First post....thanks for the warm welcome.

My brilliant 16 year old son (he's not here right now) set-up my laptop with linux and mozilla firefox for web browsing....I LOVE it....BUT.....now I can't get into my ebank page. The bank says I should "set the internet explorer/tools/internet options/advanced to: "do not save encrypted pages to disk".

Since I don't seem to HAVE "internet explorer", I am having trouble following their instruction. Does anyone recognize this problem?? Is there an equivalent setting in linux/mozilla?? Is there a work-around?

Thanks in advance,

Stationmaster

well there's no way that they can know if that option is set or not. i fail to believe that they could be doing any sort of test about this... is this actively stopping you using it? what form does this message take? i'd speculate that if this is stopping you, it's probably symptomatic of a general incompatibility which is unliekly to be able to be worked around. you *could* run IE in wine / crossover office if you really need to.

As Acid already said I don't think they can get that value. The default is *not* to cache SSL pages anyway. If they can find out, here's how to change the setting in Firefox anyway: open browser, type about:config" in the URL bar (enter). Type "browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl". Select the line in the inner window and press enter to toggle the value between "true" and "false".

My experience is that pretty often these are "scare tactics." In
other words, they say your browser won't work, but that's simply not
true (and perhaps they believe that it is true, only they know). I
did my taxes on H&R Block .com and they said "Your operating system is
not supported" and "You must have Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer" and
"You must use Adobe Acrobat Reader." However, I did the whole thing
through Konqueror and KPDF on Linux with absolutely no problems.

I also access my banking just fine with Konqueror or Firefox on Linux,
and have never had any problems. All the security features work just
fine.

Joel

well it's certainly *not* scare tactics... you think that world banks are trying to strongarm customers into using microsoft software? nah.. it's just ignorance, or a very simple get-out clause for them not having to support any browser other than IE, which is their lookout.

OK, rocket boy is home from school and we have done the following:

Downloaded ALL the updates my laptop said were available which brought mozilla firefox up to 2.0.0.6.

Changed the setting described by unSpawn.

Compared and matched ALL of the "user set" settings with my previous laptop which works fine (running Windows 2000 and mozilla firefox).

erased all cookies and cache files.

Restarted the new laptop.

Tried accessing my bank log in page between each of the above.

Still can't get in. The symptom is: I put in the user ID, go to a page that says" processing log in" no further progress.

The bank gave me a sheet they have all prepared for customers who complain. That's where I got the instruction to change the setting to "do not save encrypted pages to disk"

I wouldnt be so perplexed but I have 2 identical laptops, one running windows, the other running linux, BOTH running mozilla firefox, time sharing the same wireless card and the same router......one works - the other doesn't!!!!!!

My son just announced that on HIS desktop (he has room for both operating systems) Windows/mozilla/firefox works, linux/mozilla/firefox doesn't.

time to give up? : )

Stationmaster

Sounds like a typical Javascript check problem to me. Does the GNU/Linux FF run any plugins like Noscript? Every Java/Javascript tickbox set to enabled? What happens if you clean your cache 'n related cookies, close the browser, restart it BUT bring up the Javascript console *BEFORE* you go to the login page.


//Also I find this is not a Linux Security question. I'll be moving this thread to Linux General.

I get this error in the Javascript console as the last item:

If you search around for "Permission denied to call method Location.toString" it's linked to a few causes (window.location.href, firebug extension, Flash, dynamic resizing, etc, etc) and from that I get the idea it's limited to the Linux and MacOS versions of Firefox. (BTW, did you ever try it with the 1.x version of Firefox?) You could ask the bank to look into it or check the Firefox bugtracker for clues, workarounds or fixes or add it as a bug.

It's apparently not a problem within Firefox. I installed Internet Explorer 6 under Wine (http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page) but the login process hangs at the same point.

OK!!!!! with IE6.0 installed (from the previous post), AND "flash" disabled, I can now access my bank info from my N-E-E-W-W-W laptop.

Thank God for young geniuses.

Stationmaster

Okay, I admit scare tactics was a poor choice of words. I agree with you completely. However, it's incorrect in many cases and it does scare people. It scared me when I first started using Linux. After a while though, I applied my new-found technical knowledge to the subject and realized that it was either not possible or not worth switching back.

I'll give you an example: yesterday a young lady in our office came to me, asking me to help her pick out a new printer for our office. We looked at the HP web pages and compared the models. A box down at the bottom included "Supported operating systems," where they had the Windows and MacOS logos. I explained that that is just a way for them to make people feel confident that the printer will work with their computers. HP certainly support Linux --- at the very least they support printing from my computer to their printer. If I was slightly less knowledgeable, for example I didn't know that my computer uses the HPLIP package to communicate with the printer, I might be made a little more comfortable by seeing Tux next to the Windows and Mac logos.

Incidentally I recently inspected the box of a cheap flash drive at Target and did find Tux next to the Windows and MacOS logos.

My intent was to let the original poster know that I'm not scared anymore and neither should he be scared.

Joel

Original Poster Not Scared......Hu...Hu...Hu (tool time grunt) : ]

Seriously though, thanks again guys

Stationmaster (and son)

I find it's generally a safety net, and a lack of technical support.

The place near my work refuses to acknowledge whether or not their products work on Linux. They're view is that if someone can't get it to work, they don't want it returned. Most devices are P&P in Windows Operating systems now, which is what your average consumer wants.

Not to mention the average technical ability of a call centre member compares quite well with a tree stump and so it's difficult from a support perspective (although Dell have gone the route of outsourcing their support to a Linux Savvy company, that seems to be doing ok right now).

Not since i had a Dell OEM Soundblaster live 5.1 soundcard about 3 or 4 years ago have i found something that doesn't work in Linux, but they'll cover their own arse anyway.