Comcast Oddity

[John Liebson]

Comcast has changed something, which is keeping my automated log-on from working:

When I click on my Comcast bookmark,  https://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Customers/CustomerCentral.html  .

That bookmark is the URL that, for example, the link in the monthly e-mail that states the current bill is available on-line takes you to. Curiously, if I click on it, I see the older Comcast log-on page, with the two boxes filled in, but am quickly taken to the new log-on page, with the same URL, but the boxes are empty. I also see the older log-on page when I click on http://www.comcast.com/payonline , the e-mail URL. The Golden Key works to fill in the box, but the automated setting in PWM does not recognize the new page.
 
Any way to fix this so that the automated log-on works on the new Comcast page?

[tanstaafl]

Add the new URL as an additional pattern?

[Eric H. Jung]

I'm not entirely sure of the problem. Does one URL work for you and the other does not?

[John Liebson]

When I wrote "the same URL," I have to wonder why two people asked if one URL worked, the other did not, or if I should add the new URL: After all, "the same URL" likely means that the two URLs are not different URLs.

There appear to be two pages with, as I wrote, the same URL; the problem is that, as I would expect, PWM only enters the data once, on the first page, but not on the second page, which has the same URL as the first.

I trust that this translation of "the same" makes it clear to others that the two URLs are the same....

[tanstaafl]

Sorry - guess I was confused by the introduction of the SECOND URL you referred to...

The only thing I notice is that when I click on that link, it REDIRECTS me to a DIFFERENT page - a SECURE page - httpS://... as opposed to httP://...

I usually add both a secure and unsecure version of the URL in my pattern list, unless I only want it to work on the secure page...

[John Liebson]

Well, this is still quite confusing, but I did notice something a moment ago:
 
My bookmark is https://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Customers/CustomerCentral.html ; please notice that it is httpS. When I click on it, and then watch the Minefield status bar, there is a lot of 'loading http://, without the 'S'.

However, PWM still responds to the first page, when it finishes loading; as my only PWM URL is for "https://xx", then that first page must be a https page. Unfortunately, as soon as PWM enters the information, Comcast loads the second page (the truly strange one in that it apparently has the same URL as the first page), and there seems to be no way to go back to the first page to see what it really is, nor to check its programming to look for clues.

Furthermore, if I get rid of the Comcast second page, then click on my bookmark again, I am taken directly to the second Comcast page, which PWM still does not recognize. (I suspect that, were I to restart Minefield, I'd be taken to both pages, but I am in the midst of composing this literary masterpiece, so don't want to try restarting.)

At any rate, please understand that I am not saying that PWM is not working; rather, it seems to me, that Comcast is doing something quite unusual in loading two pages that seem to have the same URL. Thus, I'm wondering if there might be some way to instruct PWM to not only recognize the first page (which it does), but also the second page.

(I just added http://x, no "s", to PWM, but--again--looks at though I'll have to restart Minefield to test it. As I have the latest nightly release to install, I'll do that, then try Comcast/PWM again. If you are truly lucky, I'll come back here to report what I find.)

[tanstaafl]

Yeah, I noticed that your URL had the 's' after I posted... sorry...

But you're right, it does appear to be doing something weird...

Clicking the second link you gave, it loads the http://, then redirects to the https://...

[John Liebson]

Weird, indeed:

1. I added the non-secure url to PWM, tried the link; I'm not sure that PWM even entered the information on the first page--it may have, I'm just not sure.

2. I deleted the non-secure entry in PWM, retried the link, information added by PWM on the first page.

3. Changed the bookmark to http://xx (no 's'), which took me directly to the https:// URL, just as did the bookmark with the 's'.

What Comcast is doing is well beyond my comprehension, but that is not saying very much....

[tanstaafl]

Also, just to confirm...

It sounds like you're using this with auto-populate and Master Password saved (in memory or on disk)?

I don't, so maybe that is the problem. See if it works if you disable auto-pop and use the coolkey (or alt-`)...

[John Liebson]

I tried disabling auto-populate, which made no difference.

As for saved password, please see my comment from yesterday in http://forums.passwordmaker.org/index.php/topic,1445.0.html ; however, I did enter the master password in PWM, told PWM to save it, but did not close PWM, to try to get around the apparent bug in saving it. That, too, made no difference with Comcast.

As for the Golden Key, as I first wrote, it does work on the second page; when I just disabled auto-populate, the Golden Key still worked. In other words, I can log on, it is just that, no thanks to whatever strange thing Comcast is doing, I cannot do so automatically.

[Eric H. Jung]

I imagine this is some kind of auto-populate timing issue with regards to the comcast redirect.

John, are you aware that the "golden key" (we call it Cool Key, by the way) has a keyboard shortcut? If you press Alt-` it does the same as clicking the key in the toolbar. Does that suffice for your populate needs? I realize it's not automatic, but it is only one extra keypress.

I've tried not to make a habit of coding PasswordMaker to support each and every possible webpage out there when it comes to auto populate. The reason for this is I could spend the rest of my days on that alone and nothing else... that's how large of a problem it is. I thought instead that I'd write auto-populate so that it works with a large percentage of sites and then focus on other stuff.

Since you're one of our more active users these days, I'm willing to make an exception and look at the comcast problem more closely if you say the Cool Key shortcut is just not your speed.

Let me know,
Eric

[John Liebson]

Eric, thanks for the reply. I only started this thread to see if anyone could explain and/or figure out what Comcast was doing and, thus, get PWM to work automatically.

I'd appreciate your looking into this; however, I would not expect you to spend more than, say, two or three thousand hours and/or a few minutes doing so.

In other words, sure, I can use the Golden Key or its shortcut, but if you can figure out how to automate the process. That it does not work is not exactly something that is worth your doing more than taking a quick look. If you can fix it, fine; if not, also fine.

[Eric H. Jung]

OK, I'll take a closer look this weekend.

[John Liebson]

OK, I'll take a closer look this weekend.

Don't look too closely, Eric, lest you become cross-eyed....

(While you are looking at things involving PWM, are you going to look at the Master Password problem I reported recently in another thread, a problem of greater interest than the Comcast one? I only ask as I don't want you to have any spare time on your hands this coming weekend, given that idle hands make the devil's work easier.)

[Eric H. Jung]

My priority is to get PasswordMaker to completely work with Firefox 3. If there's time leftover, I'll look at Comcast.