Pages that need Internet Explorer

hsimah · 06-14-2006, 01:59 AM

I run Windows on my main computer cause I play a lot of video games. On all my other PC's I run Slackware, with the exception of the one my Mum uses. I was going to put Slack on it too (I did actually), but HSBC (bank) website requires IE or Netscape Communicator. Is there any way of getting this page to load under Linux?

EDIT: Searching these forums is usually a good idea. I found several helpful threads. Sorry :-\

rkelsen · 06-14-2006, 02:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hsimah

Netscape Communicator.

Should work with Mozilla then.

theYinYeti · 06-14-2006, 02:31 AM

Netscape Communicator is not at all like Mozilla or Netscape 6/7.
As far as I know, latest version is 4.79 and is available for Linux in Netscape's download archives (else I have it at home if need be).

Yves.

rkelsen · 06-14-2006, 03:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theYinYeti

Netscape Communicator is not at all like Mozilla

Netscape Communicator 7.0 was based on Mozilla 1.0.1

If you don't believe me:

http://freshmeat.net/projects/netsca...lease_id=95465

So, any webpage which requires Netscape Communicator should work fine in Mozilla. And that has been my exact experience for the past 3 years...

penguintutor · 06-14-2006, 04:51 AM

The HSBC Site gives the following

Quote:

Browser Requirements
Our Internet Banking service supports most browsers. However, as new browser versions are introduced, the software manufacturer (eg, Microsoft, Netscape) may no longer maintain old versions. This may result in difficulties accessing Internet Banking using older browsers. Potentially, difficulties may also be experienced with new browsers that have not yet been tested to ensure compatibility with our service. For security reasons, we reserve the right to prevent access to our service through certain browsers. If you experience any problems accessing our service, further guidance and advice can be obtained by contacting our Internet Banking Helpdesk.

So I would expect it to work in Firefox, the second most popular browser on the Internet (or the first on one of my websites).

Quote:

Netscape Communicator is not at all like Mozilla

Quote:

Netscape Communicator 7.0 was based on Mozilla 1.0.1

The old netscape (up to version 4.7) was replaced through a major rewrite by the Gecho rendering engine used in the Mozilla / Netscape 6 browser. Since then all "Netscape" browsers have been based on the Mozilla Gecho engine, which is also the basis for Firefox and a few other browsers. Any site that supports Netscape 7 etc. should render in Firefox / Mozilla.

There is still a problem with some sites that try and detect what browser you are using and if not satisfied will refuse to let you use the site. These web sites are broken. Thankfully these sites are now very few and far between, and it is now very rare that I ever need to use anything other than Firefox. If you have a site that doesn't work then I suggest you contact them and ask why their site is not compliant with the current (or even the old HTML4) W3C guidelines.

pixellany · 06-14-2006, 07:47 AM

I have almost NEVER found a site that did not work with Firefox. Any time that I did, they fixed it. Contact the bank and ask them to fix it.

theYinYeti · 06-14-2006, 04:44 PM

Ooops sorry...
I didn't think they had kept the word "Communicator" for versions 6 and up; I thought this word was only refering to older versions.

Indeed, any page intended to render well on N.6 or better should display well on Firefox as well.

Yves

haertig · 06-14-2006, 05:40 PM

Even if the site doesn't APPEAR to like Firefox or whatever, you still might be able to nudge it into working for you by faking your UserAgent.

In Firefox you can do this by entering "about:config" as the URL, and then adding a new setting named "general.useragent.override". Right-click in the browser window, then choose "New->String" and enter the override. I currently have mind set to "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows)" although I'm running Firefox on a Linux box. Of course if the website wants IE so it can use Active-X, you're pretty much hosed without IE. Nobody else supports that (good thing!)

penguintutor · 06-15-2006, 04:06 AM

Quote:

I didn't think they had kept the word "Communicator" for versions 6 and up; I thought this word was only refering to older versions.

Communicator referred to the full bundled suite of programs.

The browser, is Netscape Navigator.

If you had the Browser, Email Client and Composer then this was packaged as Netscape Communicator.

The communicator suite was becoming too big and clumsy. They started the Firefox project (or Firebird as it was known at the time, before they realised someone else was already using that name), to create just the browser, as fast and slick as possible, basing it on the Gecho rendering engine. Judging by the popularity of Firefox, this was one of the best decisions they made :-)