Exactly which security programs?

Have you looked for an update for those programs?

All Firefox Release Downloads

See installing a previous version of firefox

Please be aware that new versions of firefox include security fixes, currently only Firefox 10 Firefox 3.6 will be updated with security fixes. There is some risk to your data and computer if you use unsuported versions, so that is not officially recommended. (especially so on Windows OS)

Many problems with firefox may be solved by other methods than downgrading. Problems with security software for instance may possibly require you to wait for an update from the security company. If in doubt it may help if you read the article latest firefox issues and anything linked from that (hopefully someone will be keeping that updated)

_nat_

I have used Firefox 10 for quite a while on XP and have just upgraded to it on Windows 7. Presumably you are aware MS provide free MSE SECURITY software that does not seem to have any compatability issues with Firefox 10, it works for me on Windows XP and Windows 7.

Thank you all for the replies.

>the-edmeister Zonealarm was my main concern and I saw that there may have been issues in past update configurations. I imagine Zonealarm will be compatible in time.

>iMarshmellow That's what I was looking for.

>John99 I downgraded to 3.6 before I made my post. I would have held off on the 10 update if I had know about the incompatibility; my bad. If I understand you correctly, I'm better off with 3.6 because it is maintained, than 9.0.1 which may not be (even though I presume there would be substantial security improvements over all in 9 versus 3.6). In your view, is that the case?

Again, thanks for the fast and helpful responses. This is my first time soliciting support this way and it has been helpful.

Firefox 9 will contain Security Updates present in 3.6, but none of the ones that are release here after. So if a Security threat is discovered in FF10, you will not get an update for it in FF9.

Just a little Heads Up, ZoneAlarm is garbage. Its a known fact that they update very little, specially to their free security applications. They release updates Once a week, usually on Wed or Thursday - so if a Virus/Malware is discovered on Friday, you have to wait until the following Wed/Thurs before ZoneAlarm software will get the security update. Which gives you 4-5 whole day to be open to the new threat.

You might try " Microsoft Security Essentials " which does an excellent job (imo) (also mentioned by John99). I purposely infected a Test Machine with several virus/Trojans/BackDoors/Adware/etc that I could find. and Installed 4 Different Free AntiVirus applications. ZoneAlarm missed 30% of the Viruses. MSE caught all the ones ZA missed. MSE Tied with one other, but MSE was less intense on my CPU so I went with that one.

I didn't want to take the word of these "Review" sites on what the best security software was, never know which site is being paid to put a Application as #1. So I conducted my own test.

_nat_

You're better off with almost anything accept ZA and Kaspersky, they both are absolutely the worst security vendors at keeping up with Firefox updates this past year - each has had at least one Firefox add-on being many weeks or months behind Firefox's release schedule. It's almost like they don't know about the Firefox 18 week development process and they wait until their Firefox users complain about their crap not working with a newly released version of Firefox before they even think about doing their updates. IMO, the smart thing to do is to test the Nightly channel version (first 6 week alpha stage) for compatibility issues once a week to see what problems might exist with their software, and once the new version hits the Aurora channel (2nd 6 week alpha stage) start formulating a plan, schedule for what they need to be fixed and start fixing their stuff, while stepping up testing a bit. Once the new version hits the 6 week Beta channel they should be completing their fixes and expanding their testing to include combination's of the most popular add-ons being used by Firefox users so they can see any problems their users might run into and fix what needs to be fixed before the release of the new Firefox version.

One other thing that these security vendors could do is to have some of their customers do their Beta testing to find the faults and weak spots in their stuff, much like open source organizations like Mozilla does with Firefox. While I'm not a computer software professional, I have 3 different Nightly versions installed that I "test" a bit almost everyday for the simpler stuff, and the Aurora version, along with the Beta version. Over that last 6 or 7 years I have found 3 or4 pretty severe faults that I filed Bug reports about, one of which resulted in the developers providing a much sterner warning message about the risk of data loss and the other Bug reports helped the developers by making them aware of a potential problem early enough in the development that is wasn't hard to avoid the issue I pointed out to them with some minor coding changes.

Free or paid version, if these security companies are going to create and distribute a Firefox add-on the right thing to do is to keep it up to date with Firefox, or they should just discontinue the add-on and quit jerking us around with their irresponsibility and lackadaisical attitude toward Firefox. I honestly miss the "good old days" when these security companies ignored Firefox and only supported Internet Explorer.

I use Avira Personal Free - http://www.free-av.com/ - which doesn't feel the need to build add-ons for Firefox that really don't add anything to Firefox and only provide a "bells & whistles"version of something that is already built into Firefox. Good solid anti-virus protection that is updated twice daily.

Thanks again everybody. My security posture is mostly holdovers from days gone by (Zonealarm for firewall, AVG for antivirus, and Spybot for spyware). I'll reassess with your suggestions at priority.

Norton 360 will not work with version 10. I would like to downgrade to v.9. Until that is available, I will not risk using Firefox. Sorry. I know this is not your fault, which is why I need version 9.

@Barzen

For Norton 360 see this-
http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-360/Firefox-10-Support-for-Norton-Toolbar/td-p/648245

The response by the -edmeister work perfectly. I did have to run Norton Live Update twice to get the Tool Bar fix. Thanks Ed