I recently sent our stockbroker an email asking why Mozilla would not work whilst logging in and got this reply. Can any explain to me what his reply means and how should I reply to him. As an OS/2 (eCS) user new versions of Netscrape are not available to us.
here is his reply...
Dear Mr Bamford
Thank you for your email which has been passed onto me for reply.
As you will be aware, our website runs on 128bit encryption which is the highest form of security currently available on the internet. Without going into too much technical detail, when you use our website your session takes data and information from various sources and are displayed into the frame set. The whole frameset is encrypted which also complicates the security process through your browser.
For a browser to be able to handle the advanced and complicated nature of the data sources, it has to be able to handle such data in a correct, stable and most importantly, a secure way. Unfortunately with recent releases of Netscape Communicator, the data handling has not been catered for and the only way you will be able to use our website with a Netscape product is to download the 128bit standalone version of their Browser, Netscape Navigator v4.76 or above
In respect to Mozilla, this browser is still only used by less than 1% of the internet community, and its design structure does not allow it to interact with such encrypted data in a secure way because of the interaction of message command sets with the operating system.
We believe that unless a browser can be reliable and secure in displaying a session within our website, then we would rather not offer support for such products until we know it is right. We therefore recommend that our clients use either Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator as their browser with our system.
I trust this has gone further to explaining the situation and should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me further on 0117 9809953.
Yours Sincerely Kevin Powell
Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers Limited Kendal House, 4 Brighton Mews, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 2NX
Direct Dial +44 (0)117 980 9953 Direct Fax +44 (0)117 980 9923 Switchboard +44 (0)117 988 9880 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers Limited are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and a member firm of the London Stock Exchange.
-----Original Message----- From: Dave Bamford [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 27 May 2003 10:03 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Website problems
Hello
Trying to use your website from a NON IE browser does not work, the browser detection algorithm does not allow for Netscape of Mozilla browsers. Mozilla is fast becoming the browser of choice for those organisations moving to open source operating systems and therefore should not be ignored by the financial community. 99% of web sites work with Mozilla and the changes to make your site compatibile are very small. Please consider repairing your web pages around the login section. I have to borrow a colleagues machine running IE to do transactions.
Best Regards
Dave Bamford (Chair) Etoille Equities Investment club
