[PLUG] Linux-friendly brokerage firm?

Andy Davidson pheon at hevanet.com
Mon Jan 12 15:52:01 UTC 2004


On Mon, Jan 12, 2004 at 11:54:50AM -0800, Steve Bonds wrote:
> Somewhat surprisingly for such a large company, but I've found Wells
> Fargo's websites to be surprisingly compatible.  So long as you meet their
> functionality requirement (i.e. 128 bit SSL) they seem to work with any
> browser.  Even some of their legalese documents discussing web access
> include the terms "Internet Explorer, Netscape, or equivalent".  They
> could have left off that "or equivalent", but didn't.

Many thanks.  They seem to focus quite strongly (and correctly in my
mind) on the browser having sufficiently robust encryption. They have
a page to test your browser for security. 
  http://www.wellsfargo.com/help/wfonline/browsertest.jhtml

Amusingly, it says "Your browser is: IE 6.0 Congratulations! You can
bank online or apply for products using this browser. Your browser
meets Wells Fargo's strict security standards, which employ some of
the strongest encryption available over the Internet."  However, I was
using Firebird and having it give IE6 as my agent.  Not much of a
test.  Even more interesting, if I use Opera 6 on Linux, Wells Fargo
says I am running Netscape 4.78 even though Opera is saying my agent
is IE5.

None the less, they are the most clueful site I've seen in a while. My
problem is usually in making mutual fund trades.  I don't trade very
often and could easily do it by phone, but I like to stir the Linux
pot occasionally with these financial folks.

andy

-- 
Andy Davidson	pheon at hevanet.com
If you know what you're doing, you're not learning anything.




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