With great standards-compliance and cross-platform support, Firefox is becoming the browser of choice not just for end-users but for many web developers as well. Once it’s deployed inside some corporate networks, the Macintosh edition can’t see past the firewall.

Firefox may be an excellent internet citizen, but it doesn’t follow Macintosh standards too closely. Among the conventions it ignores are the Proxy settings in the Network pane of System Preferences. Instead, Firefox keeps it’s own proxy settings hidden, three levels down in its own preferences. This is the most common reason Firefox can’t seem to load web sites when Safari can.

To solve the problem, go to the Firefox menu and select “Preferences…”, choosing the “Advanced” button at the top of the resulting window. Then from the row of tabs, select “Network” and click “Settings…” to bring up the proxy configuration panel. From there it’s easy to fill in your proxy addresses, and your Firefox users will be back online.