534849 - Firefox 3.6 Beta 4 can not load the most frequently used Norwegian banking and security applet

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Øyvind]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2b4) Gecko/20091124 Firefox/3.6b4 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2b4) Gecko/20091124 Firefox/3.6b4 (.NET CLR 3.5.30729)

After upgrading to Firefox 3.6 Beta 4, I can no longer access my online banking solution. The authentication through this solution is via a Java applet, and you enter a Norwegian personal number (SSN-equivalent) to be redirected to the login applet which allows you to log in by entering a code from a security chip and a password. The problem seems to be that it no longer properly initializes the applet.

Please note that this has worked fine in all previous Firefox version, including Firefox 3.5. Not certain if this stopped working in the latest Beta of Firefox 3.6 or in an earlier one. I can find that out if necessary. It does also work in IE 8, and the latest versions of Safari and Opera. This is ONLY a problem with Firefox 3.6 Beta (4).

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Go to the URL - https://www.dnbnor.no/en/personal?LA=EN
2. Enter a valid personalnumber in the "User id" field (A valid number can be found on the following page http://www.fnrinfo.no/Verktoy/FinnLovlige_Dato.aspx - You might need to browse back in time to get a person that's 18+ of age, but not certain if that's necessary)
3. Click the "Log In" button
4. A new page should load, trying to initialize the authentication applet. This always ends in a failure with an error message "An error has occurred. Please try again later"
Actual Results:  
The applet gives an error message: "An error has occurred. Please try again later"

Expected Results:  
The applet should correctly initialize and give you an applet screen asking you for a security code and a password, possibly also the issuer of the security chip.

Comment 1

[Robert Longson [:longsonr]]

What version of java do you have installed?

http://java.com/en/download/faq/firefox_newplugin.xml

Comment 2

[Øyvind]

I have Java 1.6.0_17 installed... I verified this by clicking the following link (to make sure it wasn't picking another one):
http://java.com/en/download/installed.jsp

Comment 3

[Øyvind]

Just an additional piece of information. I also tried disabling the new java plug-in in the Java console without success.

In addition - I have not encountered any other Java problems in Firefox 3.6 Beta 4. The test applet at Sun works just fine for instance, and states the correct version.

Based on that, I have a slight suspicion it might be caused by the way the browser calls Java or the way it passes the parameters to the applet.

Comment 4

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

the old Java interface in 3.6 is disabled and only the new interfaces from the new plugin are used. THe new plugin is now a standard plugin like all other plugins.
YOu should probably open a SUn ticket about this issue.

Comment 5

[Øyvind]

I'm wondering though.. Since the configuration is set to use the new plug-in, I would think that it also uses that new technology in the other browsers?  If those browsers work, but Firefox 3.6 Beta 4 does not, would it not be correct to assume the problem lies within Firefox and not the Sun plug-in itself?

Comment 6

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Probably but don't use IE (ActiveX plugin) if you want to compare.

Comment 7

[Øyvind]

I just installed Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 and it seems to be working again in that version. :)

Comment 8

[Robert Longson [:longsonr]]

resolving based on comment 7