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Web site requires Internet Explorer. Alternatives?

P

~Phi

macrumors regular
Original poster
Hi all,

Does anyone know of a firefox extension or alternative that will allow me to use a web site that requires Internet Explorer? I'm trying to help a family member (and new mac user) fill out a form on a government web site. Thanks in advance.
 
Opera can identify as another browser.
spoofing-opera-2.png

Opera for Mac OS X has the same preferences, there was just no image to be found.

There is also ie4osx, which is running a Windows Internet Explorer version via Wine(Bottler) in Mac OS X.
http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/
 
With Safari go to the top menu "DEVELOP", then "USER AGENT" and then select what browser you need to emulate.
 
Switching the user agent will only help if the site is blindly blocking other browsers. If the site requires ActiveX to use, then you'll have to use Internet Explorer as it's proprietary.
 
One of my customers is a non-profit organisation running on Macs that has this same problem caused by lazy Government web designers who think everyone use Windoze. 🙁 I'll have to try the ideas above when they re-open after the holidays to see if it fixes the problem. Thanks.
 
Buzz Bumble said:
One of my customers is a non-profit organisation running on Macs that has this same problem caused by lazy Government web designers who think everyone use Windoze.
Click to expand...

Everyone in the government does use Windows. Can't blame the web designers. It's not like they have a say in the matter.
 
Forms work on most other websites, so it's obviously the Govenment's lazy designers' fault. They just get told to "put this form on the website", and then they choose the easiest and laziest way to do it which is incompatible with Macs.

Even when you phone them to tell them it doesn't work, they don't give a damn and simply tell you that it works for Windoze (same goes for Vodafone and their useless Internet "Service" Provider), and you'll usually be told there's no physical form you can post in either. 🙄
 
angelwatt said:
Switching the user agent will only help if the site is blindly blocking other browsers. If the site requires ActiveX to use, then you'll have to use Internet Explorer as it's proprietary.
Click to expand...

That probably explains my experience. I've run into a very few places that required IE. I've tried changing the browser identity with no luck. I either go to the library and use the computer there or use XP running on Parallels. I hate to go there as I'm trying to keep that off the internet.
 
Chris.L said:
Unfortunately the plug-in requires IE to be installed on the local machine for it to work. So it won't work on OS X at all
Click to expand...

Yep, that's what I thought from the brief description on the website. All it really does is basically run Internet Explorer inside a Firefox window, so it's of no use for this particular problem. Even if it worked on Macs with Internet Explorer installed, the Mac version of Internet Explorer doesn't like these forms either.

It seems like the only option is to use Internet Explorer on a Windows PC 🙁 and continue to phone / email the people in charge of the forms to tell them it doesn't work on Macs (not that it makes any difference at all since we've being doing that every year for the last few years already!).
 
-aggie- said:
I wouldn't call him a government "employee." The federal government runs mostly on IE AFAIK. It's been like that forever, I guess, since it's the most used (mainly Windows and thus IE).
Click to expand...

It was a joke. 😉

But yes, true. He's not so much a government employee as he is the government itself...
 
Buzz Bumble said:
Nah, like all the previous office holders, he's just a puppet manipulated by the military, CIA, etc. 😉
Click to expand...

I'd reply further, but I think a mod would throw us both out of the thread for being in the wrong forum. Let's just agree the man doesn't own a Zune and move on. 🙂
 
If it's any comfort, the Canadian government also has an unhealthy obsession with IE, although I've never seen it outright required on any of their public sites. It's just mandatory internally and for the intranets.
 
he World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web (abbreviated WWW or W3).

and no issues.. knowledge comes from sharing
 
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