Tesco.com Access Denied Topic is solved

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cannonmc
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Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by cannonmc » 2022-09-28, 11:23

Using PM 29.1 (yes, I know but...) and Win7

Until recently I had no problems with signing into https://www.tesco.com/account/login/en-GB?from=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tesco.com%2Fgroceries%2F

Then intermittently after entering my details I started getting:

"Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.tesco.com/account/login/en-GB?" on this server.

Reference #18.4c0f0317.1664363283.32ed6aba "

Often after trying again I got through to my account, sometimes after closing PM, sometimes not. BTW I am using Private Browsing mode but then I always did.

Now in the last week or so I haven't been able to get to my account at all using PM. I can access it using Opera (awful browser) on this same machine or using Waterfox on another machine which uses the same internet connection..

I have no other problems with any other site using PM (except those ones which tell me I should update my browser to one of the 'fab four' - I ignore them)

I did check the thread https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=28879&p=232306&hilit=you+do+not+have+permission#p232306 but couldn't see a solution for me. Ironically I had no problem accessing the IRS site.

Before I contact Tesco.com I wondered if anyone might have a suggestion for PM or some techy stuff I might tell Tesco about. Thanks if you can help.

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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by Moonchild » 2022-09-28, 11:38

We can't do anything about servers discriminating against what browser you used through tight access control. You'll have to contact the website owners.
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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by cannonmc » 2022-09-28, 15:28

Thanks, Moonchild. I just wondered if there was anything I could /challenge/query them about. Their contact service is not the best. They have no written contact.

And wouldn't you know it, I was able to log-in a couple of hours ago but didn't want to order anything. Ho, hum.

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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by Moonchild » 2022-09-28, 19:13

Best thing you can do it give them the exact error message, and explain to them you are using a normal, general-use browser to try and access their site. Also that it may be intermittent since you can sometimes access the site but sometimes not.
I have an inkling that it may be their content delivery network causing issues here (possibly cloudfront)
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by cannonmc » 2022-09-29, 08:38

Thanks again, Moonchild. Every little helps.

My problem now is getting the problem over to them as they have stopped email contact and their phone lines are geared up to online orders and missing items. Still, I'll give it a go. Meantime I won't starve :)

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just regged to answer
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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by just regged to answer » 2022-09-29, 15:22

It wouldn't be something as simple as the user agent would it?

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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by Giraffe » 2022-09-29, 16:15

It won't open in Firefox, Vivaldi, PM 'clean' or Basilisk.
Tesco.com is OK.
Tescrot is being awkward.
Windows 7 Pro 32-bit. Comodo Internet security or Comodo Firewall + Avira Anivirus.

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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by cannonmc » 2022-11-22, 15:08

Finally got round to contacting Tesco. Got no explanation from them just:

"We advise all of our customers to use Google Chrome as this browser brings up the least amount of error messages when trying to use it."

So how about fixing your software instead of fobbing off customers. If I was happy using Google I would not have sought out PaleMoon.

Since then my second-choice browser, when PM was denied, Waterfox is now getting the Access Denied message.

Tried Basilisk - same result.

Reduced to using Opera which is not my first choice for doing anything

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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by Blacklab » 2022-11-22, 16:16

@cannonmc: FWIW - I now keep a separate 'Tesco Minimal' profile on Firefox ESR that I only use for online shopping orders with Tesco. Few settings changed from 'out-of-the-box' Firefox and only the FireShot extension added to copy items ordered.

I had been turning off several privacy/anti-tracking extensions on my normal Firefox ESR profile but found that too time consuming and not completely fail-safe. It is very dull to get through updating your shopping order, usually for me rather close to the update deadline, only to then have payment fail at the end 'checkout' point!

Not an ideal situation... but then Tesco know who I am anyway as I obviously shop online with them and use Tesco banking too! :roll:

For a long time I have initiated my Tesco.com shopping sessions via their 'Manage Cookies' page: https://www.tesco.com/help/en-GB/manage ... references... but not essential as you can set your Firefox 'Tesco Minimal' profile to wipe all cookies on exit.

A couple of Howtos on starting a 'new profile' and most other things Re: Profile Manager:
PS. I have found having a 'Minimal' profile readily available very handy when dealing with other bloody-minded websites... ones that you just need to work and damn the torpedoes... such as NCP Car Parks' 'Pay Later Online' (but within 24hrs or fined) system fiasco!

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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by Night Wing » 2022-11-22, 22:32

In my opinion, the website maintainers for Tesco have got to be the laziest website maintainers on this planet. They only want to test their Tesco website using only "one browser", Google Chrome. Pathetic!!
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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by Moonchild » 2022-11-22, 22:56

Night Wing wrote:
2022-11-22, 22:32
In my opinion, the website maintainers for Tesco have got to be the laziest website maintainers on this planet. They only want to test their Tesco website using only "one browser", Google Chrome. Pathetic!!
I'm afraid it's going to be an attitude you'll see more the more Google cements the browser monoculture it's been building.
Literally the only non-Blink "mainstream" browser that is left is 95% Google-funded (Firefox) which does everything to have as much Chrome-parity as possible.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by cannonmc » 2022-11-23, 09:29

Thanks for those responses - very informative.

Sadly I gave up Firefox after an unscheduled update truly screwed my browser - it wrecked my function keys using any browser and decided it wanted to do what it wanted rather than the user (where have we seen that before?)

I have never risked FF on either of my machines again.

Just been via the 'Manage Cookies' link and got nowhere.

Now I must excuse myself to respond to His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals who have emailed me after I asked if 95 days estimate to answer a query was acceptable.

Sometimes I wonder if Netscape Navigator would not be an advance... :problem:

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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by cannonmc » 2022-11-28, 00:30

I may have found the/a reason.

I always use Private Browsing when using PM. Tried to sign into Tesco.com and was denied.

Then switched off private browsing and after a restart got straight through.

Went back to private browsing and after another restart was denied.

Will see what happens tomorrow when I actually want to use the site.

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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by cannonmc » 2022-11-28, 08:59

Spoke too soon.

An hour after the above post I signed in with Private Browsing on.

This morning can't sign in with or without Private Browsing.

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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by cannonmc » 2022-12-09, 11:30

Just in from Tesco:
"I have an update for you from my support team regarding the difficulties you've faced when attempting to place an order whilst on the Palemoon browser.
They advise that as you have been able to successfully place an order using an alternative browser the issue here appears to be with the using an unsupported browser. "

Talk about stating the obvious. No inkling as to why it's unsupported. I might give up there. :thumbdown:

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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by Moonchild » 2022-12-09, 11:37

Sorry to hear the company is clueless and approaches this from a "we've thrown a few browsers at it and Chrome sticks, so use that" PoV. Even though it's not a technical issue but an arbitrary block at the network level.
Unfortunately if there's no cooperation from their side there's nothing else to be done.
"Sometimes, the best way to get what you want is to be a good person." -- Louis Rossmann
"Seek wisdom, not knowledge. Knowledge is of the past; wisdom is of the future." -- Native American proverb
"Linux makes everything difficult." -- Lyceus Anubite

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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by andyprough » 2022-12-09, 17:49

cannonmc wrote:
2022-12-09, 11:30
Just in from Tesco:
"I have an update for you from my support team regarding the difficulties you've faced when attempting to place an order whilst on the Palemoon browser.
They advise that as you have been able to successfully place an order using an alternative browser the issue here appears to be with the using an unsupported browser. "

Talk about stating the obvious. No inkling as to why it's unsupported. I might give up there. :thumbdown:
You should try it with a different user agent.

Install the Pale Moon "User Agent Status" extension from here: https://addons.palemoon.org/addon/ua-status/
You'll have to re-start Pale Moon for the User Agent Status extension to take effect.

User Agent Status will put a little round blue icon in the lowest right-hand corner of the Pale Moon window, on the status bar.
2022-12-09_11-44.png
Go to the Tesco log-in page and then click on that User Agent Status blue icon. It will get bigger on your status bar and give you some options, including a text box to enter a different user agent for the Tesco website. Delete the user agent text that is in the box, and replace it with one like this from the Brave browser:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/108.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
Click the "Set UA" button.
2022-12-09_11-46.png
Now Tesco will think you are using the Brave browser, even though you are still using Pale Moon. See if that gets you any further.


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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by therube » 2022-12-09, 21:37

This is likely a cookie / blocking (type of) issue.

IOW, the crap website is trying to track you every which way from Sunday, & when it can't - because you're using an ad blocker, or Private Browsing, or... the site farts & gives you those bogus messages.

It could even be something as simple as you didn't start at their "main" page, & instead loaded a particular page, directly.

From their main page, maybe you'd get one of those stupid "cookie accept" messages, but from the particular page, it doesn't give that prompt. And lacking that prompt, & "acceptance" of cookies, you end up with a bogus message (which as you'll note changes each & every time).


And there is a way around that nonsense - shop elsewhere.


Test in a new clean Profile & see if the issue still exists.
Test in a new clean Profile, in Private Browsing, & see if the issue still exists.
Last edited by therube on 2022-12-09, 21:40, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Tesco.com Access Denied

Unread post by Kris_88 » 2022-12-09, 21:39

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Fo ... progeneral

If this is happening on multiple websites/browsers/devices then it's because your Public IP address is being blocked by Akamai. Many websites use Akamai and that's why it happens on more than one site.

You can go here: https://www.akamai.com/us/en/clientrep-lookup/ and check your IP address to confirm that you are being blocked. You can request that they investigate, though I'm not sure if that will fix it, or how long it might take.

Unplug your modem and router over night and it should pickup a new address by the morning, if it doesn't than you should call your ISP to get them to release and renew your IP.

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