Firefox Interfacing with University Website Portals

[drscaggs]

Hi, there!

I am a university professor who prefers Mozilla Firefox for accessing my university's portal. However, it seems that Mozilla is not optimized for it. Instead, the recommendation is to use Google Chrome.

Now, I like Chrome, but I have been using Firefox for at least 15 years (loyal consumer!), and I am just wondering if this issue is something that Mozilla "fixes" on its end, or if IT on my campus is responsible for making it work with its interfaces.

Thanks for any advice you can offer!

Cheers,

DMS

[siffemcon]

"not optimized for it"

If you expect any help at all, you should seriously consider specifying exactly what the issues are.

[drscaggs]

Well, that's a rather snarky comment. 

Anyone out there who knows what I'm experiencing (because it happens to you) when (trying) to access university portals who can help me with kindness will be much appreciated!  

I can log into my University's portal and use it, but often I can't open links embedded on pages, complete forms embedded on specific internal sources, or watch embedded videos. This doesn't happen all of the time.

I know that clearing cache, cookies, and history can help (it doesn't); I know that logging out and back in can help (it doesn't); I know that checking for updates and ensuring that I'm running the latest version of Firefox can help (it doesn't); and restarting my computer,  after these previous options are exhausted, can help (it doesn't).

When I switch to Chrome or Edge, there are no issues. After some time (a week or two), I can return to Firefox and it's working fine. Then, after some time, it all starts over.

I hope these details are enough to give you an idea of the issue, but if not, please ask for what you need from me to help you help me. (Just do so kindly. I'm not in IT, so I don't know what is needed.)

A fellow human, 

Thanks!

[siffemcon]

I'm not sure why you're having only intermittent problems. See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/xframe-neterror-page.

[drscaggs]

I don't either, and that's why I posted the issue. I suspect that is it something to do with my institution not optimizing its servers or whatever it is that would allow me to access what I need using Firefox. The IT department optimizes university servers for Chrome, I guess. However, I was hoping there was something I could do on my end to keep using Mozilla, but I'll have to switch, I guess.

Thanks anyway.

Cheers,

Dr. Scaggs

[Honza]

Hi @drscaggs 

any chance we can get URL to reproduce the issues on our machines?

[drscaggs]

Hi, Honza!

Thank you for the kinder response to my issue than the others.

The url is one that uses my university credentials, so sharing it would not give you access.  I responded to @siffemcon with what I think might be the issue. As I wrote there, I suspect it is my institution's IT department not optimizing the servers (or whatever it is that connects me to the institutional internal resources) for Firefox. They recommend Chrome.

I was just hoping that someone would have had a similar experience and could let me know if there was something on my end that could be done so that I don't have to switch to Chrome. It looks like that is not going to happen.

Thank you, though, for taking the time and offering help!

Cheers,

Dr. Scaggs