Yahoo Mail Beta Now Open to All

A while back I experimented with Yahoo Mail Beta after learning of a trick from CyberNet to trick Yahoo into offering their Mail Beta. While I did like the interface which is similar to that of Outlook and Thunderbird it did tend to run a bit slow when it first loaded and causes my Firefox 2.0b2 to use a lot of memory. A couple items of interest the ‘bulk’ folder has been renamed to ’spam’ and you can also view RSS feeds within the Mail application.

Yahoo has now made their mail Beta available to all. The performance has improved somewhat, but still can be slow loading. Sadly though it still causes Firefox to use a lot of memory (granted not as bad as the leaks in 1.5.0.X did). Now, keep in mind this is still beta and it ain’t going to be perfect, but it does have a lot of potential. Yahoo made great strides on their Beta version of Maps so hopefully with a few more improvements their Mail will be just as good.

For more information checkout CyberNet Tech News article: Yahoo Mail Beta Opened To The World

Firefox 1.5.0.7 Issues?

I’ve been keeping an eye out on Go Firefox! as well as mozillaZine. There seems to be a couple issues with some folks with the addons manager and secure websites. The biggest problem folks seem to be having is related to their Firewalls blocking Firefox 1.5.0.7. For firewall related issues check out: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firewalls

For an easy to configure firewall I would suggest Sygate Personal Firewall. It is free and anytime an application tries to access the Internet or has changed since you last ran it, Sygate popups a box describing the issue and asking if you wish to allow this application to run. Simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to configure with the option to remember your choice.  Some folks may be annoyed with the popups, but I’ll take the popups over having the Firewall totally block the application.

Sygate Personal Firewall

To put it mildly the firewall that comes with Windows XP sucks!  It is a pain in the rear to try and configure as you have to create entries for each port the programs are going to access.  I have heard not so great things about Zone Alarm.

Thanks to a tip from a member over at Go Firefox!, I looked into and have been using Sygate Personal Firewall. What I love about Sygate is the simple interface and configuration.  If an application is trying to connect to the Internet, Sygate will popup and and inform you that this application is attempting to access the Internet and will ask if you wish to allow.  A simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ setup with the option to always use that choice.

In addition if an application has changed which is normal for updates, but also can happen due to viruses and Trojan Horses, Sygate will alert you the application has changed since the last time you accessed it.  I go through this each time Firefox or Thunderbird has been updated. Sure it may be annoying to get the popup, but better to be safe and besides other Firewalls will just simply block the application without alerting you.
Sygate also alerts you to port scans (an open/unprotected port is an invitation for a Trojan Horse or worm) and can provide the IP address of the computer that attempted to scan your machine with the option of a back trace.