Making Firefox claim to be a different browser

**Chris** · 14-09-2005, 15:13

I know some browsers will let you change an option so that they claim to be something else ... Firefox won't do this though. Does anyone know how to modify the config file temporarily so I can disguise myself as a Firefox for Mac user?

I need to update my .Mac homepage but the modem is broken on my Mac at home. The service insists that you connect from a Mac so I'm hoping to fool it from my work PC.

punky · 14-09-2005, 15:15

There is a extension for Firefox that changes the user agent string. That will work.

I use this one: http://chrispederick.com/work/firefo...agentswitcher/

There is no preset option for Mac, but i'll go fire up my powerbook and retrieve the user agent string.

**Chris** · 14-09-2005, 15:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by punky

There is a extension for Firefox that changes the user agent string. That will work.

I use this one: http://chrispederick.com/work/firefo...agentswitcher/

There is no preset option for Mac, but i'll go fire up my powerbook and retrieve the user agent string.

Thanks ... I have that extension installed. I got it because I thought that it would do the job but as you say, there is no option to pretend to be a Mac.

If you can find that agent string I'd be most grateful.

bmxbandit · 14-09-2005, 15:24

alternatively, firesomething will do it (though it's designed to let you change titlebar text)
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Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris T

If you can find that agent string I'd be most grateful.

safari string is:

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/XX (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/YY

if thats what you want... its browser dependent, not platform dependent
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wiki is informative too, as always

**Chris** · 14-09-2005, 15:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmxbandit

alternatively, firesomething will do it (though it's designed to let you change titlebar text)
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safari string is:

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/XX (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/YY

if thats what you want... its browser dependent, not platform dependent

Ta ... now, where will I find the appropriate line to change in the config file?

punky · 14-09-2005, 15:25

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.7.10) Gecko/20050716 Firefox/1.0.6

And you don't need to alter the config file, just add it as a preset in the extension

**Chris** · 14-09-2005, 15:41

Well, you genii, it works - although after initially getting a sniffy'this browser is unsupported' message with the Firefox/Mac string(which popped up even though the site subsequently appeared to work), Ihave gained access using a Safari string gained from BMX's Wiki link.

Greenies all round.

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Dang ... that 'unsupported' message keeps appearing, and the functionality of the web-based publisher is all mucked up. It's not telling me I'm not on a Mac and plain refusing to work, as it has in the past, but it is still misbehaving. Somehow Firefox for Mac must work in a different way to Firefox for Windoze, because I can use Firefox on the Mac without any problems.

Never mind, it was worth a go!

Richard M · 14-09-2005, 16:03

Why not just set it to IE/Win?

Stuart · 14-09-2005, 16:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard M

Why not just set it to IE/Win?

Because .mac works on Macs only?

**Chris** · 14-09-2005, 16:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Because .mac works on Macs only?

Exactly.

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Hang on ... all bets off.

You would have thought I'd check to see whether they had extended the functionality to all browsers/OSes since the last time I tried, before posting in here for help ... needless to say that now I've tried to access it as Firefox for PC, it's working just fine