What is a web browser?

A web browser very simply put is a program that allows you to view web sites.  The most common web browser available is Microsoft’s “Internet Explorer”.  Internet Explorer has been under scrutiny for years because of the seemingly endless number of security holes that it has to keep patching. 

What this means is that if you do not upgrade Internet Explorer when you view a web site, there could be an exploit in that web site that could download a virus, or infect your machine right then and there.

Internet Explorer 7, which fixed a lot of these bugs, was released not too long ago and is a much better browser as a whole. If you have not done so yet you should upgrade to Internet Explorer 7.

Are there any other browsers available?

Absolutely, in fact we recommend one over Internet Explorer.  Mozilla Firefox we have found to be a very secure and very user friendly browser.  If you’re afraid of browsing to a web site that you think could potentially infect your computer, you should use Mozilla Firefox because the chances are the web site won’t be able to infect your machine.

Another web browser available is Opera, which is also a very nice browser.  And Netscape is continuing to update their browser as well.