AppleInsider › Forums › Mac Hardware › Current Mac Hardware › Accessing websites on a Mac?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Accessing websites on a Mac?

post #1 of 23
2/25/05 at 8:13pm
Thread Starter 
Okay I'm still in the market for a Mac and I really want to switch but one thing that's really put me off - I use my computer 95% for web-surfing so that's the really important thing for me.

In a UK-based Mac magazine I bought though, on the help page someone wrote in to say he's finding websites are becoming increasingly inaccessible from Macs, regardless of the browser, even if you use IE for a Mac.

This is a major issue for me - I can't buy a computer which won't let me access certain websites.

Please be honest, is this a major problem on a Mac?
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 23
2/25/05 at 8:35pm
No. You have available for use Safari, Firefox etc etc. One issue I do note (which I have with both PCs and Macs) is that for some reason my bank's website doesn't play well with anything but IE. But we have that too, although it sucks.
"In a republic, voters may vote for the leaders they want, but they get the leaders they deserve."
Reply
"In a republic, voters may vote for the leaders they want, but they get the leaders they deserve."
Reply
post #3 of 23
2/25/05 at 9:17pm
Hey, my bank's website is like that too! It makes me veeeeeeery nervous.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 23
2/25/05 at 10:19pm
Doesn't seem to be a major problem...I'm using Safari for the past 18 months and I haven't been to a site that has kicked me out.

Flash animations are slower than Windows browsers but thats not a problem for me.

Sounds like some banks are better than others when it comes to their web support.
human speech is like a cracked tin kettle, on
which we hammer out tunes to make bears
dance when we long to move the stars to
pity.
Reply
human speech is like a cracked tin kettle, on
which we hammer out tunes to make bears
dance when we long to move the stars to
pity.
Reply
post #5 of 23
2/26/05 at 4:03pm
Unless you're trying to access http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com, it's not a problem.
This username is deprecated. Upgrade to andreslucero.
Reply
This username is deprecated. Upgrade to andreslucero.
Reply
post #6 of 23
2/26/05 at 6:32pm
as an ex-web-designer, i can tell you that 'web standards compliance', even for those bloody stupid bank sites, is increasing

firefox is a great web standards compliant web browser

i understand your concern, but armed with the following web browsers, you can explore what works best for you, and very unlikely that you'll have one critical website that doesn't work with any of them....

safari for mac
firefox for mac
internet explorer for mac

enjoy,
-sunilraman
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 23
2/26/05 at 8:01pm
Frankly if your bank still insists that you use ONLY IE to access your accounts, I would think real hard about the security of your funds and your private information.

Most of the Mac users I know drag IE to the trash can!

Something that is still a big bad taboo on a P/C

The only problems I've heard with accessing certain web pages
in Safari or Firefox ended up being caused by user firewall settings rather than the browser.

This happened most recently with the use of PeerVanguard
and PeerGuardian where the updated block lists became a bit too restrictive.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 23
2/26/05 at 10:05pm
Quote:
Originally posted by FallenFromTheTree
.....

Most of the Mac users I know drag IE to the trash can!

Something that is still a big bad taboo on a P/C

......

although i am technically Switched for about 4 years, i still fantasise but can't bring my self to drag IE into the trash on my Mac, even though i just use safari most of the time nowadays, well, all the time (Safari 1.2.4 (v125.12))
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 23
2/26/05 at 10:17pm
IE is the superhighway of internet trash written by microsoft
to tell everyone what you do, when you do it and where.

good riddens
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 23
2/27/05 at 6:30am
I haven't come across a mac-unfriendly site in quite a while.

I think the last one I went to was the Buy.com music download site, where they were intentionally turning mac users away (How's that going for them, anyway?).

The only other thing I can think of is some online java games don't seem to work on the mac.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 23
2/27/05 at 9:24am
I just went over to buy.com's music pages and they worked fine. Although, I didn't try to actually buy a song. So I guess it didn't go very well for them as they appear to have changed that policy.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 23
2/28/05 at 2:04am
Quote:
Originally posted by RSteve
Okay I'm still in the market for a Mac and I really want to switch but one thing that's really put me off - I use my computer 95% for web-surfing so that's the really important thing for me.

In a UK-based Mac magazine I bought though, on the help page someone wrote in to say he's finding websites are becoming increasingly inaccessible from Macs, regardless of the browser, even if you use IE for a Mac.

This is a major issue for me - I can't buy a computer which won't let me access certain websites.

Please be honest, is this a major problem on a Mac?

As indicated above, the only problems you may come across are online banking (which is getting better all the time - even for the smaller services) and online shopping at supermarkets such as ASDA, who's website is not Mac friendly. Apart from these areas, I too have found very very little in the way of problems. Safari and Firefox may not be as "plug & play" as other browsers on a lot of sites but they still work perfecty well and are much less of a security risk.
What type of websites do you wish to surf? This may help us determine if you may have a problem.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 23
2/28/05 at 2:34am
Quote:
Originally posted by telekon
As indicated above, the only problems you may come across are online banking (which is getting better all the time - even for the smaller services) and online shopping at supermarkets such as ASDA, who's website is not Mac friendly. Apart from these areas, I too have found very very little in the way of problems. Safari and Firefox may not be as "plug & play" as other browsers on a lot of sites but they still work perfecty well and are much less of a security risk.
What type of websites do you wish to surf? This may help us determine if you may have a problem.

yeah, besides p0rN what websites would concern you the most? online banking is important, we understand, what bank site would you be using? we can check it for you, if the bank site doesn't like Mac it usually warns a Mac user...

so yeah let us know here and we'd be happy to investigate it for you... i too am curious if there are still any bloody anti-Mac websites out there, this whole web standards move IS quite strong and should alleviate a lot of cross-browser issues by now...

security concerns and the like have also driven developers to embrace web standards instead of microsoft-biased web technology on the front end (eg vbscript, activex)

you are getting very sleepy... you want to switch.... you want a PowerBook 15" 1.67ghz with Superdrive 512mb RAM and 128 vram...

*did my jedi mind trick work??*
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 23
2/28/05 at 2:36am
not saying one way or another that anyone here actively surfs p0rN but I would put forward that

using a mac is safer when browsing more risque websites...

stay safe, people, have fun, but be safe. use a mac.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 23
2/28/05 at 2:38am
Maybe it's just me, but I can't empty my Hotmail junkmail folder with Safari.... Works in IE and Firefox though
Appling in Beijing
Reply
Appling in Beijing
Reply
post #16 of 23
2/28/05 at 5:10am
Quote:
Originally posted by hardeeharhar
No. You have available for use Safari, Firefox etc etc. One issue I do note (which I have with both PCs and Macs) is that for some reason my bank's website doesn't play well with anything but IE. But we have that too, although it sucks.

There is an extention for Firefox that tricks servers into thinking it is IE - thus it lets certin services work, although I dont know off the top of my head what it is called.

Also, if your bank is IE only, call them, let them hear you, write to the president(s) and if it comes down to it, swithch banks...Bank One and most local banks around here play nice with FF/Mozilla
You can't quantify how much I don't care -- Bob Kevoian of the Bob and Tom Show.
Reply
You can't quantify how much I don't care -- Bob Kevoian of the Bob and Tom Show.
Reply
post #17 of 23
2/28/05 at 5:14am
Quote:
Originally posted by BeiMac
Maybe it's just me, but I can't empty my Hotmail junkmail folder with Safari.... Works in IE and Firefox though

Which begs the question, why do you use a hotmail box to recieve mail that is important enough to ever check, all hotmail is good for is a spam catcher for utter crap like NY Times registrarion, but for stuff like that, I use Bugmenot.com and their Firefox plugin, Really, you should get a gmail account, if you need an invite, I think I could spare one.
Yahoo! is also a great choice for free mail, but all of the good names there are long snatched up by now.
You can't quantify how much I don't care -- Bob Kevoian of the Bob and Tom Show.
Reply
You can't quantify how much I don't care -- Bob Kevoian of the Bob and Tom Show.
Reply
post #18 of 23
2/28/05 at 10:27am
About the only problem I run across with any regularity are webpages created by folks using Microsoft Frontpage. And then it's usually that they just display like cr@p in anything other than IE/Win. Especially the tiny, tiny type that those people like using.
Reply
Reply
post #19 of 23
2/28/05 at 2:53pm
You can change Safari's user agent as well, using the Debug menu. I've forgotten how you make the menu visible.
Stoo
Reply
Stoo
Reply
post #20 of 23
2/28/05 at 4:49pm
My bank isn't IE only... it's just SLOoooooooooooow in anything but IE. It does work in Safari though.
Reply
Reply
post #21 of 23
2/28/05 at 5:38pm
Bank of America works great on Firefox and Safari. I even filed my taxes online with Safari. I haven't used IE once, except to see how it performed (man, is it ugly).

I think you don't need to worry. More and more people are abandoning IE for firefox, for both convenience and security, so web designers will soon have no choice but to bug check their code on non-IE browsers. It's not that hard, so hopefully more will keep doing it. Firefox keeps getting updated for OSX, just like the other ports, and I think it draws pages darn close to IE 99% of the time. The only error I can think of is the lack of emoticons in Yahoo mail.
Reply
Reply
post #22 of 23
3/1/05 at 9:13pm
Has anyone tried ebay? Specifically setting up an item to sell. I had horrendous trouble using Firefox 1.0, some of the buttons didn't display (adding photos etc )
Annoyed the crap outa me. Worked in IE though; damn it!
Beware of Trojans, they're complete smegheads - Dave Lister.
Reply
Beware of Trojans, they're complete smegheads - Dave Lister.
Reply
post #23 of 23
3/1/05 at 10:01pm
I've sold 2 or 3 things on eBay. I set up my auctions using Safari w/o difficulty.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Current Mac Hardware
AppleInsider › Forums › Mac Hardware › Current Mac Hardware › Accessing websites on a Mac?