361734 - Let the user easily find his original user-agent string despite UA spoofing

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Toolkit :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Peter Weilbacher]

Many users still find it necessary to spoof the user-agent string because many websites are too stupid to correctly detect Gecko. This makes it hard to get them to tell you the version of the Mozilla product (SeaMonkey, Firefox) that they are actually using, as Help -> About shows the spoofed UA string (from general.useragent.override).

Instead, or in addition to, Help -> About should show the original user-agent so that users can cut and paste it into bug reports easily, not only in Bugzilla but also when they ask for help in forums or newsgroups or elsewhere.

Comment 1

[Ria Klaassen (not reading all bugmail)]

Can't find an obvious dupe, so confirming. Although I can't imagine that no one reported this yet.

Comment 2

[Tracy Walker [:tracy]]

Not a dupe, but somewhat related to bug 350521.  Especially if it morphs into what dveditz suggests.  If so, this might become dependent on that bug. 

I can't find a dupe otherwise.

Comment 5

[[not reading bugmail]]

STR:

If a user adds the override pref general.useragent.override to about:config and sets a value, you see whatever value you set in Help->About unless the value is reset or blank.


I would think this could make support side easier by: 

A) disabling the override UA pref from also overriding what is displayed in the About panel.

or 

B) get creative and add say general.useragent.default to always use in About panel or just list both when override is set like so with visibility:

UA String:
3.7a1 foo bar

Override UA:
myUAstring

The About panel looks clean with the current implementation, but once its overridden I see where this is really a problem getting the default UA for support, since the default UA string doesn't appear to be anywhere else like about:config or about:support

If visibility of the override "spoofed" UA can be toggled with the override pref being set, that would keep the About panel looking clean.

Comment 6

[[not reading bugmail]]

Note: See Bug 417994 which added additional UA spoofing prefs starting in 1.8.x.x

Comment 7

[Rob]

If I run Namoroka "C:\Program Files\Namoroka\firefox.exe" I can not 
also run Firefox  "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" since it will ONLY open a second Instance of Namoroka and not also let me run Firefox at the same time; BUT according to right-click-[Properties][Version][Product Version] I have Firefox 3.6.3 . --- Thus I _guess_ I have FF 3.6.3 (without closing Namoroka and properly checking in [Help][About ...]).


If I run Firefox 3.6.3 I can access Bing Maps and use the 3D Viewer but if I run Namoroka 3.6.5pre (Nightly) the Website says my Browser is NOT compatible and suggests I run IE or FF ...


I wish we had a "Spoofing Matrix" where we could 'choose our Browser' and what features it supported on a per-page / site-by-site basis. Sort of like 'User Controlled Cookies'.

IF the creator of the Webpage can use their Server (and Webpage / JavaScript) to choose (deliberately or by poor coding) to spoof the Browser why can we not choose to spoof the Server ?


Why say who we are if not everyone will listen correctly.


This is a RFE for a 'User Controlled [Help][Report Broken Web Site]' (for expert Users) so we can fix or test Websites ourselves. This would be yet another great feature that would set us ahead of other Browsers and eliminate ANY Browser discrimination (is that not one of our Goals ?).


BrowserSPY says (@ http://browserspy.dk/useragent.php ) that I am "
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.5pre) Gecko/20100415 Namoroka/3.6.5pre (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
" but for other tests the results are less than perfect ...

Browser name 	  Yes - version unknown
Browser version   No or unable to detect... 


If [Tools][Options][Advanced] had one more Tab we could resolve this trouble.


References:

Bing Maps (with Namoroka choose to continue anyway then click on "3D")
http://www.bing.com/maps/

BrowserSPY - UserAgent
http://browserspy.dk/useragent.php


Please take a moment to VOTE for this Bug.

Thanks,
Rob

Comment 8

[Rob]

Also try: http://www.browserscope.org/ == OUCH ! -- We are well behind "Google Chrome 5", only 'half as good'.

Comment 9

[Rob]

(In reply to comment #7)
> If I run Firefox 3.6.3 I can access Bing Maps and use the 3D Viewer but if I
> run Namoroka 3.6.5pre (Nightly) the Website says my Browser is NOT compatible
> and suggests I run IE or FF ...
> 
> ...
>
> References:
> 
> Bing Maps (with Namoroka choose to continue anyway then click on "3D")
> http://www.bing.com/maps/
> 
> ... 
> Thanks,
> Rob

Bing Maps (in 3D) just starting (today) working on:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/3.6.3 ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729)

If we could spoof we could have fixed it ourselves; instead of waiting a week.

Thanks,
Rob

Comment 10

[Rob]

(In reply to comment #9)
> (In reply to comment #7)
> > If I run Firefox 3.6.3 I can access Bing Maps and use the 3D Viewer but if I
> > run Namoroka 3.6.5pre (Nightly) the Website says my Browser is NOT compatible
> > and suggests I run IE or FF ...
> > ...

> Bing Maps (in 3D) just starting (today) working ...
> If we could spoof we could have fixed it ourselves; instead of waiting a week.

Now it does NOT work, again. Using:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.5pre) Gecko/20100429 Namoroka/3.6.5pre ( .NET CLR 3.5.30729)


Rob

Comment 11

[johnwerneken]

Being ignorant I ask. Google has a horrid new search interface, I hear "spoofing browser user agent string" restores the old one. Tried in install a chrome extension for this purpose, apparently I need to edit something in the extension itself to enable chrome "experimental". I use ie9 32 ie 9 64 safari opera chrome and firefox several foxes usually beta9. An answer that fit ANY browser would be appreciated. email [e-mail]

Comment 12

[Sebastian Hengst [:aryx] (needinfo me if it's about an intermittent or backout)]

Comment 0 mentions that the About Firefox dialog showed the spoofed useragent. Nowadays it shows the unspoofed Firefox version. The bug's summary is now about finding the unaltered useragent. That is irrelevant today because it doesn't get used and the information it contains can be accessed easier from the Troubleshooting Information page.