Safe Surfing: Two Free Programs To Help Keep You Out Of Dangerous Sites

Hi All:

Anyone using Firefox or IE should know about two add-ons that could help you from falling into a world of hurt - SiteHound and SiteAdvisor:

http://www.sitehound.com/support/help/WebHelp/index.html

http://www.siteadvisor.com/

Both are free programs and both employ the same concept: they collect information about dangerous sites and alert you if you happen to arrive at one.

SiteHound describes itself as follows:

"We test the Web to help keep you safe from spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.

SiteHound's unique database is a global community of users and experts actively reporting potentially malicious websites ..."

The way it works is that if you arrive at a site that others have found harmful, it brings up a page warning you about the site and giving you a choice of whether to enter or not.

McAfee's SiteAdvisor does pretty much the same thing as SiteHound though without interposing a page. Instead a small icon in the toolbar alerts you by changing color. Clicking on the icon will then bring up detailed information about the site including the tragic stories of those who were unwise enough to enter.

After installing these programs I've received very useful alerts from both as one tends to catch what the other misses.

And if everyone were to install them I think it might help considerably to lighten the load of Bleeping Computer's hard-working moderators, a bunch for whom I have nothing but admiration.

Cheers,