awesome, thanks!

If I want to re-direct a user with 6 or lower i assume i just need to change if conditional to… brow_ver

Hey Jerry, yes, just change the “6″ to a “7″ and this will only allow IE browsers of version 7 or higher (should they decide to continue making the piece of junk) through.

Ryan,
Thanks great script!
What if I wanted to add Firefox to this script with a redirect to a different page?
Do i need to add another variable? and if so what would (ver.indexOf(”***”))+1 look like? and I’m assuming the if conditional would just need to be added with the ((browser=”Firefox”)&&(brow_ver

Hey Jerry, you could modify it to redirect for Firefox. The browser type will be listed as “Netscape” though, as Firefox/Mozilla is a branch of the original Netscape.

The tricky part is that this script cuts up the rather long Browser Version string to find out which actual version of IE you’re using. Check out this page. It has a script on it that displays your browser information.

If you’re using Firefox (as I am), you’ll see a string similar to:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20070725 Firefox/2.0.0.6

I don’t have the time to work out the math on it, but you just need to adjust the code in my script to cut that string up to give what Firefox version you’re using.

If you want to redirect ALL Firefox browsers, that’s quite easy. Just search the string for “Firefox” and if it returns true, redirect.

since about 85% of the world uses ie, its best to have two websites, one compatable with ie and one with firefox, I know it sucks, but its the most pro way.

Hey Erik, two Web sites isn’t really necessary - using IE’s conditional comments, adding alternative style sheets is a much better way to go about it. Just setting up secondary CSS rules to adjust for IE’s retardedness.

However - I still like the script, as it’s my little way of informing the world that they’re using a stupid browser.

Just what I have been looking for all these weeks - the dogs-danglies - simple and it works!!!

[...] was just reading Ryan’s post over at DaobyDesign about how he guides his readers to upgrade to at least internet explorer 6: My parameters were simple. If the person visiting the site had any browser other than Internet [...]

Ryan, the idea seems very silly to me. I like browsing the web with lynx (text based browser), what good is it for me to use firefox? Don’t force people to choose, just code to the right standards, prove that your site validates to wC3 standards and then let the browsers update to the international standards. For beilabs.com I have only one stylesheet, and zero hacks for IE, Safari or Firefox and it renders perfectly in all of them.

Let the users choose whatever browser they want on their own! If people want a crap web experience then that is their own choice.

Hey Valehru, didn’t know you headed back to Ireland.

I’m not forcing anyone to choose. You browsing in a text browser, someone browsing in Safari or Opera, or whatnot, are not going to notice anything different.

The only people affected on this site are people using an old outdated browser (IE5.5 or less) - which happens to break your site as well btw.

The problem with your solution is a single style sheet with no alternate stylesheet (or if absolutely needed, hacks) is not possible in a more complex design with lots of elements.

For a personal site (such as this, or any of my other sites) I can choose to do things like this redirect, however for clients sites, it most definitely will require that it look good in IE and all the best coding to standards in the world isn’t going to solve certain problems with IE6 - still the most widely used browser.

Not to look up your skirt, but you’re using an IE hack in your CSS for this very reason.

I do agree 100% that users should be allowed to choose whatever browser they want - but browser creators need to start more strictly adhering to standards. Once that happens (and it could be only a year or two away), life for your average CSS designer, will be a helluva lot easier.

Whoops, I had forgotten about that one. Must work on that CSS page a little more to get full compliance. Dammit.

Browser creators, looking at MS in particular, are never going to comply completely with all these standards. They way they see it is that they have the market share and that’s that.

Personally I despise IE with a passion, unfortunately in my line of work IE development is required. I once had a spec from a US client who demanded complete compliance from IE 5 and IE 6. Quite a difficult task. Fortunately with machines designed with IE 5 as a core browser are now reaching the end of their life cycle and are being phased out.

Exactly. I’m definitely not suggesting that people use this on the site’s of clients/businesses/etc. But for me, as I do both my own and “for hire” design, I just wanted this little script for my sites as they aren’t focused on business, and allow me to kindly kick people in the pants should they be using an out-dated browser.

And in regards to compliance, you gotta hand it to the swell folks on the Firefox development crew, as according to the figures on that link I gave in my last comment, they’re edging out IE one dissatisfied user at a time - and they do a reasonable job of maintaining compliance.

DONT WORK!!!

DOES WORK!!! DON’T YELL!!!

I’m not sure this works, I’m trying to block IE6 and below browsers because I refuse to stoop to the level of using hacks and filters. More people are using IE7 and at least IE7 follows CSS standards better than it ever has.
I tested this script on a windows 2000 platform with IE6 and it didn’t redirect me to the page at all.

Hey Darren, I feel your pain man. I’ve not tested this using W2K, but if you copy and pasted the code above, I just noticed that in the first section of code - setting up the variables - the quotes are fancy quotes, and that will screw stuff up. Double check that.

An easy way to see if it’s working is to use http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/index.php. Set it to IE 5.5 or less and put in daobydesign.com and you’ll see how it’s intended to work.

Ryan,

That’s EXACTLY it- it works! I didn’t even notice I had fancy quotes in the code, I’m glad you caught that.

Let me say that the code OFFICIALLY works for IE6 version browsers and below.

I recently learned CSS and found it to be a true pain in the @$$ that in order to make a site look good on IE6 - you have to use all sorts of hacks and bug fixes. I’m with you Ryan. CSS is a standard and browsers should try following those standards or be rejected. I’m sure there will be people who disagree because 36% still use IE6 but it sure would be nice to see everybody up to speed on web standard compliant browsers. This way developers can focus on creating great web sites without having to pull out their hair trying to find the right hack, bug fix, or filter.

ahha this is damend useful for me. I’m working on a site for a uni course. Complys fully with xhtml(strick)1.0 and fully with CSS3.0 (doesn’t comply with 2.0 because i use overflow-y: in my CSS)

My page looks like crap on IE6 though, so i was looking for a redirect to either warn them that the page won’t work, or just not allow access until they upgraded

Note: complys fully with the latest standards. Either way this piece of script is definatly going to be useuful to me.

I’m about to give up, no matter what I do I does not work this is what I’m writing:
<!–
var browser = navigator.appName
var ver = navigator.appVersion
var thestart = parseFloat(ver.indexOf(”MSIE”))+1
var brow_ver = parseFloat(ver.substring(thestart+4,thestart+7))
if ((browser==”Microsoft Internet Explorer”) && (brow_ver

if I delete all the var that has something to do with the version and just leave the var browser works, but no matter how bad I would like to reject IE users I can’t so I just want to reject the IE6 and lower users… help!

Hey Nancy, it’s an issue with curvy quotes (”) - change them to straight (") quotes and you should be alright. Damn WP automatically changes them.

Optionally, simply copy and paste the code directly from the .JS file.

Thank you I’ll try tomorrow, I’m too tired now, I’ll let you know

It worked!!!! thank you very much, do you mind if I use some of your text from your oldie.html?. I love what it says and everything and I sure want people to use Firefox instead on IE, but I think my client will find it “aggressive”, but I want to use the same concept.

@Nancy - glad it’s working. You are welcome to change any part of the script, text, or graphics to better suit your needs. I offer no copyright on any of it.

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

right on .. IE, UGH!

Awesome script, when IE 6 (and older), simply fails to open strict DTD and latest WAI standard web sites. It’s good that Microsoft realised that their de facto standards does not work compared to W3C. IE7, and hopefully the upcoming IE8, works much better!

Hi Ryan, thanks for this script, much appreciated.. I did notice in your comments that you were saying a better option would be to redirect to a different stylesheet instead which is what I would prefer doing. Care to enlighten us on how that would be done?

[...] while back I whipped up a little script to detect and redirect visitors if they were using an old version of IE. In the comments I went on to say that a more effective/professional way of handling IE users is [...]

Hey Kevin - check out the pingback between your comment and this one - wrote that sucker just for you (and because this blog desperately needed to be updated!).

Thanks Ryan! checking it out now…

Thanks a lot. IE is crap ;/

Great script, simple but perfect for I needed. I check my stats and still see that IE is most commonly used…sucks to be a developer

Thank you!!! IE is the bane of my web existence. You have made my life so much easier!

Awesome! thank you so much. I no longer feel as though my face is going to implode out utter frustration. that’s a good feeling.

I found that I had to add an ‘=’ to the ‘brow_ver < 6′ to make it detect and redirect IE6.

if ((browser==”Microsoft Internet Explorer”) && (brow_ver <= 6))

Like that, in other words. Thanks a million for this script.