ZDNet UK

• CNET NETWORKS UK BUSINESS SITES:
• atlarge.com
• BNET UK
• silicon.com
• SmartPlanet.com
• ZDNet.co.uk

Secure IE makes the Internet a better place

• Tags:
• Secure IE,
• Zipped Htm,
• ZHTM,
• Security

Brien M Posey

Published: 28 Mar 2003 21:34 GMT

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

I live in a rural area of South Carolina where the fastest broadband service available is a mere 384 Kbps. In the past when I've run the DSL speed test, I've been able to get close to that benchmark value, but I've never actually attained an upload or a download speed of greater than about 360 Kbps. I had hoped that installing Secure IE might yield faster transfer speeds. But after running the test, I measured an upload speed of 175 Kbps and a download speed of about 285 Kbps. You can see the full test results in Figure B. Although I ran the tests at 10 A.M. on a Sunday, there's still a chance the disappointing results were skewed by Internet traffic or a busy server.

Bonus features
As I mentioned earlier, some of my favorite Secure IE features are really downplayed in favor of the product's security and speed features. For example, the Web page shown in Figure A is an excerpt from my revised Web site. Suppose for a moment that I wanted to show someone the new site but couldn't send them to it because it wasn't up yet. Even if the site were up, it's often difficult for someone to look at a Web page and see exactly what you want them to see. In such cases, you could use the highlighter and the sticky-note features to mark up the Web page.

Once you've marked up the document, you can use the Save Document As command on the File menu to save the document. The default file format is ZHTM. (ZHTML is a zipped HTML file.) Unlike normal ZIP files, ZHTML files don't require manual decompressing. All you have to do is open a ZHTML file in Secure IE, and the page will be displayed just the way you left it. Zipping the Web page allows items that appear on it, such as graphics, to be saved along with the document. The downside of saving documents in ZHTML format is that only other Secure IE users can open them. If you need to send a Web page to someone who isn't using Secure IE, you can save the page in HTML, URL, or plain text formats. In case you're wondering, the URL format simply saves a link to the page.

Tab feature completes the picture
One other useful task you can perform with Secure IE is creating workgroups consisting of multiple Web sites. Notice the tabs just above the address bar. If you right-click an empty spot on the gray space, you'll see a shortcut menu appear. When you select the Browser option from this menu, a new tab will be added to the workspace. Each of these tabs represents a separate Web session. At first, this may not seem much different from the way Internet Explorer allows you to open multiple browser windows, but there's a big advantage: Secure IE actually allows you to save the groupings. Simply use the Save Workspace As command on the File menu to save the current tab configuration, including the Web site loaded within each tab. The next time you want to work with those specific Web sites, you can use the Open Workspace command rather than manually navigating to all those Web sites.

Secure IE's easy-to-use security and speed features are its main selling point, but its bonus features, such as the ability to mark up and save Web pages, are also of interest. If you'd like to eliminate annoying pop-ups or take more control of your browsing, Secure IE could be for you.

---

Go to section: Secure IE makes the Internet a better place Page 2 Page 3

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• Share this article:
• Digg
• Slashdot
• Del.ici.ous
• Stumble
• Reddit

• Most Recent
• Most Popular
• Most Discussed