SB does not recognise Firefox / T'bird

I've just downloaded the current version of SB (v. 3.2) onto my Win98SE system to use alongside Spybot S & D (a great programme IMHO). After I installed the programme and updated, it said that it could not detect Mozilla / Firefox on my computer. I am using F'fox 1.0 and T'bird 1.0 and Zone Alarm 5.5. I have a strong suspicion that this is because I have moved my F'fox and T'bird profiles away from the default location in c:\windows\application data. Is this likely? Is there a work-around?

Also - I see from reading lots of these threads that there are issues concerning the interaction between SB and F'fox in the handling of cookies; where can I read a clear explanation and advice please?

Does SB add significant protection to that already provided by Zone Alarm and F'fox?

Please forgive me if these questions have already been answered - I can't find the info I need.

 

Where is your Firefox "profiles.ini" located?

The only current issue is a small conflict when image blocking is set for sites in Firefox that SB wants to add cookie blocking for. In this case, due to a small bug, SpywareBlaster will not be able to add the cookie blocking for those sites (i.e. they'll keep showing up as "unprotected" in SpywareBlaster's Mozilla/Firefox area).

The current workaround is to just temporarily disable image blocking functions in Mozilla/Firefox, enable protection in SpywareBlaster, and then re-enable image blocking (sites) in Mozilla/Firefox.

Again, this issue only affects a very small percentage of users and is, at worst, an inconvenience. (It'll be fixed in SpywareBlaster 3.3.)

SpywareBlaster can configure Firefox so it blocks known spyware/ad/tracking cookies.

I believe ZoneAlarm's pay versions offer various "privacy" settings that may block cookies, however this adds a layer of protection at the browser level.

That's why this forum is here.

And just a note: Even if you routinely use Firefox for web browsing, SpywareBlaster's Internet Explorer and Restricted Sites protection (both of which cover IE) are very important - the Internet Explorer web browsing engine is used by many third-party applications, and Internet Explorer itself is rather tightly integrated with Windows. Securing it as much as is possible is a must.

Best regards,

-Javacool

 

WOW!! Working on Sunday? I'm impressed. Thanks for the prompt reply.

a) Firefox profile
The Firefox "profiles.ini" is still located in the default location:- c:\windows\application data\mozilla\firefox because I still have not got the settings right. It's something I'm working on. The complete profile is in c:\firefox\profile and the executable is supposed to point there. It works but I've made a mistake somewhere. I succeeded with T'bird and it now has nothing in ...\application data.

b) Cookies
That's clear enough but I seem to be faced with a situation where Zone Alarm (I have the Pro version which does control cookies), Firefox and SB will all be trying to control cookies. This looks like sure road to confusion (or worse). How can I tell either Firefox or Zone Alarm not to control cookies?

c) I.E.
I Understand fully the need to lock down I.E. as much as possible and have activated SB's protection. A Nobel Prize for the person that writes a utility to uninstall I.E. completely and for ever.

 

Ah - well that would be the problem.

The best way to configure Firefox to use a different profile location is through the built-in profile manager, which you should be able to access via "firefox.exe -p". This will write the appropriate profile location information to that profiles.ini file, and SpywareBlaster (as well as Firefox, of course) should then be able to locate the profile.

Actually, you shouldn't encounter any issues with this setup because they work at different levels. (In fact, I'd recommend such a layered setup, mainly because what one misses the other will hopefully catch. )

I hope this helps,

-Javacool

 

Thanks Javacool, that's nailed it.

As you suggested, I used Firefox profile manager to create a new profile in my preferred location and then transferred all of the profile data into it. This had the effect of updating c:\windows\application data\mozilla\firefox\profiles.ini which, as you wrote, is used by SB to find F'fox.

Ironically, this profiles.ini file is not used by F'fox because I have hard wired the path to the profile thus:-
C:\Firefox\firefox.exe -profile c:\firefox\profile

Many thanks for the help. Now I'll start looking at SG to see what that has to offer.