Firefox UserAgent Override
I was shocked when I went to a multinational repository for audio and text resources only to find that I was automatically redirected to a page (which, incidentally, didn’t load correctly) called “upgrade.html” with the pop-up JavaScript warning box saying “Since you’re not using Mac or Windows, you won’t be able to correctly view the stuff on this site” (or something to that effect).
A Linux user myself, running FC4 on an AMD x86_64 arch’d CPU and Mozilla Firefox exclusively, it really gets to me to see this kind of lax programming design. Write the webmaster any time you see this happen—or if you’d rather, you can email me with the URL and I’ll write the webmaster personally.
On the other hand, the good thing about Linux users is that most are savvy enough to do a workaround for just about any problem. In that spirit, here’s how to spoof your Firefox UserAgent string to access any site that won’t let you get there just because of your OS or browser choice.
In the address bar, type about:config . When it comes up, right click, select New -> String, and add the label general.useragent.override with a value from any of this list.
The one I used was “Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0a1; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; MS IdentiServ 1.4.12)”.
Never, ever program your sites with so much proprietary drek that you have to turn users of all but two operating systems away. You don’t have to hand-customize the site to suit anyone in particular; but don’t block Linux users just because you’re using some nasty ActiveX controls to make more blinkies where they don’t even need to be.
2 Responses to “Firefox UserAgent Override”
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WallyJ like a vertabrae Says:
December 3rd, 2005 at 09:46:59Oh wow…that’s no joke….
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Carson Says:
December 3rd, 2005 at 11:35:16A while ago, I was doing some research online, searching through full-text versions of journal articles. At the time, my iMac was still running OS X (Ubuntu now, if you were curious), so I was using Safari. I was told, essentially, to use IE or Netscape. Somewhat irked, I fired up Firefox (actually, I tried Camino first, but no joy)–but no, they wanted Netscape, so Firefox wasn’t allowed either. Very irked at this point, I downloaded Netscape, and tried to run it, only it kept crashing more or less immediately. So I downloaded IE for Mac (which has been since officially deprecated, but at the time was only unofficially so), but while it ran, the page was so distorted as be unusable.
You had better believe I wrote the site administrator a–needless to say, polite–email, requesting that they let me worry about how my browser displayed things, and that as long as they kept to the published standards of the W3C, they’d be fine. Shortly thereafter, I received a form letter (which of course suggests that I wasn’t the first to complain) saying that they couldn’t guarantee my “experience” if I used a “non-standard” browser, and that if I wanted to use their site (which my university was paying them to allow me to access), all I had to do was switch to one of their supported browsers.
At this point, my head exploded, so I let the matter lie, but really, I just can’t understand it. Why in God’s name does a site, much less a text-oriented site, really care about how my “experience” (I really hate that term, by the way) was? Sigh.
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Kenny Says:
November 16th, 2006 at 18:21:28Help me please…
I just installed Firefox 2.0, and all of a sudden, my username/password isn't being inserted in the signon window (it always was before). I tried the usual suspects–I did not mistakenly tell FF not to remember the password for this site; and I also tried the remember password bookmarklet, but all to no avail–FF will not ask me to remember this password. What do I need to do to get around this? -
Tobias Says:
November 17th, 2006 at 15:11:54Please add firefox cookies/bad web sites immunization in next version!
Firefox 2 cannot reject third party cookies!!!!!!!! -
Wilma Rimes Says:
May 30th, 2008 at 11:53:16Firefox is blocking my response to email responses and I do not know how to override it. Can you tell me what to do?
December 3rd, 2005 at 09:46:59
Oh wow…that’s no joke….
December 3rd, 2005 at 11:35:16
A while ago, I was doing some research online, searching through full-text versions of journal articles. At the time, my iMac was still running OS X (Ubuntu now, if you were curious), so I was using Safari. I was told, essentially, to use IE or Netscape. Somewhat irked, I fired up Firefox (actually, I tried Camino first, but no joy)–but no, they wanted Netscape, so Firefox wasn’t allowed either. Very irked at this point, I downloaded Netscape, and tried to run it, only it kept crashing more or less immediately. So I downloaded IE for Mac (which has been since officially deprecated, but at the time was only unofficially so), but while it ran, the page was so distorted as be unusable.
You had better believe I wrote the site administrator a–needless to say, polite–email, requesting that they let me worry about how my browser displayed things, and that as long as they kept to the published standards of the W3C, they’d be fine. Shortly thereafter, I received a form letter (which of course suggests that I wasn’t the first to complain) saying that they couldn’t guarantee my “experience” if I used a “non-standard” browser, and that if I wanted to use their site (which my university was paying them to allow me to access), all I had to do was switch to one of their supported browsers.
At this point, my head exploded, so I let the matter lie, but really, I just can’t understand it. Why in God’s name does a site, much less a text-oriented site, really care about how my “experience” (I really hate that term, by the way) was? Sigh.
November 16th, 2006 at 18:21:28
Help me please…
I just installed Firefox 2.0, and all of a sudden, my username/password isn't being inserted in the signon window (it always was before). I tried the usual suspects–I did not mistakenly tell FF not to remember the password for this site; and I also tried the remember password bookmarklet, but all to no avail–FF will not ask me to remember this password. What do I need to do to get around this?
November 17th, 2006 at 15:11:54
Please add firefox cookies/bad web sites immunization in next version!
Firefox 2 cannot reject third party cookies!!!!!!!!
May 30th, 2008 at 11:53:16
Firefox is blocking my response to email responses and I do not know how to override it. Can you tell me what to do?