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When trying to open https://www.walmart.com/, both Firefox (v. 68.0.1 in Windows 10, v. 17763.652) and Windows Edge (Microsoft Edge 44.17763.1.0) display the message "Walmart can’t use this browser", with suggestions to try Firefox, Chrome, etc. All browsers were connected through the ISP without proxy or VPN.

N.B. Retried in Edge, **going through a search engine (Start Page), which created the long URL, below, with the referrer tacked into the URL:

https://www.walmart.com/?adid=22222222220220085369&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=e&wl1=s&wl2=c&wl3=366238633331&wl4=kwd-27665750&wl5=1027028&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&veh=sem&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_7KNj9b-4wIVjq_ICh1bzQM3EAAYASAAEgIAT_D_BwE

This opened Walmart's website correctly, both in Edge and in Firefox. Apparently, Walmart would not open the first time without a referrer. Now that it's dropped cookies in the browser, it reopens with or without referrer. Go figure!

Firefox was restarted in Safe mode, and with all extensions disabled. All browsing data was deleted, including cache and cookies, with no better result. The Chameleon extension was installed, and set to emulate other browsers Walmart recommends, with the same issue.

On starting Firefox's Network Monitor (CtrlShiftE) and reloading, the following was shown:

Walmart Network Log

However, the TOR Browser works well on that site, with connection through their anonymizing onion router (no VPN, though).

Is it a security setting or some other issue causing both Firefox and Edge to fail to open Walmart's site?

DrMoishe Pippik
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  • What version of firefox do you have installed? Is there anything on the network blocking requests? The fact that tor works might indicate that the problem is something getting blocked. Also check the network tab to see if anything failed. The error message may be a generic "Something went wrong" – Qwertie Aug 13 '19 at 00:44
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    What version of EdgeHTML are you using? I have tried every version I have access to and not a single one generated the error in question. – Ramhound Aug 13 '19 at 01:02
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    I don't think this is problem [su] can answer as your diagnostics suggest the problem is with the destination website rather than your machine. – Burgi Aug 13 '19 at 10:26
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    Some poor developer at Walmart is about to lose their job... – MonkeyZeus Aug 13 '19 at 12:20
  • Hopefully, not... or if he does lose it, the competition might hire him for being helpful ;-) – DrMoishe Pippik Aug 13 '19 at 17:39
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    Have you considered shopping at Target? – Z4-tier Aug 13 '19 at 20:40
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    I just consider it hilarious that Tor can get in, but Edge is unable. Imagine the news reports: "A Walmart spokesman confirmed that their website is written specifically to allow users of the Tor dark-web browser to visit their e-commerce site, but to bar Microsoft Edge. A company spokesman said, "We have very little trouble with Tor users, who are generally knowledgeable and polite. But people who use Microsoft's default products are a nightmare. We've had to block them just to get a little sleep". Attempts to contact Microsoft's Media Support Group for comment resulted in a 404 error". – Bob Jarvis - Слава Україні Aug 13 '19 at 21:41
  • @Z4-tier I just checked, and target is wget-friendly. Walmart still is not, as of about two minutes before posting this. – Bit Chaser Aug 13 '19 at 23:48
  • Could it just have been a temporary hiccup somewhere on the net? I have no problem visiting the site now, even in a browser that has cookies disabled by default. – Mr Lister Aug 14 '19 at 07:18
  • @MrLister, it might have been fixed: I've also retested today (2019.08.14) and it works as it should in Edge and Firefox. Hopefully, it will *stay* fixed. – DrMoishe Pippik Aug 14 '19 at 17:47

3 Answers3

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Entering https://www.walmart.com/ as the URL does not open until the site has left cookies in the browser. Going into the site from a search engine, with added referrer in the URL, or, as @Spike states, going into a page within the site, such as https://www.walmart.com/tv seems to work, enabling a cookie to be sent to the browser. After that, the root site is accessible.

Apparently, this issue is at Walmart.com, not in the browser. Walmart.com has been notified of the issue by email.

DrMoishe Pippik
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6

It's not just Firefox that is having this issue. I've also seen Mac users posting they are also seeing the issue in Safari. I have tried all updated versions of Chrome, Edge and Firefox and all get this error.

If you go to any other page on Walmart's site, like walmart.com/tv, it works and then you can click on the home page icon which brings you successfully to walmart.com. If you go directly to walmart.com without going to another page on Walmart's site, it always fails.

Spike
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I tried using wget. It redirects correctly, but gives a 444 unknown error. In theory the site could be rejecting wget requests, but my money is on this being related. Notice that with this example, it redirected twice.

The problem appears to be with the site, not our browsers.

> wget walmart.com/tv
--2019-08-13 13:11:11--  http://walmart.com/tv
Resolving walmart.com (walmart.com)... 161.170.230.170, 161.170.232.170
Connecting to walmart.com (walmart.com)|161.170.230.170|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 301 Moved Permanently
Location: https://www.walmart.com/tv [following]
--2019-08-13 13:11:11--  https://www.walmart.com/tv
Resolving www.walmart.com (www.walmart.com)... 23.201.65.160
Connecting to www.walmart.com (www.walmart.com)|23.201.65.160|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 301 Moved Permanently
Location: /cp/televisions-video/1060825 [following]
--2019-08-13 13:11:12--  https://www.walmart.com/cp/televisions-video/1060825
Reusing existing connection to www.walmart.com:443.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 444 Unknown
2019-08-13 13:11:12 ERROR 444: Unknown.
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Bit Chaser
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