topic Re: Firefox ESR user blocked by bank because "ESR 102.6.0 is too many versions behind Firefox 1 in Discussions

Firefox ESR user blocked by bank because "ESR 102.6.0 is too many versions behind Firefox 108"

tech0020 — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 14:03:39 GMT

My bank (not a major) says their browser support policy is dictated by their hosting provider. They claim the current ESR 102.6.0 is not up to date compared to standard release 108.1.0. They are blaming Mozilla and not willing to actually look into the issue. I have to use an alternate browser to get to my banking. For me, it is a major PITA and the supposed bank IT director is on a power trip. Anyone have experience with this?

Re: Firefox ESR user blocked by bank because "ESR 102.6.0 is too many versions behind Firefox 1

kap — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 21:37:44 GMT

I am using 108.1.0 But still is blocking citibank. Will not allow citibank to recognize my computer.

Re: Firefox ESR user blocked by bank because "ESR 102.6.0 is too many versions behind Firefox 1

jscher2000 — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 20:44:12 GMT

@tech0020 wrote:
My bank (not a major) says their browser support policy is dictated by their hosting provider. They claim the current ESR 102.6.0 is not up to date compared to standard release 108.1.0. They are blaming Mozilla and not willing to actually look into the issue. I have to use an alternate browser to get to my banking. For me, it is a major PITA and the supposed bank IT director is on a power trip. Anyone have experience with this?

Unfortunately, sites can do whatever they want...

Here is a method to override the version that Firefox reports to sites. I'm not 100% sure this will work with the ESR release, but you could give it a try. The change takes effect after you quit/exit and then start Firefox up again.

Here's how you can check on that:

(A) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return. Click the button accepting the risk.

More info on about:config: Configuration Editor for Firefox. Please keep in mind that changes made through this back door aren't fully supported and aren't guaranteed to continue working in the future.

(B) In the search box in the page, type or paste network.http.useragent.forceVersion and pause while the list is filtered

(C) Double-click the preference to display an editing field, and change the value to 108 then press Enter or click the blue check mark button to save the change.

You can restart Firefox using the regular Exit/Quit => launch again method. After that, 102 should be changed to 108 in the "user agent" string that Firefox sends to sites.

Does that fool your bank?

Note: in the long run, you'll need to remember to update this to avoid going out of date again.

Re: Firefox ESR user blocked by bank because "ESR 102.6.0 is too many versions behind Firefox 1

jscher2000 — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 20:45:36 GMT

@kap wrote:
I am using 108.1.0 But still is blocking citibank. Will not allow citibank to recognize my computer.

This can be caused by changes in how Firefox handles cookies when a site uses multiple servers. I suggest posting this problem on the Mozilla Support site. They have a team of support volunteers to troubleshoot malfunctions with your currently installed version of Firefox, while this site is focused on idea submissions for future versions of Firefox (looking ahead anywhere from 8 weeks to many months). Here's a link to the new question form (for Windows/Mac/Linux): https://mzl.la/3y1vQUQ