Next up is Spyware and ad blocking software that was initial concern. The two major software packages for spyware protection and removal are Spybot- Search and Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html) and AdAware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/) although there are alternatives including a recent Microsoft release. (http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx). These threats are often not dealt with by Internet security packs (strangely enough) although some protection is now starting to be included.

Chances are you will have picked up an ad blocker somewhere in collection of programs by now, but just in case you can make your Internet browsing experience a less commercial affair by downloading software such as Hitware Lite (http://www.rightutilities.com/products/hitwarelite/hitware_lite.htm) or Stop Popup (http://www.stopthepopup.com/). These programs stop ads before they reach you, leaving you to browse only information you're after.

Besides installing protection software your best bet is just to be careful with your surfing. Don't open weird emails with strange attachments if you don't know origins (don't even open email... often viruses and Trojans will have an auto open script written into email itself, so you've instantly opened up your computer by simply looking at email). Be careful about sites you visit. Make sure that you're well protected before entering Internet 'grey' areas, such as ROM, Warez, Appz etc. sites. If you perform a web search and some of sites that show up have descriptions and titles consisting only of keywords, it's usually a fair bet that you should stay clear of that site. It usually won't have anything useful to offer and may contain hazardous material. With a bit of care you can keep your system going strong and enjoy Internet safely and relatively ad free.

The next feature that caught my attention was search bar built into browser. It's small, sleek and simple, built into right-hand side of main toolbar beside address box. You can add many different sites to search bar and then select site you wish to search from a drop-down menu. Then it's simply a matter of typing your query in and hitting enter to be taken directly to that page and your search results. This makes searching Ebay, Google, Internet Movie DataBase, Amazon etc. very quick and easy as you can simply type in desired search criteria as you think of it and get results back fast. You can get search bar plugins for IE but they tend to take up lots of room, contain ads, and you can usually only have one site per search bar.

There are more features than I could write about here but I will tell you that Firefox has impressed me greatly. Browser hijacking: act of a malicious website script changing your homepage or search page (particularly common on IE, sites will change your default search page so that every time you type an address into your address bar their site gets a hit) is now a thing of past (at least until someone gets vicious enough to work out backdoors in Firefox, an unlikely event for at least a little while given massive market share still held by IE). Since changing over I have received substantially fewer attack notices from my Firewall. Sites load quickly, and if you get an address wrong you don't have to wait for a page to load, you just quickly get a message informing you that site doesn't exist. Then there are extensions that can be downloaded to add all sorts of new features to browser.

The only downside that I have found is fact that because IE is dominant web browser, some websites are coded in such a way that they don't work properly on other browsers. These sites are few and far between, but occasionally you will still need to fire up IE to view a page. The infrequency of this occurring is enough that it doesn't annoy me too much, but it will be nice when everything works 100%.

At end of day, it's probably not a vital switch. Both programs suffice in allowing you to plug in and explore vast world of Internet with ease and accuracy. However, it's worth a look though because what starts off initially as "I have no real reason to change back" quickly becomes "I am never going back". So, as official Firefox website encourages, "Rediscover web".