CBA admits to NetBank Firefox bug

A recent upgrade to the Commonwealth Bank's NetBank service claims to "make your online banking a whole lot easier", but a problem has emerged for Firefox users.

The upgrade, which adds on-screen shortcuts for common tasks, and a revised tabbed interface and thus uses more horizontal screen real estate, has problems in launching a correctly-sized application window when running under Firefox.

NetBank launches in a fixed-width window which can't be resized, but the latest version doesn't fit within that window under Firefox, forcing users to scroll right to access basic functions such as logging out.

"The issue you have raised is a known issue which the NetBank Program Team is working to resolve as a priority," said an e-mail from the NetBank support team regarding the problem.

The Commonwealth recommends that Windows users use Internet Explorer and that Mac owners use Netscape Communicator for online banking for "best results", but Firefox is also listed as a supported platform, though the Commonwealth will not offer technical support for it.

Notably, Windows Vista is not among the officially supported platforms for NetBank either, according to the bank's help documentation.

The bank recommends that individual users run an on-site browser test to determine if their own browser is suitable, but this can be problematic.

Running the test on Firefox 2.0.0.6, this writer was informed that the "browser does not seem to support JavaScript", although in fact JavaScript was enabled.

Ensuring that browser-based applications work on a variety of browsers is a perennial problem for developers, and one that's only likely to get worse as browsers for mobile phones become more prevalent.

The most generous estimates suggest that Firefox may have up 25 percent of the desktop browser market, while other tracking systems peg the figure at around 15 percent.

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CBA Netback Firefox problems Matt Embleton -- 22/08/07

As a Mac user and reading the article it was mentioned about Netscape Communicater as the best browser to use But isn't Firefox from the same coding program design?
And nothing was mentioned about Safari as Safari is Mac OS X's default web browser? is there any issues with that?

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Firefox Shaun Steenkamp -- 22/08/07

I find this pretty slack from CBA. Do they follow the coding standards at all? If they would just follow the strict XHTML and CSS standards, half their problems would be sorted. Then DHTML conditionals can be used to create IE specific scripts and styles, simple stuff.
With Firefox becoming so popular, I really can't understand how they can not offer official support for it, I am a web designer and programmer myself, and had I made that kind of comment to my clients, I would lose all my business.

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CBA is blind! Keith Styles -- 22/08/07

Considering the very significant number of user now using browsers other than M$'s IE, would it be too much to expect the CBA Web designers to get it to work for Firefox and Mac users. I wonder how CBA Opera user are faring?

Is the CBA Web QA department blind to anything that does not have an M$ tag attached?

Market indications suggest Firefox has somewhere between 15-25% of the desktop market. Maybe CBA doesn't consider that suficiant numbers to justify the extra work to do the QA before their product release.

Maybe they don't know how to download Firefox to their PC's!

Typical of the arrogant bank attitudes and customer indifference.

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Commonwealth Netbank Ongoing Problem Peter Button -- 03/07/09 (in reply to #320084802)

Yes, Commbank seem to totally lack commercial perspective - they have been deteriorating since they started pulling managers out of branches and chiseling their customer services many years ago. The number of people switching to Firefox browser and the long-time current and well established windows operating system is accelerating. Many like me have been forced over the past 15 years to switch our main banking across to another bank (one which has no netbank shortcomings regardless of browser and operating system) Real bankers are people who welcome you as a client and provide proper branch staff and facilities to get things done efficiently.
CBA must wake up before they lose a huge slab of their most profitable business. CBA seem headed for a recession all of their own Who on earth would buy CBA shares or invest large sums with them when experiencing CBA's self-instigated "withdrawal of services"

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silver lining Anonymous -- 22/08/07

Now the site allows you to resize the Netbank window (at least under Firefox 2.0.0.6).

I hope they keep it this way (but I bet they don't). It always annoyed me that I couldn't resize the window.

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Test for all Platforms Anonymous -- 22/08/07

I am suprised that the software is not tested for all platforms, IE,Firefox, Opera etc etc. This is the WWW, hello... hello. They is not the only large organisation that only test for 1 or 2 browsers. Try NAB;s internet banking offer over Opera does not run propley unless you agree to allow popups etc. Safari is not supported, but does work.

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Fire(fox)CBA Sam Smith -- 23/08/07

This resizing issue has always been a concern. To overcome this annoyance, as I use NetBank on a daily basis I have the https://www3.netbank.commbank.com.au/netbank/bankmain logon page as a 'toolbar' bookmark so it always opens in a full size tab page...

I don't know if any of you have also noticed that since the resent "improvements" to NetBank the payment receipt or remittance prints without any CBA or NetBank logo. When I called them earlier this week to notify them of this illegitimate looking receipt they were not familiar with the issue and even tried it out themselves (I presume with IE as this is what they recommend) and found the same problem.

I agree with what many of you have said; you would think that a company the size of CBA and with more available resources than most they would be able to fully test their new development before making it live...

Very poor form CBA!

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Resize FF POPUPS Keith Styles -- 25/08/07 (in reply to #320084859)

There's a FF trick (tweek) here http://murl.se/27370 which among others, will allow you to resize the popup window.
It requires you to use the about:config option to patch the userContent.css file in the Chrome folder.
Check out all the other tweeks, I found most of them useful.
It wouldn't be necessary if CBA Web guys did their job. *sigh*

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Try Netbank on a Mobile Platform Anonymous -- 11/09/07

I have a Nokia E61, Netbanking worked fine prior to the upgrade, now the screen is unreadable, so much for the experts who work at CBA. All this rubbish adjust DPI, use IE etc etc is just a cop out from people who dont know what they are doing. Just design the platform to detect the broser type and let it adjust accordingly, if not allow the user to set their own preference, and adjust accordingly. A junior web developer could do this in thier sleep.

Just remember that CBA spent some $100million on this platform. Give a few uni students a few million and you would have got fantasitic result, as well as an early retirement. Just shows how the management in CBA can be sold a lemon. No doubt the powerpoint presentations looked perfect. This also proves the point the that developers only have IE, or dont bank with the CBA else they would have noticed the issue as well.

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