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"I'm worried about people accessing my passwords with Firesheep when I sign in to places like Facebook from the local coffee shop. How does Firesheep work? Is there a way I can protect myself or should I just avoid free public WiFi?"

While you are correct to be cautious when using free public WiFi, you don't necessarily need to stop because of Firesheep and other network sniffing tools. There are a number of ways you can protect your data to achieve sufficient levels of security. I'll walk you through how Firesheep works so that you can take measures to prevent anyone accessing your information.

Google secure search provides you with the ability to search with an encrypted HTTPS version of the Google search. This means your connection to Google is secure and no one between you and the Google servers can intercept your search query. Google secure search also turns off the browser referrer, so if you search for something like "Add Google Secure Search to Firefox" and you end up at JakeLudington.com, my Web analytics software has no way to know that your visit to the site was a result of that search query. It also prevents your ISP, the owner of the WiFi hotspot where you surf, and anyone else from knowing the search query you typed. The security ends at the point where you click on the Google result and go to the website. There are currently two ways to use the encrypted Google search in Firefox.

Bookmarks are one of the worst implemented features in the history of the browser. You need special software to tell you when Bookmarks expire. Most of them are immediately forgotten, making a Google search more useful. They're like a breadcrumb trail you can't easily follow, because it becomes cluttered with too many crumbs. There's no easy way to recall your favorite links without digging through a mess that even when categorized in folders is still a mess. That is until Firefox came along with Bookmark keywords.

Download Password Exporter

If you store passwords for frequently visited Websites in Firefox, chances are you need to move those passwords or back them up. Password Exporter, a Firefox extension, makes it easy to export passwords from Firefox as either an XML or CSV file. You can then import passwords from the file to Firefox on another computer (or simply keep a backup of your password list. Encryption of the stored passwords is optional, so you can keep your passwords secure if necessary. One really handy feature is the ability to backup all those sites you told Firefox to never remember your password for, so you don't get that nagging dialog box when you visit on another computer. [Windows 2k/XP/Vista $0.00]

Find more Firefox tips and extensions

"I'm looking for an easy way to back up my email. I read your article on backing up Outlook, but I use Thunderbird. How do I backup my Thunderbird email?"

Most comprehensive backup applications support backing up the Thunderbird mail client. Email is a good place to start, but you also need to look for a more comprehensive backup strategy. Backing up your email is a good place to start; I certainly don't know where I'd be if my email suddenly vanished. Here's an easy way to make sure you don't lose any of your Thunderbird email messages.

Required Software

Thunderbird is the email client we will be backing
up.

MozBackup is the freeware application we will use to backup email messages.

Backing Up Thunderbird with MozBackup

Once MozBackup is installed on your computer, backing up your email is relatively straight forward. There are a couple of steps to take before starting.

If you keep tons of sent items, attachments and other kruft in your inbox, the backup file may be quite large. One way to keep the size down is to first compact the Thunderbird folders. To compact folders, choose File > Compact Folders from the Thunderbird menu. On completion of this step, close Thunderbird before starting your backup.

With Thunderbird closed, launch MozBackup, choose Thunderbird from the list of programs you can backup and click next.

Choose your Thunderbird profile from the list. If you only have one profile on your system, this will likely be default. If you have more than one profile, you can repeat these steps for each profile to make sure no one using your computer loses their mail. At this point, you also choose the backup location. I highly suggest backing up your email to a drive other than the one your email is currently on - otherwise if your computer fails, you will lose both the original mail file and your backup.

On the next screen you will select which components to backup. Unless there's some reason you don't want everything, I suggest backing up all components.

MozBackup will also prompt you to password protect your backup. This is optional, but possibly a good idea for security reasons.

At this point, MozBackup will backup your Thunderbird files to the directory you specified during configuration.

Additional Points on Backing up Thunderbird

MozBackup currently does not support scheduled backups. This is a manual process, which means you need to be sure to backup regularly. If you get mail infrequently, once a week is likely often enough. If you have tons of mail coming in everyday, you may want to backup Thunderbird as the last thing you do before you step away from the computer for the day.

MozBackup also backs up Firefox, which means you can backup your extensions, favorites, browser history and anything else you consider important to your online world with this same free program.

Download Google Broswer Sync

I have mixed feelings about the new Google Browser Sync. The premise is keeping all your Firefox settings synchronized across every computer you use, including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords. This is good in theory. I know there are plenty of times when I find something on one computer and then have to remember which computer in order to find the resource again. My concern comes from the implementation. In order to keep passwords, bookmarks and everything else in sync, the information is uploaded and stored on a Google server using the same Google account used for GMail, Google Talk and all the various other Google applications. Storing passwords and browser history on Google's servers might be completely innocuous - a convenient repository of information. On the other hand all that information is definitively identifying in detail about where you go and what you do online. Google explicitly says in the terms of use, "Google may access, preserve, and disclose information regarding your use of the services if required to do so by law or under other conditions set forth in the Google Privacy Policy." This gets scary if you ever end up getting divorced and your future-ex subpoenas your Internet history as some sort of proving ground for a relationship turned sour, or more importantly if the government decides they want to investigate a large block of Google users for patterns of behavior.

Keeping things in perspective, Google lets you choose what is or isn't synchronized using advanced configuration. Google offers encryption for all this data, but fails in letting us know whether they hold a master key to decrypt it on their end. From my view, I'm inclined to use something like this to store my tab groupings to easily open them on any computer, bookmarks for the convenience of accessing them, encrypt both, and pass on trusting Google to store passwords, history, and cookies on their server. Bottom line, if you opt to use Google Browser Sync, I recommend caution. [Firefox for Windows and Mac $0.00]

Download Video Downloader

After recently recommending a solution for downloading YouTube videos, Video Downloader 2.0 offers a better method via Firefox plugin. The principal is the same - Video Downloader 2.0 reveals the location of download videos for over thirty different Internet sites, including YouTube, MySpace, iFilm, Google , Current TV, Blip.tv and a bunch of sites I've never visited. Instead of needing to copy the link somewhere, using the Video Downloader Firefox plugin, simply visit a page with a video, activate Video Downloader and reveal the download link to virtually any video. Chris did one better and found someone to create an Internet Explorer bookmarklet so you get the same functionality in browsers like Maxthon.

Download Feed Your Reader

RSS is the information delivery tool keeping me on top of all the information I read daily. Without it, I'd be lost. While Firefox handles RSS auto-discovery, letting me know I can subscribe to something, with relative ease, it doesn't elegantly add feeds to my RSS reader of choice (currently FeedDemon). Feed Your Reader steps in and elegantly adds one-click subscription functionality to Firefox, eliminating the messy copy-and-paste steps required to get from Web page to RSS reader. If you need to stay on top of information for your job, hobby or just want to keep abreast of the latest news, Feed Your Reader makes subscribing painless.

Download Forecast Fox

With one million and one ways to get weather information from the Internet to your computer, it's hard to decide which method is the best. Forecast Fox is a Firefox extension designed to integrate weather delivery into Firefox so the details are always a glance away. Weather data is powered by AccuWeather.com, which includes radar images and severe weather warnings. Weather data is good both for U.S. cities and international listings, providing more information than many other free tools. Customizable forecast ranges, toolbar position and depth of tooltip data are fully customizable. A profile system stores data about more than one city, making Forecast Fox convenient for business travelers or people who simply need to know the weather situation on vacation.

Download SessionSaver

Ever had an experience where you were looking at a Web page, the browser crashes and all 20 pages you had open are suddenly gone? I hate it when that happens. SessionSaver prevents lost windows and information by saving all open Firefox windows, tabs, typed text and everything when the browser closes. Reopen Firefox and you pick up exactly where you left off. Manage multiple sessions to save groups of open tabs. TextSaver feature keeps track of text typed in Web pages. RemoteSync feature synchronizes your browser sessions between multiple computers. Keep in mind this is a potential security risk if you use a public computer, because other people could also open your sessions, but for personal use SessionSaver might be the single best reason to dump IE and switch to Firefox.