Browser inconsistency driving me crazy!

Topic

New Reply

This is a long description, so please bear with me.

I have a desktop computer (PowerSpec) and a laptop computer (Sony Vaio). Both are fairly new. Both are running Win 7 Pro SP1. Both have the same version of Firefox (version 22.0) and Internet Explorer (version 9 that came with the OS). Both FF browsers are set up identically (as far as I can tell). Both IE browsers are set up identically (as far as I can tell).

Today, I made an attempt to book flights and rent a car online. I experienced strange and inconsistent behavior between the browsers, as follows:

Example 1:

If I go to the Hertz rental website (http://www.hertz.com), using I.E. 9 on either computer, the site opens up on the rental screen (the screen where I can specify pickup location, dates, times, etc.). This is as it should be.
However, if I attempt to access the same site using Firefox, , it works fine on the laptop computer, but on the desktop computer, I reach a more general site with many optional links listed (reference attached Screen Shot 1). Clicking on “Reservations” the link, I would expect to be taken to the same site mentioned above, but nothing changes (I cannot leave the page). It should be noted that the other links on that page appear to work properly.

Example 2:

I go to the Southwest Airlines site (http://www.southwest.com), and login to my account. I hover the curser over the Rapid Rewards box (top row, right hand side), and from the dropdown menu, select “Buy and Transfer Points”. As expected, this takes me to the page where among other things, I have the option to buy or transfer my reward points. So far, so good!
Now, using I.E. 9 on my laptop, if I select Buy Points (or Transfer Points, for that matter) I’m taken to the appropriate page for doing that.
But if I use I.E. 9 from my desktop computer, or Firefox from either computer, I’m presented with the error message shown in attached Screen Shot 2.

I can’t seem to figure out why the behavior is not consistent between browsers and computers, and as mentioned in the thread title, it’s driving me crazy. Obviously, between the two browsers and two computers, I can accomplish what I want, but I’d really like to understand what’s going on.

Any help or suggestions would be welcome.

Reply | Quote

Replies

Hi Les,
First, I would upgrade to IE 10. Are you using the same search engine on your browsers, FF normally uses Google & IE uses Bing.

Reply | Quote

Hi, Roderunner. Thanks for the reply.

I am not using IE 10 for a number of reasons.
First, there has been a lot of chatter (particularly in the Windows Secrets newsletters) about problems with this version of IE.
Secondly, I have no interest in ever using IE, except for those instances where it’s forced on me (such as when I use Windows Update), or when FF won’t work with a particular site. Therefore, I’m not interested in updating to the “latest, greatest” version if what I have serves my purpose.

I use the secure version of Ixquick on my FF browsers. I use (actually, almost never use) whatever search engine came with the Win 7 version of IE (which, on my desktop atleast, appears to be Google). If I find that I have more than occasional need to use the IE search engine, I’ll switch it to Ixquick.

Finally, I don’t see how any of this addresses my issue. Am I overlooking something here?

Reply | Quote

Hi Les,

Finally, I don’t see how any of this addresses my issue. Am I overlooking something here?

Different search provider connect you to different sites. Try this Google based site. https://startpage.com/

Reply | Quote

Hi again.
I understand that I might get different search listings when I use different search providers. But in this case I wasn’t searching for anything, I was just following the links provided by Hertz and Southwest, so the search engines should have nothing to do with this problem.
Just as an aside, I did verify that the IE search engine is indeed Bing, I was confused because it said Google next to the search box. In any case, I changed it to Ixquick on my desktop computer. The Southwest link still doesn’t work using IE on the desktop (in other words, no change).

Reply | Quote

Could it be caused by your addons ? Try it in ‘Safe’ mode.

Reply | Quote

OK, just tried it (with FF). Makes no difference, the problem remains.

Thanks for thinking about this.

Reply | Quote

the site you goes to sucks out a lot of information from your pc
including your browser name and version plus settings like cookies and javacrap etc

dependign on that they may direct you to a different page

hotmail directs me to a mobile page because i use an old FF version
if i had a newer browser they would send me to a pc oriented page with more stuff visible at once

This is a long description, so please bear with me.

I have a desktop computer (PowerSpec) and a laptop computer (Sony Vaio). Both are fairly new. Both are running Win 7 Pro SP1. Both have the same version of Firefox (version 22.0) and Internet Explorer (version 9 that came with the OS). Both FF browsers are set up identically (as far as I can tell). Both IE browsers are set up identically (as far as I can tell).

Today, I made an attempt to book flights and rent a car online. I experienced strange and inconsistent behavior between the browsers, as follows:

Example 1:

If I go to the Hertz rental website (http://www.hertz.com), using I.E. 9 on either computer, the site opens up on the rental screen (the screen where I can specify pickup location, dates, times, etc.). This is as it should be.
However, if I attempt to access the same site using Firefox, , it works fine on the laptop computer, but on the desktop computer, I reach a more general site with many optional links listed (reference attached Screen Shot 1). Clicking on “Reservations” the link, I would expect to be taken to the same site mentioned above, but nothing changes (I cannot leave the page). It should be noted that the other links on that page appear to work properly.

Example 2:

I go to the Southwest Airlines site (http://www.southwest.com), and login to my account. I hover the curser over the Rapid Rewards box (top row, right hand side), and from the dropdown menu, select “Buy and Transfer Points”. As expected, this takes me to the page where among other things, I have the option to buy or transfer my reward points. So far, so good!
Now, using I.E. 9 on my laptop, if I select Buy Points (or Transfer Points, for that matter) I’m taken to the appropriate page for doing that.
But if I use I.E. 9 from my desktop computer, or Firefox from either computer, I’m presented with the error message shown in attached Screen Shot 2.

I can’t seem to figure out why the behavior is not consistent between browsers and computers, and as mentioned in the thread title, it’s driving me crazy. Obviously, between the two browsers and two computers, I can accomplish what I want, but I’d really like to understand what’s going on.

Any help or suggestions would be welcome.

Reply | Quote

Hi Les,
Another possible avenue would be to determine for each machine, the versions of any other software (e.g., Java, Flash) that the Southwest or Hertz websites require (if in fact either does have such a requirement). Yet another might be patches that have been downloaded and installed (e.g., for the operating system). These thoughts aren’t based on any specifics of what you had reported, I’m just tossing them out there. 8O)

Dave

Reply | Quote

Well, it’s confusing.

I use the same version of FF (v. 22.0) on both computers. I use the same (latest) version of Flash on both computers. I use the same version of IE (v.9) on both computers. I’ve tried with and without Java (latest version), and it makes no difference (I usually leave Java disabled for security reasons).

The problem (as described above in detail) is that for each browser (FF of IE9), there is a scenario where it will work on one computer, but not the other, or it will work with one browser, but not the other. Seems to me that if both computers are set up with identical OS’s and browsers (they are), there should be no difference in the results between computers. As far as different patches, with the exception of the Microsoft .net updates and a select few others, I’ve been keeping both computer OS’s up to date using Windows Update. If those patches (and there are hundreds) are different between computers, it’s beyond me to figure out which ones, if any, are screwing things up.

Reply | Quote

There are some sites, fewer all the time, that just flat out won’t work with FF, so I use IE Tab which allows me to switch a single tab to an IE tab and access whatever (Ford SyncMyRide was one of these) I need to and switch back. At first Windows Update wouldn’t work in FF, but using IE Tab fooled it into thinking I was using IE. If it can fool Microsoft, it can fool any site that only wants IE or only allows full features with IE. :^)

Reply | Quote

Thanks for the info, Gene, I’ll look into it.
However, if the site doesn’t work in the “real” IE, I doubt that it’ll work in IE Tab.
Who knows, stranger things have happened.

Reply | Quote

Hi Les,
With regard to Example 1, I’m wondering whether the data that the Hertz web server might have stored with FF about your preferences or attributes might be different on your desktop than on your laptop. Perhaps try clearing your private data (or whatever that collection is called in FF 22.0).

Dave

Reply | Quote

Hi, Dave.

I always use private browsing in FF. Therefore, nothing should be stored on FF.

Reply | Quote

Hi Les,
This is starting to drive me crazy! :confused: But it’s sounding even more to me (whatever weight that warrants) like an issue at Hertz and at SouthWest. Have you seriously contemplated filing a trouble report with each company, or does the prospect of obtaining informed technical assistance seem too remote?

Dave

Reply | Quote

I refer you to the First Rule of Computers: “STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN”, which surprisingly is a very good answer. We may never know why what is happening to you is happening…. I have been with these computers since they started in the early 1980’s, and had a computer business for 20+ years (8088 chip and 5 meg hard drives), and this rule still is prominent. It only takes one character out of several thousand pages of code to cause a problem. My suggestion is to use the one that works best for your purpose, and be happy you have that. I remember when we did not have computers at all, or had to use DOS. What we have now is sheer imperfect pleasure….

Reply | Quote

Dave, I believe you’re correct. I spoke to Southwest, and they farm out their website for managing reward points to points.com. No contact phone number on the points.com site, and their FAQ’s don’t help. I tried their live chat link, but it’s been offline the few times I’ve tried. I’ll check again tomorrow.
A conversation with Hertz will follow.

Hi, RAMcrammer. I fear you’re right, imperfect pleasure describes the state of today’s computing environment, but at least with DOS, I wasn’t quite at such a loss to understand (and correct) the problems.

Reply | Quote

Hi Les,

In Example 1 the hertz.com homepage loads a small JavaScript tester that redirects your web browser to a different page depending on whether JavaScript is enabled or not. As a simple test, in Firefox I have the NoScript add-on installed. With scripting disabled, I see the page matching your screen shot 1. When I temporarily allow scripting for hertz.com, it displays the normal homepage with the “Book a Car” reservation box on the left side of the page. I suspect that either a Firefox add-on, plug-in or even the JavaScript settings could be different on the desktop. Also some anti-malware scanners will install web browser add-ons or plugins that filter scripts and other web content for malware. The main navigation menu renders the drop-down menus using CSS so it should look the same on two identical versions of Firefox unless there is some kind of content filtering going on.

In Example 2, the web server returned the error message “HTTP Status 404” — basically the web equivalent of “File Not Found”. The link in the menu is pulling content from a third party website into a browser frame within Southwest’s website. Typical reasons for the error include the partner website being down at the time you clicked on the link. It doesn’t look like the webpage is dynamically building the URL using JavaScript so the next time the error occurs, try skipping the menu link by going directly to the points center page (http://www.southwest.com/rapidrewards/points-center) to see if it makes a difference. One additional wrinkle is the fact that the page pulls content in from another website to display within a frame. Depending on the web browser and anti-malware scanner that’s installed, it can produce different results because mixing content from different websites (especially if some of the content is a combination of HTTPS and HTTP) may be blocked for security reasons.

Also, with IE, check the “Internet Options” to see if SmartScreen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SmartScreen) is enabled.

On a slightly related note, an easy way to duplicate your exact settings (plus add-ons) for Firefox is to copy the profile from one computer to another. In Windows 7, look for your Firefox profile in “C:UsersLesAppDataLocalMozillaFirefoxProfiles” (substitute “Les” for your Windows username.) Unless you have more than one Firefox profile configured, there should only be one folder with a randomly generated name (e.g. ak31ri37.default.) Copy the folder to/from your desktop to your laptop. The username doesn’t need to be the same because Firefox locates the profiles via a relative path (i.e. %USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalMozillaFirefoxProfiles) rather than an absolute path.

Reply | Quote

Gadget, thanks for taking the time to troubleshoot my problem, it’s very much appreciated.
I have done some troubleshooting of my own, and have been able to fix the Southwest problem. It was caused by the cookie settings I had on my desktop Firefox and IE.
In FF, I had the options set to never accept third party cookies. I have changed that to always accept third party cookies. That fixed the problem. Since I always use Private Browsing, I’m not concerned about those cookies remaining after a session. I’ve also set my options to warn me when websites try to redirect or reload the page, so that I have the option to allow this to happen or not.
Similarly, in IE8, I had the options set to always block third party cookies. I fixed the issue by checking the box to always allow session cookies, which solved the problem.

The Hertz issue still remains – it doesn’t work on my desktop using FF. It’s my understanding that FF enables Javascript by default. Is this not the case? I tried with and without Java (which is not the same as Javascript) enabled (normally I keep Java disabled), and also tried FF in safe mode (all add-ons disabled), with no success.
In any case, I will do a thorough comparison between my desktop FF settings and my Laptop FF settings, because I’m really curious as to what is causing this. If that fails, I can always (as you suggested) copy the Laptop profile to my desktop, but that will leave me always wondering what actually caused the problem.

Again, thanks for your help.

Reply | Quote

Hi Les,

Sorry for the delayed reply. I got bogged down with work-related projects and almost forgot.

Yes, FF by default has Javascript enabled. It may with tracking down the cause by comparing the “pref.js” file that FF uses to store most of its user settings. It’s very likely that there are differences between the laptop and desktop because upgrades and other changes alter the file in a different order.

Since FF 13.0, there’s been a profile “reset” feature added to help with troubleshooting and repairing corrupted settings. It won’t track down the exact cause, but it’s a handy alternative to creating a new profile:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/reset-firefox-easily-fix-most-problems?esab=a&s=reset&r=2&as=s

Reply | Quote