Tag Archives: Internet Explorer

How-To troubleshoot browser issues – Part 2

Internet_Explorer_11_unter_Windows_8.1Have you ever had problems with not being able to access a website, load information, or view documents through your browser?  Any problem that hinders your ability to get work done can be a pain. In the second part of this two part article I am going to explain how to harden your security setting in Internet Explorer.

In the past Microsoft has talked about the vulnerabilities in different versions of Internet Explorer (IE). However it is easy to protect IE from these types of actions. IE can be a very secure browser if you make it that way. Let’s discuss how you would go about doing that.

First you need to determine which version of IE you are running. To do that open your IE browser. Click on the either the Help icon on the top of your browser or look for the gear in the upper right hand corner of your browser and click it. Scroll down to the About Internet Explorer tab and click it. This will display what version of IE you are running. For this how-to I will be using IE 11 which is the latest version released to date. On the latest version there will be a box that says Install new versions automatically. On older version this was not there and caused a lot of problems for users who did not have their own IT department. A lot of users would be running older versions of IE which had a lot of security holes in them. If you keep this box checked you get the latest versions out. This is not a new feature. Other browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox have had the same feature for years.

Now I’m go discuss how to harden your security settings. To access this, click on the gear in the upper right hand corner and click it. Scroll down to Internet Options and click it. If you were able to read the first article you know that this is the “under the hood” settings for IE.  This is where all of the changes will be made to IE.

Now that you are in Internet Options click on the Advanced tab which is the last tab on the right. Scroll down to the Security section which will have a padlock next to it. Next you need to scroll down to a box labeled Enable Enhanced Protected Mode. Enhanced Protected Mode allows you to use your browser without allowing any other sites to request access to your computer, download anything without your permission, or anything else with malicious code.

The next box you are going to want to check is Enable SmartScreen Filter. SmartScreen Filter is a feature that helps detect phishing websites. It can also help protect you from downloading or installing malware and other malicious software. AS you browse the web it analyses webpages and determines if they have any characteristics that might be suspicious. If it finds suspicious webpages it will display a message giving you an opportunity to provide feedback and advising you to proceed with caution.

The last thing I am going to discuss is the Security tab under Internet Options. This tab is the second tab from the left. Within this tab you will see a section that says Security level for this zone and underneath it has a sliding bar. This bar allows you to set the security level you want to operate on. For most of us Medium-high is sufficient. However if you want to change this setting. Scroll the bar up and it will change to High. Under the High setting, any website that requires you to run script this setting is going to protect you from and prompt you to see if you want to use the site. This will give you the highest level of internet security through your browser. If you change this setting it is also recommended that you change it under the Local intranet setting which is listed above under the Security tab. You should know that if you make this change and you want to go to a banking website or any ecommerce website they are most likely going to fail because you have restricted the access so much that the site isn’t able to use its security setting you verify you. If you want to keep these setting High but allow access to specific websites you can click on the Trusted sites icon and add those sites to the list. Click the Sites tab and under Add this website to the zone, type in the URL.

When making the decision to raise your security setting to High it is best to consult with your IT department first. Could you be raising the security too high and limit your ability to access sites that you use on a daily basis slowing down work production.

How-to troubleshoot browser issues – Part 1

IE7_options Have you ever had problems with not being able to access a website, load information, or view documents through your browser?  Any problem that hinders your ability to get work done can be a pain. In this two part article I am going to explain the features within Internet Explorer and how to troubleshoot browser issues.

 

So you can’t access a website? No problem. When this happens in some cases it is due to some security settings being placed too high. Sounds simple enough right? Not exactly. Without understanding the problem often it’s difficult to find a solution.

In Internet Explorer (IE), in order for you to “get under the hood” and find out what’s wrong you have to go to Internet Options. To find it, open Internet Explorer=> click on the tools button (it should look like a gear in the upper right hand corner for IE 9 users) => nine spaces down you’ll see Internet Options=> click it.

Right now you should see a menu called Internet Options. I won’t discuss every feature here because that would make for an extremely long article. With that said, under General settings the first thing you will see is the Home page. In this box you can change your Home page so when you first open IE it will display whatever URL you choose. If you would like to have more than one tab open up on startup just type in the additional URL underneath the current one. The next section below Home page is Browsing history. Within Browsing history you can click Delete browsing history on exit, which will clear your history once you close all tabs in IE. Next you have Search. This is a vast topic which will not be covered in this article. Along the bottom there are some appearance and languages options.

If you click the next tab to the right you will see Security. This is a tab you shouldn’t really touch unless you’re reading an IT support article or a support technician is walking you through steps within Security. The same can be said about the next tab Privacy. By default the Pop-up Blocker should be on. If not you should click the box labeled Turn on Pop-up Blocker. The next tab over is Content. If you have kids or have sites that would not like your employees to access Parental Controls can be useful. The following below is Content Advisor. Content Advisor is a tool that helps you control internet content that’s viewed on the machine. Again this can be a very useful tool if you have a device that can be accessed by children. However if this does not fit your needs there are many 3rd party companies that offer software specifically designed around this topic. Next is AutoComplete. If you have things that are saved on IE like passwords, usernames etc. AutoComplete is most likely the cause. If you do not want to save this information click settings=> uncheck User names and passwords on forms=> click OK.

Next tab over is Connections. Again unless you are being helped by an IT technician or you are extremely familiar with modems, proxy servers, or VPNs I would recommend bypassing this section.

The next tab is Programs. This is the tab you would come into if you would like to make IE the default browser. In order to do that click Make default. If you would like to know when IE not the default browser is then click the box labeled Tell me if Internet Explorer is not the default web browser.

internet options_generalLastly you have the Advanced tab. Under advanced there is a whole host of things to choose from like emptying temporary internet files on close. If you do however get confused about them there is a “get out of jail free” button on their called Restore advanced settings. Some settings will only take affect after you close and restart IE and they are marked with an asterisk. Again there are some settings in here that can because you trouble so unless you know what it means don’t click it.

In the next How-To article I will discuss how to fix some of the more difficult issues that fall under Security, Privacy, and Advanced.