Home Page
https://www.betterbird.eu/index.html

Release Notes
https://www.betterbird.eu/releasenotes/index.html

On 19/12/2023 20:53, AllanH wrote:
> Home Page
> https://www.betterbird.eu/index.html
>
> Release Notes
> https://www.betterbird.eu/releasenotes/index.html

Why does Google require me to identify myself while using Betterbird?
(No such requirement from Thunderbird.)

On 27.12.23 05:10, occam wrote:
> On 19/12/2023 20:53, AllanH wrote:
>> Home Page
>> https://www.betterbird.eu/index.html
>>
>> Release Notes
>> https://www.betterbird.eu/releasenotes/index.html
>
> Why does Google require me to identify myself while using Betterbird?
> (No such requirement from Thunderbird.)

Different settings and/or extensions/startpage
Usually it does not act differently.

--
"Roma locuta, causa finita." (Augustinus)

In article <kv1me8F5g7qU2@mid.individual.net>, occam@nowhere.nix says...
>
> On 19/12/2023 20:53, AllanH wrote:
> > Home Page
> > https://www.betterbird.eu/index.html
> >
> > Release Notes
> > https://www.betterbird.eu/releasenotes/index.html
>
> Why does Google require me to identify myself while using Betterbird?
> (No such requirement from Thunderbird.)

M$ Defender tries to prevent me downloading too.

--
Jim the Geordie

On 27/12/2023 at 10:07, Jim the Geordie wrote:
> In article <kv1me8F5g7qU2@mid.individual.net>, occam@nowhere.nix says...
>>
>> On 19/12/2023 20:53, AllanH wrote:
>>> Home Page
>>> https://www.betterbird.eu/index.html
>>>
>>> Release Notes
>>> https://www.betterbird.eu/releasenotes/index.html
>>
>> Why does Google require me to identify myself while using Betterbird?
>> (No such requirement from Thunderbird.)
>
> M$ Defender tries to prevent me downloading too.
>

Maybe Defender thinks it's a Doctor Who-esque threat to mankind?

--
Wilf

On 27 Dec 2023 11:07, Jim the Geordie wrote:
> M$ Defender tries to prevent me downloading too.

https://www.betterbird.eu/support/

There are links on the page to https://www.virustotal.com/ and
https://virusscan.jotti.org/.

---

Is Betterbird a virus?

Sometimes virus scanners raise an alert for the Betterbird installer or
the installed executable. If you've downloaded the installer from our
website, these are false alarms. You can submit alleged malicious code
to a recognised online virus scanner like VirusTotal or Jotti. We are
self-signing all executables, you can download our certificate which you
need to install into "Trusted Root Certification Authorities" (check
with certmgr.msc). The result looks like this. For our own use, we've
excluded the Betterbird program directory and process from further scans.

Betterbird doesn't contain any more malicious code than the Thunderbird
or Mozilla codebase, but we admit that we haven't inspected the millions
of lines of upstream code. The binaries we distribute are built from
open source code and you can build the package yourself using the
instruction on the Github repository.

--
Viele Grüße, Jörg
Sent with Betterbird. Simply better. www.betterbird.eu
Es ist immer wieder erstaunlich: Kaum macht man's richtig, schon
funktioniert's!

On Wed, 27 Dec 2023 05:10:49 +0100, occam wrote:
> On 19/12/2023 20:53, AllanH wrote:
> > [quoted text muted]
> > https://www.betterbird.eu/index.html
> >
> > Release Notes
> > https://www.betterbird.eu/releasenotes/index.html
>
> Why does Google require me to identify myself while using Betterbird?
> (No such requirement from Thunderbird.)

Nor from Google. I downloaded, installed, and for a week or so have
been running BB 115 without any Google issue.

What is the exact message you got, and at what point: when
downloading the installer, when running the installer, or when
running the installed program?

Are you trying to access a Gmail account? If so, it's a near
certainty that you told TB to keep your password some time ago when
you provided it, so TB has no need to ask you for it every time. You
could of course do the same with BB.

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

On 27/12/2023 17:47, Stan Brown wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Dec 2023 05:10:49 +0100, occam wrote:
>> On 19/12/2023 20:53, AllanH wrote:
>>> [quoted text muted]
>>> https://www.betterbird.eu/index.html
>>>
>>> Release Notes
>>> https://www.betterbird.eu/releasenotes/index.html
>>
>> Why does Google require me to identify myself while using Betterbird?
>> (No such requirement from Thunderbird.)
>
> Nor from Google. I downloaded, installed, and for a week or so have
> been running BB 115 without any Google issue.
>
> What is the exact message you got, and at what point: when
> downloading the installer, when running the installer, or when
> running the installed program?

I also downloaded/installed Betterbird without a problem. However when I
tried to download messages (or upload a post) to Usenet, it queries my
gmail account ID credentials. It is very similar to the message I
receive - from Google - whenever I try to login to my account from a
new device.

---- Google message

This is a copy of a security alert sent to <name.surname>@gmail.com.
xxxx@yyyy.uk is the recovery email for this account. If you don't
recognise this account, remove it.
Google
A new sign-in on Windows
<name.surname>@gmail.com
We noticed a new sign-in to your Google Account on a Windows device. If
this was you, you don’t need to do anything. If not, we’ll help you
secure your account.
Check activity

------end message

The problem is, I have been using Betterbird on my laptop for over a
month. I have had this annoying request several times.

>
> Are you trying to access a Gmail account?

No. This is happening whenever I try to access usenet groups, not my
gmail account.

On Wed, 27 Dec 2023 18:45:49 +0100, occam wrote:
>
> On 27/12/2023 17:47, Stan Brown wrote:
> > On Wed, 27 Dec 2023 05:10:49 +0100, occam wrote:
> >> On 19/12/2023 20:53, AllanH wrote:
> >>> [quoted text muted]
> >>> https://www.betterbird.eu/index.html
> >>>
> >>> Release Notes
> >>> https://www.betterbird.eu/releasenotes/index.html
> >>
> >> Why does Google require me to identify myself while using Betterbird?
> >> (No such requirement from Thunderbird.)
> >
> > Nor from Google. I downloaded, installed, and for a week or so have
> > been running BB 115 without any Google issue.
> >
> > What is the exact message you got, and at what point: when
> > downloading the installer, when running the installer, or when
> > running the installed program?
>
> I also downloaded/installed Betterbird without a problem. However when I
> tried to download messages (or upload a post) to Usenet, it queries my
> gmail account ID credentials. It is very similar to the message I
> receive - from Google - whenever I try to login to my account from a
> new device.
>
> ---- Google message
>
> This is a copy of a security alert sent to <name.surname>@gmail.com.
> xxxx@yyyy.uk is the recovery email for this account. If you don't
> recognise this account, remove it.
> Google
> A new sign-in on Windows
> <name.surname>@gmail.com
> We noticed a new sign-in to your Google Account on a Windows device. If
> this was you, you don?t need to do anything. If not, we?ll help you
> secure your account.
> Check activity
>
> ------end message
>
> The problem is, I have been using Betterbird on my laptop for over a
> month. I have had this annoying request several times.
>
> >
> > Are you trying to access a Gmail account?
>
> No. This is happening whenever I try to access usenet groups, not my
> gmail account.

AFAIK Google puts a cookie on your device so that next
time you log in it recognizes your device. If you've
got something that indiscriminately cleans cookies that
would interfere with the mechanism and would account
for the repeated message.

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA
https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

Stan Brown wrote:

> AFAIK Google puts a cookie on your device so that next
> time you log in it recognizes your device. If you've
> got something that indiscriminately cleans cookies that
> would interfere with the mechanism and would account
> for the repeated message.

During the initial sign-in process you do get cookies as well as "access
tokens" which are stored in the TB username/password database.

No idea whether BB would carry these forward, or whether BB has its own
clientID, or whether it "borrows" from TB?

perhaps safest would be for occam to remove the saved password and
cookies, then expect BB to go through the authentication process again
on next use?

On 28 Dec 2023 17:27, Andy Burns wrote:
> No idea whether BB would carry these forward, or whether BB has its own
> clientID, or whether it "borrows" from TB?

BB uses the TB user agent string as you can see in
Help > Troubleshooting Information.

If you run BB on the same profile as TB, they both share the
credentials. Otherwise, the profile maintains what was captured during
the logon. There are thousands of happy BB Gmail users who never report
any problems. We have test accounts at Gmail, also without problems.

--
Viele Grüße, Jörg
Sent with Betterbird. Simply better. www.betterbird.eu
Es ist immer wieder erstaunlich: Kaum macht man's richtig, schon
funktioniert's!

Jörg Knobloch wrote:

> Andy Burns wrote:
>
>> No idea whether BB would carry these forward, or whether BB has its
>> own clientID, or whether it "borrows" from TB?
>
> BB uses the TB user agent string

That's not what I mean. As far as I know, each oAuth2 app needs a
specific ID (per service?) which in this case Google limit the number of
TB logins to gmail.

> as you can see in
> Help > Troubleshooting Information.
>
> If you run BB on the same profile as TB, they both share the
> credentials. Otherwise, the profile maintains what was captured during
> the logon. There are thousands of happy BB Gmail users who never report
> any problems. We have test accounts at Gmail, also without problems.

I was just curious if google noticed that BB != TB

On 28 Dec 2023 20:58, Andy Burns wrote:
> I was just curious if google noticed that BB != TB

No. Same UA string, yes, you weren't referring to that, and same OAuth
client ID:

https://searchfox.org/comm-central/rev/4540ecb6693cb930be762b8adf7e473cbd815090/mailnews/base/src/OAuth2Providers.jsm#97-104

--
Viele Grüße, Jörg
Sent with Betterbird. Simply better. www.betterbird.eu
Es ist immer wieder erstaunlich: Kaum macht man's richtig, schon
funktioniert's!