madberry.org » madberry.org Kubuntu How To’s & News. Linux and Opensource.

I’ve been a fan of Firefox from the very beginning. And I like it, it is good to see that Open source(Mozilla is an Open source leader) can really work. Firefox 3.0.1 Gave us the promised improvement in memory usage although there is still room for improvement for Mozilla. I think they are on the right track and I’ll continue to use Firefox and many others, I test browser versions regularly of all major browsers that will work under Kubuntu.

I’ve got three “must have” add-ons that I can recommend. Off course “Ad Block Pro” if you don’t like the many advertisements(really over done by some websites). Password Maker because we all know that using one password for every website is isn’t secure. And Foxmarks great if you use Firefox on more then one computer.

Password Maker

Password maker is a Add-on I discovered when searching for a password manager that wouldn’t store passwords on the computer in a readable format. Instead I found Password Maker. Password Maker uses 1 password for all websites, that means you only have to remember 1 password. But this doesn’t mean that the passwords for all websites are the same. Password maker uses the url(or part of it anyway), a set number of characters and encryption to create a website unique password. This means every website gets it’s own unique password created of 8(minimum) or more characters hashed with a diversity of methods(you can select yourself).

I use customized settings to make it even more secure.

	Surf to the Mozilla add-on page. And add the Pasword Maker add-on(click the button).
	Click “install” after the count down.(Firefox wants to make shure we know what where installing)
	Click “Restart Firefox”.
	After restarting Firefox this will pop-up showing what was just installed. Now let’s adjust some settings click on Prefrences.
	This are the basic options now click on “Advanced Options”.
	Double click on Defaults.
	Now click on the “Extended” tab.
	This is where we will change some settings.
	In this tab change “Password Length” from 8 to 13..
	Now change MD5 to HMAC-MD5

You can now use password maker to create passwords by clicking ctrl->` the password maker ui will popup put in your master password and hit enter. Your passwords will now be generated and populated into the password fields on the website your on
Keep in mind that this makes for a good solution but if somebody really wants in to your accounts they will find a way. They could steal your laptop for instance.

Foxmarks

If you use Firefox on more then one computer you will need your bookmarks on probably all of them. That;s where Foxmarks comes in. Foxmarks will synchronize all of those computers to make sure that you have your bookmarks where ever you go.

Here is how to set it up. I use my own server but for this example we are going to use a Foxmarks account.

	Search on the Mozilla add-on page for Foxmarks. Click on the “Add to firefox” button to add the add-on.
	Wait for Install to become click able.
	Click restart Firefox.
	After you restart Firefox the wizard will pop-up. Follow the instructions on the screen. Click next.
	Click “No help me create one”.
	Put in your information for the new account.
	Now click next to start your first synchronization.
	Success your now able to synchronize your bookmarks.
	Click on this icon on the lower right of your Firefox(next to the password maker ring) to make any changes or to synchronize.