Bank of Ireland Business Banking Online and MacOS

moycullen14

Hi,

Just signed up for this and it seems that they don't support anything other than IE and/(or?) Windows. Talk about the dark ages. Anyone any experience of this and, more importantly, a workaround.

I fear a conversation with tech support will only raise my blood pressure.

I guess Linux - the other option - is also out of the question.

TIA

Sad Professor

Yeah this issue has come up many times before. There's no point ringing them. They don't care and will only give you some bs about Mac supporting coming. They've been telling people this for years. Afaik your only option is to run Windows via Parallels/VMWare/Bootcamp, etc. Or switch banks.

moycullen14

Oh but it's such bulls**t.

The effort to support multiple OS/Browser on a web application is very small. Their IT department should be mortified. Maybe the development was done by some outsourced outfit who were only contracted to support one platform and would charge an absolute fortune to add Mac support? I'm an old cynic.

Nemeses

Does it not work in Chrome? I don't use BOI services so pretty hard to give a workaround.

Edit:

Try this Chrome extension as a workaround

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ie-tab/hehijbfgiekmjfkfjpbkbammjbdenadd

ugh nevermind, Windows only ..

Edit again

This may work :

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-activate-user-agent-switcher-in-safari.html (Safari 5)

http://osxdaily.com/2013/01/16/change-user-agent-chrome-safari-firefox/ (All browsers - Mac)

nialler

Didn't check your links Nemesis but was that opening safari in Dev mode and then masking Safari as IE?

Doesn't work on a mac. Sorry the changing of User Agent does but the BOL site doesn't.

Anyways I'm thinking of changing banks as the charges are ridiculous for a sole trader.

N

Nemeses

That's a shame.

It really doesn't make sense for a website NOT to support other browsers...

Terrible web development there.

moycullen14

An email to BOI.....

Hi,

Recently registered for your business on-line service. I need to access it on an Apple Mac Boo (macosx 10.7.5). I've tried to bring up the site using Firefox, Chrome, Opera & Safari with no luck.
Do you not support this platform? I use a mac for business & also linux based machines (database server development). I have not used a Windows PC for years - it's completely unsuitable for my line of work.

Please don't tell me that I have to use Internet Explorer to access the system?

Regards


And their response.......

Dear XXXX

I can confirm Business On Line can only be accessed through Internet Explorer. If you try to access Business On Line from any other browser you will receive a message saying loading please wait and it will not progress.

It is stated in the application form that Business On Line can only be accessed through Internet Explorer.

Certain customers who operate Mac have gained access to the website by installing a parallel such as bootcamp - this will assist you operating Internet Explorer. Unfortunately as we do not operate on Mac we cannot assist with the installation of this programme.

I do apologise for any inconvenience caused if you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me.

And mine.....

Dear XXXX,

Thank your for your prompt response.

Can I ask you to do something for me? Can you forward this email to someone in the organisation that is responsible for IT implementation and strategy?
Now I have no intention of berating you for this outrageous piece of technical backwardness - obviously it's neither your choice or decision - I want whoever it is that makes these decisions to be made aware that as a customer and an experienced IT professional I find the decision to limit support of Business Online to IE, and as a consequence Microsoft Windows, to be backward, insecure and wholly unnecessary.

As you can see from the attached graphic, IE has been rapidly losing market share for years -especially in the mobile space. So while 'insisting' on IE might have been acceptable 5-10 years ago, it no longer is.

To be honest, IE is not the problem. The real problem is that it forces use of Microsoft Windows. Now temporary access to a windows machine is not a problem but by it's nature Business Internet Banking needs to accessed from a secure, accessible machine - therefore I would need a 'dedicated' PC for internet banking. This is not an expense that I am willing to bear.

If ROS (Revenue On Line) is capable of running on multiple platforms/browsers (it, too, is a java/browser based, certificate enabled application), then there is no reason that BOI cannot do the same.


Please let me know when you intend to fix this ridiculous state of affairs. In the meantime, I will NOT be using BOI Business Online,

Sincerely,

XXXX

PS. If an application does not support a particular browser/OS, it should say so. Just hanging indefinitely is, in my professional view, just a sloppy bug. You might think about fixing that, at the very least. If the development was done in house, get your developers to fix it. If it was out-sourced then get them to fix it under the terms of your support contract - if you have one.

Cabaal

I wouldn't hold your breath about getting any meaningful response on your e-mail,

banquo

I love how they say (it was the same with me) that they don't support the 'Apple OS.' That's not the problem.

DubTony

BOI Email wrote:

Certain customers who operate Mac have gained access to the website by installing a parallel such as bootcamp - this will assist you operating Internet Explorer. Unfortunately as we do not operate on Mac we cannot assist with the installation of this programme.

And how they say you could "install" a parallel such as bootcamp. :rolleyes: They're obviously clueless.

I used BOI online banking between 2006 and 2009 on a bootcamp partition. It was a real pain in the arse having to restart every time I wanted to go back to my accounts. So much so that I invested in a Windows accounts package. Anyway, I asked them about it back in '06, and got similar answers.

Losty Dublin

I actually used www.365online.com today via Safari no hassle and Firefox last week. There were issues with non IE browsers for a long time; is this log in issue related to same?

DubTony

Losty Dublin wrote: »

I actually used www.365online.com today via Safari no hassle and Firefox last week. There were issued with non IE browsers for a long time; is this log in issue related to same?

Business Online stuff is a whole other animal.

Nemeses

What is the URL for the business side of things?

nialler

https://www.boi-bol.com/newHome.html

I haven't tried it yet but I'm sure you could install WINE and IE and give it a whirl on your mac.

thecommander

Virtualbox and Windows XP does the trick. Use it everyday.

shayno90

Install winetricks and appropriate version of Firefox according to your Linux distro version (wine version installed).

Works at last after some puzzlement!

alastair

shayno90 wrote: »

Install winetricks and appropriate version of Firefox according to your Linux distro version (wine version installed).

Works at last after some puzzlement!

Could you do a walkthrough of how you got this to work?

Cheers,
Alastair

Elessar

In fairness this is ridiculous in this day and age. I wouldn't be long switching banks. Every other bank on the market (afaik) supports Mac. They've some neck BOI.

moycullen14

Elessar wrote: »

In fairness this is ridiculous in this day and age. I wouldn't be long switching banks. Every other bank on the market (afaik) supports Mac. They've some neck BOI.

That's exactly what I did. I told them I was closing the a/c and the only reason was their insane policy of insisting on windows/ie. I'm damned if I'm going to install special emulators/os just to support their crap. No response from them :mad:

shayno90

alastair wrote: »

Could you do a walkthrough of how you got this to work?

Cheers,
Alastair

Install wine first on your system via command line or software centre.
Then, download winetricks from here: http://winetricks.org/winetricks
Make it executable, chmod +x
Launch it, sh winetricks
Select Install an app
Select appropriate version of Firefox according to year of your distro, install
Launch Firefox either Wine>Programs or from Desktop.
Browse to BOI online login and you should get prompted to second stage of login!