What's in your Add-ons?

[Pirate Bill]

For some reason BTD's Disappearing Cookies thread pushed my brain this direction.

What's everybody using in their Firefox Add-ons? And if you aren't using Firefox, what's your problem?

I've got:

Adblock Plus - The first thing I install when doing a fresh Firefox install on any and every computer (even if it's not my computer).

Basics - Cuz I like having a New Tab icon there next to my tabs.

Delicious Bookmarks - I use Delicious.

DownloadHelper - For downloading embedded media. Works for sites like Youtube.

FireFTP - What's that doing in there? I never use it.

FoxyProxy - For switching to a proxy when I need to *cough*bypassworkfilters*cough* or just want to have secure, unsnoopable browsing when I tunnel via SSH to my proxy server.

IE View Lite - Haven't had to use this one in a long time, but it's there just in case.

URL Link - For easy navigation to webpages that aren't hyperlinked.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Tab Mix Plus - customize tab behavior
Google Toolbar
Move Media Player - ??? no idea

That's it. I have one at work that I need to install here that makes viewing sets on Flickr a little bit easier, but I never remember the name and never remember to look it up at work.

[Morrigoon]

Tell me more about AdBlockPlus and Foxy Proxy, please... (linkies?)

[Pirate Bill]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

Tell me more about AdBlockPlus and Foxy Proxy, please... (linkies?)

Adblock Plus: You can subscribe to filters or create your own. It will then block ads on webpages. Makes web pages that are usually littered with crap just a bit more enjoyable. Also helps to speed up some pages since you don't have to wait for ads to download.

FoxyProxy: Lets you switch to a proxy on the fly without making changes in Windows networking. (Only Firefox will be using the proxy.) Supports SOCKS proxy (v4/4a & v5), if you know what that means and/or need it. You have to set it up for whatever proxy server you want to use. It doesn't come preconfigured.

My work blocks sites by DNS (using OpenDNS), but it blocks by category. (i.e. Photobucket gets blocked because it's File storage, Photo sharing) To get around such annoyances I use SSH to tunnel to my home router and FoxyProxy to use that tunnel for routing all Firefox traffic. I can turn it off and on only when needed. (Home bandwidth is slower so I don't want to use it all the time. Also, don't want to set off any alarms at IT.)

I also use this method on laptops when using unsecured wifi hotspots to keep people from sniffing my traffic. SSH is encrypted. Any sniffer just gets garbage.

Originally Posted by Andrew

I use Safari on my Mac.

Ok, you get a pass. I've heard good things about Safari on the Mac.

[Snowflake]

Hmm, I do not think I use any add ons. Best investigate, I guess!

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by Pirate Bill

FoxyProxy: Lets you switch to a proxy on the fly without making changes in Windows networking. (Only Firefox will be using the proxy.) Supports SOCKS proxy (v4/4a & v5), if you know what that means and/or need it. You have to set it up for whatever proxy server you want to use. It doesn't come preconfigured.

My work blocks sites by DNS (using OpenDNS), but it blocks by category. (i.e. Photobucket gets blocked because it's File storage, Photo sharing) To get around such annoyances I use SSH to tunnel to my home router and FoxyProxy to use that tunnel for routing all Firefox traffic. I can turn it off and on only when needed. (Home bandwidth is slower so I don't want to use it all the time. Also, don't want to set off any alarms at IT.)

I also use this method on laptops when using unsecured wifi hotspots to keep people from sniffing my traffic. SSH is encrypted. Any sniffer just gets garbage.

Okay, something of a proxy n00b here. I know what proxies are, and how they can be useful for getting around firewalls etc., but I've never set one up myself. Is it difficult? Easy? Do I need to have a computer on 24/7 or, once set up, will my router somehow handle it? I'm guessing I'd need to be running a proper server or something?

I would seriously like to learn more about this stuff. Not because I have any specific need for it, but because it's something I've been aware of for a long time, yet still haven't learned about in detail.

[Pirate Bill]

Originally Posted by Morrigoon

I would seriously like to learn more about this stuff. Not because I have any specific need for it, but because it's something I've been aware of for a long time, yet still haven't learned about in detail.

There are a variety of ways to proxy. How you do it depends on why you want a proxy, if you want to host the proxy yourself, or if you want to use a free (or even pay) proxy solution already out there.

For my own proxy I'm just using my router. I did upgrade the firmware to DD-WRT which gave it more functionality (I can use private key authentication instead of password for better security, dynamic DNS so I can always find it if the IP address changes, etc.) It's been a while since I actually set it up so some of the details are fuzzy, but I plan on documenting it soon in case I need to do it again. I'll post my method (which is one of dozens of ways to do it) at that time.

A popular option is TOR, and there's even a Firefox extension for that. Your traffic isn't encrypted though, so not ideal for security, just anonymity. Also, not sure if it proxies DNS requests (for bypassing DNS filters).

[Moonliner]

No RSS Add-ons?

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by Pirate Bill

And if you aren't using Firefox, what's your problem?

I use Safari on my Mac. Firefox has never appealed to me for various reasons.

I use these Safari plugins:

• Safari AdBlock - uses the AdBlockPlus blocklist to block ads and other crap.
• Glims - adds a whole bevy of useful features; see the link for a complete list.

While I'm at it, I'll also mention Chax, a plugin for iChat that among other very useful enhancements merges the individual account contact lists into a single "All Contacts" list.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Oh yeah, I used to have an addon that would pop up a full size image file if you hovered over a link to it (e.g., if you hovered over a thumbnail on a google image result page it would pop up the full size image). It also would automatically parse youtube links and turn them into inline video. It stopped working several versions of Firefox back and I never bothred to find it again.