cannot access eftps

[John R. Sowden]

I just tried to access the eftps (where employers pay payroll taxes, etc.) and was locked out.  This is a fed site.  Their big bitch is that they no longer allow computers using windows xp.  They came on with a phone recording saying that they detected that I am using IE and win xp, so I must t change.  Either this is a blatant lie, or their checking system is not working.  I am using Ubuntu 14.04 lts and Firefox, the latest.   Anyway, I went up 3 levels of support and found that Linux is ok and Firefox is ok, no idea what the problem is.  She suggested the chrome browser.  I went to the Ubuntu software download site and got chromium, which accessed eftps fine.. Does this mean there is a ff problem?

John

[Big Al]

You shouid also know there are two browsers, Chromium and
Google-Chrome-Stable. They're close but not the same. Not sure how
different their detection is or how diff they are in operation. Not
that any of this is relevant to your problem, but just FYI. Both arein
my package manager.

I loaded the chrome-stable because I came from windows and I was used to
that and wanted things as close as they could be, maybe add-ons are not
similar?? I don't know, I'm no techie in Linux, I just did it, and know
they are there Again FYI.

[John R. Sowden]

It's my understanding that Chrome is a direct channel from your private information to the Google sales counter, while chromium is supposed to be more protected.  I mentioned about the google chrome issue to the fed lady, she got a little vague but basically said they tell people about it because it works.  I installed chromium and found a few quirks, like I can make it the default browser, by mistake, but cannot undo it.  I cannot eliminate search engines from its list.  I can add, I can make one the default, but I cannot delete.  Stuff like that.

Now I wonder what the FF issue is, as I would rather  use a browser from an organization that couldn't care less what I search for.

John
 

On 02/16/2016 01:35 PM, Big Al wrote:

On 02/16/2016 03:59 PM, John R. Sowden wrote:

I just tried to access the eftps (where employers pay payroll taxes, etc.) and was locked out.  This is a fed site.  Their big bitch is that they no longer allow computers using windows xp.  They came on with a phone recording saying that they detected that I am using IE and win xp, so I must t change.  Either this is a blatant lie, or their checking system is not working.  I am using Ubuntu 14.04 lts and Firefox, the latest.   Anyway, I went up 3 levels of support and found that Linux is ok and Firefox is ok, no idea what the problem is.  She suggested the chrome browser.  I went to the Ubuntu software download site and got chromium, which accessed eftps fine.. Does this mean there is a ff problem?

John

You shouid also know there are two browsers, Chromium and Google-Chrome-Stable.   They're close but not the same.  Not sure how different their detection is or how diff they are in operation.   Not that any of this is relevant to your problem, but just FYI. Both arein my package manager.

I loaded the chrome-stable because I came from windows and I was used to that and wanted things as close as they could be, maybe add-ons are not similar?? I don't know, I'm no techie in Linux, I just did it,  and know they are there    Again FYI.

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[Al]

No problem here using ESR 37.0.2. Accessed and set up my 2016 estimated
payments this morning, and just checked again when I read your post.
https://www.eftps.gov/eftps/

[VanguardLH]

Sounds like a Windows shop. They don't know Linux. They don't know how
to handle the UA string that reports the client is coming from Linux.
Can you use their site if you use an add-on to send a UA string that
makes you look like you are using Firefox (or even IE) on a Win7 host?

What UA string is your Firefox instance sending? There are sites to
tell you what they got from your client (http://useragentstring.com/).
I've seen sites that use a table of allowed versions of a web browser
but they are stupid in setting an upper bound. That is, they check for
a max version but it is less than the currently released version so they
block with a bogus error that your web browser doesn't meet their
criteria for client version. You might have to set the UA string to
report an earlier version of your client.

Since this is a gov't site, it is no suprise they are using the ancient
method of using the User Agent string to determine the capabilities of a
visiting client. The UA string can be spoofed (and, as such, can be a
solution to their defective detection) and doesn't really relay what a
client can support. Using the UA string has been long considered a bad
or limp method of detecting client capabilities but many sites still do
it. window.navigator.userAgent is deprecated and should not be used.
The recommended method is feature detection.

You will have to wait until the site gets around to updating their table
of UA strings to include the one reported by your client, or you could
use a UA add-on to lie to the site.