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  • OT: useragent

    From Mayayana@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jan 10 19:44:19 2021
    XPost: alt.windows7.general

    Just had an odd experience. Went to Rottentomatoes
    with New Moon on XP, userAgent set to Firefox 80
    on Win7. If I go to a site to check my UA it's fine:
    FF80 on Win7. But RT is bouncing me to a page saying
    I need a new browser, like FF or Chrome. Anyone have
    any idea how they might be checking that? There seems
    to be something they want to do that isn't working.
    They're not going by the UA value.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From J. P. Gilliver (John)@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jan 11 02:34:58 2021
    XPost: alt.windows7.general

    On Sun, 10 Jan 2021 at 19:44:19, Mayayana <[email protected]>
    wrote (my responses usually follow points raised):
    Just had an odd experience. Went to Rottentomatoes
    with New Moon on XP, userAgent set to Firefox 80
    on Win7. If I go to a site to check my UA it's fine:
    FF80 on Win7. But RT is bouncing me to a page saying
    I need a new browser, like FF or Chrome. Anyone have
    any idea how they might be checking that? There seems
    to be something they want to do that isn't working.
    They're not going by the UA value.


    If you go there with Javascript turned off, does it "work" - whatever
    that means? Both in your choice of OS/browser/UA, and in some other
    browser where it _does_ work with JS on?
    --
    J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

    Illinc fui et illud feci, habe tunicam?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From David E. Ross@21:1/5 to Mayayana on Sun Jan 10 18:57:26 2021
    XPost: alt.windows7.general

    On 1/10/2021 4:44 PM, Mayayana wrote:
    Just had an odd experience. Went to Rottentomatoes
    with New Moon on XP, userAgent set to Firefox 80
    on Win7. If I go to a site to check my UA it's fine:
    FF80 on Win7. But RT is bouncing me to a page saying
    I need a new browser, like FF or Chrome. Anyone have
    any idea how they might be checking that? There seems
    to be something they want to do that isn't working.
    They're not going by the UA value.

    They might be testing New Moon's capabilities and not its UA.

    --

    David E. Ross
    <http://www.rossde.com/>.

    The only reason we have so many laws is that not enough people will do
    the right thing. (© 1997 by David Ross)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul@21:1/5 to Mayayana on Mon Jan 11 00:13:31 2021
    XPost: alt.windows7.general

    Mayayana wrote:
    Just had an odd experience. Went to Rottentomatoes
    with New Moon on XP, userAgent set to Firefox 80
    on Win7. If I go to a site to check my UA it's fine:
    FF80 on Win7. But RT is bouncing me to a page saying
    I need a new browser, like FF or Chrome. Anyone have
    any idea how they might be checking that? There seems
    to be something they want to do that isn't working.
    They're not going by the UA value.

    It does seem pretty snooty as web sites go.

    But it has a soft spot for losers.

    https://i.postimg.cc/KzGxJmPM/plenty-of-fish.jpg

    Now, that's a browser, that under normal circumstances,
    hardly ever manages to render anything. And look, it works.

    A thread over at Palemoon, claims it's a capability check
    related to Javascript construct. So I suppose you could
    consider it a Javascript version check, without an
    if-then-else for the actual version number. They look
    for a Javascript feature that not many browsers have,
    and crush the rest.

    And look at the browser that jumps over their crudely
    constructed fence. Konqueror.

    Paul

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mayayana@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon Jan 11 09:01:13 2021
    XPost: alt.windows7.general

    "J. P. Gilliver (John)" <[email protected]> wrote

    | If you go there with Javascript turned off, does it "work" - whatever
    | that means? Both in your choice of OS/browser/UA, and in some other
    | browser where it _does_ work with JS on?

    It works without script but then the page is a mess.
    And I tried going to other sites to check the UA (a search
    at duckduckgo and a webpage specializing in reporting
    UA) with script enabled. They both report FF80/Win7.
    So the issue doesn't seem to be script. That's what's
    got me curious. There seems to be some kind of functionality
    they're checking for.

    I checked the source and saw they were calling to
    qualitrics.com for something. So I put that in the HOSTS file
    and tried again. That had no effect. One thing I haven't
    checked is WebGL. I don't know much about it but seem
    to remember security issues, so I typically disable it, figuring
    that I'm not going to miss anything relevant. But it's conceivable
    a site could build most of their GUI with WebGL, on the spot,
    and test for that.

    Webpage code is getting so convoluted these days that it's
    no longer adequate to understand HTML and CSS in order to see
    what a page is doing. Much of it is obfuscated script creating
    the page client-side.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mayayana@21:1/5 to Paul on Mon Jan 11 09:14:58 2021
    XPost: alt.windows7.general

    "Paul" <[email protected]d> wrote

    | A thread over at Palemoon, claims it's a capability check
    | related to Javascript construct. So I suppose you could
    | consider it a Javascript version check, without an
    | if-then-else for the actual version number. They look
    | for a Javascript feature that not many browsers have,
    | and crush the rest.
    |
    | And look at the browser that jumps over their crudely
    | constructed fence. Konqueror.
    |

    Very interesting. There must be someplace where all
    of this is detailed. Though it may be that my best bet is
    to think of it like a web designer and search for sniffing
    tips. I've also found some pages that work in FF 52 but
    not in recent NM. That seems especially odd. But I've lost
    track of all the pizzazz that's getting added into browsers
    and why/where it might be needed.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mayayana@21:1/5 to David E. Ross on Mon Jan 11 09:02:25 2021
    XPost: alt.windows7.general

    "David E. Ross" <not_me@not_there.invalid> wrote

    They might be testing New Moon's capabilities and not its UA.

    That's what I'm wondering, but then the question
    is what capabilities? What does a nearly new browser need
    that RT isn't finding?

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)