Re: [newbie] User Agent
Carroll Grigsby wrote: On Monday 01 November 2004 10:40 pm, Tom Karen Pino wrote: snip Ok, so I use windoze (although I can't see why one would us IE). Why do you want to appear to use IE at all and 5 in particular? Tom Tom: The usual reason is that there are many websites which use the browser id string to determine if you are using IE or not; if you aren't, you are denied access. There are also others which restrict access to either IE or Netscape. Now, if you are 100 per cent linux, you are left with three choices: Lie to them, go somewhere else, or install Windows. Well, it turns out that the first choice is often quite effective because many other browsers can access many of those sites with no problems at all. Now -- who's the bigger liar here? Me, or the MS guy who convinced the website admin that he would have all sorts of problems if he allowed non-MS browsers to access his website? Banks, in particular, are among the worst offenders in this regard (but there are lots of other sites guilty of the same stupidity). Not to be all doom-and-gloom, I saw a report on the web within the past few days that there is a growing trend in the Windows community to move away from the crap MS browsers to Firefox and Mozilla. Perhaps that will force some of those dullhead webmins to rethink their stance. -- cmg I have no problem with lying to sites like that at all. I was just baffled by someone wanting to have people think the were using IE. I have used Netscape from the beginning on this machine. I found that if I updated (late 98 thru 2000) Win98, Netscape was screwed every time. IE is a crappy browser. MS is out to control the net. I have no personal need to go to sites that insist on IE so I don't. I find this solution very interesting. Thank you for explaining. Have fun, Tom Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
Re: [newbie] User Agent
On Monday 01 November 2004 23:42, Marc wrote: 2 reasons # 1 a MLS real estate web site that seems to do nothing but say that it only works with Internet Exployter #2 as a further troubleshooting measure in trying to solve my DSL problems with my local ISP. I have tried everything suggested by the folks here and LOTS of other things. 1 thing that crossed my mind is that perhaps they have a server with a virus that is meant to screw up service for linux machines or perhaps something from the evil empire installed in 1 of their servers that is meant to screw up linux users. Just a WAG on my part. What the heck I have tried everything else. Marc, you should probably keep in mind that the one thing that will be impossible to fake for IE are security issues like enabling ActiveX. Those technologies can not be duplicated on Linux, regardless of the user agent string that you send. If the web site in question is checking for ActiveX being enabled, you are not going to be able to fake it. -- Bryan Phinney Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
Re: [newbie] User Agent
On Tuesday 02 November 2004 00:00, Carroll Grigsby wrote: Tom: The usual reason is that there are many websites which use the browser id string to determine if you are using IE or not; if you aren't, you are denied access. There are also others which restrict access to either IE or Netscape. Now, if you are 100 per cent linux, you are left with three choices: Lie to them, go somewhere else, or install Windows. Well, it turns out that the first choice is often quite effective because many other browsers can access many of those sites with no problems at all. Now -- who's the bigger liar here? Me, or the MS guy who convinced the website admin that he would have all sorts of problems if he allowed non-MS browsers to access his website? Banks, in particular, are among the worst offenders in this regard (but there are lots of other sites guilty of the same stupidity). To be fair, not all sites deny non-IE access out of spite or because they suspect problems so much as they do so for support reasons. For instance, a bank that offers to download bank statements directly from the browser to integrate with Quicken is likely to refuse to operate with other than IE because IE is integrated with Quicken and Quicken is Windows Only. They may just not want to go through the support nightmare of trying to explain to Mom and Pop why they can't get the stuff to work seamlessly on their non-IE browser. Not that they shouldn't be supporting their clients, however, support issues do tend to be less costly with a braindead (reinstall, reboot, reimage) support model OS. They should support alternates, but the reality is that they are under the same cost pressures as everyone else. You tend to support the biggest installed base and neglect the lesser installed base. Economics. Hopefully that will change. -- Bryan Phinney Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
Re: [newbie] User Agent
On November 2, 2004 05:25, Bryan Phinney wrote: .. Not that they shouldn't be supporting their clients, however, support issues do tend to be less costly with a braindead (reinstall, reboot, reimage) support model OS. They should support alternates, but the reality is that they are under the same cost pressures as everyone else. You tend to support the biggest installed base and neglect the lesser installed base. Economics. Hopefully that will change. I think that quite a few sites are simpy bribed/coerced/deceived/defaulted into using the MS web server software, and it is this server that rejects non-IE access. They may not even tell the customers about this feature of their software. -- Ron Hunter-Duvar ronhd at users dot sourceforge dot net Opinions expressed here are all mine. Rights to use these opinions are granted under the GNU GPL. Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
[newbie] User Agent
Does anyone here know how to modify the user agent ID in any of the popular browsers, Mozilla, Opera, Firefox or Konqueror to make things appear that I am using a Windoze machine running IE . I know that in most Linux browsere there is a quick easy way to change it in preferances but that seems to still leave some tell tale evidance at the end of the user agent string. I need to change things to appear EXACTLY as a windoze machine would. Thanks In advance Marc Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
Re: [newbie] User Agent
On Monday 01 November 2004 16:53, Marc wrote: Does anyone here know how to modify the user agent ID in any of the popular browsers, Mozilla, Opera, Firefox or Konqueror to make things appear that I am using a Windoze machine running IE . I know that in most Linux browsere there is a quick easy way to change it in preferances but that seems to still leave some tell tale evidance at the end of the user agent string. I need to change things to appear EXACTLY as a windoze machine would. Thanks In advance Marc Opera - Hit F12 Firefox/Mozilla - Install the extension -User Agent Switcher Konqueror - SetupBrowser Identification derek -- www.jennings.homelinux.net http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
Re: [newbie] User Agent
On Monday 01 November 2004 10:58 am, Derek Jennings wrote: On Monday 01 November 2004 16:53, Marc wrote: Does anyone here know how to modify the user agent ID in any of the popular browsers, Mozilla, Opera, Firefox or Konqueror to make things appear that I am using a Windoze machine running IE . I know that in most Linux browsere there is a quick easy way to change it in preferances but that seems to still leave some tell tale evidance at the end of the user agent string. I need to change things to appear EXACTLY as a windoze machine would. Thanks In advance Marc Opera - Hit F12 Firefox/Mozilla - Install the extension -User Agent Switcher Konqueror - SetupBrowser Identification derek Thanks Derek but that still leaves tell tale evidence that I am using a linux machine trying to pass it self off as a windoze machine at the end of the user agent string. I need to actually find the user agent and edit it to appear exactly as a windoze machine running IE. Marc Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
Re: [newbie] User Agent
On Monday 01 November 2004 17:08, Marc wrote: On Monday 01 November 2004 10:58 am, Derek Jennings wrote: On Monday 01 November 2004 16:53, Marc wrote: Does anyone here know how to modify the user agent ID in any of the popular browsers, Mozilla, Opera, Firefox or Konqueror to make things appear that I am using a Windoze machine running IE . I know that in most Linux browsere there is a quick easy way to change it in preferances but that seems to still leave some tell tale evidance at the end of the user agent string. I need to change things to appear EXACTLY as a windoze machine would. Thanks In advance Marc Opera - Hit F12 Firefox/Mozilla - Install the extension -User Agent Switcher Konqueror - SetupBrowser Identification derek Thanks Derek but that still leaves tell tale evidence that I am using a linux machine trying to pass it self off as a windoze machine at the end of the user agent string. I need to actually find the user agent and edit it to appear exactly as a windoze machine running IE. Marc The User Agent Switcher in Firefox allows you to define your own string. Doesn't that do what you need? Also I'm pretty sure you can customise konqueror's user agent strings. I'm kust not sure where that data is kept. derek -- www.jennings.homelinux.net http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
Re: [newbie] User Agent
On Monday 01 November 2004 17:14, Derek Jennings wrote: On Monday 01 November 2004 17:08, Marc wrote: On Monday 01 November 2004 10:58 am, Derek Jennings wrote: On Monday 01 November 2004 16:53, Marc wrote: Does anyone here know how to modify the user agent ID in any of the popular browsers, Mozilla, Opera, Firefox or Konqueror to make things appear that I am using a Windoze machine running IE . I know that in most Linux browsere there is a quick easy way to change it in preferances but that seems to still leave some tell tale evidance at the end of the user agent string. I need to change things to appear EXACTLY as a windoze machine would. Thanks In advance Marc Opera - Hit F12 Firefox/Mozilla - Install the extension -User Agent Switcher Konqueror - SetupBrowser Identification derek Thanks Derek but that still leaves tell tale evidence that I am using a linux machine trying to pass it self off as a windoze machine at the end of the user agent string. I need to actually find the user agent and edit it to appear exactly as a windoze machine running IE. Marc The User Agent Switcher in Firefox allows you to define your own string. Doesn't that do what you need? Also I'm pretty sure you can customise konqueror's user agent strings. I'm just not sure where that data is kept. derek I found konqueror's user agent strings. Look in /usr/share/services/useragentstrings derek -- www.jennings.homelinux.net http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
Re: [newbie] User Agent
Thanks Derek but that still leaves tell tale evidence that I am using a linux machine trying to pass it self off as a windoze machine at the end of the user agent string. I need to actually find the user agent and edit it to appear exactly as a windoze machine running IE. Marc The User Agent Switcher in Firefox allows you to define your own string. Doesn't that do what you need? Also I'm pretty sure you can customise konqueror's user agent strings. I'm just not sure where that data is kept. derek I found konqueror's user agent strings. Look in /usr/share/services/useragentstrings derek THANKS Derek I will give your 2 suggestions a try Marc Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
Re: [newbie] User Agent
Derek Jennings wrote: On Monday 01 November 2004 17:08, Marc wrote: On Monday 01 November 2004 10:58 am, Derek Jennings wrote: On Monday 01 November 2004 16:53, Marc wrote: Does anyone here know how to modify the user agent ID in any of the popular browsers, Mozilla, Opera, Firefox or Konqueror to make things appear that I am using a Windoze machine running IE . I know that in most Linux browsere there is a quick easy way to change it in preferances but that seems to still leave some tell tale evidance at the end of the user agent string. I need to change things to appear EXACTLY as a windoze machine would. Thanks In advance Marc Opera - Hit F12 Firefox/Mozilla - Install the extension -User Agent Switcher Konqueror - SetupBrowser Identification derek Thanks Derek but that still leaves tell tale evidence that I am using a linux machine trying to pass it self off as a windoze machine at the end of the user agent string. I need to actually find the user agent and edit it to appear exactly as a windoze machine running IE. Marc The User Agent Switcher in Firefox allows you to define your own string. Doesn't that do what you need? Also I'm pretty sure you can customise konqueror's user agent strings. I'm kust not sure where that data is kept. derek Ok, so I use windoze (although I can't see why one would us IE). Why do you want to appear to use IE at all and 5 in particular? Tom Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
Re: [newbie] User Agent
On Monday 01 November 2004 09:40 pm, Tom Karen Pino wrote: Ok, so I use windoze (although I can't see why one would us IE). Why do you want to appear to use IE at all and 5 in particular? Tom 2 reasons # 1 a MLS real estate web site that seems to do nothing but say that it only works with Internet Exployter #2 as a further troubleshooting measure in trying to solve my DSL problems with my local ISP. I have tried everything suggested by the folks here and LOTS of other things. 1 thing that crossed my mind is that perhaps they have a server with a virus that is meant to screw up service for linux machines or perhaps something from the evil empire installed in 1 of their servers that is meant to screw up linux users. Just a WAG on my part. What the heck I have tried everything else. Marc Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
Re: [newbie] User Agent
On Monday 01 November 2004 10:40 pm, Tom Karen Pino wrote: snip Ok, so I use windoze (although I can't see why one would us IE). Why do you want to appear to use IE at all and 5 in particular? Tom Tom: The usual reason is that there are many websites which use the browser id string to determine if you are using IE or not; if you aren't, you are denied access. There are also others which restrict access to either IE or Netscape. Now, if you are 100 per cent linux, you are left with three choices: Lie to them, go somewhere else, or install Windows. Well, it turns out that the first choice is often quite effective because many other browsers can access many of those sites with no problems at all. Now -- who's the bigger liar here? Me, or the MS guy who convinced the website admin that he would have all sorts of problems if he allowed non-MS browsers to access his website? Banks, in particular, are among the worst offenders in this regard (but there are lots of other sites guilty of the same stupidity). Not to be all doom-and-gloom, I saw a report on the web within the past few days that there is a growing trend in the Windows community to move away from the crap MS browsers to Firefox and Mozilla. Perhaps that will force some of those dullhead webmins to rethink their stance. -- cmg Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com Join the Club : http://www.mandrakeclub.com
