SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

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beoenduser
Posts: 296
Joined: November 26th, 2002, 2:50 pm

SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by beoenduser »

SeaMonkey is my favorite browser and I have used it for ages when signing into Google's sites (Mail and Docs to name a few). Today, however, Google wouldn't allow me in no matter what I did... Clear cache, clear history, gave the site the latest chrome user agent string, even gave the site the latest Firefox user agent string all without success. :( (BTW, I miss the User Agent Switcher that I used to have. :( )
I was forced to download Firefox and tried that which worked. I don't understand this.
SeaMonkey is also blocked from krita-artists.org. At least changing the user agent string worked there.

Windows 10, SeaMonkey 2.53.14 (should be... It updates automatically.)

Used this site to find the user agents...
https://www.whatismybrowser.com/guides/ ... ent/chrome
https://www.whatismybrowser.com/guides/ ... nt/firefox

I hope SeaMonkey can find a fix. Why does Google think that SeaMonkey is not a secure browser? :x
v_v
Posts: 157
Joined: September 18th, 2021, 8:57 am

Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by v_v »

beoenduser,

Have you tried the following user agent string:

general.useragent.override.google.com ----- Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0 ?

v_v
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beoenduser
Posts: 296
Joined: November 26th, 2002, 2:50 pm

Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by beoenduser »

Thank you v_v, I didn't know you could put the site url within the config. I will try that.
Firefox 68? I thought 102 or 105 was most recent. I'm confused about that.
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beoenduser
Posts: 296
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Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by beoenduser »

v_v wrote:beoenduser,

Have you tried the following user agent string:

general.useragent.override.google.com ----- Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0 ?

v_v
ok, I just tried that. I managed to get signed in but it still [mockingly] says: Home Screen temporarily unavailable... Try to load it again or send an error report (with NO way to send such an error report). Did I need to do anything special for that to work? :-k The site with the "Home Screen" works normally in FireFox. :-k

(site is: docs.google.com)

So, now I have both
general.useragent.override.google.com;Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0 and:
general.useragent.override;Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/102.0

I also have this:
general.useragent.site_specific_overrides;true

_______________
Edit:
I just tried the Extension: "Open With" and it worked nicely just like you said on another thread (which is now closed). Thank you for those instructions!! Now to teach the kiddos what to do.
v_v
Posts: 157
Joined: September 18th, 2021, 8:57 am

Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by v_v »

beoenduser,

If you are still having a problem with "Home Screen temporarily unavailable" then it might be (?) because you have two ua overrides operating at the same time. In other words you are using a site-specific override and then also a "general override." I am not completely sure about that so somebody with greater knowledge might need to assist here. BUT my experience was that I used to use a general override similar to what you have ["general.useragent.override; ----- Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/102.0"] and that worked for years, UNTIL it stopped doing so at both google and youtube earlier this year.

The more recommended procedure these days is to use only "site specific" override user strings and to allow the standard default SeaMonkey user string to operate. Thus in your overrides you should have only site specific ones like: "general.useragent.override.google.com; ----- Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0". In my overrides I only have two site specific ones so far, the latter one and this other one for youtube: "general.useragent.override.youtube.com; ----- Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.0". There is nothing else (again, so far!).

So in your case, I would get rid of "general.useragent.override; ----- Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/102.0". When you do this it should allow the default SeaMonkey ua string to operate, which in your case should be: "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.14". At that point you should just have the one site specific override string "general.useragent.override.google.com; ----- Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0" in your list and nothing else.

One of the ways that I sort of verified these kinds of operations was to go to the "about:config" in the Pale Moon browser. Much to my surprise they have more than 45 site specific overrides pre-loaded by default! So yes, use site specific overrides and nothing else, and simply allow the general standard SeaMonkey default ua string to operate.

[Edit 1 - as for the entry "general.useragent.site_specific_overrides; ----- true", leave that alone. That is a standard part of the browser. My guess is that it tells the browser to pay attention to any listed "site specific" overrides.]

[Edit 2 - (With regards to "Open With" I will take it that you are referring to my " Posted June 24th, 2022, 8:28 pm" post at " http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... p=14931797 ".) Yes, the "Open With" extension is very helpful in cases where you simply cannot find or figure out a user agent string (or any other problem-fix) that works for a problem web page or site. Instead of beating one's head against the wall and spending a lot of time trying to make SeaMonkey work for that problem web page or site, sometimes it is much simpler and time efficient to just use "Open With" and go on about one's business!]

v_v
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beoenduser
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Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by beoenduser »

Thanks, v_v
This is what I encountered:
After getting rid of the of "general.useragent.override; Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/102.0" and identifying as SeaMonkey ... the National Weather Service and Facebook pages wouldn't work so I put that back.
general.useragent.site_specific_overrides;true is still set.
and Edit > Preferences > Advanced > HTTP Networking > User Agent String is set to Identify as Firefox

The only user override that is still set is the "general.useragent.override.google.com; Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0"
and Google Docs still won't let me at the Homepage: "Home Screen temporarily unavailable". The interesting thing I did find what that when I let the page load all my documents and then scroll down far enough, I can get at many of my older documents, the NoNo layer does not go all the way down. Sometimes, I can click fast enough on the newer documents after quite a few tries, and get at them that way. However, this should not be happening. :x

Too bad there isn't a list of the latest UA that work with specific sites. :cry:
I'm sick and tired of these browser warz... been there, done that, thought it was over, but no! Petty companies are too lazy to check SeaMonkey out and see that as Philip Chee had put it: "SeaMonkey supports all the HTML5 that Firefox supports. Also canvas and webGL. We use the same Gecko engine. The main difference is the front end UI."
Rob_S
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Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by Rob_S »

Except for some reason, it does not support the scripts that many of these pages rely on to display various things.

I am not sure why this is, but it must be really difficult to fix.
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beoenduser
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Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by beoenduser »

Rob_S... Do you mean the Google Docs site? I agree! So strange. I do have FireFox and I've used the identical UA but it's not working for some reason. :-k
TPR75
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Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by TPR75 »

beoenduser wrote:[...]even gave the site the latest Firefox user agent string all without success.
I'm afraid it's not related to UserAgent string. It can be functionality or actually lack of functionality in SeaMonkey. Remember! Google wants to dominate World with their Chrome.

But it can be something different. To use Google Docs user must be logged in to Google Account. I wander if OAuth2 for Gmail can mess here...?

My Gmail e-mail account is not the same as one I'm using for "general purposes" Google Account (including YT). Do you use the same data for Google Account and Gmail?
--
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Frank Lion
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Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by Frank Lion »

TPR75 wrote: I'm afraid it's not related to UserAgent string. It can be functionality or actually lack of functionality in SeaMonkey. Remember! Google wants to dominate World with their Chrome.
Except that I don't get that "Home Screen temporarily unavailable". message at all in Google Docs after logging in to my Google Account in a clean profile with default UA of Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/68.0 SeaMonkey/2.53.14 Google Docs seems to function OK as well.

I think OAuth2 only relates to Gmail retrieval? One thing I do know is that spoofing UA strings only works on some sites, i.e. it is not some secret magic bullet, and that people should not stop thinking/looking for other solutions, once they've tried a few UA strings to no effect.

As for the OP here - global overrides lead only to a world of confusion.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
.
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beoenduser
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Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by beoenduser »

Yes, I use the same things on their sites.
Weirdo thing is I'm already signed in when I get that NoNo overlay. Other things with Google seem to work fine. Just not the Docs pages.
Another interesting twist is that the same thing is happening on my other computer, Windows 8.1, with the same version of SeaMonkey (and therefore a different profile). I hadn't done anything with the UA on that one, just have the Edit > Preferences > Advanced > HTTP Networking > User Agent String set to Firefox if I remember correctly.
v_v
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Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by v_v »

beoenduser,

Well I am fresh out of bullets---magic or otherwise! (Smile) So as I hinted in my last post, perhaps this is one of those cases
where you simply cannot find or figure out a user agent string (or any other problem-fix) that works for a problem web page or site. Instead of beating one's head against the wall and spending a lot of time trying to make SeaMonkey work for that problem web page or site, sometimes it is much simpler and time efficient to just use "Open With" and go on about one's business!
v_v
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beoenduser
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Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by beoenduser »

Yeah, I'm sad about the situation, but your solution does work well. (thumbs up)
TPR75
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Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by TPR75 »

beoenduser wrote:Yeah, I'm sad about the situation, but your solution does work well. (thumbs up)
Frank Lion wrote above that it works under clean profile. It means it can work on old profile if user will delete cookies and/or other data written by websites in user's profile. By "websites" I mean "google.com" and other Google's domains.
--
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beoenduser
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Re: SeaMonkey locked out of Google sites

Post by beoenduser »

it can work on old profile if user will delete cookies and/or other data written by websites in user's profile. By "websites" I mean "google.com" and other Google's domains.
Sounds like a plan. Since I haven't done that (delete cookies and other data) in ages, I hope to look it up to remember where to look for that.
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