Blast!

[taimatsu]

Natwest online banking, on which I rely for monitoring my rickety finances, does not work on Iceweasel (the free-software version of Firefox, which I'm running on the new computer, on KDE/Debian). GAH! I will have to change browsers somehow as I cannot do without OLB :(

Comments

[diffrentcolours]

It might just be because the browser is reporting itself as Iceweasel rather than something which Natwest OLB recognises. You might want to install an extension like User Agent Switcher which will let you configure your browser to say it's Firefox (or Internet Explorer if you like).

[simont]

It shouldn't be impossible to download Firefox proper from its home site and install it in /usr/local, if you really need to.

It seems unlikely that Iceweasel is actually inherently incompatible with the online banking site, though; I'd guess it's more likely that the site just refuses to work for any browser name it doesn't recognise on the basis that that's safer than trying and failing. However, persuading NatWest to add Iceweasel to their supported browsers list is probably infeasible (merely getting to speak to an employee who'd understand the request would impress me!). So perhaps there's a way to persuade Iceweasel to masquerade as Firefox for this purpose? I vaguely recall hearing of a Firefox plugin which would do that sort of thing.

Incidentally, did you ever receive the email I sent you in response to this?

[j4.livejournal.com]

Can you just download ordinary-Firefox? Or does that not work either?

[simont]

(Sometimes I think it would be nice if LJ had a convenient button during the comment-posting process which said "Show me any comments posted to this entry since I first clicked Reply, so I can see if someone else has answered my question already before I look silly".)

[jojomojo.livejournal.com]

You could also try Konqueror and see if that works any better; once in a while I find something that doesn't work in Firefox but does in Konqueror.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Sorry, should read the whole thread before replying...

Is everything that says it's Firefox e.g. here (http://www.mozilla.org/download.html) now Iceweasel? All these mustelids are very confusing.

[simont]

No, Firefox as distributed by the Mozilla people is still Firefox.

The rename is a Debian thing brought on by Mozilla's trademark policy: the copyright licence on the Firefox code permits anyone to create of derived works of it, but the trademark licence only permits them to call it Firefox if the Mozilla people approve of the changes. Thus, if the local changes Debian want to make in the process of packaging Firefox don't meet with the Mozilla Foundation's approval, they have to either not make those changes or rename the browser. They decided the latter was the lesser evil.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Requiring people to change the user-agent string [if that's really what's going on] is particularly nasty [if that's really part of the requirement], for just this reason...

[taimatsu]

Sadly, this is Natwest saying 'These browsers or nothing!', not an inability to make the code work. It won't let me at the actual page.

[oneplusme.livejournal.com]

The longer-term option may be to switch to a bank whose on-line UI doesn't suck quite so much... (Having weaned the parents off of Natwest's one, I recall it being utterly painful.)

Faking your user-agent string is likely the easiest option. I'm sure there are IE-spoofing plugins; alternatively you can probably fiddle it if you type about:config into the location bar.

[thinkstoomuch.livejournal.com]

It's probably the user-agent string, as suggested by others.

However... Natwest OLB works fine with my browser, which is Galeon - definitely not listed as supported! Galeon can use Mozilla or Firefox as a backend, and Natwest works fines with either, for me.

Perhaps you have an old version of Firefox? Debian tends to have older versions of stuff. Debian is old and crotchety ;) I have 1.5.0.7, and it works fine, so update to at least that if you can. Or give Mozilla a try.

[wednesday]

But good dorky gods, did they have to call it Iceweasel?!

I mean, exactly how unprofessional did the build name have to be?

[imc.livejournal.com]

give Mozilla a try.

Mozilla is now called SeaMonkey, and NatWest don't like it either (unless they have updated their site since November), even though they are fine with the older versions of Mozilla. They deserve a kick up the arse.

[taimatsu]

awww, but the ickle weasel logo is soooooo kyuuuuuute! ;P

[taimatsu]

NatWest have always treated me well as a bank, and I have no problem with their OLB UI save this. What do you remember being dreadful about it?

[diffrentcolours]

Iceweasel in Debian Etch is based on Firefox 2.0.0.1, the latest version availabel from upstream mozilla.com - hardly old and crotchety.

[diffrentcolours]

Natwest OLB does have the distinct advantage of being able to download statement information in a form which Gnucash can read. It's the one thing I miss about being a Shatwest customer.

[diffrentcolours]

One might argue that websites blocking browsers based on User-Agent string is nastier.

If the words "Firefox" and "Mozilla" are trademarks, and Debian would be in violation of those trademarks for calling their browser Firefox in the application's UI, I expect they'd also be in violation for it identifying itself as such in the User-Agent.

[diffrentcolours]

At least they didn't use the animated icon...

(from here, no convenient anchors in the page)

[oneplusme.livejournal.com]

They may well have changed things in the intervening months. In fact, given that ISTR it working in Firefox, they probably have. But it seemed to hide all the useful functions in odd places and to require you to reauthenticate yourself with random subsets of a pass-number every ten seconds.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Sure, but given it's widely known to happen, forcing people to change user agent strings - which are a bit of metadata aimed at computers, not a bit of branding aimed at people! - is wrongheaded at the very least. If that's what's going on.

Meanwhile Microsoft (and everyone else) have been happily putting 'Mozilla' in their UA string for, what, over a decade now?

[diffrentcolours]

OK, the User-Agent string reported in my Apache logs is:

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061205 Iceweasel/2.0.0.1 (Debian-2.0.0.1+dfsg-2)

So it's reporting as a Mozilla-family browser, albeit not a Firefox. This indicates that Natwest OLB's browser detection is naff.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

See above; practically everything reports as "Mozilla" at the start.

[imc.livejournal.com]

This is not quite what you asked for, but it can be done in a roundabout way.

If you use the full comment reply form [on Quick Reply you get there by pressing "more options"] then above the comment reply form there's a "Read comments" link. Open that in a new tab and you can look to see if any new comments have arrived.

[imc.livejournal.com]

HSBC will allow you to download statement information in CSV format (and a couple of others, which I forget now). Plus it's never once told me my browser is incompatible, even when I was the last person on Earth to still use Netscape 4.78. (I'd love an online banking interface that didn't wholly rely on JavaScript, though.)

[imc.livejournal.com]

It is naff, but not for that reason. If they support the various branches of Mozilla, they should really be looking for "Gecko" and/or "rv:" rather than relying on knowing the names of all the Mozilla derivatives.

[clupea-rufus.livejournal.com]

Have you sorted this yet?

If not, then you might want to consider grabbing the latest version of Firefox for Ubuntu. It comes as a .deb which you could install with dpkg, and while I'd not normally recommend mixing packages, it might be the only way you can get round this issue. I'll note here than I've not tested this, and while I've got iceweasel to install on Ubuntu, I can in no way guarentee that the reverse will work. :)

The latest version can be found at http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/f/firefox/firefox-dbg_2.0.0.1+1-0ubuntu1_i386.deb

I'd recommend trying Galeon first though, as it should be apt-gettable and has been reported as working.

I'd also recommend a stern letter to your bank reminding them that accessability means making your site accessable to all standards complient browsers.

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

I have the problem with Nationwide that Firefox shows my secret code numbers which is not showed in Internet Explorer at all.