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MSN Blocks Mozilla, Other Browsers [updated]

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the darn dept.

k_hokanson writes: "I was just going to check out some tasty news articles, with my trusty Mozilla, at MSN. but what do I get when I go there? A nice little message telling me that 'in order to display this page properly', I have to get the latest version of IE! And no, there's no option to display it incorrectly. " Enough people have submitted this story that it can't be an isolated case;) Thanks, Microsoft. Here's the story on Yahoo!. CT: telling konqueror to lie about its User Agent causes the page to render correctly save the background which is the wrong color. Update: 10/25 23:19 GMT by T : kuwan writes "Looks like Microsoft was getting too much heat. CNet is reporting that Microsoft is backing off on their browser block. I'm only wondering how long it will be before they do it again with some other excuse as to why we all need IE."

10 of 1,295 comments (clear)

  1. Not for me by carrier+lost · · Score: 2, Informative

    Just tried with NS 6.1. Everything displayed okay.

    MjM

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    XKCD:Xeric Knowledge Comically Dispen
    1. Re:Not for me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      But it _does_ block Konqueror with default identification.

  2. Workaround.... by sb_steele · · Score: 4, Informative

    Apparently MS is only blocking OS's that have IE available (Win32 / MacOS)...there is hope: A story on mozilla.org shows how to change what your browser reports as its UserAgent (Customizing Mozilla). Change (or create) user.js in your Mozilla Profile directory, and place this in it:

    user_pref("general.useragent.override", "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux 2.2.16-22smp i686; en-US; m18) Gecko/20010110 Netscape6/6.5");

    Mozilla on Win32 now gets in... But this just adds to the evidence against anything MS...

    1. Re:Workaround.... by psaltes · · Score: 2, Informative

      Here is the (failed) validation of www.msn.com for people to see

      If only reporters knew about things like this - it would have put some spice into the second article if the reporter had pointed out that msn.com provably didn't follow xhtml standards.

  3. That's funny by Captain+Pedantic · · Score: 1, Informative

    Because MSN in Brazil which I presume has the same new look renders fine. In Mozilla, at least. Depending on your browser you'll see different things, see The Register for more info.

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    None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
  4. Re:I run into those every once in a while by Dimensio · · Score: 3, Informative

    From the story it appears to check the browser type. Apparently changing the browser type string that Opera sends by one letter gets around the problem. It also explains why Netscape 6.1 can get in when Mozilla can't.

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    STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
  5. Re:How are they blocking ? by Tridus · · Score: 4, Informative

    They're blocking specific ones.

    eg: Opera includes the ability to spoof certain other ones, but still tacks "Opera 5.xx" somewhere in the UA. So if you simply search it for "Opera", you can block it. If they change the string to Opero for example, it will work again.

    The interesting thing is that I'm not sure what would happen if you made a copy of IE using the IEAK that contained a custom UA string that had the word "Opera 5" in it. I wonder if it'd get blocked too. :)

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    -- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
  6. View Source by NewbieSpaz · · Score: 2, Informative
    Attention: Web Browser Upgrade Required to View MSN.comAttention: Web Browser Upgrade Required to View MSN.com

    If you are seeing this page, we have detected that the browser that you are using will not render MSN.com correctly. Additionally, you'll see the most advanced functionality of MSN.com only with the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer or MSN Explorer. If you wish to visit MSN.com, please select the appropriate download link below.

    ©2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.Terms of UseAdvertiseTRUSTe Approved Privacy StatementGetNetWise

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    Random, useless fact: I type in startx entirely with my left hand.
  7. It isn't even valide XHTML by almeida · · Score: 2, Informative

    "All of our development work for the new MSN.com is...W3C standard," said Bob Visse, the director of MSN marketing, referring to the World Wide Web Consortium, which is developing industry standards for Web technologies. "For browsers that we know don't support those standards or that we can't insure will get a great experience for the customer, we do serve up a page that suggests that they upgrade to an IE browser that does support the" standards.


    See for yourself.

  8. Bugzilla's been onto this for a week by edgarde · · Score: 2, Informative
    Bugzilla's page on this (more here) shows Microsoft are being quite uncooperative. While initially it was thought to be an issue of strict compliance, this has been ruled out.

    Evidence that this is malicious blocking of particular browsers:

    With a little bit of fiddling, it seems fine if I use the NS6.1 UA string
    Now I'm wondering when my Hotmail account will stop working.