Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with firefox and safari

Download it with Firefox and it's borked. Download it with Safari, and it's fine. Huh?

electric_counterpoint — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:00:19 -0800

Download a certain program with Firefox and a key feature is broken. Download it with Safari, and it runs fine. Howzzat? My school requires students to use Exam4, a sort of hobbleware text editor, for exams. It has different modes, which control just how hobbled your computer is. In all but one mode, the internet connection is disabled to prevent cheating. On Macs, starting an exam in these modes brings up a login box to authorize Exam4 to disable the computer's ethernet adapters at some low level.

For the longest time, when I would enter my credentials to do this, it would fail to disable my connection. (It would also fail to bring up the actual text editor, so I was never able to enhance my GPA with my 1337 h4X -- instead, I just managed to avoid any exam that forbade Internet access).

This time, tech support diagnosed my problem right off -- they told me to download the file again, but this time to use Safari. Sure enough, it worked straight away. My question is, how could the browser possibly affect a downloaded executable such that it would install and open just fine, but have one feature broken?

For what it's worth, the file is downloaded as a zipped archive with a single executable inside. The only possible thing I can come up with is deliberate interference -- the site could deliberately sniff out Firefox users and serve us a defective file. But that doesn't make any sense, and besides the files from each browser look identical (both are 1,002,699 bytes).

Making Safari act more like Firefox

yankeefog — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:13:10 -0800

I'm looking for Safari plugins that will let it emulate Firefox's handling of saved passwords and superior address bar search. I'm also looking for the Safari equivalent of Linky. I like Safari better than Firefox for the Mac, but there are three things Firefox does better:
1. Firefox lets you see whether a password has actually worked before it asks if you want to save it.
2. When you type a word or phrase in the address bar, Firefox searches the contents of your previously browsed pages, not just the titles.
3. Firefox has Linky, Safari doesn't.

Are there Safari plugins that will let Safari act more like Firefox in these cases?

Alternative Browsers

bluelight — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:59:11 -0800

What superior/alternative web browsers to Firefox do you use? I have been using firefox with NoScript and most cookies disabled. When it gets too annoying to enable scripts and cookies, I switch over to Internet Explorer (non-updated version). I really dislike using IE but lately, Firefox has been crashing a LOT.

I was wondering if you had any good experiences with other web browsers such as Safari, Chrome, etc. I plan on keeping firefox but I'd like to explore other options.

I use a PC running Windows XP.

Thanks!

synchronizing bookmarks between OSX and an iphone

thewalrus — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:44:19 -0800

Is there a way to synchronize all bookmarks from Firefox 3.5 to an iPhone running firmware 2.2? I know iTunes can synchronize the PC's Safari bookmarks onto the phone, but... My primary browser is the Firefox 3.5 RC running on OS10.4.11 on an older Macbook Pro. I believe the sqlite database format used to store the bookmarks in 3.5 is pretty much unchanged from firefox v3.0.11 so this shouldn't be an issue.

I've noticed that iTunes 8.1 offers to synchronize the PC's Safari bookmarks with the iPhone. Easy enough. But is there any easy and effective way to export all of my Firefox bookmarks to Safari first? Will Safari 4 import a full set of Firefox bookmarks from the sqlite file?

If I set this up as an automator action for Safari, I guess the plan would be to have Safari periodically overwrite all of its bookmarks with a copy of the ones present in Firefox, and then let the iPhone sync. I would not be manually creating any new bookmarks in Safari as I pretty much exclusively use Firefox, and occasionally Opera.

Navigating Safari 4 tabs with Firefox shortcuts?

mck9235 — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 08:29:00 -0800

Looking for a way to use Firefox keyboard shortcuts with Safari 4 on the Mac I'm trying to ditch Firefox (which acts as if I'm doing some type of fancy 3D rendering everytime I open up more than a few tabs) but find myself lost without the ability to switch to a specific tab with Command - #, # being the number of the tab.

I know that in Safari 4, it is Command + Shift + { or } to go left or right through tabs, but I'm really partial to the Firefox way of doing things. Currently, Command + # in Safari takes me to a specific bookmark from the navigation bar...

So -- is there any way to change this behavior in a secret settings panel or with a 3rd party app? (btw, I'm on a Mac w/ Leopard).

Thanks for any suggestions

I need a kid friendly Mac-based web browser

dancinglamb — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:59:19 -0800

Which web browser with parenting controls for a Mac? We recently bought the girls (aged 6 and 4) an iMac. By default, we installed Safari as their web browser because it seems to have pretty decent parental controls. However, since it doesn't allow favicons, the girls (well, really, the younger one), is having a difficult time finding the sites because she can't read the bookmark bar.

I have Firefox on my Macbook and know that depending on the skins, you can see the favicons. Unfortunately, though, I've not been able to find any decent parental control scripts on Greasemonkey. Granted I'm a total dork and only installed Greasemonkey on my computer so I could install the Meta deleted thread script, so maybe I'm not looking in the right place.

Right now, the current protocol is for the girls to come running to find us any time they want to go to a new website. And it is getting old. Quickly. So, while Sophie is learning to read at a frightening pace, maybe somebody can provide insight sooner? :)

Thanks!

Facebook, delicious and flickr not loading!

carofowler — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 12:30:12 -0800

My facebook, delicious and flickr aren't working, but all other sites are fine. What's wrong and how do I fix it? I have been trying for over a week to use my facebook account unsuccessfully.

I use Firefox 3.0.5 on a MacBook although I have also tried on Safari 3.1.2.

Usually, I am able to sign in and arrive at the home page successfully. Then, when I try to go into any other page, the page won't load and I get a "failed to open page" error or "page load error - connection interrupted" or something of the sort.

Clicking on links in my email to posted pictures or messages also doesn't work and the page will not load. I have tried deleting all facebook cookies, all cookies, restarting Firefox, restarting the computer and nothing has worked.

My account is working fine on other computers, but since it doesn't happen with any other site, this must be an issue with Facebook AND my computer.

Also, my delicious account won't load either. I tired on Safari and the home page loaded but none of the other pages and I get "connection interrupted" as well.

When I try logging into flickr (through the Yahoo! sign in page, which is where flickr redirects you when you click to sign in) i get sent to a blank page: https://login.yahoo.com/config/login_verify2?

These sites work fine when I sign in through other computers and all other sites and the internet in general are working fine on my computer. I have also tried deleting cookies for these. For delicious it works and allows me to enter the home page, but then I still can't access any of the other pages.

Does anyone know what is going on and how I can fix it?

Thanks!

How to bypass my provider's annoying "site not found" screen?

monospace — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:09:02 -0800

How to bypass my provider's annoying "site not found" screen? I used to be able to just type in a domain name in the address bar, like "metafilter", hit return, and the browser would automatically load "metafilter.com". But lately, Optimum Online is interfering with that handy shortcut by displaying a search result screen (to show me ads, I'm sure) saying "the site cannot be found" and a screen full of search results, usually with metafilter.com listed right at the very top. How do they do this? More to the point, how do I get the old behavior back?

How to manage whitelist of websites for a school lab?

those are my balloons — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:56:21 -0800

How can I remotely manage a whitelist of allowed websites for a computer lab of 20 iMacs? I run a lab of 20 iMacs used for teaching electronic music, etc. In the past I didn't mind if there was some extraneous web browsing going on but there is a lot of off-task activity now and I'd like to limit browsing to a whitelist of music-related sites that I will manage remotely using Apple Remote Desktop or something else.

The computers all have both Firefox and Safari installed, so whichever one provides the better solution will be the one that remains enabled. Other things to keep in mind...

We are running 10.5.5, and I am the only instructor who uses the lab, I have full access to all machines. I am comfortable editing config files and that sort of thing if necessary
Apple Remote Desktop is used for managing lots of other things in the lab already
the school district has a county-wide proxy that has to be used for any outgoing connections and blocks lots of stuff already...but not enough to keep the lab in use for its intended purpose only
I want to be able to update the whitelist on all machines simultaneously and keep them the same, as I find more sites that should be made available

I have a colleague who uses Parental Controls to manage the Safari allowed-sites list in his lab, but it doesn't seem to be possible to do this on all 20 of my machines at the same time...I want a solution that lets me manage the whitelist immediately and on all machines.

Why can't I listen to conference calls on Yahoo Finance? (using Mac Safari/Firefox)

b_thinky — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 02:44:41 -0800

Why can't I listen to conference calls on Yahoo Finance? (using Mac Safari/Firefox) Here is a link of all the day's conference calls. When I click to listen to the audio, my browser goes to a new page and attempts to load the media. Media plays, but all I hear is some light static for a couple seconds, followed by a click - then it goes dead.

This happens in all the calls I try to listen to, whether using Safari or Firefox. Also I tried AOL finance and can't listen there either. I tried upgrading Windows Media player but still no luck. I cannot download the file - only streaming is available.

Can someone suggest a solution?

How can I get an email alert when a web page changes?

tamagosan — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:27:22 -0800

I need to automatically refresh a web page and be alerted via email (or run an applescript) when it changes. There are a few commercial apps that do this, but they're Windows based and I'm on a Mac. I'd also prefer something that's freeware. There's also a couple Firefox add-ons which will automatically check a page for changes, but none that I've found allow for an email alert (or to run an applescript).

Will Firefox 3.0 finally allow inline viewing of pdf's on an intel mac?

ericbop — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:31:59 -0800

Yippee - Firefox 3.0 has landed. Will this solve the most glaring problem with Firefox 2.x - unlike native Mac app Safari, Firefox can't load pdf's inline. One separate question: The other feature I love about Safari is how well spotlight handles indexing and searching web pages saved using Safari. What's the best way to archive web pages using Firefox so that I can find them with spotlight? I love Scrapbook, but spotlight doesn't.

Dam you firefox, why can't you be more like Safari?

doctor.dan — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 05:09:51 -0800

I love Firefox. I love using the Fox. I love the warm and fuzzy feeling I get from using opensource software. But, I am drawn to Safari, and for only one feature. I love the way Safari handles PDFs. I like how it opens them in the blink of an eye, letting me view the PDF and then save it with the click of a button (overlay? whatever). What I'm wondering is, is there any way to get the same behaviour in Firefox. I'm relatively new to Macs (soon to be 1 year), so I'm not too familiar with all the ins and outs, but I assume it is somehow connected to Preview.app. There was an earlier attempt at doing something similar on ask.MeFi, but that didn't really lead anywhere. Google searching doesn't help either. In case you are wondering, I like this because I deal with a lot of PDF files (journal articles, woo). I'd consider switching to Safari as a main browser if it wasn't for the little differences (FF3's address bar, Command+1/2/3/4/etc, copious amount of extensions).

What's wrong with my Internet connection?

Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:27:12 -0800

Please help me diagnose this mysterious Internet problem. I can't connect to a few websites in the normal way -- for example I can't connect to IMdB.com if the URL begins with "www". But I can connect if I remove the prefix. There are a few other websites I'm having similar problems with. What's going on here? I'm using the latest Firefox 2 on a Macbook Pro. I tried using Firefox 3 and same problems. Safari also has the same problem. What's the best procedure for sorting out what's wrong here? Thank you!

Better Browser for the Mac

jdroth — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:59:14 -0800

I need a better browser for my Mac. I use a MacBook Pro 17". For the past year, I've been using Safari as my default browser. I like it swell except that it crashes all the frickin' time. I've installed SAFT, which allows me to restore my browsing sessions, but still -- it's a pain. Last weekend, I moved over to Firefox in the hopes that things would be improved. That's not going to work. What's with the delays for nearly every action? Ugh. (No extensions installed.) I don't yet have Leopard, but am willing to upgrade if Safari 3 offers a marked improvement in performance. What can I do to improve my web browsing experience? (Session restore is a must. Undo closed tabs is nice.) As a tag-on, I would love to know if there's anyway to restore sessions in BBEdit. Though my MBP is fairly stable, it does freeze sometimes. Worse, it has a bizarre habit of restarting itself sometimes when the lid is closed. I typically have 20-30 BBEdit documents open at once, including some that have not been saved.

Why is Flickr so slow/broken? OS X!

wemayfreeze — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 12:49:11 -0800

Why is Flickr so very very beyond slow and maybe broken, sometimes (OS X)? I'm rockin' OS X (Tiger) and all my browsers (Safari, Firefox, Camino) load Flickr slower than slow. Half the time it doesn't load fully at all: when searching, half or more of the photos won't display and the browser will sit there indefinitely, loading the page. Same thing happens on individual photo pages. It seems to happen less frequently if I'm only loading one Flickr page at a time (as opposed to lots of tabs, which is what I'm trying to do), but it still happens.

Is this just Flickr being Flickr? Is there some setting I can set or browser I can use that can fix this?

My Mac won't let anything but Safari connect to the internet. Help. Might pull out hair.

deinemutti — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 19:26:41 -0800

My Mac won't let anything but Safari connect to the internet. Help. Might pull out hair. I got an iMac about 1 1/2 months ago. Everything connected fine until a week ago. But the honeymoon's over, there's enough problems now to write a list:

-The Apple Mail program will not connect with my IMAP account, saying "The connection to the server (w/ my proper domain address) on port 993 failed (error 1: Operation not permitted). I cannot receive e-mails and sometime I can send them if I fiddle with the port numbers, but this hasn't worked. I also tried purging my mailbox on the server itself, deleted the account and added it in again.
It works just fine with my other Gmail account. I have already called Apple tech support and the support line for my IMAP e-mail provider, both couldn't figure out what's causing the problem. I have also scoured Apple's message board and Ask MeFi for the last week trying anything, nothing has worked so far.

-Other applications that aren't Safari won't connect.
Everytime I've loaded Firefox I get "Unable to Connect." You won't believe how many times uninstalled and re-installed this to get it to work, and failed. Ditto with Camino.

AOL Instant Messenger also doesn't wish to connect "An unknown socket error occurred: 504, 1"

Included non-connecting programs are Solarseek and Adobe downloader.

I'm beginning to wonder if it's a program I installed and then (thought) I deleted completely called GlowWorm, a firewall/internet traffic monitor program, that is playing a role. It's no longer in my apps folder, but when I hit search in finder the files are still there and they won't let me trash them properly.

I hope this all makes sense, since these issues are slowly driving me into madness. Please excuse any gaps in spelling, grammar or sheer incoherence.

How do I get Firefox to use the OSX Keychain?

clearlynuts — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 07:35:44 -0800

How do I get Firefox to use the OSX Keychain? When I used a PC, I used Roboform. It not only remembered my password, but it was compatible with IE and Firefox, so I could switch back and forth between the browsers. Now I have a Powerbook, and I have passwords in the Keychain, for the occasions I use Safari, and passwords in Firefox. I primarily use Firefox, and I won't be switching to Safari full-time (or even a majority of the time).

I found software called 1Passwd. Does anyone have experience using that software extensively? Are there bettter alternatives? Something that works a lot like Roboform would be great. I don't mind paying for a license, so freeware isn't required.

Why can't I view this website?

mule — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 16:16:21 -0800

Why can't I view/load this website? For some reason which totally confuses me, I am unable to access this url from my home network.

I can go to the site succesfully at work and from a relatives PC, but whenever I try to connect at home I get a timeout error. I've tried connecting on both PC and Mac using Safari, Firefox and IE.

There is nothing in any firewalls/browser preferences that should be preventing acces to this site, both on the computers and on the ADSL router.

I'm at a total loss. Can anyone offer any helpful hints?

Web browser market share reference

Joleta — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 08:29:58 -0800

What is the definitive online reference for web browser market share? I've found this site which looks nice, but I don't know if it's the most authoritative site for stating browser statistics. Our company needs to convince a vendor to program a partner site to work in non-IE browsers (Firefox, etc.) and I want to make sure the statistics I'm quoting are reasonably valid.

Why won't images show up in Firefox?

maxreax — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 15:11:52 -0800

Why won't images show up on my website when viewed in Firefox? From a friend:

I have just recently been attempting some HTML and CSS. The site I've made displays fine in Safari but my images wont show in Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer. Not sure what to do- please help.

Here is a link: http://students.oxy.edu/atiziani/Web/Untitled4.html

using flash macromedia on intel based IMac

Postroad — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 04:12:33 -0800

Getting Flash/Macromedia in intel based IMac Recently bought IMac and find that using Firefox, I am not able to see lots of things that requi9rte flash/macromedia. Tech guy at Mac said I could download and use the newest version with Mac's default browser, Safari. He is right. But I prefer Firefox. Is there a way I might use flash on firefox? Or, if not, how to traswfer bookmarks to Safari?

Is there a perfect OSX web browser out there for me?

bruceyeah — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 03:26:22 -0800

I'm trying to find a (stable) OSX web browser that... A) allows you to select text and right-click to search for that text in Google, AND B) displays bookmarks in the bookmarks toolbar as favicons (not just plain text buttons). Firefox and Safari seem to do A, Camino has B, Shiira does both but it's hella unstable on my Intel Mac mini.

Or alternately... is there a way to customise Safari, Firefox or Camino so that they do both? I've searched high and low for relevant extensions with no success.

Camino is close to perfect, but not being able to right-click and Google something thing is annoying. Or am I just in need of a good bookmarklet script that does this?

Getting password from Firefox to Safari?

trey — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 06:58:05 -0800

How do I get a password out of Firefox and into Safari without some crazy encryption skills? I have a four-digit password to a site (specifically a site to check on the status of a PhD application) that is auto-saved in Firefox. I don't really use Firefox all that much, preferring Safari. How can I get the password into Safari so I don't have to load up Firefox every time I want to check on that application?

I already tossed the piece of paper with the password/PIN on it, so that option is out.

I Want My, I Want My, I Want My Cmd-1 ...

WCityMike — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 14:02:31 -0800

How can I configure Firefox so that I can use Cmd-1 through Cmd-9 for bookmarks on my personal toolbar, identical to the behavior Safari uses? I am very desperately looking for a Firefox extension that will allow me to use Command-1 through Command-9 for the first nine bookmarks of my Personal Toolbar Folder, much as Safari allows me to do. Please, someone tell me the ability to do this is out there.

Yes, I am able to assign normal vanilla bookmarks through the keyconfig extension to the Command keys (if somewhat awkwardly), but I apparently cannot assign JavaScript bookmarklets using the same method, and that is greatly problematic for me.

I have a JavaScript bookmarklet I love that interacts with Cocoalicious to allow me to post to del.icio.us websites I enjoy and want to post to my "linklog" -- but I am also very very keyboard-centric, and hate having to mouse over to the bookmarklet in Firefox. (I know that there is a delicious extension that has a posting interface for Firefox, which is actually really pretty decent -- but the extension's keyboard support for posting appears to be broken on Mac OS X.)

Alternatively – in the event that no one can give me an answer to this, in case said extension just doesn’t exist – I seem to remember there being a way by which people could set up a sort of “developer pledge” or “developer bounty” thing on some website somewhere, where you could say, “I would be willing to pay $10 for a resolution to this problem,” and Joe Schmoe would chip in another $10, and Jane Schmoe another $20, and by the time you know it, Alfred J. Developer has a $200 incentive to develop said Firefox extension, in which case it might then get developed pretty darn quicker. Can anyone tell me what I'm thinking of?

Er, to press my luck, also alternatively, anyone know a way by which I could see if the whole language keyconfig uses to determine what to do upon keypresses is JavaScript in and of itself? Perhaps that’s why it won’t respond to JavaScript bookmarklets within the “Open Location” language.

(To pre-empt the “just go back to Safari” responses: I used to be a Safari die-hard, but only when it was coupled with the added functionality Saft gave it. I found the need to revert my system back to 10.3 when I noticed that 10.4 was bogging down my older system just too darn much; the only thing I really have missed from 10.4 has been the greater interconnectedness between the CLI and the GUI, and the ability to iSync my address book with my Motorola v330. Saft has marched onwards towards Panther, and I figure that Firefox will be extensible and upgradeable on 10.3 for far longer than Safari will, so I am trying to get myself to stay with Firefox.)