More Firefox Add-ons

In this section, you will learn about other useful Mozilla Add-Ons. They can enhance or refine your Internet safety and security when accessing different web sites, and when performing transactions.

Important: Sometimes, conflicts might arise between different tools or different versions of a tool. If you think a particular tool is negatively affecting the overall performance of your system, uninstall it and see if your system begins to function normally thereafter. If the recommended add-ons below begin to conflict with each other (as may happen with NoScript) decide which one is more important for you and uninstall the other.

Note: A number of these download sites run non-malicious JavaScript programs. If you have already installed NoScript, you can temporarily allow the running of scripts to download a specific add-on.

5.1 FormFox

FormFox displays the actual destination of a web form. It lets you determine whether it is safe to submit important personal information such as your credit information, email, password, user name and related information. FormFox figures out and displays the actual destination of a web form that may only appear to be a legitimate, safe or trusted site. Before clicking Enter, Login or Submit buttons or links on any electronic form, roll your cursor over that button to activate a tooltip that displays the actual destination of your information.

Important: Remember, just because a web form is displayed on a secure page, it does not necessarily mean that it will send your information to a destination that is equally secure.

Figure 15: An example of a FormFox tooltip

5.2 McAfee SiteAdvisor

McAfee SiteAdvisor is proprietary software designed for use with all Internet browsers, including Firefox. McAfee SiteAdvisor maintains a huge on-line database containing information about different web sites. It displays information about malicious or unknown sites, as well as the reliable or safe ones. It also rates different links that arise when you perform an Internet search. SiteAdvisor is constantly scanning the Internet with an automated search engine to help you to review these sites.

Figure 16: An example of McAfee SiteAdvisor rating sites

5.3 Petname Tool

Petname Tool is a memory aid that helps you to recall your experience of, or history with a given web site. However, the Petname Tool is only enabled whenever you visit a site using a Secure Socket Layer (SSL - for more info see How-to Booklet chapter 7. Keeping your Internet Communication Private). A text box will appear on the right side of the Firefox toolbar. Simply type a descriptive note about that site in the text box; it will appear the next time you visit that site, assuring you that you are visiting the exact same site you had previously visited. This minimises the risk of Internet fraud, phishing or 'spoofing'. Petname displays itself in three modes:

• Disabled and greyed out displaying the word 'untrusted': This indicates that this is not an SSL page!
• A yellow background, displaying the word 'untrusted': This indicates that this is an SSL page.
• A green background, displaying a note you had previously written: This indicates that this page is from an SSL site that you have previously visited.

5.4 FireGPG

FireGPG is a Firefox Add-on that lets you decrypt and encrypt text shown on a web page. It is ideal for increasing the privacy of your webmail communications. FireGPG uses the Public Key Encryption (PKE) model. It has a special feature for Gmail accounts that makes the encryption process even easier.

Note: FireGPG requires the prior installation of the Gnu Privacy Guard encryption software & the creation of a keypair.

For more information about how SafeHistory works, please refer to http://getfiregpg.org/install.html

5.5 Removing Mozilla add-ons

To uninstall any of the Mozilla add-ons perform the following steps.

Step 1: In the Firefox menu, select Tools > Add-ons

Step 2: Choose the desired add-on and click: Uninstall

Figure 17: The Firefox add-ons screen