How to Use Internet Explorer Securely and Wisely

Internet Explorer provides four zones for which you can establish separate security settings. The purpose of this article is to introduce these four zones and how to use them to ensure you safely browse the Internet. By following the advice in this article, you'll reduce your chances of being the victim of an attack when you inadvertently visit a malicious Web site.

The four zones in Internet Explorer are:

• Internet
• Local intranet
• Trusted sites
• Restricted sites

The Internet Zone

The Internet zone is the zone that contains all the Web sites you haven't placed in another zone. Think of it as the default zone. The settings you establish for the Internet zone are applied to any Web site that you haven't specifically listed in the Local intranet, Trusted sites or Restricted sites zones.

Since the Internet zone's settings are the default, you should use the highest level of security that you can for this zone. Generally, a "Medium" security level is sufficient, but since many Internet Explorer vulnerabilities involve active scripting, it's best to use the "High" level of security so that active scripting is disabled by default. Changing to a "High" security level will make portions of some Web sites not work properly, but you can always add a site to your Trusted sites zone if you want to allow the active script to run.

Follow these instructions to change the Internet zone's security setting to "High" in Internet Explorer.

Intranet Zone

The Intranet zone contains all the sites that are on your organization's local intranet. Internet Explorer provides this zone because it's reasonable that you or your employer might want to enable some features for sites on your local intranet, but not on the wider Internet.

Trusted Sites Zone

The Trusted sites zone is a place where you can list Web sites that you trust not to harm your computer. By setting the security in this zone to "Medium-low" or "Low", you ensure that most or all content will run without prompts.

Follow these instructions to add sites to your Trusted sites zone in IE7 or in IE6.

Restricted Sites Zone

The Restricted sites zone is a place where you can list Web sites that you think could potentially damage your computer or steal your data. By setting the security for this zone to "High", you restrict the types of content sites in the zone can run on your computer, helping to protect your computer from attacks.