Capital One website broken for Firefox ESR

[Cruz, Jaime]

Website is https://www.capitalone.com

Entering my ID and password results in a screen saying "We've hit a
snag, try again in a bit." This has been happening for two days.

I've successfully logged into the site using regular Firefox, Google
Chrome and even Pale Moon; all work. Using Firefox ESR on either Linux
or Windows results in the error screen. I plan on calling their support
line later but I'm wondering if anyone here might have a workaround I
might try?

--
Jaime A. Cruz

Nassau Wings Motorcycle Club
http://www.nassauwings.org/

AMA District 34
https://www.amad34.org/

[Rav]

On 1/29/2021 8:43 AM, Cruz, Jaime wrote:
> Website is https://www.capitalone.com
>
> Entering my ID and password results in a screen saying "We've hit a
> snag, try again in a bit."  This has been happening for two days.
>
> I've successfully logged into the site using regular Firefox, Google
> Chrome and even Pale Moon; all work.  Using Firefox ESR on either Linux
> or Windows results in the error screen.  I plan on calling their support
> line later but I'm wondering if anyone here might have a workaround I
> might try?
>

I can tell you this: I've been having trouble with the Capital One
website myself. I reported a problem a few weeks ago where when I try
to go into my Paperless settings it errors out with "Oops, we've hit a
snag! We apologize ... please try again later." For me, it doesn't
work in ANY browser. I've followed up with them twice since then, and
as of over a week ago they said their IT department was working on it.
As of today, it's still broken. So I wouldn't get your hopes up that
calling their support line will get it resolved any time soon.

[Cruz, Jaime]

The problem is DEFINITELY just with the ESR version of Firefox. I called
their support line and gave them detailed information. The person who
answered said the oldest version of Firefox they support is 81, and the
ESR version is based on 78. Why the ESR version would not work, but
Pale Moon (which is based on even OLDER code) would work is a mystery to
me...

[Andy Burns]

Cruz, Jaime wrote:

> The problem is DEFINITELY just with the ESR version of Firefox. I called
> their support line and gave them detailed information.  The person who
> answered said the oldest version of Firefox they support is 81, and the
> ESR version is based on 78.

Have you tried faking a firefox 81+ user agent?

[Revvie Quar]

On 1/29/2021 7:43, Cruz, Jaime wrote:
> Website is https://www.capitalone.com
>
> Entering my ID and password results in a screen saying "We've hit a
> snag, try again in a bit."  This has been happening for two days.
>
> I've successfully logged into the site using regular Firefox, Google
> Chrome and even Pale Moon; all work.  Using Firefox ESR on either Linux
> or Windows results in the error screen.  I plan on calling their support
> line later but I'm wondering if anyone here might have a workaround I
> might try?
>

Hmmm, I use Waterfox G3.0.2 (64bit), based on Gecko 78.6.0 and I get the
same result. Even turning off uMatrix and uBlock Origin did nothing.

It will, however, open in MS Edge which I am loath to do unless
necessary as in a situation like this.

I reckon there's something in FF/Waterfox's Mozilla-based config that
does not play well with CapOne's site. Above my pay grade to know why.

--
Revvie Quar

Gryphons RAWK!

[NFN Smith]

I'm guessing that there's a UA sniffing issue going on.

However, in the Grand Scheme of Things, the most likely reason is "it's
not Chrome", and where they pretty much presume that Chrome is a
universal standard (including in-house usage) and that "nobody uses
Firefox anymore". If it works for them in Chrome, that's good enough,
and they're not interested in doing the work to support any other browsers.

I find this kind of attitude to be common with financial institutions,
where they're frequently the most aggressive in demanding only recent
versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge. They may phrase their
objections in terms of security concerns or available features, but I've
found that with UA spoofing, most of the objections are bogus. Even if
I'm running Seamonkey, for most sites, I can spoof the most current
version of Firefox or Chrome, and the sites work as expected.

I believe that most of the time, the reason for a limited list of
acceptable browsers is what site support staffs are willing to spend
time supporting. If people live in Chrome, they're happy to support
Chrome. Most of the time, they will support the others (if
reluctantly), but if you're having problems and tell them "I'm running
[PaleMoon|Waterfox|Seamonkey|etc.], they'll end the conversation
immediately. It's not that the forked projects are incapable, so much
as that support people (and their managers) have neither inclination or
time to interact with anything that's even slightly different from what
they're willing to support.

Smith

[Cruz, Jaime]

Just tried that. Changed the agent to:
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux x86_64; rv:85.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/85.0

Went back and it still threw up the error page. It must be checking
something else.

[😉 Good Guy 😉]

On 29/01/2021 21:01, Cruz, Jaime wrote:

Went back and it still threw up the error page.  It must be checking something else.

Could it be the operating System?  Some secure sites may not allow Linux operating System.  Barclays bank in the UK doesn't allow as far as I am aware but they might have changed their policy about this.

So try changing the OS in tandem with FF version.

What is the esr version on your system?  The latest version is 78.7.0 ESR

--

With over 1.2 billion devices now running Windows 10, customer satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

[Cruz, Jaime]

No, not operating system. Got the same error using the ESR version on
Windows. Worked fine using the standard version of Firefox. I do have
the latest version of ESR installed on both Linux and Windows.

[Dave Royal]

On 30 Jan 2021 02:42:40 +0000 😉 Good Guy 😉 wrote:
>
>Could it be the operating System?  Some secure sites may not allow Linux
>operating System.  Barclays bank in the UK doesn't allow as far as I am
>aware but they might have changed their policy about this.
>

Many banks and similar do not _support_ Linux, including mine.

I've never come across one that doesn't work with Linux.
--
(Remove numerics from email address)

[Jeff Layman]

Do you mean you can browse that bank's website, but not log in if you're
using Linux?

--

Jeff

[Dave Royal]

Which bank? I can browse both Capital One and Barclays here on Firefox
ESR 78.6.1
I can log in to neither since I don't have an account with either.

[Jeff Layman]

On 30/01/2021 10:36, Dave Royal wrote:
> Jeff Layman <jmla...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> On 30/01/2021 07:35, Dave Royal wrote:

>>> On 30 Jan 2021 02:42:40 +0000 😉 Good Guy 😉 wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Could it be the operating System?  Some secure sites may not allow Linux
>>>> operating System.  Barclays bank in the UK doesn't allow as far as I am

>>>> aware but they might have changed their policy about this.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Many banks and similar do not _support_ Linux, including mine.
>>>
>>> I've never come across one that doesn't work with Linux.
>>
>> Do you mean you can browse that bank's website, but not log in if you're
>> using Linux?
>>
> Which bank? I can browse both Capital One and Barclays here on Firefox
> ESR 78.6.1
> I can log in to neither since I don't have an account with either.

Sorry - I'm confused. What did you mean by "Many banks and similar do
not _support_ Linux, including mine"? I've come across unsupported
browsers (such as mine, Pale Moon), but what banks,etc, don't support
Linux, and in what way?

--

Jeff

[Dave Royal]

On 30 Jan 2021 13:41:37 +0000 Jeff Layman wrote:
>[On 30/01/2021 10:36, Dave Royal wrote:]

>
>Sorry - I'm confused. What did you mean by "Many banks and similar do
>not _support_ Linux, including mine"? I've come across unsupported
>browsers (such as mine, Pale Moon), but what banks,etc, don't support
>Linux, and in what way?
>

Simply that if you look at their help pages, they tell you which
operating systems and browsers they 'support', by which they mean their
site will work with - and hopefully that they have tested. Usually,
that's some versions of Windows and Mac.

If you have a problem, and you admit to using Linux, they will often
refuse to engage - 'unsupported system'.

I've had this with First Direct.

[John McGaw]

On 1/29/2021 1:07 PM, Cruz, Jaime wrote:
> On 1/29/21 9:09 AM, Rav wrote:
>> On 1/29/2021 8:43 AM, Cruz, Jaime wrote:
>>> Website is https://www.capitalone.com
>>>
>>> Entering my ID and password results in a screen saying "We've hit a
>>> snag, try again in a bit."  This has been happening for two days.

snip...

>
> The problem is DEFINITELY just with the ESR version of Firefox. I called
> their support line and gave them detailed information.  The person who
> answered said the oldest version of Firefox they support is 81, and the ESR
> version is based on 78.  Why the ESR version would not work, but Pale Moon
> (which is based on even OLDER code) would work is a mystery to me...
>

Not so. I had the same problem with the latest beta version also. The fix
was to clear Capital One data and cookies and try again -- magically
everything was back to normal.


--
Most popular Scots Word: DREICH - Scots, adj. Long-drawn-out, protracted,
hence tedious, wearisome; damp, wet, grey weather.

[NFN Smith]

In other words, you can (probably) use anything you want, whether
browser or operating system, and sometimes, you may need to resort to
spoofing to get around technical controls. However, if what you have
isn't what is on their list of what they will support, you're on your
own to figure out what to do.

Smith

[Cruz, Jaime]

On 1/30/21 9:51 AM, John McGaw wrote:
> On 1/29/2021 1:07 PM, Cruz, Jaime wrote:
>> On 1/29/21 9:09 AM, Rav wrote:
>>> On 1/29/2021 8:43 AM, Cruz, Jaime wrote:
>>>> Website is https://www.capitalone.com
>>>>
>>>> Entering my ID and password results in a screen saying "We've hit a
>>>> snag, try again in a bit."  This has been happening for two days.
> snip...
>>
>> The problem is DEFINITELY just with the ESR version of Firefox. I
>> called their support line and gave them detailed information.  The
>> person who answered said the oldest version of Firefox they support is
>> 81, and the ESR version is based on 78.  Why the ESR version would not
>> work, but Pale Moon (which is based on even OLDER code) would work is
>> a mystery to me...
>>
>
> Not so. I had the same problem with the latest beta version also. The
> fix was to clear Capital One data and cookies and try again -- magically
> everything was back to normal.
>

First thing they suggested, and the first thing I tried. No dice;
didn't work here.

[NFN Smith]

John McGaw wrote:
> On 1/29/2021 1:07 PM, Cruz, Jaime wrote:
>> On 1/29/21 9:09 AM, Rav wrote:
>>> On 1/29/2021 8:43 AM, Cruz, Jaime wrote:
>>>> Website is https://www.capitalone.com
>>>>
>>>> Entering my ID and password results in a screen saying "We've hit a
>>>> snag, try again in a bit."  This has been happening for two days.
> snip...
>>
>> The problem is DEFINITELY just with the ESR version of Firefox. I
>> called their support line and gave them detailed information.  The
>> person who answered said the oldest version of Firefox they support is
>> 81, and the ESR version is based on 78.  Why the ESR version would not
>> work, but Pale Moon (which is based on even OLDER code) would work is
>> a mystery to me...
>>
>
> Not so. I had the same problem with the latest beta version also. The
> fix was to clear Capital One data and cookies and try again -- magically
> everything was back to normal.

I've found that to be a good first step for nearly any kind of rendering
problem, even before resorting to spoofing.

Remember that for the modern web (e.g, "Web 2.0") the browser is as much
a tool for running scripts to deliver dynamic content, rather than the
older method of simply displaying static content composed in HTML.

One of the effects of that is that scripting can get confused, where it
renders something from the cache, when it should be fetching new
content. And a status cookie might be indicating a state that's no
longer valid.

By clearing cache and cookies, that's going to force the browser to
download new data, as if the page in question has never before been visited.

Clearing isn't a panacea, and I've found plenty of instances of where
other troubleshooting is necessary, but it's quick to do, but it's an
easy way of getting close to "as new" status.

One other thing that I do is that I maintain a second profile that I
call "bare metal", where the only non-default settings are to clear all
user data (including cache, cookies and history) at the end of a
session. The effect is that if I launch that profile, I pretty much
have the equivalent of a newly-installed browser.

If Firefox isn't behaving the way I think it should, then restarting
with the Bare Metal profile is a quick way of determining whether the
problem is a problem that's generic to Firefox, or if it's something
specific to my profile, whether accumulated data or preference settings.
Virtually always, my experience is that it's the latter.

With that in mind, knowing that my primary profile is extensively
tweaked with things like blocking of tracking cookies, ad blocking, and
script blocking, I've found that if I need to get to a particular site
quickly without an unreasonable amount of effort to tune my tweaking to
get it all to work, I will often simply restart Firefox with the Bare
Metal profile to do whatever I need to do at that one site (often
purchasing), and then close out immediately, where I know that all my
session data is flushed. Yes, there's a measure of tracking that
happens from ad networks, but no persistent data is kept, and sometimes,
it's better to interact with a site the way it's been designed to work,
rather than fighting against the design.

Smith

[😉 Good Guy 😉]

On 30/01/2021 17:18, Cruz, Jaime wrote:

First thing they suggested, and the first thing I tried.  No dice; didn't work here.

Do I assume that you have also disabled ALL Add-Ons to see if that makes any difference.  Alternatively, create a new profile and try from it but make sure there are no Add-Ons.

As far as I know ESR versions are identical to the stable consumer products except that they don't get updates as regularly as the consumer products.

[B Barnett]

Try these steps:
1. Disable any ad blockers and site blockers for the site at the browser level.
2. Make sure ALL firewalls you use allow the site through, like in Malwarebytes and in Windows Firewall, or whatever firewalls you use.

I had a similar problems when making an efile of my taxes on Inuit.com. My firewall was interfering with their payment system.