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New powerbook won't open certain web pages?

TheMac19

TheMac19

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 13, 2004
171
0
Pitt
i just got my new powerbook, and have been surfing around online without any problems, until now... When I go to my bank's webpage, it only opens part of the page!
The banks is everbank - the website is www.everbank.com Their home page has a menu across the top and a whole host of things down the right hand side. When I open their webpage in Safari, none of this shows up, I only get the center section and the footer. Why is this and how can I access the page properly?
Thanks a lot!
 
I'm assuming it doesn't load correctly for me either... but since I have no frame of reference, I dunno. here's a screen shot of what opens for me...
 

Attachments

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Yep, that's what it looks like on my mac too - and it's wrong! When I access the page on my pc it has a menu bar across the top, and a whole slew of options down the right side! (among those missing options are the ones I need to access my account...)
If I knew how to take a screen shot with an old pc I'd do it to show the difference... And it's not because the website is down or anything - I'm accessing it right now on a pc! What could possibly make this happen?
 
TheMac19 said:
Yep, that's what it looks like on my mac too - and it's wrong! When I access the page on my pc it has a menu bar across the top, and a whole slew of options down the right side! (among those missing options are the ones I need to access my account...)
If I knew how to take a screen shot with an old pc I'd do it to show the difference... And it's not because the website is down or anything - I'm accessing it right now on a pc! What could possibly make this happen?
Click to expand...
Windows only code, thats what, though it may be a flaw in safari, you might try with the Camino or Netscape/Mozilla browser and see if it still displays correctly. If not, I suggest you go to the page in safari, and choose "send bug report to apple" from the safari menu. Make sure to explain whats wrong and send a screenshot/source code. I've sent a couple things in and they were fixed in later updates...

P.S You might try it in Internet Explorer 5.2 for mac (you can download it from microsoft.com/mac )
 
There's no such thing as "windows only code" in a webpage. The problem you are having is probably the fault of Safari, or sloppy web design based around Internet Explorer. Try going to the site, as Fukui suggested, using Internet Explorer instead of Safari.
 
First thing that comes to mind: is the menu system built with Macromedia flash? Not having a Mac I have to ask: does flash come loaded with the Safari? I know I had problems with FireFox on my system until I went to http://www.macromedia.com , downloaded and installed flash. Just a thought. :)


[UPDATE]
Duh...might help to try and go to the site myself :p

It opened up perfectly fine in FireFox. I'd suggest giving FireFox a try:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
 

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kettle said:
Looks like windows code to me ;)

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.everbank.com
Click to expand...
That website is just poorly written. First of all, it lacks a DOCTYPE declaration, so validators can't parse it properly. Secondly, after looking at the source code, I've found the problem with Safari - the browser check code doesn't work for Safari (neither NS4 nor IE are set to 1, so the top navigation bar and right navigation bar, which both depend on one of those two variables being set, doesn't appear).
 
Celeron said:
There's no such thing as "windows only code" in a webpage.
Click to expand...
Um, really? 90% of page that you go to that says "IE6 or above" means Wndows only.

Tell me if this runs in anything but windows...
var strNewHTML = "<span " + imgID + imgClass + imgTitle
+ " style=\"" + "width:" + img.width + "px; height:" + img.height + "px;" + imgStyle + ";"
+ "filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.AlphaImageLoader"
+ "(src=\'" + img.src + "\', sizingMethod='scale');\"></span>"
img.outerHTML = strNewHTML
Click to expand...
I'm sure programming a web page to use DirectX is stupid, but that and many other things have been "added" to IE6 that make pages designed for it, only run on it. And since IE6 only runs on windows, thats "windows only."
Don't get me started on activeX!!
 
Its strange that you've run into so many sites that only work in IE6. I have both a PC and a Mac, and I use Mozilla Firefox on both. I've never enountered a site that doesn't work in Firefox. In fact, the only site I use IE6 for is Windows Update.

Also, ActiveX is by far the most dangerous part of IE6. No reputable site uses, or requires ActiveX that I've visited. There are a lot safer and more compatible ways of getting things done.

I'm still convinced that there are _not_ any "Windows Only" websites. Small code snippets, from cascading style sheets does little to convince. After all, even if that portion of the style sheet doesn't load correctly, chances are the rest of the page will work just fine.

I think what it boils down to in this situation is that the website in question didn't work right in Safari, which as far as I'm concerned isn't a very big loss for that company. So long as Apple controls such a small percentage of the marketplace, developing for a browser thats likely be less than 5% of your traffic is pointless and unworthy of time and effort.
 
Celeron said:
I think what it boils down to in this situation is that the website in question didn't work right in Safari, which as far as I'm concerned isn't a very big loss for that company. So long as Apple controls such a small percentage of the marketplace, developing for a browser thats likely be less than 5% of your traffic is pointless and unworthy of time and effort.
Click to expand...

*sighs* Its called W3 standards and if people (Both web browser and site developers.) would follow them they wouldn't have to program for IE, Mozilla, FireFox, Safari, or any other type of browser on the net. There is a reason why standards are a good thing. Its Microsoft and their dumb*** approach to standards is what causes this fracture.
If developers would get off their lazy fat ***es and actually try and conform to standards maybe just maybe things would change. As it stands. Slap FrontPage on your system. Create a quick and dirty webpage and call it done. Never mind that it doesn't work on anything other then Internet Imploder.
 
SiliconAddict said:
*sighs* Its called W3 standards and if people (Both web browser and site developers.) would follow them they wouldn't have to program for IE, Mozilla, FireFox, Safari, or any other type of browser on the net. There is a reason why standards are a good thing. Its Microsoft and their dumb*** approach to standards is what causes this fracture.
If developers would get off their lazy fat ***es and actually try and conform to standards maybe just maybe things would change. As it stands. Slap FrontPage on your system. Create a quick and dirty webpage and call it done. Never mind that it doesn't work on anything other then Internet Imploder.
Click to expand...
At least someone in this thread is making sense (to me). SiliconAddict, I agree with you 100%. If web developers would only support standards and MS made a browser without dangerous ActiveX and pointless proprietary extensions, these issues would not occur.
 
The Official word from everbank...

I just got this e-mail in response to an e-mail sent to customer service about their website troubles with mac:

"Thank you for your message. We're sorry you are having difficulties
with our website. Unfortunately, Everbank does not support Macintosh
computers at this time. However I do I have some suggestions that may
help you. As the forum stated, you should be able to access our website
through Internet Explorer. We continue to strive to make our sites
compatible with other browsers, but Internet Explorer and Windows as an
Operating System combined has proven to be the most reliable and stable.

Should you have any further questions, please feel free to contact our
Customer Care Center 24-hours a day toll-free at 888.882.3837 or if you
prefer, email us at service@everbank.com."

Personally I am incredibly surprised by this and a bit angry that everbank feels that it is somehow acceptable to simply not support mac. They'll be getting a letter. Their bank might not be "supported" by me anymore if they think that mac users aren't worth their time. A pity too, since in every other respect they've been an awesome bank...
 
Celeron said:
I'm still convinced that there are _not_ any "Windows Only" websites. Small code snippets, from cascading style sheets does little to convince. After all, even if that portion of the style sheet doesn't load correctly, chances are the rest of the page will work just fine.
Click to expand...
Try this website in Firefox: http://www5.xmlsweb.socalmls.com/Login.asp
I could list lots more, and they cover more than simple cascading style sheets. Don't forget about MS's proprietary Java Runtime etc.

I have news for you though, its only going to get worse with Longhorn and XAML.

I've even encounterd a website where you MUST be on windows in order to upload a file because it requres the path to contain A C:/ in it...stupid stupid stupid, but they exist. If anyone knows anybody in realestate, then they know how idiotic website design can get.
 
We continue to strive to make our sites
compatible with other browsers, but Internet Explorer and Windows as an
Operating System combined has proven to be the most reliable and stable.
Click to expand...

That this website may be hacked untill the company goes bankrupt, that's the price for ignorance... :mad:
 
Fukui said:
Don't forget about MS's proprietary Java Runtime etc.
Click to expand...

Where have you been? Microsoft was ordered to stop distributing the Microsoft Java VM several years ago. You can't get a hold of it anymore, not from Microsoft anyway. Personally, I preferred the Microsoft Java VM over Sun's, it was a whole lot faster. IMO Java is too damn sluggish to be useful for anything anyway.

And with regard to the website that doesn't work in Firefox, what do you expect? It says right on the site that it works in IE. There isn't much you can do when companies decide to design with a particular browser in mind.

Whether its good practice or not is irrelevent. When 90-95% of all computers on the planet are running some form of Windows, and a good portion of the users of those machines are practically clueless, it makes good business sense to make sure your website works with IE first and everything else second.

For TheMac19, the same thing applies here. The percent of the market using Mac products is not very big so its not a good idea to devote a lot of time to developing a website for it. I'm not trying to get down on Apple or their products, but what this boils down to is market share, and Apple doesn't have it, so support for their products/software suffers.
 
Celeron said:
Personally I preferred the Microsoft Java VM over Sun's, it was a whole lot faster. IMO Java is too damn sluggish to be useful for anything anyway.
Click to expand...

Whether its good practice or not is irrelevent. When 90-95% of all computers on the planet are running some form of Windows, and a good portion of the users of those machines are practically clueless, it makes good business sense to make sure your website works with IE first and everything else second.

For TheMac19, the same thing applies here. The percent of the market using Mac products is not very big so its not a good idea to devote a lot of time to developing a website for it. I'm not trying to get down on Apple or their products, but what this boils down to is market share, and Apple doesn't have it, so support for their products/software suffers.
Click to expand...

I don't think it makes that much business sense, as it would be much cheaper to develop web sites if certain 90-95% monopolies kept a little closer to the standards. It would even be cheaper to develop a browser for Microsoft, if it wasn't for the fact it would undermine the money they make from being a successful monopoly.

As for Java, Sun's Java would be quicker if Microsoft didn't keep slowing it up in favour of there own.

In fact I'm not sure if Microsoft make anything successful that doesn't rely on their monopoly to measure it as better.

So yes, it's good business sense, but only from Microsoft's point of view. Imagine what we all could choose from if Microsoft genuinely came top of the class for real development, we could have been 5 years ahead of where we are now in innovational terms. Our own businesses would have a choice of genuinely competitive products to choose from, all needing less maintenance and support, striving to win customer hearts and not just force money from their pockets.

If Microsoft cleaned up their act and started giving us technology fresh from a fair tech race, I bet they wouldn't be the wealthiest company on earth (or whatever) but they would make half a dozen genuinely good products, and I'm sure I would be one of their satisfied customers.

The Powerbook is fine, use a different bank.
 
personally i would switch banks. if they can't create a simple web page that is standards based....i wouldn't want them holding my money!
 
kettle said:
As for Java, Sun's Java would be quicker if Microsoft didn't keep slowing it up in favour of there own.
Click to expand...

What ARE you talking about? How does Microsoft influence the performance or speed of Sun's Java virtual machine? Java itself is inherently slow no matter the platform it is running on. It was the worst when I had to use it on Sun's own Ultra3 Sparc hardware.
 
everbank=neverbank. I swear, that's about the dumbest customer service response I've ever seen. I'm just feeling pretty stupid right now- I never realized that Internet Explorer and Windows as an Operating System combined has proven to be the most reliable and stable. Anyone wanna buy a couple of Macs? :rolleyes:
 
no luck with Firefox yet....

Just downloaded and installed Firefox 0.8 and still no luck with the everbank site - it opens the same way that Safari does. Do I need a plug-in or something to make firefox work?
Thanks,
-tom
 
TheMac19 said:
Just downloaded and installed Firefox 0.8 and still no luck with the everbank site - it opens the same way that Safari does. Do I need a plug-in or something to make firefox work?
Thanks,
-tom
Click to expand...
No, just Internet Explorer.
 
The everbank plot thickens...

Just found this on the everbank website, under personal banking FAQ's:

___________________________________________________________
Q: What are the system requirements?

A: Everbank does not require any special software and can be accessed from any computer with an Internet connection, using an Internet browser version 4.0 or higher. We love all computer users equally—you can certainly do your online banking from your Macintosh!
___________________________________________________________

So maybe someone at everbank should pass this info on to their web designers... (and customer service reps...)
 
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