This is a personal request from myself as website administrator of elrig.org.

70% of elrig.org visitors are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). IE6 was released in 2005 and is largely non-web standards compliant and no longer maintained by Microsoft. A large majority of the work done on websites by web developers is modifying their code to working on IE6. The vast majority of work done on elrig.org has certainly been on this activity and the previous version of the site was re-written numerous times to maintain compatibility. Recently, web developers have begun to voice this issue at ie6nomore.com in an effort to sign up major companies and internet organisations to campaign against the continuation of IE6 and inform internet users about alternative web browsers. Over the last couple of years Microsoft has upgraded from IE6 to IE7 and now IE8, recently including IE7 in their round of automatic updates for Windows XP. Windows Vista is bundled with IE7 and IE8 is now available for download and will be packaged with Windows 7, due in October. IE6 therefore is obsolete and is hindering the development of the internet as developers struggle to maintain compatibility whilst taking advantage of new technologies and fulfilling the growing expectation of users for modern internet services.

If you are a personal computer user with IE6 please consider the alternative web browsers that are available to you. If you are hesitant about using new software or don't feel fully comfortable operating a computer and installing new software, modern operating systems such as Windows and OSX have simplified the task greatly and guide you through the process, and mainstream software packages are tested on a range of computers to minimise potential problems.

If you are corporate user unable to change the software installed on your computer please petition your management to approach your IT department to consider either upgrading from IE6 or installing one of the alternative internet browsers on their machines alongside IE6. It can be a huge technical and time consuming activity to upgrade a piece of software on a huge corporate network however technologies are moving on and the internet will become increasingly incompatible with your business if you dont update.

Some alternative web browsers that are freely available to download from the internet are below:

1. Mozilla Firefox - Firefox is one of the most popular alternatives to IE. Originally developing out of the venerable Netscape Navigator Mosaic browser, firefox uses the Gecko rendering engine and is designed around an open source extendible framework that enable users to expand the browser's functionality with additional features to suite their requirements. Firefox is largely standards compliant and is continually updated to support new internet and security features. There are currently over 6,000 extensions registered in the firefox database and with the ability to synchronise them across different computers, Firefox a substantial upgrade over IE.

2. Opera - Opera is one of the most internet standards compliant web browsers available and is widely considered the best alternative to IE if you don't require any specific firefox extensions. Opera comes ready built with a number of useful features that are only available to Firefox through extensions, including built in RSS reader, e-mail, and torrent client, and Opera claims to be faster than Firefox.

3. Google Chrome - Chrome is a new browser from Google that supports the latest web standards, is fast, and has a simple minimalist interface. Chrome is quickly becoming a popular alternative to Firefox and Opera. It shares some family lineage with OSX's Safari and Linux' Konqueror sharing their webkit rendering engine making it fast. Chrome is Windows only at the moment, but Mac and Linux versions are under development.

4. Safari - Mac users have their OSX packaged with Safari web browser that is standards compliant. Recently Safari became available for Windows users and provides a fast web browser updated with the latest web standards and security features. The browser uses the webkit rendering engine which claims to be faster than Firefox and Opera

6. Internet Explorer 8 - IE8 is Microsoft's latest IE incarnation and currently shares the vast majority of the browser market share, mostly due to it being bundled with their operating system. IE7 was a moderate improvement over IE6 and was packaged with Windows Vista as the default browser. IE8 is the next generation and has a much stronger focus on web standards compliance. IE8 has improved security and stability features, particularly when tabbed browsing and has built in malicious code protection. If you are intending to stay with Microsoft for your web browser, IE8 is an essential upgrade.

There is huge debate across the internet as to the best web browser. This is not an answer to that debate it is just a suggestion to ensure you receive the best browsing experience at elrig.org.

If anybody has any questions or comments please post them below.

further to the above post, Microsoft has issued a security notice following last weeks zero vulnerability attack on Internet Explorer 6 (the "Aurora" attack)

www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/979352.mspx

Microsoft Security Advisory (979352)
Vulnerability in Internet Explorer Could Allow Remote Code Execution
Published: January 14, 2010 | Updated: January 20, 2010

Version: 1.2
General Information
Executive Summary

Microsoft continues to investigate reports of limited attacks against customers of Internet Explorer 6, using a vulnerability in Internet Explorer. This advisory contains information about which versions of Internet Explorer are vulnerable as well as workarounds and mitigations for this issue.

Our investigation so far has shown that Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 4 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 is not affected, and that Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, and Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 on supported editions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 are vulnerable.

The vulnerability exists as an invalid pointer reference within Internet Explorer. It is possible under certain conditions for the invalid pointer to be accessed after an object is deleted. In a specially-crafted attack, in attempting to access a freed object, Internet Explorer can be caused to allow remote code execution.

At this time, we are aware of limited attacks attempting to use this vulnerability against Internet Explorer 6. We have not seen attacks against other versions of Internet Explorer. Due to increased attention and an escalating threat environment, we are planning to release an out-of-band security update for this vulnerability.

We are actively working with partners in our Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) and our Microsoft Security Response Alliance (MSRA) programs to provide information that they can use to provide broader protections to customers. In addition, we’re actively working with partners to monitor the threat landscape and take action against malicious sites that attempt to exploit this vulnerability.

Microsoft continues to encourage customers to follow the "Protect Your Computer" guidance of enabling a firewall, applying all software updates and installing anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Additional information can be found at Security at home.

Mitigating Factors:
•

Data Execution Prevention (DEP) helps protect against attacks that result in code execution and is enabled by default in Internet Explorer 8 on the following Windows operating systems: Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Vista Service Pack 1, Windows Vista Service Pack 2, and Windows 7.
•

Protected Mode in Internet Explorer on Windows Vista and later Windows operating systems limits the impact of the vulnerability.
•

In a Web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a Web site that contains a Web page that is used to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, compromised Web sites and Web sites that accept or host user-provided content or advertisements could contain specially crafted content that could exploit this vulnerability. In all cases, however, an attacker would have no way to force users to visit these Web sites. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to visit the Web site, typically by getting them to click a link in an e-mail message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker’s Web site.
•

An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less affected than users who operate with administrative user rights.
•

By default, Internet Explorer on Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 runs in a restricted mode that is known as Enhanced Security Configuration. This mode sets the security level for the Internet zone to High. This is a mitigating factor for Web sites that you have not added to the Internet Explorer Trusted sites zone.
•

By default, all supported versions of Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, and Windows Mail open HTML e-mail messages in the Restricted sites zone, removing the risk of an attacker being able to use this vulnerability to execute malicious code. The Restricted sites zone helps mitigate attacks that could try to exploit this vulnerability by preventing Active Scripting and ActiveX controls from being used when reading HTML e-mail messages. However, if a user clicks a link in an e-mail message, the user could still be vulnerable to exploitation of this vulnerability through the Web-based attack scenario. Additionally, Outlook 2007 uses a different component to render HTML e-mail, removing the risk of this exploit.

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If you're a member of a large biotechnology or pharmaceutical company, the financial & logistical impact of upgrading your IT infrastructure from IE6 might have just become somewhat more urgent.