329198 - citibankonline.com - Citibank site tells non-Firefox Gecko browsers (Camino, Seamonkey) to download Firefox

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English US, defect)

Description

[Roberto]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060301 Camino/1.0.0+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060301 Camino/1.0.0+

Using Camino, here's what you get: "You're using a browser or operating system that can't take advantage of all the features at citibank.com. For the best online experience, here's what we recommend you use:" ..... then it lists every browser but yours.  I love Camino and it works with every other bank/bill pay site I use except this one.  There is no problem accessing the site with Firefox.
Please try and fix for Camino.  Thank you.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to the site above and you'll get redirected to download other browsers. 
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

Is the redirect also blocking you from using the site at all, or do they have an option to continue?

Does spoofing your user-agent string as Firefox completely solve the problem?

If the answer to #1 is "Yes, I'm totally blocked" and #2 is "Yes", then this is definitely Tech Evangelism.

cl

Comment 2

[Matthew Hutton]

It works fine if you spoof the user agent to Firefox, you can do this easily with CamoTools (from http://www.nadamac.de/camitools/index.php) and then change the user agent to Firefox 1.5, Mac (once you've installed it's on the options page)

I do this all the time as many sites seem to have problems with Camino without it.

Can I suggest that Camino has its user agent by default to be Firefox 1.x, Mac? I am suggesting this as the browsers both use the same rendering software (Gecko) so pages should appear the same in both, also you are still promoting open source and saying you use a Mac (both of which are important).

However you aren't expecting every webmaster to have heard of a web browser that although is excellent, is Mac only, it seems unlikely that Linux/Windows users will have heard of it TBH. You will also get more users as if they download and pages don't display properly they will think the browser is rubbish which it certainly isn't.

Comment 3

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

(In reply to comment #2)
> Can I suggest that Camino has its user agent by default to be Firefox 1.x, Mac?

You can suggest it, but be aware you'll get laughed out of the room.

> I am suggesting this as the browsers both use the same rendering software
> (Gecko) so pages should appear the same in both, also you are still promoting
> open source and saying you use a Mac (both of which are important).

As cl is so fond of saying, "1995 called and wants its broken browser-sniffing back."  Webmasters should be checking for features they need, or, at the worst, a specific Gecko rv.  Gecko is Gecko for a given rv, no matter if that Gecko is in Firefox, Camino, SeaMonkey, Epiphany, Flock, or some other browser.  Inside the content area, everything should be the same...that's the whole point of Gecko.

Now, before we kick this to TE...

Roberto, can you access the site at all with Camino after it redirects you?  If so, this is much more minor and maybe not TE-worthy....

Comment 4

[Roberto]

 (In reply to comment #3)

Probably not worthy. Probably minor. I learned I can continue on the site after it redirected - still a pain - but spoofing will fix, i'm sure.  Just wanted to make sure there were no security problems using the bank site with camino (maybe why they redirected me, though now not true) Thanks.
Roberto


> (In reply to comment #2)
> > Can I suggest that Camino has its user agent by default to be Firefox 1.x, Mac?
> 
> You can suggest it, but be aware you'll get laughed out of the room.
> 
> > I am suggesting this as the browsers both use the same rendering software
> > (Gecko) so pages should appear the same in both, also you are still promoting
> > open source and saying you use a Mac (both of which are important).
> 
> As cl is so fond of saying, "1995 called and wants its broken browser-sniffing
> back."  Webmasters should be checking for features they need, or, at the worst,
> a specific Gecko rv.  Gecko is Gecko for a given rv, no matter if that Gecko is
> in Firefox, Camino, SeaMonkey, Epiphany, Flock, or some other browser.  Inside
> the content area, everything should be the same...that's the whole point of
> Gecko.
> 
> Now, before we kick this to TE...
> 
> Roberto, can you access the site at all with Camino after it redirects you?  If
> so, this is much more minor and maybe not TE-worthy....
> 

Comment 5

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

Closing per comment 3 and comment 4.

Comment 6

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

I'm reopening this and kicking to TE in light of the new Core UA sniffing tracker.

At least one user has recently called Citibank about this.

Comment 7

[Smokey Ardisson (offline for a while; not following bugs - do not email)]

Er, really kicking to TE now; sorry for the bugspam.

Comment 8

[Mark Mentovai]

Camino 1.6a1 includes Firefox in its UA string, which is enough for the Citibank site to not advise users to download another browser.

Comment 9

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

Still happening. Has anyone actually bothered Citibank about this and pointed them to

http://geckoisgecko.org/

?

Comment 10

[Hallvord R. M. Steen [:hallvors]]

Problem not found
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux i686; rv:22.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/22.0

Comment 11

[Hallvord R. M. Steen [:hallvors]]

(Also tested with Seamonkey UA)
/me hates that bug breaking the UA switcher extension in Fx22