From time to time, I'll be on my Macbook using a program that accesses the network – whether Firefox, or Sony's Reader Library – really, it seems like it could happen with any program that accesses the network – and for no reason that I can discern so far (that is, it happens intermittently) the OS X firewall dialog pops up to ask me the question:

Except it doesn't actually let me click anything before it disappears! That is:

• the dialog pops up, ...
• then goes away by itself a second later,
• then pops up again, ...
• then goes away by itself a second later,
• etc.

It happens a few times before stopping. It wouldn't be so maddening to be interrupted if I could just be allowed to click "Allow" and make the darn thing go away for good.

In Security preferences I have the firewall turned "On", and I would like to keep it that way.

Has anybody seen this problem, found the source, and figured out a solution or workaround?

Thank you.