# BoI Business Banking Online not supported on Macs



## Elphaba (14 Aug 2007)

I find it incredulous that Bank of Ireland do not support a Mac platform for Business Banking online. I was told by my bank to go buy a PC!. If I was a sole trader I could get the regular biz banking service, but cant cause we are a limited company. This means I have to phone up to get my balance and make regular trips to bank. Has anybody had similar problem? or are you all pc users?


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## paddi22 (14 Aug 2007)

*Re: Biz Banking online with a Mac*

yeah i was equally as disgusted! i was basically told the same thing. I switched to AIb instead and have had no problem using their system


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## ClubMan (14 Aug 2007)

*Re: Biz Banking online with a Mac*

Whatever about not explicitly *supporting *_Mac _users are you saying that the site simply does not work on a _Mac_? In any browser? Why not? What exactly fails? What happens if you run _Firefox _with the _User Agent Switcher _extension configured to purport that you are running, say, _Internet Explorer _on _Windows XP_?


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## Towger (14 Aug 2007)

Nothing new there. Even Apple Computers in Cork have to run some of their back office systems on PCs as there is no Mac equivalence.

Towger


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## HamsterMind (14 Aug 2007)

*Re: Biz Banking online with a Mac*



ClubMan said:


> Whatever about not explicitly *supporting *_Mac _users are you saying that the site simply does not work on a _Mac_? In any browser? Why not? What exactly fails? What happens if you run _Firefox _with the _User Agent Switcher _extension configured to purport that you are running, say, _Internet Explorer _on _Windows XP_?



My understanding from when I checked this out in summer 2006 is that essentially the BOI Business Online system checks for the correct Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and for some other internals in MS IE which can't be spoofed (by e.g. Agent Switcher, Opera, etc).  

It is in principle possible to do all this under PC emulation on either Mac or Linux but you still need the correct JVM and version of IE available to run BOI Business Online.

We haven't needed online banking much up to now but if things haven't changed we'll probably move our account this autumn as we're not shelling out for a set of MS licences just to check our transactions online.

Hamster


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## ClubMan (14 Aug 2007)

Thanks _HamsterMind_. Seems like a bizarre way of doing things.


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## z108 (14 Aug 2007)

yeah pc emulation might be the way to go


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## aircobra19 (14 Aug 2007)

Elphaba said:


> I find it incredulous that Bank of Ireland do not support a Mac platform for Business Banking online..... Has anybody had similar problem? or are you all pc users?



Why, Mac users are probably a tiny % of the banks client base so they've decided its not worth the effort. Macs these days can either use emulation or dual boot to use windows apps etc where not supported. Having a spare PC around used to be always been part of the Mac experience. 

Its just lazy programming just supporting one browser/platform. I use a PC most of the time but use Firefox and find occasional sites that won't work with it. So have to use IE for those.


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## Elphaba (14 Aug 2007)

Strange thing is I can access personal banking 365 on my Mac, which runs on OS 9. There are two types of BOI biz banking, one for sole traders, one for larger companies which are usually limited. We are a very small ltd. co.
I applied, received a pile of paperwork, which stated they dont support Mac, but yet, if I was a sole trader it would work fine on any ole Mac.
My bank refuses to set it up cause we are a ltd. company. However they are unable to give me a clear reason, even the superviser at 365 couldn't either. We are about to update our web site with real time payments,
seems crazy I cant just check my balance online, due to what seems like
burocracy..(sp?) I think I will change to AIB, like Paddi22


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## Brendan Burgess (14 Aug 2007)

I have been a happy user of IBB from AIB for some years. When I went to load it onto a new PC I was told that it doesn't work with IE 7 or Vista! 

They are rolling out  new version of it but we are not due to be upgraded until October. I asked them to bring the date forward a bit, but they have not replied yet. 

Brendan


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## aircobra19 (14 Aug 2007)

Elphaba said:


> Strange thing is I can access personal banking 365 on my Mac, which runs on OS 9. ...



You probably used a different browser, or version on your old Mac.


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## aircobra19 (14 Aug 2007)

Brendan said:


> I have been a happy user of IBB from AIB for some years. When I went to load it onto a new PC I was told that it doesn't work with IE 7 or Vista!
> 
> They are rolling out  new version of it but we are not due to be upgraded until October. I asked them to bring the date forward a bit, but they have not replied yet.
> 
> Brendan



Obviously their obscene profits from their customers. Hard at work.


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## ClubMan (14 Aug 2007)

To be fair *lots *of applications and drivers don't work smoothly if at all with _Vista _yet. Doesn't Vista have some support for running in _XP_ "compatibility/legacy" mode in case that helps?


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## solair (22 Aug 2007)

Bank of Ireland's normal banking system for personal users works fine on Mac OS X in Safari (apple's default browser) or Firefox.
I also have absolutely no problems with AIB or MBNA.

Not sure what BOI are up to with their business banking. It's possibly either old inflexible software, or they're running on some microsoft-centric system that is locked into Internet Explorer mode of thinking.

It's just poor programming in my opinion, many people thesedays opt not to use Internet Explorer (for security reasons) and given the explosive growth in Apple laptop sales in Ireland, I really don't think Mac OS X is that unusual anymore. Any time I get on the train to/from Cork I would reckon that well over 50% of the laptops in use are Macs and you'd typically see about 5 or 6 in each coach on most trains.

Also, in business environments there is increasing use of Linux, Solaris and other non-windows systems.

It just seems rather short sighted of BOI to be so restrictive.

If your Mac is one of the more recent Intel machines, you can download virtualisation software like Parallels (at a cost) and you can then install windows to run in a virtual machine on top of OS X. So, you can use IE without any issue.
NB: you do have to provide your own licenced copy of windows.
You can also download apple's Bootcamp utility and simply dual boot, but that means that you have to decide to boot into Mac OS X or Windows, you can't do both simultaniously.


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