How To Use Firefox With The YL Staff Resources Web Site
I’ve had a number of people ask me this, so here it is, with some background information.
Mozilla Firefox is a free web browser that is far safer and easier to use than Internet Explorer. Using it instead of Internet Explorer protects you from viruses, worms, spyware, and all kinds of other nasty, smelly bad things on the Internet.
While Firefox does everything that Internet Explorer does and more (and often better), you can’t use it on the YL Staff Resources website, because the first page “sniffs” you to see what kind of browser you’re using, and then doesn’t let you in if you’re not using Internet Explorer. To get around this, you can use a plugin for Firefox called User Agent Switcher” that allows you to change how Firefox reports itself. So now when you go to the YL webpage and the YL server asks your browser what it is, Firefox can say, “Internet Explorer 6 for Windows XP” or “Netscape 4.0 for Macintosh” or whatever and sneak its way into the YL site.
To install the plugin, go to the above address and click on “Download Version 0.6.2” (the version number will eventually change). Note that you have to be using Firefox when you click the download link in order for it to work. I screwed that up a number of times before I figured out what was wrong.
After you install it, you’ll find a menu that will allow you to set the “User Agent” (read: Browser) to whatever you want. The YL site likes Internet Explorer 6 for XP best.
As a little disclaimer, this method is only a work-around that will allow you to access the YL site with Firefox. This method is not endorsed, encouraged or even condoned by Young Life, and I can’t guarantee that everything on the YL website will work on Firefox. Young Life requires that you use Internet Explorer because some of its web applications (I’m not sure which ones) require the very functionality—ActiveX controls and JScript, I suspect—that makes Internet Explorer such a security risk.
So there you go. Do it. Spread the word. Internet Explorer sucks.