SillyDog701

[htimba]

I can access it with both NS 7.1 and 7.2 but not Mozilla 1.7.3 or Firefox 1.0PR
It's http://www.michigan.gov/treasury/. I click on Individual. Then on the next page I click on Self-Service. On the next page I click on Check my Tax and Refund Information and I can't access the page after that. Instead I get "This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below."

I can access this page fine with Netscape but not with Mozilla and I thought the two browsers were practically identical except for the added Netscape features. I no longer have Mozilla 1.7.3 installed but I decided to keep Firefox until the final verion of 1.0 is released. Is there anyway to fix this problem?

My girlfriend hasn't gotten her state tax refund back this year and so she uses this site to check her refund status. When she discovered this problem I told her to use Netscape instead and it worked. But I wondered if this was going to be a problem with other sites. I figure this might help in the developement of the browser. Or maybe the browser is capable if accessing this page but something is the browser is disabled and needs to be enabled. This particular site has a section about "Updating your Browser", because it uses a 128-bit encryption code. Apparently Mozilla Suite and Firefox most not recognize this. The site lists compatible browsers as well.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)

[Fulvio]

I, obviously, can't check the site, but I have experienced this with the weight Watchers site, which plain did not get anywhere at a certain point with Mozilla 1.7.3. I asked them, and they said, more or less that they block untested browsers. So, it is not your program, but rather the site, which has a "sniffer". I got around some of the problems, with using the User Agent Switcher. I don't know if it is the answer or what, but I have been able to get some Yahoo music sites, by faking that I was NS7.1, the only new one accepted, or NS7.2 to accept Moz1.7.3. I have not tried FF1.0, but it should work.
When you do that, make sure that you enter an User Agent, like the one displayed at the bottom of the messages, at this site.
[tt]UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)[/tt]
And, please go back to the default conditions when you are done. It may not work, but it is worth a shot. One should not have to do this, but they are asking for it.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041103 Firefox/1.0RC2

[akbash]

Actually you can get as far as htimba described without logging in and yes, it works fine in Firefox if you configure Firefox to identify itself as Netscape, just as Fulvio described. Obviously www.michigan.gov is changing its behaviour depending on what kind of browser it believes you're using, and tripping up on Firefox.

I remember seeing a similar case at another state's tax website. I think it was a different state. It seems an education in web programming is not part of the standard civil service exam

So spoof Netscape to use Firefox at Michigan's treasury website. Please do stop spoofing Netscape when you're done. Otherwise various web-monitoring services will underestimate Firefox's "market" penetration, and backward websites will feel no pressure to embrace the 21st century.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041106 Firefox/1.0

[Fulvio]

I may have not been very clear when I said : " please go back to the default conditions when you are done", without explaining why.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)

[htimba]

Well, I basically told my girlfriend to use Netscape. I don't have any need to visit that particular web-site since I've gotten my state taxes back. And if I encounter any other websites that are browser picky then I'll just copy the URL, open up Netscape and then paste and go. It sucks that I should have to do that, but I think it was Mick Jagger that sang "Yu can't always git, whatchu wawnt."

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041001 Firefox/0.10.1

[Fulvio]

Hi! Don't fight city hall, unless you have a good plan. I just won the last battle using the User Agent Switcher in FF1.00 RC2 pointing to NS7.2. It worked only after I copied my entire NS7.2 folder, except for the npmozax.dll file, to the FF folder. I am listening to music at that site.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041103 Firefox/1.0RC2