Portable Apps - Firefox and Firefox Portable Settings Part 1

People who know me know that I am partial to open source software. In this posting I want to describe a few setting differences in using the Firefox browser locally, as opposed to the Firefox Portable browser, which I run from a thumb drive.

Both the local copy and the portable versions of Firefox, being used at the time of this posting, are version 1.5.0.6. I have been using Firefox locally since shortly after it became available and the portable versions for the last year or so. The different settings are configured from various Tools>Options tabs.

I use the same "General" options tab settings in both instances, except for the "Connection Settings". The local Firefox is a "Direct connection to the Internet", while the Firefox Portable is set up with the "Manual proxy configuration" settings to allow me to access the internet at work and usually using the "Auto-detect proxy settings for this network" gets me access at a library or similar non direct location.

As for the Privacy options tab settings, neither instance is set to save the browsing history, forms, download history, cookies nor cache, beyond the current session. Both instances have been set to "Remember Passwords", but have differing master passwords.

None of the saved passwords are for anything sensitive, like online banking or anything of a like nature; even so, additions or updates to the passwords on the Firefox Portable are only done when running from my own local computer and the master password is frequently changed.

Setting differences for the "Content", "Tabs", "Downloads" and "Advanced" options to be described in future posts.

Of course, these are the settings that I feel work best for me, and suit my security comfort levels, depending upon whether it is the local or the portable Firefox being used.

You may and probably do have different settings for your Firefox, however it is used. If you have a set up you think is better, or just have a question requiring a more in depth look at the settings, feel free to let me know by leaving a comment to this posting and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

29AUG06 Posting Delay

Due to Tropical Storm Ernesto, I was unable to publish my normal Tuesday posting.

I have just now finished putting things back together in my office.

This kind of thing is just part of living in South Florida, sometimes I have to secure everything prior to the arrival of a hurricane or tropical storm, so that I can continue on with no significant loss of information.

I do plan to continue updating this blog on Tuesdays and Thursdays, at a minimum, but sometimes Mother Nature intervenes and it is just not possible.

I hope you understand and will bear with me, during these kinds of short posting blackouts.

Internet - Web Page Saving

The current BPCA meeting place does not have broadband access and only very slow dial up access to the internet. At a recent meeting it was suggested that the various sites available through the BPCA Links page be shown at a future meeting.

This brought up a discussion of how long it would take, with the available technology, to bring up each page. I suggested that the sites be downloaded and placed on a CD or thumb drive.

It seems that no one in attendance knew how to do such a save. As a result, I have decided to give some basic instructions through this blog.

These instructions will involve using either the Internet Explorer or Firefox browser; there are other ways of saving a web page locally, such as the Web Capture capabilities in the full Adobe Acrobat software and others, but most of us do not have access to such expensive software.

The following table shows the options available for each of the browsers being used:

Browser	Save As Type	Save As Result
Internet Explorer Firefox	Web Page, complete (*.htm, *.html)	A file named with the page title and an htm extension, containing the HTML and a folder with the same name containing all other information needed to display the page. (Includes images, CSS, etc.)
Internet Explorer Only	Web Archive, single file (*.mht)	A file named with the page title and an an mht extension, that contains all the information needed to display the page. NOTE: Firefox, to my knowledge and experience can neither read nor open a file that has an mht extension.
Internet Explorer Firefox	Web Page, HTML only (*,htm, *.html)	A file named with the page title and an htm extension, containing the HTML only.
Internet Explorer Firefox	Text File (*.txt)	A file named with the page title and an txt extension, containing the text only.

Once the page has been saved to your local hard drive, you can copy it to a CD, thumb drive, or other device not connected to the internet and open them with your browser of choice, except that you can not open the mht Web Archive in any other browser than IE. Of course, the links within the pages will not be operational, as they are pointing to another web page that would need to be accessed online.

Try the different options for yourself to find out what works best for your purposes. As always, let me know by commenting of this posting if this works for you, or if you have any questions.

Internet - Web Directories

If you are trying to find general information on a subject by searching the internet, your best bet will probably be using a web directory, rather than a search engine.

A web directory is a tree style organization by major topics. Under the major topics are sub-topics, then sub-sub-topics, and so on.

I will use the Google Directory for the example below. There are other Web directories, such as Yahoo, the Open Directory Project, but Google is what I use the most.

The Major topics of the Google Directory, at the time of this writing, are: Arts, Business, Computers, Games, Health, Home, Kids and Teens, News, Recreation, Reference, Regional, Science, Shopping, Society, Sports and World.

Lets say that you want to know more about designing and maintaining a web site.

If you select Internet, under the Computer topic, then Web Design and Development you will find a list of more sub-topics related to your search: Accessibility, Authoring, FAQs, Help and Tutorials, Hosting, and more each of which will have further subtopics; within these might be more and eventually you will get a listing of websites related to what you are looking for.

With a search engine like Google, Yahoo and many others, you enter a keyword or phrase to search an index, refining by adding more specific keywords or phrases, until you get what you are looking for. A web directory, saves a lot of typing and figuring out what keyword or phrase to use to get to where you want, most of this has already been done, you just need to drill down to get what you are looking for.

I almost always use a web directory, when trying to find information on a very broad topic. Try using web directories yourself for broad searches and I believe you will find you spend less time getting pertinent information.

As always, leave a comment and let me know if this works for you and if not why not.