401709 - comcast.net, comcast.com - sniffing for "Firefox", blocks non-Firefox Gecko browsers

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English US, defect)

Description

[David E. Ross]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20070725 SeaMonkey/1.1.4, NOT Firefox/2.0.0.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071009 SeaMonkey/1.1.5

When I go to the cited URI, I get the message "It's Time to Upgrade Your Browser".  However, I'm using the latest version of SeaMonkey.  

The page refers me to new versions of Internet Explorer or Firefox for Windows and to new versions of Firefox or Safari (for Mac) but to no browser for Linux or UNIX.  

Reproducible: Always




If I spoof with the following user agent string

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20070725 SeaMonkey/1.1.4, NOT Firefox/2.0.0.6

the problem does not happen.  

Note that the <http://www.comcast.net/> site has no means of communicating the problem to ComCast.

Comment 1

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

Yep. More b0rken sniffing.

Comment 2

[Edward]

Comcast HSI customers have access to online forums.  There is an ongoing thread about people having problems with the new site loading properly, which would include this "time to upgrade your browser" page.

Comment 3

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

Please bring this to their attention and request that they stop -- for lack of a better word -- lying to their customers about browser upgrades. We understand the realities of "support", but pretending that Firefox and IE are the only two browsers that exist is just silly.

Comment 4

[Edward]

I'm trying...

Firefox 2.0.0.8 (used with openSUSE 10.3 (Linux)) will load the new comcast.net home page with no problems.

Using SeaMonkey 1.1.6 (and previously with 1.1.5), displayed the "time to upgrade your browser" page.  :(

Comment 5

[David E. Ross]

I just retested, this time removing Comcast cookies when changing UA strings.  This is indeed a sniffing case.  

The page can be viewed without the "It's Time to Upgrade Your Browser" message with the following UA string:  
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.8) Gecko/20071009 SeaMonkey/1.1.5, NOT Firefox/2.0.0.9

The message appears with the following UA string:  
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/20071030 SeaMonkey/1.1.6

(Yes, I have to update my set of spoofing UA strings for the latest SeaMonkey and Gecko versions.)  

Comment 6

[Edward]

They have a thread on this and I posted the UA's for both the Windows and Linux versions of SeaMonkey.  As of today, I am still seeing the browser upgrade page.

Comment 7

[Edward]

I have not heard anything official on the browser detection, but found the following.

Upon accessing the actual site, "comcast.net" will place a cookie "browserDetection" with a content of "no".  This cookie automatically expires at the end of the session.

Comment 8

[David E. Ross]

Comcast's browserDetection cookie is not set if the sniffing indicates Firefox.  It's set if sniffing indicates SeaMonkey (and probably other non-Firefox Gecko browsers such as Camino).  That is why my comment #5 indicated that I removed Comcast cookies while testing this problem.  

In general (not only with Comcast), if you have a problem with a Web page that can be resolved by spoofing some other browser, you must also remove any cookies related to that page as well as changing your UA string.  I have found that sniffing for a UA string often results in a cookie being set to indicate what browser was being used or (as in Comcast's situation) that the browser is not recognized.  

Comment 9

[Edward]

I've since received a message from a Comcast employee, asking for info on the OS that I'm using (openSUSE 10.3) as well as what version of SeaMonkey.  I sent this information along with the User-Agent that it uses.

They are going to try to replicate this in their lab.

I think it's safe to say that they are working on it.

Comment 10

[Felix Miata]

Has anyone pointed them to http://geckoisgecko.org/ ?

Comment 11

[Edward]

Yes, they have been made aware of that site.

Comment 12

[Luis Villa]

Comcast.com does something similar; the 'create an account' page:
https://www.comcast.com/customers/membership/CreateMember.ashx

says:
Minimum browser versions include Internet Explorer 5.5, Netscape Navigator 7.2, and Mozilla FireFox 1.1.

Should I file a separate bug? (I've already contacted them.)

Comment 13

[Bob Clary [:bc] (inactive)]

(In reply to comment #12)

> Should I file a separate bug? (I've already contacted them.)

I think this bug is sufficient. 

Comment 16

[David E. Ross]

Among Comcast's suggested browsers is Mozilla.  At <http://www.comcast.com/Customers/FAQ/FaqDetails.ashx?Id=3209>, Comcast has a link to "Mozilla Suite - The All-in-One Internet Application Suite" at <http://www.mozilla.org/products/mozilla1.x/>, a page which has not been maintained since 2005 and which has a download link to a page that is 404.  

Comment 17

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

Edward, have you or anyone else heard anything further from Comcast about this?

Comment 18

[Edward]

Hi Chris.  Back in November 2007, I was asked to send some information to a Comcast employee, I still have his e-mail address.

He asked me for the exact Linux operating system I was using and browser version, so they could "replicate in the lab".  I never heard back from him.

Comment 19

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

(In reply to comment #18)
> Hi Chris.  Back in November 2007, I was asked to send some information to a
> Comcast employee, I still have his e-mail address.

Please provide me his name and e-mail address via private e-mail when you get a chance.

> He asked me for the exact Linux operating system I was using and browser
> version, so they could "replicate in the lab".  I never heard back from him.

Please remind him when you get a chance, and point out the following facts:

1) All Gecko-based browsers with the same Gecko revision display Web pages exactly the same way.
2) There are a lot of Gecko-based browsers besides Firefox.
3) Comcast is clearly perfectly aware of Gecko-based browsers other than Firefox, as evidenced by this code:

http://www.comcast.net/ui/js/lib/browser.js


Why they insist on redirecting browsers other than "Explorer", "Firefox", "Safari", "Opera" to an "upgrade your browser" page *after* going to the trouble to detect so many other browsers is utterly beyond me. That code would be much simpler if they just detected a Gecko version rather than a UA name.

Comment 20

[Edward]

E-mail sent.

The above three items have been posted to the relevant thread on the Comcast Help Forum, which has not had any type of moderator reply in three months.

I noticed on the page that displayed with the browser.js link, that Mozilla is listed.  Firefox loads the site but redirects to http://www.comcast.net/a/, as does Epiphany (installs by default with Mandriva Linux using GNOME desktop).

On the first attempt to load the page, using http://www.comcast.net/ or http://www.comcast.net/a/ with SeaMonkey, the browser upgrade page appears.  If I close the tab, open a new tab and input either URL again, the site comes up as expected.

Comment 21

[Edward]

Someone responded in the thread on the Comcast Forum, after I copied Chris' information above.  IMHO, the response posted doesn't permanentlhy solve the problem...  :(


You can try using the ietab plugin, and/or create a file named   user.js  with this in it:

// Add Firefox identifier to User Agent
user_pref("general.useragent.extra.notfox", "like Firefox/2.0";


Put this file in the mozilla  folder, and restart FireFox.

Comment 22

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

(In reply to comment #21)
> Someone responded in the thread on the Comcast Forum, after I copied Chris'
> information above.  IMHO, the response posted doesn't permanentlhy solve the
> problem...  :(

Of course not. That's why this bug was opened. Spoofing a user-agent string as something else is unacceptable; the site should not be requiring such workarounds in the first place.

Comment 23

[Edward]

Re Comment 8 above, I turned cookies off for both comcast.com and comcast.net, the browser upgrade page still loaded in SM...

Comment 25

[Chris Lawson (gone)]

There's now a "proceed anyway" link on the page, which appears to work with Camino trunk. Although I think FIXED is probably wishful thinking, I'd say this is GOODENOUGH. At least they're not actively blocking non-Firefox browsers now.

Someone else should confirm this behaviour on another browser or two.

Comment 26

[David E. Ross]

While I'm not at all happy about the "It's Time to Upgrade Your Browser" message, the "Proceed to use Comcast.net Anyway" button does work with SeaMonkey 1.1.11 on a PC under Windows XP without spoofing any other browser.   

Note that the page still refers users to browsers for PCs and Macs but not to browsers for UNIX or Linux.  If anyone can confirm that the "Proceed to use Comcast.net Anyway" button for those platforms, this bug report should be closed.  

Comment 27

[Edward]

I can confirm that the link works with the Linux version of SM 1.1.11.

Comment 28

[Rich Gray (:rbgray)]

IMHO, a site that pesters you to"upgrade" to an approved browser but allows you to proceed anyway is still broken, just less so.  I don't think such sites should get a FIXED until they stop that nonsense...

Comment 29

[Edward]

(In reply to comment #28)
> IMHO, a site that pesters you to"upgrade" to an approved browser but allows you
> to proceed anyway is still broken, just less so.  I don't think such sites
> should get a FIXED until they stop that nonsense...

In full agreement.  It has been brought to the attention of a Comcast employee (more than once now) and more than one thread has been created in their online forums (must be a Comcast HSI customer to access).  They have also been made aware of the Gecko Is Gecko web site.

Would anyone from the Mozilla organization be able to help?