How do I get different and older versions of java plugin to work

I want to use firefox at my work, my company uses a program that uses java. But the programmers at my company aren't really good and when they check for the java plugin they check for the specific jre-6u21 instead of the generic with 6uXX. Sometimes I have to use another version of the program that requieres Version=1,4,2,06. They work fine with iexplorer. If I update to the current version (update 24) Firefox can't find the plugin. Explorer just gives a warning that you might be missing important security updates. Can Firefox give a warning or run with the latest version instead of looking for the missing plugins?