Using applications while the system is offline

[David Jansen]

Current versions of Fedora have a nice feature that many applications
such as Firefox and evolution know when there is no network
(communication with NetworkManager at some level). Usually this is a
good thing of course, but, i think there is a nasty bug: these
applications als refuse to connect to localhost or anything local when
there is no network.
And I really would like to access my local incoming mail in evolution
and access my local webserver that I use to test and develop php code on
my laptop. 
Is there a way to bypass this offline mode so that access to local
services is possible without the network? It seems the "work offline"
option in the file menu is not selectable at such moments. Am I missing
something here?

David Jansen