MS Knowledge Base access problem: the Communicator hack (and more)

One more report on the Microsoft Knowledge Base issue (see yesterday's item): Proxy hack Several readers requested details as to how to set up a proxy that makes it look like you are running Windows (as noted yesterday). Larry Rosenstein sent us the details of how he did it, but we don't recommend trying this out - unless you also want the proxy for other reasons. The set up seemed too long and involved (for starters, you need a proxy application such as Muffin). And there are simpler solutions, such as the iCab one also mentioned yesterday. Communicator hack For Netscape Communicator users, a hack using ResEdit does the trick (thanks, Rick Zeman and Richard Lloyd). Here's what to do: Open Netscape Communicator in ResEdit Open the STR# Picker Open Resource ID 210 ("IDs") String 4 and 5 should read something like: "4.61 [en_US] (Macintosh;%s;68k)" [I was using Communicator 4.61]. Change the text of strings 4 and 5 to "4.61 [en] (Win95;I)" Save the changes and close the file That should do it. If not, you may also need to go to the vers Picker and make similar changes to the text in the Program and Suite resources. So far, we have not heard of a similar way to make changes in Explorer. In any case, after we tried this Communicator hack, the full Knowledge Base page opened as promised and worked just fine (although even on this page there was one graphic image that did not load). Virtual PC? Two readers tried using Virtual PC to go to the Microsoft page. Oddly, one reported that it worked while the other reported that it still went to the wrong page. An updated reply from Microsoft: Finally, John DeMillion (who initially reported this matter to us) received this more recent reply from Microsoft: "We are currently researching this issue and will respond shortly with a resolution or status update. We appreciate your patience." Update: Frederico Russo offers this caution about browser spoofing: "Just changing the browser ID string doesn't make your Mac browser into the Windows engine it's masquerading as; the result is obvious: you get the pages intended for Windows viewers, and your engine and plugins are faced with the task of rendering elements they're not designed for. Folks should only use a browser-spoof when they suspect a non-parity issue or as an occasional curiosity; not full time, else miss out on content and composition made especially for the Mac."