Auto Right-Click Highlighted Text

Comments · May 12, 2008 at 6:30 am · Firefox Usability

Isn’t it about time you gave your right button on your mouse a break?

Starting of the week with a simple, yet effective addon for anybody in the Firefox user base.  The Auto Context extension for Firefox will automatically right-click any text that you highlight. 

The fun doesn’t stop there though.  This add-on also lets you customize that right-click context menu with what you want, need and love.  Also, no need to worry about if it works with your current context menu changing extensions.  Here are some of them that it should work with:

Plain Text to Link, Open-Tran, BabelZilla Glossary Extension, SearchWith, Organize Search Engines, Add to Search Bar, Nuke Anything Enhanced, DownThemAll! and Define Word

Auto Context will save your right mouse button a lot of work through the day.

Tags: addons, extentions, firefox, highlight, right-click, time saver

ErrorZilla Plus

Comments · May 11, 2008 at 4:59 am · Firefox Usability

Taking a look at some of the “experimental” add-ons for Firefox, this one caught my eye.  ErrorZilla Plus looks like it is a refreshed version of the original ErrorZilla with a few more perks.

Here is a little more information from the developers…

This extension is a mod of the ErrorZilla Mod extension. I added a “Proxify” function into it. When error page shows, you can choose a web proxy from a list and browse the unreachable network address via it.  From Chinese users, it is especially useful because of the GFW’s cutoff. When hit a blocked website, just click “Proxify” and you will surf the forbidden area.

To use ErrorZilla you will need to register and login to the add-on’s specific page to gain access to it.

Tags: 404, addon, error, errorzilla, experimental, firefox, gfoc

Add Proxy Surfing to Firefox

Comments · May 10, 2008 at 4:47 am · Firefox Security, Most Wanted

I have had several questions sent into me lately all about proxy surfing. 

When you get into proxy surfing, this is when the request you send into the browser goes to another service, then that other service sends your request from another location and pulls it back to you.  Most of the time this is used to provide a means to deny access to certain URLs in a blacklist, thus providing content filtering.

Firefox does deliver a fix though with several add-ons you can install…

• MM3-ProxySwitch
• httProxy
• gladder
• Proxy Toolbar
• Environment Proxy
• SwitchProxy Tool
• ProxySel
• FoxyProxy
• BlockStop Proxy
• PhProxy
• QuickProxy

FoxyProxy is probably the most widely used, but the others have advantages too.  Which one is your favorite?

Tags: addons, anonymous, firefox, firewalls, proxy, surfing

When a Greasemonkey Goes Bad

Comments · May 9, 2008 at 4:35 am · Firefox Security, Greasemonkey

Like many of the rest of you out there, I love hacking around with web sites and adding functionality to Firefox by plugging in a few Greasemonkey scripts.  Do you know what to watch out for when Greasemonkey scripts go bad?  You have probably seen the warning up on UserScripts.org but I wanted to touch base to let you know what you should be looking for.

The main problem is that people are writing scripts that steal your cookie.  With your cookie, they can grab other information such as your login and other sensitive information.  They say these are two things you should search any script for before installing:

.php?cookie=

and

encodeURIComponent(document.cookie)

For more tips on how to stay on the safe side, I would recommend reading through this thread via the UserScripts.org forums.  It has a lot of handy information if you install and uninstall a lot of Greasemonkey scripts.

Tags: addons, cookies, firefox, safety, scripts, stealing, userscripts

How to Use a Master Password

Comments · May 8, 2008 at 4:35 am · Firefox Security

The fact that Firefox’s show passwords option is so easy to reach is often a godsend for me because more often than not I forget which login I used with which web site.

If your PC is used by more than one person though there is a security issue you may need to worry about when it comes to showing others your login information.

By default, if you go under Tools, then your Options and then the Security section, anybody could get in there and look at your user names and passwords - as long as they had access to your PC. To fix that you want to set a master password.

First go to Tools and then Options. From there your Firefox options window should pop up and you want to go to the Security tab. From there check the box that says “Use a master password”. Now another box should come up asking you for your master password - type it in twice, and make sure you remember it.

Now when you go to Tools, Options, Security and then under the Passwords section hit the “Show Passwords…” button it should ask you for your master password before showing all your saved password information.

Tags: firefox, login, master password, password, protection

Think You Lost Your Firefox Bookmarks?

Comments (2) · May 7, 2008 at 4:19 am · Bookmark Help

I have had a few friend and read a few horror stories Online about people who for one reason or another have lost their Firefox bookmarks and had to start all over.  What they were not aware of is that you may not have totally lost your Firefox boomarks at all.  There are backups hidden within your PC that I bet you haven’t even checked yet.

First thing you need to do is find your profile folder for Firefox.  Depending on your operating system this may be in a different location.  If you are unsure, be sure to check out this previous post:  Where is my Firefox Profile Folder?

Once you make it in there you should see a folder named “bookmarkbackups”.  Double-click that folder, and there you have some of your saved boomkarks that you thought you had lost waiting for you to restore them.  To restore your bookmarks, you can launch Firefox, then go to “File” and then “Import”. 

Also if you want to live a little more on the dangerous side (first make sure Firefox isn’t running) you could copy one of the bookmark backups, rename it “bookmarks.html” and place it inside of your profile folder replacing the one that is not right.  As a bonus, if you need more help on how to backup Firefox using other tools - be sure to check out this previous most wanted post from the Firefox Facts archives.

Tags: backup, Bookmark Help, firefox, links, saved

Add Flags to Firefox Tabs

Comments (2) · May 6, 2008 at 6:56 am · Tabbed Browsing

We have colored them, moved them, shrunk them - so why not add little colored flags to your tabs?  The FlagTab add-on for Firefox gives a little more control when it comes to organizing your open tabs in Firefox.  For each tab open you can add a different colored flag, or give several the same colored flag.  The organizational options here are endless.

This extension for Firefox would come particularly handy when it comes to working on a project, where you need to keep track of which tabs are with which set of sites.  For example, if I was writing something about Firefox, I might flag the Mozilla sites I was getting information from green and the non-Mozilla sites red.  That way I can quickly see the difference between the two.

So if you are in need of another way to organize your open tabs - FlagTab might just do the job.

Tags: addon, colors, firefox, flags, organize, Tabbed Browsing