User agent

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This article applies to both Firefox and Mozilla Suite.

The user agent is a string uniquely identifying a given browser. It can be accessed by Javascript and numerous other means. It is used by websites to determine which browser you use for various reasons. For example, some webmasters will read this information solely for the purpose of keeping statistics on browser usage. Others will delibarately reject certain browsers based on the text in your user agent. Still others will redirect certain browsers to different version of a page.

If a web site is rejecting access solely based on user agent, you may be able to access a page anyway by installing the User Agent Switcher. To see your own user agent, copy javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent) into your Location Bar and press Enter.

You can read more about user agent strings at Wikipedia.

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