Automate IE to log into bank accounts?

[XP]

Using Office 2003 and Windows XP;

I am managing several bank accounts and some investment accounts for a
family member who is unable to do it. I was wondering if there is a way to
automate Internet Explorer from MS-Excel to navigate to a web page and at
least enter the security log in information automatically so when I check the
balances it will be a single click? I am pretty experienced with VBA and I
can do VBScript as well.

I think the hang-up will be entering the log in information and then
simulating a click of the "submit" button. I don't think this is possible,
but you never know...any help appreciated.

BTW, I know that storing the log-in information in a file can be risky, but
I have a good encryption program that will be used to encrypt my master file
when it is not in use.

 

[Conan Kelly]

XP,

It might be possible. It all depends on how secure your bank's website
is/how complicated the login process is/what languages/file types their
website is in (not a web developer...limited knowledge of HTML). For
instance, With ING Direct, part of the login process is entering your pin
(on a separate web page after entering your login ID and answering some
security questions). The way they do that securely is the display a bunch
of buttons in the form of a number pad...on each button (along with the
number) is a letter. You can enter you pin by either clicking the buttons
of your pin or typing the letters on the keyboard that correspond to the
numbers on the buttons. The trick is that the letters on the buttons change
with each time you log on...sooooo, you can't type in the same thing (or
predict what to type in) each time. Also, companies like to redesign their
websites every year or so...so, if we were to manage to get something to
work, it may not work in the near future and there may not be a way to get
it to work.

What you are trying to do has more to do with how to type in a website
address (URL) than it has to do with XL (although you can get XL to build
hyperlinks using the HYPERLINK() function). For example, if I want to use
the HTTP file upload process my ISP provides for uploading a file to my
personal web page space, I could use a URL similar to the following that
will log me in and redirect me to my final destination:

https://webauth.ISP.net/auth/pwp/lo...252Fpublish.ISP.net%252Fcgi-bin%252Fpp_upload

Notice this URL contains the login page, the values to enter into the
user/login id and password textboxes ("?user=LOGIN&passwd=PASSWORD"), the
action to perform after those text boxes have been filled (clicking the
Login button..."&action=Login") and the redirection URL ("&url=https%3A...")
to go to after logging in.
(user/login id text box name is "user"...value to enter into user textbox is
"LOGIN")
(password textbox name is "passwd"...value to enter into passwd textbox is
"PASSWORD")

My suggestion would be to:
1. login to your bank's website
2. go to the page you ultimately want displayed with your one-click link you
want to create in XL
3. copy the URL and paste into XL or WD
4. log out of your bank's website (maybe even close the browser)
5. go to WD/XL and click the link.

It should open the browser, take you to the login page, and it might have a
URL (similar to the one above) with a redirection URL. You can copy that
URL and edit it the way you need to.

You might have to look at the source code (HTML) of the login page to find
out what the names of the login id & password text boxes and the login
button are. Then edit the URL to set the values of the text boxes and click
the login button.

HTH,

Conan Kelly

 

[ilia]

I would look for the script that executes once you login, and pass
parameters directly to it. However, I've only done this with non-
secure sites, and not very familiar with web programming... so can't
really offer much help.