image file or media content. (Yes, that includes movies too - they can contain embedded scripting codes to "phone home" while watching movies.)
Also make SURE that you are running a personal software firewall, that has outbound-blocking protection.
(You never know when one of those "phone home" movie files, might have been planted there by certain interested agencies. Best to CYA when you visit the "undergroup" parts of the internet. Being pro-active about your system's security is the best way to go about it, IMHO. Getting caught with your browser history is just the tip of the iceberg.)
BTW,
whatever you do, do not ever order "Internet Eraser", or whatever they are calling it these days. It's been widely reported to be a scam, ineffectual software, and worse, spyware in it's own right.
Much better to use an alternative browser (Mozilla), that puts *you* in control of the cache/browser history/etc., and it has probably the best security of any browser out there right now. (No ActiveX either.)
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