There are two problems with the user agent that urge us to find a replacement. In modern browsers, this is only used for historical reasons. History of the browser useragent string 2008 hacker news. We have a user agent api if you need to use the detection in your own system too.
While the text string identifies itself to the server as a user agent, it simultaneously requests access to the website. So, to get info about your browser, web sites often examine the user agent, or ua string. Weve collected millions of user agents and have categorised them here for you, based on some of the things we can detect about them operating system, browser, hardware type, browser type, and so on. Hi there, i cant help thinking that you give the user agent string a meaning it doesnt deserve.
Why there is a need to change or spoof user agent string. How to change the user agent string in microsoft edge. Custom useragent string is an extension that enables you to easily change your browser useragent by adding sitespecific useragent strings from the options page addons control panel. May 11, 2007 the user agent string identifies your browser to the server hosting the site that you are visiting.
The user agent string will automatically reset back to the default each time you restart firefox. For example, the button at the beginning of this page uses javascript to display your user agent string. Having the knowledge from above, user agent spoofing is used by many programmers that dont want people to know how theyre getting to the site s. In the past tor browser has used many different user agent strings, depending on which version of tor browser you are interested in, one can search for that particular user agent string. Copypaste any user agent string in this field and click analyze mozillaproductslice. Webview useragent strings are a bit of a mess right now, but it. How to switch user agent on firefox for android via about. This string indicates which browser you are using, its version number, and details about your system, such as operating system and version. Accessing the user guide the silk user guide is available in the browser. Of course this requires using a device detection solution which. For all other user agents it means mozillacompatible. With this technique, all the requests in fiddler had the correct user agent. The user must enter a passcode on the browser to access secure content home page. On the bookmarks tab, touch the bookmark you want to open.
For mewindows xp, normal size fontsthe ua wraps to a third line so i see no firefox version information at all. For example, if a users product were called wikibrowser, their user agent string might be wikibrowser1. The useragent header is part of the rfc7231, which is an improved version of the rfc1945, where it states the useragent requestheader field contains information about the user agent originating the request. The information below describes version history for opera browsers built using the. Some programmers will find legitimate uas and program their script to use such uas. When a software agent operates in a network protocol, it often identifies itself, its application type, operating system, software vendor, or software revision, by submitting a characteristic identification string to its operating peer. Dec 29, 2017 there are a few ways to access user agent information. This tool allows you to check what the latest i 6000038 will identify any user agent as. The history of the user agent string is marked by browsers trying to convince user agent sniffers that they are what they are not. The data supplied by the user agent string is generally used to optimize web browsing experience. Use the guide to learn about customizing the silk view, using bookmarks, using browser tabs, clearing history, downloading content, and other topics. Tor browser useragent strings at this point in time dec312014 for the current version is. You can search for bookmarks from the address bar by prefixing your query with an asterisk, e.
Uas contain information such as the browser version, compatibility, operating system, and any modifying plugins. A couple of weeks ago, i talked about feature detection and browser detection. Why do nonmozilla browsers include mozilla in their user agent. These days with mvnos like straight talk and mega carriers like tmobile throttling users to 128k when they exceed data caps on unlimited plans, mobile internet slows to 2g.
The most common way to do this is to use javascript to query the useragent header. Never trust the user string to be accurate many tablets and phones especially may mislead. This is for statistical purposes, the tracing of protocol violations, and automated recognition of user agents for the sake of tailoring responses to avoid particular user agent. And so microsoft made their own web browser, which they called internet explorer, hoping for it to be a netscape killer. For more on firefox and geckobased user agent strings, see the firefox user agent string reference. See also this document on user agent sniffing and this hacks blog post.
Useragent string article about useragent string by the. That post featured a little bit about useragent sniffing and the. But in most cases, feature detection is the right choice. Bug 1625750 drop lightningversion from seamonkey user agent string. This can make user agent sniffing a bit more difficult although. This allows the web server to provide content that is tailored for the specific browser being used. In the past tor browser has used many different useragent strings, depending on which version of tor browser you are interested in, one can search for that particular useragent string. Custom useragent string is an extension that enables you to easily change your browser user agent by adding sitespecific user agent strings from the options page addons control panel.
Understand what information is contained in a user agent string. User agent strings typically carry information about an operating system, web browser and a basic hardware device information. The above demonstrate that its an unreliable way to guess what browser the user is using. The default home page for the browser that is defined by the organization bookmarks. More details about the history of user agent strings can be found on the. User agent strings come in all shapes and sizes, and the number of unique user agents is growing all the time. How can i detect and delete duplicate bookmarks in mozilla firefox.
The most important product component is listed first. The next question is about how to change or spoof user agent string. Apr, 2015 the facebook useragent string is quite similar to default browsers string on both ios and android, but with some facebook identifiers appended on both android and ios, the twitter useragent string includes no twitter information, and looks like it is using the default string for the platforms webview. This sounds simple, but user agents have become a mess over time. The user agent string should follow some very simple rules, unfortunately, not all browsers do. A user agent string is a list of so called product tokens. Sep, 2017 a user agent is a string that is, a line of text identifying the browser and operating system to the web server. When you key in a query on your web browser user agent and hit enter, a text string a programming sequence of symbols is sent to the server of that website. The user agent string for chromiumbased versions of opera resembles the. Jan 11, 2019 click the user agent string icon in the addons menu. You can use them to debug script step by step and to change the browsers user agent string, as well as to tell internet. Compaq airlife 100 series connecting to and browsing the. A user agent is a string that is, a line of text identifying the browser to the web server, including the version number and operating system. Using this data, a website can assess the capabilities of your computer, optimizing a pages performance and display.
It is desirable for there to be standardization in the format of these strings, for logfile analysis and other purposes. On both android and ios, the twitter useragent string includes no twitter information, and looks like it is. For a breakdown of changes to the string in gecko 2. For those wanting to add additional user agent strings visit this website available in xml file format. It also takes 4 lines, and again forces vertical scrolling. The other is windows xp with normal sized fonts, but with a very long custom user agent string. The user agent string format is currently specified by section 5. It may refer to an email client see messaging system, a web browser, search engine spider or any other program in the users machine that is accessing a service on the internet see user agent string.
A browsers user agent string ua helps identify which browser is being used, what version, and on which operating system. Being a mobile user from the early 2000s, i know user agent switching is one of the niftiest tricks on the web to save bandwith and get fast results on a slow connection. Default browser settings for secure browser workplace. Below is a sample useragent string reported by internet explorer that highlights the. Uncheck the select automatically check box, then choose the user agent you wish to use. The template of user agent string used by microsoft internet explorer. However, if you want to gather the information or manipulate the data, it would be better to use a serverside scripting language, such as perl. Sometimes abbreviated as ua, the user agent is a browser text string that is given to each website you visit.
Html5 browser and feature detection microsoft docs. But the 4th line is the one showing your user agent string. Fails to load video content appropriately because the user agent ua string has been changed. The question of whats that user agent string used for. The useragent string identifies your browser to the server hosting the site that you are visiting.
The user agent of a web browser is a string value which identifies that browser and provides certain system details to servers hosting the websites you visit. Thanks to the new flags page in internet explorer 11, it is now very easy to change the user agent string. The facebook useragent string is quite similar to default browsers string on both ios and android, but with some facebook identifiers appended. We really need a method that definitely tells us which browser the user is using. Check out our user agent analyser page, which gives you a neat breakdown of all the things we can tell you about your browser and computer based on your user agent. But none of this changed my user agent and sites still loaded their mobile versions. Firefox esr user agent string reports wrong firefox version. Using the renavigating caused other weird issues for me, like the browser content suddenly vanishing, and sometimes still getting unsupported browser. A user agent ua string is able to be used to detect what version of a specific browser is being used on a certain operating system. Useragent string when you visit a web page, your browser sends the useragent string to the server hosting the site that you are visiting. User agent string decoder is a decoder tool that allows translating a browser user agent string into data blocks.
The user agent tells the server what the visiting device is among many other things and this information can be used to determine what content to return. Dec 19, 2019 a user agent is a string that is, a line of text identifying the browser to the web server, including the version number and operating system. So, first things first deciphering the user agent string. The useragent string format is currently specified by section 5. How to change user agent string of internet explorer. At least thats not just because of a user agent string.
B browser c link, bookmark, server checking d downloading tool p proxy server, web filtering r robot, crawler, spider s spam or bad bot. User agent string in the about firefox dialog is cut off. To view browser history, in the browser application, press menu on the keyboard. The bookmark names or urls that are saved for the browser. Find lists of user agent strings from browsers, crawlers, spiders, bots, validators and others. Over time, the browser user agent system has been abused with the practice of browser sniffing and a lot of ink has already been spilled on the reasons why the user agent string. So, first things first deciphering the useragent string.
Theres no standard way of writing a user agent string, so different web browsers use different formats some are wildly different, and many web browsers cram loads of information into their user agents. Jun 25, 2010 the user agent switcher extension provides a quick and easy way to change the user agent string for those less than cooperative websites. So, by changing the user agent string, one can directly download any adobe reader version of any platforms or languages with internet explorer or mozilla firefox, without using the adobe updater or opera web browser. User agent detection can be useful if feature detection is expensive or if a particular feature is only partially implemented by a browser. The strings can be confusing if you try to read them yourself.
Any time the useragent is longer than 3 lines, this patch creates scrollbars since it removes overflow. A browsers user agent string helps the web server identify the browser you are using, which version, and on which operating system windows, android. Internet explorer wants to be identified as netscape 4. Claims to be a mozilla based user agent, which is only true for gecko browsers like firefox and netscape. To confirm the ability of the browserplatform use a specific test where available. Choose the desktop web browser and operating system platform to view the desired website. Below is a sample user agent string reported by internet explorer that highlights the. The ua string of firefox is broken down into 4 components. It is possible to change or fake what your web browser sends as its user agent. User agent string when you visit a web page, your browser sends the user agent string to the server hosting the site that you are visiting. This document describes the user agent string used in firefox 4 and later and applications based on gecko 2. Thats where steps in we decode your user agent string to figure out everything its saying.
Tor browser user agent strings at this point in time dec312014 for the current version is. Some video sites cannot play when the ua string has been changed from mobile to default. How to change the user agent string in microsoft edge, chrome. But fact is, for most browsers it can be set to arbitrary values by the user, it can be modified by proxies between server and client, and it can be changed or supplemented by certain libraries and. Click the user agent string icon in the addons menu. More on the history of user agent strings can be found here. What is the standard format for a browsers useragent string. The useragent tells the server what the visiting device is among many other things and this information can be used to determine what content to return. When i was first shown the user agent string below and asked what. Uas can be blank, or contain custom information like a url to a site that might promote a particular browser or. For example, if a user s product were called wikibrowser, their user agent string might be wikibrowser1. The ua string will only be spoofed on the current tab and only while the developer tools are open. When feature detection apis are not available, use the ua to customize behavior or content to specific browser versions. Konqueror and webkit want to be identified as firefox.
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