The reason for doing this is simple: cash. ISPs earn money if you come to those search pages and use them to find what you are looking for. More often than not those search pages are not helpful at all. Here is why. Most of the time users know where they want to go if they mistype a url, say ghackss.net instead of ghacks.net. All that they would need to do to fix the error is by editing the url.

The page that the provider displays on the other hand uses a different url structure leaving the user with the only valid option to enter the url again in the address bar of the web browser. It would be possible to edit the url of the new page as well as it usually contains the entered domain name as a search term somewhere at the end.

Users with Internet Service Providers that redirect DNS errors have a few choices. Some ISPs have a page where the behavior can be changed manually. A second alternative would be to switch DNS servers. Again, some ISPs offer DNS servers that do not take part in those redirects but it is also viable to switch to open DNS server providers that do not redirect DNS errors.

The third option comes in the form of the No Redirect add-on for the Firefox web browser. The add-on is only suited for advanced users as it requires basic knowledge of regular expression to configure new Internet Service Providers. It comes with a few pre-configured including Verizon, Rogers and Earthlink but if the ISP is not among them it would be necessary to add the search page to the list of available ones. This is not as difficulty as it sounds though as it is possible to simply copy and edit the regular expression of the already included service providers and websites.

If the ISP is added properly the default “problem loading page” or “not found” page will be displayed instead of the redirected search page of the ISP. The main benefit of this is that it is now easy to edit the url that has been entered to visit the desired website.

No Redirect not only takes care of Internet Service Provider redirects but also to stop so called smart error pages. Smart error pages are used by some websites instead of the usual 404 error pages when a page cannot be found. You might have seen those at Microsoft.com for example where Microsoft displays all kind of “did you mean” information instead of an error message.

The final option – one which I was not able to get working – is the ability to always preview shortened urls. If anyone gets this working let us know in the comments.

NoRedirect is an interesting add-on for users who are using the Firefox web browser and are experiencing DNS error redirects or smart error pages that they do not want to see.

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And that’s what the developer did. The userscript changes several key elements on the website. Its main features are options to customize the script display on the website and the option to add scripts and authors to a blacklist so that they will no longer be displayed when browsing the website.

The default changes include an increase in the amount of scripts that are displayed per page (triple the default amount), and options to install or blacklist any script right from that page without visiting the script’s profile page first. A trashcan icon is also placed next to each userscript in the script table listings to add it to the blacklist.

The left side contains a link to the settings of the userscript which provide access to additional options. This includes removing rows of the table layout (Hide ‘Rating’ Column, Hide ‘Posts’ Column, Hide ‘Fans’ Column, Hide ‘Installs’ Column, Hide ‘Last Updated’ Column, Hide ‘Votes’ Column), add scripts based on title or description to the blacklist or to change various author and script related blacklisting settings.

Because it’s your userscripts.org can be downloaded from the userscripts website.

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The release notes are – as usual – not up yet and the fixed bugs list at Bugzilla shows only four fixes in this latest version. One of the bugs that has been fixed was rated critical on the other hand with the other three rated as normal.

The description of the release on the Mozilla website states that it is a “short-cycle security and sustained engineering release to fix several top crashing bugs”. In other words a stability update for the web browser. The Firefox release schedule which we posted a few days ago indicates that the next version of the web browser (Firefox 3.5.6) will be released about a month from now on December 15.

We have uploaded the US-English version of Firefox 3.5.5:

Mac
Windows
Linux

Cautious users might want to wait until the official release announcement is public to update their browser from the official source.

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The experimental add-on is a bare-bone add-on that currently comes without any means to modify settings. It adds a new icon to the Firefox status bar after installation which, when clicked on, will ask the user to pick a directory where the images from the active website should be saved to.

It will then start to download all images that are displayed on the website. It will also process all images that are linked from the active website. This means that it can download images from pages where the images are displayed as thumbnails with the original sizes linked from those thumbnails. It fails however if the links are html pages that contain the original image (like Flickr handles it for example).

The add-on works extremely well if the original images are linked on the active page. It does fail on the other hand if that is not the case. It will for instance download only thumbnail images at Flickr but the original images at Google Images search. It will also always download all images which includes thumbnail images and other images used on the website.

The add-on needs settings where the user can change this behavior. It would for instance make sense to add a size and file type filter to the program so that small images and those of a certain type are not downloaded automatically. Firefox users who want to try out the batch image downloader can visit the add-on’s profile page at the Mozilla Firefox website to download and install it.

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browser.allTabs.previews

Enabling this preview feature in the advanced Firefox configuration will add a new button to the right side of the Firefox tabbar. This button, when pressed, will display an overlay window that contains thumbnail previews of all open tabs in Firefox. A click on any tab thumbnail will make that tab the active one in the web browser.

browser.ctrlTab.previews

Enabling this parameter in the advanced configuration will change the default CTRL-Tab feature in Firefox. If you press CTRL-Tab by default in Firefox the browser will cycle through the open tabs in the web browser.The new feature, when enabled, will display a visual tab switcher that is displaying thumbnail images of the current and the five most recent tabs with an option to quickly flip through them by pressing Ctrl-Tab again. The same preview contains an option to display all open tabs.

The very same configuration changes the default behavior of pressing Ctrl-Tab once. It will now switch back to the last tab that was in focus instead of offering the option to cycle through all tabs in the browser.

Do the following to enable one or both of the new features:

Enter about:config in the Firefox address bar, promise that you will be careful and filter for the term previews. This should bring up several parameters with the two mentioned above in the list.

A double-click on either of the parameters will change the default value false to true. The feature is instantly active and can therefor be tested right away.

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Pin Tab is a new experimental Firefox add-on that brings this feature to the Firefox web browser. Yes, there have been some tab managers in the past who also provided that option (like the Faviconize Tab extension), but none looked as promising as the Pin Tab extension.

Tabs can be pinned in Firefox by Ctrl-clicking them in the web browser. This will automatically shrink the tab to the size of the favicon and move it to the left side of the tabbar.

The picture above shows a tabbar with two pinned tabs on the left. A left-click on a pinned tab will open the website as usual. It is possible to change the default hotkey to pin tabs or use the right-click context menu option to do so. It is furthermore possible to pin tabs by dragging unpinned tabs to the pinned tab area with the reverse option possible as well.

The main benefit of pinning tabs up to this point should be obvious: Space. It is possible to place roughly 5-7 pinned tabs in the place of one open tab. Unlike the pinned tab option in Google Chrome the Firefox add-on comes with additional features. The pinned tabs will for instance remain pinned over browsing sessions if Firefox is configured to remember browsing sessions.

Pin Tab is an interesting add-on for the Firefox web browser. It can be useful for Firefox users who regularly work with a set of tabs that they usually have open in Firefox all the time. The Firefox add-on can be downloaded from the Mozilla Firefox website.

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The Firefox web browser, like Google Chrome, is developed in several branches simultaneously which makes it kinda hard to track. There are currently three different versions of Firefox under development not counting the future releases of Firefox 3.7 and 4.0. First there are the two official public releases Firefox 3.0.15 and Firefox 3.5.4 and second there is the soon to be released Firefox 3.6. The release schedule looks like the following currently (subject to change, source: FF Extension Guru).

Firefox 3.5.5 – November 6th
Firefox 3.0.16 – December 15th
Firefox 3.5.6 – December 15th
Firefox 3.6 RC1 – Late November 2009
Firefox 3.6 – Mid December 2009

According to this list two versions of the Firefox 3.5.x branch will be released this year, one Firefox 3.0.x version and the final version of Firefox 3.6 which is likely to replace the Firefox 3.5.x branch. If you are a Firefox user: Which version of the web browser are you currently running and why?

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The Operetta theme comes in two versions, a normal and advanced version, which differ mainly in the toolbar layout. Both Operetta themes are based on the design of the Opera 10 web browser with the normal version making use of the standard toolbar layout with tabs below the other toolbars and the advanced version placing the tabbar above all other toolbars.

Both editions of the Firefox theme look professionally done and the selection comes down to the personal preference of the user. Some Firefox design mockups suggest that the developer’s are thinking about moving the tabbar to the top of the web browser header and the Operatta Advanced theme for Firefox can be used to get accustomed to this possibility. It might also be the prime choice for Opera or Google Chrome users as these web browsers place the tabbar by default above most – in Google Chrome’s case all – other toolbars. The Operetta and Operetta Advanced themes are available at the Mozilla Firefox website.

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• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
• Support for the WOFF font format.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

The most noticeable feature in Firefox 3.6 up to this point is the performance increase. New web technologies are great for web developers but websites that make use of them are still rare. The addition of Personas support – which brings the option to change the basic appearance of Firefox without restarting the web browser – raised questions by some users who preferred that it would remain an add-on that could be installed by the Firefox users who wanted the functionality. Now everyone, even those that never make use of the appearance changing features, are stuck with yet another module in Firefox.

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 is available for direct download at the Mozilla website. Users who are tempted to try the latest version of the web browser should keep in mind that most add-ons will not work right out of the box. Installing an add-on like the Nightly Tester Tools is recommended to force compatibility.

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The Firefox 3.5.4. release notes classify the update as a security and stability update making it an recommended update for every Firefox user. The full list of fixes and changes lists a total of 124 items with seven marked as critical and 13 as major. The Firefox 3.0.15 release notes list fewer items but still mention several security and stability fixes for that version of the web browser making it a recommended update as well.

It should also be noted that Firefox 2.x is no longer supported by the developers who ask users to update to the Firefox 3.x branch as the older branch contains known security and stability issues that are (and will not be) fixed.

Both Firefox 3.5.4 and 3.0.15 are available from the Mozilla firefox website.

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A new feature are link previews in the selection process. The description of the link along with other information (if available) are displayed in the web browser. Take a look at the picture to see how this is done:

That’s a big change to the previous version of Cybersearch where you did not get these previews. Another new addition in Cybersearch 2 is support for the Bing search engine which can now be used alongside Google Search. The default search engine can either be Bing or Google with the other search engine available through keyword commands in front of the search term. A set of predefined keywords are already available. It is for example possible to search IMDB (with imdb in front of the search term), Wikipedia (with wiki in front) or Google Video (gvid) with the option to add new keyword searches easily.

The latest version of Cybersearch can be downloaded from the developer’s website. It is only compatible with Firefox 3.x.

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Check Places for Firefox adds the option to verify all bookmarks in the Firefox web browser. It can be used to check all bookmarks (with the option to exclude folders) or only specific folders that the Firefox user selects.

A click on the check bookmarks button will start the verification. The time it takes to verify the bookmarks depends on the amount of bookmarks and the Internet connection.

It took about a minute to check 489 bookmarks on a fast Internet connection. The add-on will display statistics on the report page including the time it took to verify the bookmarks and the number of bookmarks that got verified.

Errors are divided into the three categories failed pages, duplicates and empty folders. Failed pages are those with dns, page or other errors. These pages can be temporarily or permanently unavailable.

Each bookmark is listed in its own row. Selecting a bookmark will display additional information about the bookmark with the options to open, delete or exclude the bookmark.

The whole process – even if the pages with errors are verified manually – takes less than five minutes to complete.

Check Places is an add-on for the Firefox 3 web browser. It can be downloaded from the Mozilla Firefox website.

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Megaupload has two “protections” in place before a normal user can download files. The first is a captcha while the second is a countdown timer. This means that users need to enter a captcha whenever they want to download a file from the file hosting website. Even worse, they also have to wait some time before the download becomes available.

Muautolink solves both problems at once. It will immediately display a file download window when the user opens a Megaupload download page in the Firefox web browser. It bypasses the Megaupload captcha and countdown completely.

Best of all: It even works if the Megaupload website is embedded in another website like several Megaupload search services have implemented it. Muautolink is an experimental Firefox add-on for all versions of the web browse (from 2.x to 3.7x). It can be downloaded from the official Mozilla Firefox website.

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The majority of the blame should not be put solely on Microsoft though. Other software companies like Apple or Google have been doing exactly the same thing. Firefox users might notice a Google Update plugin or Apple iTunes plugin in the plugin section of the web browser. And those installations are not blocked by the Firefox browser.

There is however an option to block automatic plugin installations. It is not a perfect solution though but it is all that is provided currently. The Mozilla developers have added several directories and locations in the Firefox preferences that are automatically scanned by the web browser for plugins. If a plugin is found it will be added and activated in the browser.

These plugin directories are listed in the all.js files which is located in the greprefs directory of the Firefox installation. The following directories and locations are listed in the file (search for plugin or another word that will move the cursor to that position).

// Locate Java by scanning the Sun JRE installation directory with a minimum version
// Note: Does not scan if security.enable_java is not true
pref(”plugin.scan.SunJRE”, “1.3″);

// Locate plugins by scanning the Adobe Acrobat installation directory with a minimum version
pref(”plugin.scan.Acrobat”, “5.0″);

// Locate plugins by scanning the Quicktime installation directory with a minimum version
pref(”plugin.scan.Quicktime”, “5.0″);

// Locate and scan the Window Media Player installation directory for plugins with a minimum version
pref(”plugin.scan.WindowsMediaPlayer”, “7.0″);

// Locate plugins by the directories specified in the Windows registry for PLIDs
// Which is currently HKLM\Software\MozillaPlugins\xxxPLIDxxx\Path
pref(”plugin.scan.plid.all”, true);

// Controls the scanning of the Navigator 4.x directory for plugins
// When pref is missing, the default is to pickup popular plugins such as
// Flash, Shockwave, Acrobat, and Quicktime. If set to true, ALL plugins
// will be picked up and if set to false the scan will not happen at all
//pref(”plugin.scan.4xPluginFolder”, false);

As you can see there are entries for Sun Java, Adobe Acrobat, Apple Quicktime, the Windows Registry and Netscape plugins. Putting a comment in front of the plugin locations that should not be scanned will block those plugins from being started with Firefox (comments are added by adding // in front of a row).

Many Microsoft, Apple and Google plugins are added from the location in the Windows Registry. It is not advised to block that location completely as it also lists the Adobe Flash plugin in the Registry which would stop Flash support in the web browser. The only solution right now would be to go into the Registry and backup and remove the plugins that are not needed. If it were not for the Flash plugin the whole Registry location could be blocked from being scanned.

The programs will not add their plugins again to the Windows Registry unless they are updated or reinstalled. Another option to automatically block plugin installation (and display a prompt instead) is to use a software that will show a prompt before a specific Registry key is edited in Windows. A program like MJ Registry Watcher can do that. Simply add the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins key to the list of keys protected by the program to be informed whenever a software tried to change or add entries to the key.

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The following is a guide on how to remove the Windows Presentation Foundation plugin in the Firefox web browser for good. If the plugin would not be blacklisted it would be possible to find out about its dll files by typing in about:plugins in the web browser address bar.

The dll NPWPF.dll is the the Windows Presentation Foundation plugin. Here are the steps to remove it from the Firefox web browser (and other Mozilla products) for good:

• Close the Firefox web browser and every other Mozilla software that is running.
• Go to x:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\Windows Presentation Foundation\ in windows Explorer where x is the drive letter where Windows is installed on the computer system.
• Locate the file NPWPF.dll
• Create a backup of the file by copying it to another location, e.g. to c:\backups\
• Delete the dll NPWPF.dll in the Windows Presentation Foundation folder
• Restart the computer

Open Firefox after the restart. The Windows Presentation Foundation plugin should not show up in the list of installed plugins anymore. There is a second step that might be necessary. There is also a Registry entry for the plugin. Do the following to remove the plugin from there as well:

• Open the Windows Registry, press [Windows key R], type regedit and hit [enter]
• Locate the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins
• Locate the sub-key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins\@microsoft.com/WPF,version=3.5
• Right-click the sub-key and select Export to backup the key before deleting it.
• Delete the key in the Registry
• Restart the computer system or kill and reload explorer.exe in Windows to load the Registry without the key.

This should get rid of the Windows Presentation Foundation plugin in Firefox for now.

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The Windows Presentation Foundation Plugin gets installed when the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5 SP1 gets installed in the Windows operating system. Users who noticed the installation also noticed that they were not able to uninstall the plugin, only disable it in the Firefox plugin manager.

Mozilla today blacklisted the Windows Presentation Foundation Plugin. Not because of the silent install but because of a security vulnerability, or to be precise a remote code execution vulnerability. The vulnerability was reported on October 16 and measures to block the plugin were initiated today. Interested users can read up on the vulnerability at the Bug listing at the Mozilla website.

This raises several interesting questions. Could Microsoft be held accountable if computer systems are successfully attacked? Microsoft is not the only developer that is adding plugins to Firefox without asking the user. The Mozilla developers should consider implementing a security control to block unwanted plugins from being installed. Users who have not received the message in Firefox yet should check in the plugin section if the plugin is installed and if it is enabled or disabled. It should be disabled immediately if it is not already.

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These users have two alternative options on how to connect with their Yahoo Mail account if they experience the problems. The first is by using a desktop email client like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird, the second a notifier like Yahoo Mail Notifier for Firefox.

Both solutions obviously only work if the username and password of the Yahoo Mail account are at hand and still working. They can however cope with display or loading problems of the Yahoo Mail website. Yahoo Mail Notifier is a simple Firefox add-on that will display the unread mail count of a Yahoo Mail account in the Firefox statusbar. The add-on supports multiple Yahoo accounts which can be switched easily from the statusbar.

The preferences contain options to change the frequency new email checks, clicking preferences to open Yahoo Mail and notifications if new emails have been received.

Yahoo Mail Notifier is a simple Firefox add-on that can be helpful for users who do not want to check the Yahoo Mail page all the time to see if new emails have been received. It is available at the Mozilla Firefox website.

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Additional differences become apparent in the web browser plugin development and availability. Some browsers offer thousands of plugins while others only a handful. Plugins can be a very effective way of adding additional protection to the web browser. This article is about the top 5 security plugins for the most popular web browsers. If you know of a plugin that is missing in the list let us (and everyone else) know about it in the comments.

Mozilla Firefox

No Script – The one add-on that many security experts do not want to live without. No Script can block script execution on websites. It does so on all websites by default with the option to enable specific scripts temporarily or permanently. The add-on can prevent script based attacks (most of them are) if used correctly.

Last Pass – The password manager for Firefox. It can generate and remember secure passwords, fill out forms and even auto login the user into websites. The three important security related features are secure password generation, password storing and auto login. Secure passwords have the weakness that they are hard to remember. It is simply easier to remember 123456 than f&z_cU!;re4xZ especially if you consider that unique passwords should be used one every website. With Last Pass users get unlimited secure passwords with the need to only remember the master password. The auto login feature can be very effective against phishing attacks as it won’t work on phishing websites that use a different url than the original.

No Redirect – A versatile add-on that handles several things at once. It will reveal the destination url of short url services and prevent that Internet providers and other companies use DNS hijacks to show their (search pages). This does happen for instance with many major ISPs if the user mistypes a domain extension.

Link Extend and Web of Trust – Link Extend and Web of Trust provide a similar functionality. They provide website ratings to inform the user about potentially dangerous websites. Both display ratings in major search engines but also in a toolbar for the active page.

CS Lite – Cookie permissions on a per-site basis. Allows the user to block or allow cookies permanently or temporarily.

Backup: Febe Firefox Backup. It is always a good idea to create regular backups to be prepared when data gets corrupted or deleted. Febe is a Firefox add-on that can backup all profile data of the web browser including bookmarks, settings, extensions and passwords.

Google Chrome

Last Pass – The Last Pass password manager is also available for the Google Chrome web browser. Extension support is currently only available for dev releases of the Google browser. The functionality on the other hand is similar to that of the Firefox add-on. It is possible to generate passwords, store them and use the auto login feature.

Flash Block – This is the closest to the No Script Firefox add-on. Flash Block will only block Flash content but not other script related objects.

McAfee Site Advisor bookmarklet – There are not many Google Chrome extensions yet. Bookmarklets try to close that gap by allowing all Google Chrome users – and not only those that use a dev version – to make use of additional features. This bookmarklet will display McAfee Site Advisor ratings when executed. Comparable to Wot or Link Extend with the difference that it has to be executed manually.

Adsweep and Adblock+ – Two options to disable most advertisement that is displayed on websites. These add-ons are more about the annoying objects on websites and less about security. They can however be helpful in situations were rogue ads are displayed that spread malware.

Backup: Fav Browser – Fav Browser 2 can backup and restore all settings of Google Chrome 2, 3 or 4.

Internet Explorer

Last Pass – Did we mention that we love Last Pass? The password manager is available as a plugin for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. It offers the same functionality on all supported web browsers including password generation and secure storage of passwords.

Web of Trust or Trend Protect – Both display ratings for the active websites and websites that are listed in the major search engines (Google Search, Yahoo Search, MSN). They can be used as an indicator if a site’s potentially dangerous to visit.

IE7 Pro – A great plugin for Internet Explorer (not only 7 but also Internet Explorer 8) that offers ad blocking and many additional features. It comes closes to the No Script Firefox add-on. The ad blocker includes a Flash Blocker. Another interesting module is userscript support which can be also beneficial to security.

Backup: Fav Backup – You can use the tool to backup and restore Internet Explorer profile settings.

Only four for Internet Explorer. Do you know of additional Internet Explorer security add-ons? Let us know in the comments.

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Firefox 3.5.4. is a stability and security update for the latest stable release of Firefox. Users who are concerned about security might want to consider switching to the release candidate right now to patch the security holes.

The release candidate for version 3.6 Beta of the web browser on the other hand promises better performance not only executing JavaScript but also for other factors like starting Firefox or loading pages.

You can download both versions of Firefox from the Mozilla ftp server.

Firefox 3.5.4 RC 2
Firefox 3.6 Beta RC 1

Firefox users who do not want to install beta and release candidates need to wait until October 21 which is the scheduled date for the Firefox 3.5.4 release.

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The Google Wave add-on for Firefox informs the user when new messages arrive for him. It works like any other notification add-on and tool available on the Internet these days. It starts by entering the account data of the Google Wave account in the add-on’s settings.

This is required to access the data of the account. It can – and certainly will – turn away security conscious users who do not want to part with their account data. Those who do will from then on be notified of new Google Wave messages in Firefox. The add-on places an icon in the Firefox status bar that is displaying the number of unread messages with the ability to hover over the icon to see previews of the messages.

The Google Wave add-on for Firefox is available at the Mozilla Firefox website. The add-on is compatible with Firefox 3.5.x only at the moment.

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