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Would changing useragent to chrome cause me problems?

I’m hearing a lot about websites like netflix and YouTube crippling their performance in some way if you’re using firefox instead of chrome/a smart TV

Is it likely to cause me problems if I just globally change my useragent to chrome instead of firefox?

Alternatively, is there an extension that automatically bypasses all of these things that people are aware of (pretends to be a smart TV for netflix, chrome for YouTube, etc automatically)

If there’s not an extension, what would be involved in making one? Obviously user agent changes dependant on URL but I’m not sure what other metrics these websites might be able to use to figure out what you’re using

neidu2 ,

It shouldn’t. I had a fake useragent for years to get netflix working on linux+firefox before it was supported. I noticed no side-effects.

I don’t remember the name, but I used an extension to do it. It was a pretty trivial thing to do.

flashgnash OP ,

Using a fake useragent isn’t difficult I’ve got an extension for it already so I can cast YouTube to my laptop

Having heard from others apparently changing useragent alone isn’t enough to trick sites like netflix though so that’s probably a bust actually

thepreciousboar ,

Netflix and all other streaming services use DRM to provide content. Firefox might have different DRMs from Chrome, even worse if you are on linux. As far as I know reading from other posts, there are several DRMs with different “tiers” of encryptions, lower tier are less trusted so websites only give them lower quality content, but they have more open licenses so it’s easier you’ll find it on an Open Source browser deployed on linux. I don’t know if there are ways to use different DRMs, maybe proprietary ones

Cheradenine ,

You could try github.com/sereneblue/chameleon which also lets you spoof screen size, as well as a few other things.

Deebster ,
@Deebster@beehaw.org avatar

No, it’ll be fine 99% of the time.

Nowadays, feature detection is done within browsers, and the differences between browsers are small enough that servers generally will serve the same version of a page to all.

tias ,

On this subject, does anyone know of an extension that lets me spoof user agent only for specific sites such as YouTube?

ares35 ,
@ares35@kbin.social avatar

this firefox one lists that as one of its features:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/user-agent-string-switcher/

taladar ,

I would be surprised if sites used UA for actual features at this point. Some of the sites that just display a “Your browser is not supported” banner might though.

flashgnash OP ,

YouTube definitely uses UA to determine whether to use the smart TV version of the site or not

snooggums ,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

Both Youtube and Netflix work perfectly fine for me in Firefix with uBlock Origin on default settings, everything loads up instantly and plays smoothly. Don't even have pauses for ads on Youtube, it is like they don't even exist.

swade2569 ,
@swade2569@lemmy.world avatar

I’m studying for my Network+ (should have had it a long time ago), and watching a live stream with a study group. Very laggy and buffering events, even when turning my resolution down to 360p.

I suspected I was being throttled because I was using and uBlock.

I opened up (no is added), and watched the same stream. No glitches at all.

Not surprised but quite annoying of course.

I’m going to try a useragent addon and see if it helps.

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