Internet Explorer

Please, someone, help me before I go insane.

My mother is running Internet Explorer on her Mac. She has the Leopard OS. A site she is trying to open won't let her in because of some security issue. It's a credit card company site, so it isn't a security issue.

I can't talk her through it because I don't run Leopard, and I can't find it on any current Macintosh machines down at Best Buy.

Can someone please give me the walkthrough for her to reach the appropriate security customization so that she can lower it for the purposes of going into this one computer site to use her credit card points? She is barely computer literate, and my heart rate's up at about 180 because she keeps defaulting to how complicated the machine is, why doesn't it work, etc.

As far as I know, IE is not supported by either Microsoft OR Apple for Mac computers and hasn't been since 2005. It's unlikely there's anything that can be done

She should really switch to Safari or Firefox. She won't even have to install Safari as it should be in her computer already

Thanks, but that's not really the question.

1. I don't need Microsoft OR Apple to support the application. I just need the pathway -- in very detailed directions -- to reach the security setting that will allow the website in question to not be blocked. Something like: click on the word "Explorer" at the top of the page that IE has opened. From the dropdown menu that opens, select such and such. That will open a popup. Go to the fourth tab, labeled this and that, go to where it gives you the option to do these, those or the other, etc.

2. Yes, I wish she'd switch to Safari or Firefox but she "likes" IE. The other browsers don't "look right." She's my mother, I'm not allowed to use logic or common sense.

And I'm sorry if that sounds tense, but I'm about to put my foot through my computer. I just can't believe how much time this has eaten up today already.

Internet Explorer for Mac is VERY old and outdated, and is likely unsupported by many websites. Unfortunately, the only way to solve any problems you are having with it is to use a different browser. There really isn't any way around this.

Honestly, good luck with this. I can safely say that perhaps 0.1% (this is being generous) of the community here uses IE. While it's not the answer you want, you really shoud get your Mom to switch to a different browser that supports a lot more than IE. Using IE on a Mac is like using a Model T. I can guess that the reason that the site isn't working is because what's being used may not even be supported by IE.

Oh, terrific. Okay, I get it. It's a case of even if I fiddled with the security settings, it still wouldn't work? (Just like using the gas that a Model T ran on in a modern car would break it?)

Some days I just can't win for losing.

But if anyone DOES know if the pathway I'm talking about exists (a way to set the security to low), I would appreciate knowing.

vansmith said:

Honestly, good luck with this. I can safely say that perhaps 0.1% (this is being generous) of the community here uses IE. While it's not the answer you want, you really shoud get your Mom to switch to a different browser that supports a lot more than IE. Using IE on a Mac is like using a Model T. I can guess that the reason that the site isn't working is because what's being used may not even be supported by IE.

Click to expand...

Or at least not the last version of IE that MS made for OS X - IE 5.

Most secure sites demand IE 6 at a minimum and will not work with IE 5 even in Windows. MS did it's last update to IE 5 for OS X in Jul '03.
The security issue is that IE 5 didn't have much to speak of.

Tell her the old senile guy says it won't work. She's gonna have to switch browsers while she's in OS X to get to nearly any secure site whether she wants to or not. You can blame me. I can take the heat.

(I know this doesn't help, but if she can't give up IE, she really oughta sell the Mac and go get a Win XP box. Of course that won't help since IE today bears no resemblance to what it did 6 yrs ago on a Win box either. If she's going to be using computers, things change, and this is one of them. The 6 year old app is not going to work.)

edit: Oh, and tell her like you know what you're talking about. You're the computer whiz. She's calling you for help.

>_>" Wow are people seriously that opposed to trying something new?

Seriously though the only way to keep using IE is to run a Virtual PC IE. Parallel/VM Ware with whatever version of Windows.

The alternative would be using Firefox which doesn't cost any money and the download and install takes less than 7 minutes.

I quite frankly didn't even realize that the OS X version of Internet Explorer even ran on Leopard. I'm wondering if she even has it, and is using something else and is simply accustomed to calling her web browser "Internet Explorer".

lifeisabeach said:

I quite frankly didn't even realize that the OS X version of Internet Explorer even ran on Leopard. I'm wondering if she even has it, and is using something else and is simply accustomed to calling her web browser "Internet Explorer".

Click to expand...

I keep that old IE on my external drive just to mess with from time to time and wonder of wonders, it does actually work on Leopard!

It's a horrible browser and has issues with many of todays sites as you could imagine. It's old. Microsoft stopped making IE for the Mac ages ago now. IE5 is almost worthless today. Things have changed so much. I would suggest she try Firefox. A lot easier than installing Windows just to run IE6 or 7.

dtravis7 said:

I keep that old IE on my external drive just to mess with from time to time and wonder of wonders, it does actually work on Leopard!

It's a horrible browser and has issues with many of todays sites as you could imagine. It's old. Microsoft stopped making IE for the Mac ages ago now. IE5 is almost worthless today. Things have changed so much. I would suggest she try Firefox. A lot easier than installing Windows just to run IE6 or 7.

Click to expand...

Well much of the reason I'm thinking what I thought was because, if she's as computer illiterate as the OP suggests, then how did she get IE on there to begin with? It certainly didn't come with Leopard, I doubt she upgraded Leopard over Panther (or was it Jaguar that it last came with?), and she doesn't sound like someone who is well-accustomed to the OS X-way, which means she likely is a more recent Mac switcher. *shrug* Anywho... food for thought...

LB, Oh for sure I agree completely with you. I know 10.2 Jaguar had IE on it but don't remember if 10.3 came with it or not. I think the very first version 10.3.0 might have still had IE on it but not sure. I remember when I first installed 10.2.0 seeing IE in the dock and wondering why it was there!

As to how it got on her Leopard install, who knows. You can still download it some places but like you said, she is not very computer literate.

How about this as a workaround?

Highlight the address in the IE address bar. Hit Command-C. (Same as Ctrl-C in Windows). Open Safari (it comes preinstalled with Leopard). Put the cursor in the empty address bar. Hit Command-V (paste) and push return.

Most likely the site will function perfectly in Safari and you'll be able to convince her of the merits of using a browser that's not from the days of dial up.

Just in case, here's two easy ways to open Safari in OS X.

1. Click the compass icon on the dock.

or

2. Click the magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Type 'safari' and push return.

As others have pointed out, the last version of IE that was actually designed to run on Mac OS X was IE5, which is quite dated now.

Since most banks don't want the liability associated with people accessing their pages with insecure browsers, it is quite common for them to restrict access to certain browsers.

There is a very simple workaround for this.... there is a plethora of different browsers available for Mac, most namely Safari, which comes with it out of the box (many of the Mac OS X applications are actually underpinned by Safari, including Apple's Mail).

Personally, my recommendation would be to install Firefox and apply an IE-like theme to it so that it feels familiar to her. Firefox is more secure, has extensive market share (so most websites will be developed to work with it) and really isn't a far departure from IE in terms of functionality.

Many people, particularly switchers, are not impressed with Safari because the user interface is so sparse. Firefox, on the other hand, is heavy on features and add-ons. You can pretty much make Firefox into whatever you like. To top it off, it's easy to install. Just walk her through downloading it from Firefox web browser | Faster, more secure, & customizable. Once she opens it, it's as easy to install as dragging the icon into the Application folder. Then, once open she can right-click it in the Dock and choose "Keep in Dock". Then, have her go to the website I mentioned above and download the theme. Once installed, it should look, feel and behave like IE for the most part, but be compatible with the bank's website.

lifeisabeach said:

Well much of the reason I'm thinking what I thought was because, if she's as computer illiterate as the OP suggests, then how did she get IE on there to begin with? It certainly didn't come with Leopard, I doubt she upgraded Leopard over Panther (or was it Jaguar that it last came with?), and she doesn't sound like someone who is well-accustomed to the OS X-way, which means she likely is a more recent Mac switcher. *shrug* Anywho... food for thought...

Click to expand...

She's sharp as a scalpel on a lot of things, but on computers, it's like someone stole half her brain. How'd she get IE on it? She started complaining "Oh, this thing they have on the (unprintable) machine! I don't like it. I want my old thing. And this (unprintable) monitor. You have to be 7 feet tall to use it!" etc.

My response? "Okay. Mom. Mom! Stop. Stop for a second. I'll send you a link to download IE onto your machine."

I swear, I wouldn't mind so much, but has anyone EVER run into someone who wanted their old Windows machine over a Mac? What is that, like seven people. She doesn't like the chess program that came with the machine either. Don't get me started ...

God, I need a drink.

Thanks for the information, everyone.