Question:
I am using an older browser version and am having problems. What can be done ? We are not able to upgrade the browser at this time.
This is a challenge for any company that makes software that utilizes a browser. Since Stoneware does not control the product cycle of the browser we develop and check our code against the latest browsers out at the time of development. This helps ensure that we can handle the new browsers since many like Firefox and Chrome auto update themselves.
We realize that some customers are unable to update to the latest browser and we have always done our best to go back for those customers and see if a problem can be fixed but sometimes depending on the issue we are unable to do so and the customer would have to upgrade the browser to fix the issue.
Many people want to know the minimum browser that they need to use webNetwork and that one is also a hard one to answer because of the rapid change in browser technology. Just about every browser on the market today can login and utilize webNetwork. This includes browses on game consoles like the PS2, Wii and other devices. But this does not mean that every feature will work properly. We focus development and testing on IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari for the Mac. That does not mean another browser won't work, but just that our development and testing is focused around the 4 major ones.
In each of those 4 major browsers there are what is considered good versions and problematic versions. For example, IE 6 has been discontinued by Microsoft and taken off the support list by many vendors. IE 7 and 8 will soon follow. As of 11/15/2012 Google will discontinue the use of IE 8 for accessing Google Apps. Firefox has been on a rapid release cycle releasing 30+ versions of Firefox since 2011. Chrome is updated on a similar rapid release schedule. Safari for Mac has started releasing new versions on a more frequent basis. Releasing 22 versions since version 4 in 2010.
We often get asked, I have hundreds of workstations using Firefox 3 or Safari 4 will webNetwork work ? The answer to that question unfortunately is try out the features of webNetwork that your company will use and see if things work to your satisfaction. Many new features in the product simply won't work because the technology to run them does not exist in those versions. For example the HTML 5 rdp client. If you have a problem please let us know and we will make every effort to solve the problem if we are able to do so. But if you are on a very old (in internet time, 6 months is old for a browser) you may need to bite the bullet and upgrade the browser or utilize a different browser. We do understand that you may also run other products that must use a specific version of a browser and the only thing we can say is to check with the other vendor and see when they plan on supporting a newer browser.