269004 - (ssa) ssa.gov - can not open some web pages

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English US, defect)

Description

[Earl Leibforth]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

In the last beta of foxfire and the new foxfire1.0 and mozilla 1.7.2 some web
pages will not display (blank or an error)  Netscape 7xx works fine. I hope this
helps better development of a very good product.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.go to http://www.ssa.gov/
2.try to open "apply for retirement benifits"
3.One of the sub pages for Panasonic.com wil not open either. (blank)

Actual Results:  
I get an error page that says my broswer does not support strong (128
bit)encryption. 

Expected Results:  
Gone to the requested page and opened up.

Comment 1

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

for point 1-2 : 
This is a error in the page itself (browser sniffing, they seem to do server
redirect). 
That`s also the reason why this works in NS

-> TE

Comment 2

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

I sent a note to them via their suggestion form about their error.

I hope I get a response....

Comment 3

[Felix Miata]

Conforming summary to TFM item 10 at 
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/tech-evangelism/site/procedures.html#file-new

Comment 4

[rcummins]

I sent them a complaint form too, asking when they plan to support "modern"
browsers (since Mozilla 1.7.3, Firefox 1.0, and Netscape 7.2 are shown a "your
browser software doesn't currently support strong encryption" page - they even
provide a link to upgrade to the most recent version of Netscape, by which they
apparently mean Netscape Communicator 4.8).  Here's their response (it's nice to
be reminded what one's tax dollars are being spent on):

Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 14:29:20 -0500
From: ^SSA Comments <[e-mail]>
To: "'[e-mail]'" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Cummins Response\zwEdwards, M.\1545218

Thank  you for your inquiry.

This message will be generated in several situations.  They are listed
below:

1.  You do not meet the rules for using the online
    application:

-- You must agree to filing over the Internet using
 your electronic signature under the appropriate
 perjury provisions.

-- You must be at least 61 years 9 months old and
   plan to start receiving your Social Security
   benefits within the next four months

OR

   You must have a disability that will prevent you (or
   has prevented you) from working for 12 months or
   more or is expected to result in your death.

-- You must live in the United States or one of its
   territories or commonwealths

-- You must not have been convicted of a crime against
   the United States (for example, espionage)

2.  You are attempting to access the application when
    it is not available.  The application is available
    Monday through Friday from 5 A.M. to 1 A.M.
    Eastern Time (ET), Saturday from 5 A.M. to 11 P.M.
    ET, Sunday from 8 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. ET.

3.  Your Internet browser does not support 128-bit
    encryption.

If none of these situations applies to you and you are still getting this
message, call us at 1-800-772-1213 so that we can assist you in applying for
benefits over the telephone or at your local Social Security office.

You can obtain the location and other information about your local Social
Security office by calling our toll-free telephone number, 1-800-772-1213,
or by accessing the following Internet address:

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/locator

Comment 5

[Martin Johnson]

Firefox is redirected from http://www.ssa.gov/applytoretire to
http://s00dace.ssa.gov/pro/403/forbidden.html which basically says my browser
does not support 128 bit encryption.

I am using Windows 2000, SP4.

Comment 6

[Felix Miata]

*** Bug 271932 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[rcummins]

Further messages from me were responded to with more canned responses (albeit
more terse).
Interestingly, spoofing Mozilla's/Firefox's UA as IE's/Netscape4.x and turning
off Javascript doesn't make any difference.  The failure seems to happen while
setting up a secure connection to
https://s00dace.ssa.gov/pro/isba3/wwwrmain.shtml, and the browser is sent a
redirect to http://s00dace.ssa.gov/pro/403/forbidden.html instead of being shown
the application page...

Comment 8

[rcummins]

Nuts, as soon as I added that last comment I noticed it looks like the secure
online applications are working now.

Comment 9

[chris hofmann]

this message came into the webmaster alias today.

Trying to access certain links on the website of the Social Security
Administration (SSA) I get the message that the access is denied because of the
128-bit encryption they use which apparently is not supported by your browser?
The recommend to upgrade to Internet Explorer, which I just have dumped for your
browser.

What is your encryption and/or what I can do?

 

Kind Regards

Bernd Ziesche

Comment 10

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

just a note: Mozilla not only supports 128 bit encryption, it also supports
168bit and 256 bit.... (see it in Mozilla under
edit\preferences\privacy&Security\SSL\Edit chiphers)

Comment 11

[rcummins]

So - unless someone still sees this not working I'll resolve it as "WORKSFORME"
(see comment #8).

Comment 12

[mike]

It now works for me as well

Comment 13

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

this is fixed