Remote Front Panels, NI Network Browser, or WIF Don't Work in Browser

Updated Aug 7, 2019

Reported In

Hardware

  • CompactRIO Controller

Software

  • LabVIEW

Other

  • Google Chrome
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Safari macOS Mojave

Issue Details

When I use Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox to access Remote Front Panels, NI Network Browser or the Web Interface (WIF), I get one of the following errors:

Google Chrome

When I try to access my remote front panels from Google Chrome, I see the following message:
 
NI has detected that your browser might be blocking a plug-in. Visit ni.com/info and enter the following Info Code for more information: BlockedPlugin
 

Mozilla Firefox

When I try to access Remote Front Panels in Mozilla Firefox, I see the following behavior:
 

Safari macOS Mojave

When I try to access Remote Front Panels in the macOS Mojave version of Safari, I see the following:


Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox

When I try to access the NI Network Browser or the Web Interface (WIF) from Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, I see the following message:

NI has detected that your browser might be blocking a plug-in. Visit ni.com/info and enter the following Info Code for more information: BlockedPlugin

Why are these features not working properly, and what can I do to resolve this problem?

Solution

These web technologies rely on a browser plugin mechanism called Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI). To enhance browser security, NPAPI was deprecated from Google Chrome beginning in version 42, Mozilla Firefox beginning in version 52, and Safari 12.1 in macOS Mojave 10.14.
 

Google Chrome

You can check your Google Chrome version by clicking the Customize and control Google Chrome button and selecting Help and about » About Google Chrome.

 

Mozilla Firefox

You can check your Mozilla Firefox version by clicking the Open menu  button and selecting the Open Help Menu button followed by the About Firefox menu item
 

You can check which version of macOS you have, and you can check your version of Safari by clicking Safari > About Safari in the menu bar:

 
Google Chrome version 42 and later, Mozilla Firefox 52 and later, Safari 12.1 in macOS Mojave 10.14, and Microsoft Edge are not supported browsers for these older National Instruments web technologies. National Instruments highly recommends that customers use the supported browser (Internet Explorer).

Additional Information

Additionally, NPAPI plugins may continue to work in the Mozilla Firefox Extended Support Release for some time after the release of Mozilla Firefox version 52. If you are running into an issue with missing plug-ins with older versions of Firefox, you can restore these plug-ins. 

Newer web technologies such as the LabVIEW NXG Web Module and SystemLink support the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. For more detail, see the Readmes for those products.
 

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