General

Thinking Outside The (Windows) Box,
Part II: Free Web Browsers

While many businesses depend on Microsoft and its various product suites, alternatives exist, some of which are not well known. Part two of this series examines free alternative web browsers.

by Lisa Phifer VP Core Competence, Inc. [December 30, 2005]

Web browsers have become the de facto user interface for many network applications. One browser in particular—Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE)—has become the default presentation environment for Windows applications. Unfortunately, IE has also become a favorite target for spyware, trojans, and other exploits. As discussed in Part 1 of this series, these woes have stimulated demand for cleaner, leaner, faster web browsers. Here in Part 2, we continue by examining several free alternative web browsers for Windows PCs: Deepnet, Firefox, Netscape, OffByOne, and Opera.

Deepnet Explorer www.deepnetexplorer.com Deepnet Technologies Ltd London, UK

We used Deepnet version 1.52 beta 2a Standard Edition on Windows XP SP2. The Standard Edition includes a Web Browser and RSS Reader; the Advanced Edition also includes a Gnutella P2P Client that shares downloaded files by default. Unless you're specifically looking for Gnutella, stick with the Standard Edition.

Deepnet runs on Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000, and XP, with a minimum 12 MB of free disk space and 32 MB RAM. Deepnet glues a new browser application onto the Microsoft IE rendering engine. It starts with IE's Internet Options and Favorites, adding user interface, browser, and news reader properties panels. This combination can be confusing—for example, there are settings to enable/disable Java, Javascript, and ActiveX in both the Web Browser and Internet Options panels.

Deepnet offers many usability and security features. Like many browsers, Deepnet can open several web pages as tabs within the same window. But instead of clicking "X" to close a tab, you double click on that tab. Tabs are narrow by default but can be auto resized to make the most of available real estate. Tabbed pages can be saved as a group, to easily open and close several pages at once. Any collection of pages can be auto opened at start up, although Home is still limited to a single page.

Selected links can be opened in a new tab by dragging the URL to the group bar. Selected text can also be dragged to a Search bar to invoke one or all nine search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo, MSN). Several pre-defined Mouse Gestures are included—for example, when the right button is depressed, moving your mouse left means "back" while moving it right means "forward." Keyboard shortcuts can also be created for any command.

Deepnet includes a pair of time savers now found in several browsers: automated login and automated form fill. Automated login stores username / password data entered at previously visited websites, for re-use on future visits. To prevent unauthorized use, Deepnet can (and should) be configured to request a master password. However, it requests the master password before every single auto-login. Auto form-fill can supply personal data to frequently-used forms, in much the same fashion. Password and form "databases" can be exported in encrypted form for porting to another PC, or back-up.

Beyond usability, Deepnet offers several interesting features for safer web browsing. For example, Deepnet's configurable pop-up "killer" can log blocked pop-ups and make whitelist exceptions (see figure at right). When Deepnet blocks something, a counter is incremented and an alert is sounded. To view the pop-up, just click the counter to see blocked URLs, and select the desired URL. We found this bypass easy to use—and easy to invoke unintentionally.

Deepnet provides content filtering, based on blacklist / whitelist URL expressions. For example, a default blacklist entry filters URLs containing "/ad/"—this had the somewhat unexpected effect of eliminating several graphics from the ISP-Planet home page (see figure at right, where filtering is disabled at top, enabled at bottom). Users may want to customize these default filters to be less aggressive.

Deepnet also offers a configurable Phishing Alarm (see figure at right). When set to high, analysis and a blacklist are used to issue a warning whenever you try to visit a suspected or known phishing site. Here, Deepnet warned that our web portal might be phishing; this alarm would be even more valuable if it presented information about the website, like the server's certificate. Deepnet also displays a trust rating icon on the corner of opened tabs. Site ratings can be configured and whois data can be obtained by clicking on that icon.

According to the vendor's FAQ, Deepnet does not support IE Browser Helper Objects (BHOs), a notorious malware vector. But, despite arguments to the contrary, the IE rendering engine does have known vulnerabilities. For example, we had no trouble using Deepnet to access websites with unsigned ActiveX controls. Although Deepnet lets you disable potentially-dangerous content, globally or via the content filter, everything is allowed by default. To make the most of Deepnet, plan to spend some time learning about and configuring its many security options.

 

Free Windows Web Browsers: Deepnet Explorer

>Free Windows Web Browsers: Firefox

Free Windows Web Browsers: Netscape

Free Windows Web Browsers: Off By One

Free Windows Web Browsers: Opera, and Conclusion