What is a Browser ? A browser is a personal computer program that is mainly used for finding and displaying web resources, usually pages on websites.
Web browsers are now highly capable programs, and have functionality that has improved markedly over the years. They are routinely used for many purposes, such as editing online resources like CMS, and displaying local resources such as data on the PC.
How does a browser work ? The browser is like any other program on your computer, it has a job or jobs to do, and is managed in that task by the OS or operating system - such as Windows, Linux or MacOS.
When you start it up, the browser opens a window on your screen, as is normal for any program. Usually you will set the window to be full-screen. The browser's main task is to show web pages.
The opening page that the browser displays can be set to whatever you want: a blank page, a local file on your PC, or a web page of your choice. People usually choose their own website, a popular website, or a search engine. A news website may be a common choice.
The browser connects to the Net, locates the website, and displays the page requested. It does the same whenever you request a new page. The technical process of connecting to the web, interrogating the central routing computers, requesting resource addresses, and connecting to exactly the right resource (website) is fairly complex. It is a measure of the sophistication of modern computing that this process is transparent, ie invisible to the user.
What facilities can a browser have? Browsers are now fairly complex software, in a class known as webapps - this means programs / applications that function on the Net. As the web has become more complex, so have browsers. These are some of the functions and features:
- High security
- Integral functions such as tabbed browsing - which means that multiple websites must be connected and displayed concurrently
- Plugins to accomplish many tasks
- Skins to change the appearance
- Integration with 3rd-party apps such as password managers
Here are some of the issues:
- Security issues
- Speed of browsing against functionality
- Start-up time
Is browser security important ?
Many would say security is the most important area of all for a browser. This is because a browser opens the computer to the web, which is the playground of hundreds of thousands of attackers who want to get into your computer. Therefore a secure browser is an important requirement.
In fact, the spread of viruses - but much more importantly spyware - is facilitated by browsers with poor security. This malware can exploit weak browsers, but is stopped by more secure browsers. Malware gets on to PCs with low-security browsers quite easily, then reports back home or spreads to other computers by dialling-out.
PC owners who use a low-security browser are likely to be less knowledgeable about safe computing or similar issues, and are therefore very likely to have poor computer security measures. They may have no firewall or anti-spyware software, or software that is outdated or of low performance. In general, someone who uses an insecure browser is also likely to have a poorly-protected computer, and therefore is more likely to spread infections onward to others.
Therefore you should seriously consider using a more secure browser such as Firefox or Opera, and block any other browser in your firewall, so that it cannot access the Net. An important reason for doing this is because malware (spyware etc) can use an insecure browser to 'phone home'.
Another issue is that viruses are seen as the most dangerous intruder by many computer owners, but this is now wrong. Things have changed, and spyware is now the worst offender. This is because it almost always has a commercial agenda, and virus writers who used to author these troublesome micro-programs have now changed to authoring spyware, which is similarly unwelcome but makes them money by theft of data and similar actions.
Therefore, in contrast to the popular view that an antivirus application is the most important security measure, this has changed and now it is clearly the following:
- A good hardware firewall
- A good software firewall
- An effective anti-spyware program or programs
- A secure browser
- A good antivirus application
The firewalls together stop web attacks getting in. The software firewall then stops successful trojans phoning home. In contrast to anti-virus programs where you should only have one operational, with anti-spyware software you can have two or more running, and also another for on-demand scanning. A secure browser such as Firefox stops website-hosted trojans getting onboard.
Are open-source browsers any good ? Today, a browser is so complex that the only feasible development method is the open-source model. This is because large numbers of the most capable programmers in the world can contribute to its improvement, and find the bugs.
A vital component of this process is the speed by which issues are resolved and improvements made. Often a reported issue is fixed within three days, and a patch is automatically downloaded and applied by all installed browsers of that type. This is in complete contrast to some commercial products where issues are perhaps addressed in three months or more, and where patches are not efficiently distributed.
It can be clearly seen that in all browser areas, open-source products are an order of magnitude better in quality. This may or may not be true in other areas of open-souce development, but for browsers, anything other than an open-source product would be an anomalous choice.
By choosing a commercial product, you would need to be happy with a less secure product of less functionality that is patched and updated infrequently. Only the less well-informed will be satisfied here, and one should avoid close connection with computers owned by such persons.
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