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40 >Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</TH
77 >5. Troubleshooting</A
85 >5.1. I just upgraded and am getting <SPAN
87 >"connection refused"</SPAN
89 with every web page?</A
95 > is not running, or your
96 browser is configured for a different port than what
110 default. This has been changed to port 8118 now, due to a conflict
111 with NAS (Network Audio Service), which uses port 8000. If you haven't,
112 you need to change your browser to the new port number, or alternately
114 HREF="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS"
125 HREF="../user-manual/config.html"
127 >main configuration file</A
136 >5.2. I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
137 still getting through. How?</A
140 > If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
141 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
142 the need for any request to the server, and <SPAN
146 will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flushing the browser's
147 caches. And then try again.</P
149 > If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
150 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <A
151 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info"
153 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</A
155 and see if it really matches your new rule.</P
163 >5.3. One of my favorite sites does not work with <SPAN
170 > First verify that it is indeed a <SPAN
174 by toggling off <SPAN
178 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle"
180 >http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</A
182 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
183 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
186 > If still a problem, go to <A
187 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info"
189 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</A
191 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions
192 are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions files are
193 responsible for that. Now, armed with this information, go to <A
194 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status"
196 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</A
198 and select the appropriate actions files for editing.</P
200 > You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
201 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
202 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
203 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
204 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
205 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
206 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!</P
208 > Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
209 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
210 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
218 which is an alias that turns off most <SPAN
222 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
223 your privacy and protection more than necessary, </P
225 > Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <A
226 HREF="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT"
228 >user-manual appendix</A
231 HREF="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES"
242 >5.4. After installing <SPAN
246 every time I start IE. What gives?</A
249 > This is a quirk that effects the installation of
253 >, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
254 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
255 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.</P
257 > When setting up an NT based Windows system with
261 > you may find that things do not seem to be
262 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
263 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
264 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
265 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
266 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
267 configured for the kids.</P
269 > When setting up <SPAN
272 > in this environment you
273 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
274 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
278 >. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
279 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
280 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
281 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
282 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
283 you have to store the password under each different user!</P
285 > The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
286 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
287 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
288 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
289 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
290 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.</P
292 >[Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]</P
300 >5.5. I cannot connect to any FTP sites. <SPAN
304 seems to be blocking me.</A
310 > cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
311 so do not configure your browser to use <SPAN
315 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for <SPAN
319 >any protocol other than HTTP
325 > Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
328 >ftp://ftp.example.com</VAR
329 >, your browser is making
330 an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
334 > does not, and cannot proxy
338 > To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <SPAN
342 setting, which will silently enable <SPAN
349 proxying! So it is possible to accidentally enable FTP proxying in these
350 cases. And of course, if this happens, <SPAN
354 will indeed cause problems since it does not know FTP.
360 > ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely.
361 There just is not much reason, and the work to make this happen is more than
371 >5.6. In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
375 > as the HTTP proxy.</A
378 > Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
379 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
380 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
381 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
382 is checked and enter <VAR
385 > in the entry field.
389 > in the Port field. The next time you start
390 IE, it should reflect these values.
399 >5.7. In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
400 uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
404 > Just dragging the <SPAN
407 > folder to the trash is
408 not enough to delete it. <SPAN
414 >uninstall.command</SPAN
415 > file that takes care of
416 these details. Open the trash, drag the <SPAN
418 >uninstall.command</SPAN
420 file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
421 confirmation and the administration password.
424 > The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
425 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
434 >5.8. In Mac OSX Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
435 experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
439 > as my browser's proxy setting.</A
442 > We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in OSX, but don't fully
443 understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
451 works around the problem.
460 >5.9. I get a completely blank page at one site. <SPAN
466 ><html><body></body></html></SPAN
471 > the page loads fine.</A
474 > Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
476 HREF="http://www.php.net/"
483 which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
484 an uncompressed page, like <SPAN
488 This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
491 > To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
494 >-prevent-compression</VAR
509 > # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
511 {-prevent-compression}
517 > If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
518 site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
519 instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
520 or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
529 >5.10. Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</A
532 > More than likely this is a problem with the network stack. ZoneAlarm has
533 been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running. The solution is
534 to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
535 something better behaved in its place. Other firewall type products may
536 cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
545 >5.11. My logs show many <SPAN
547 >"Unable to get my own hostname"</SPAN
555 > tries to get the hostname of the system
556 its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to
567 > setting). If the system cannot supply
568 this information, <SPAN
571 > logs this condition. </P
573 > Typically, this would be considered a system configuration error. It is not a
577 > however, but may result in
578 a much slower response from <SPAN
590 >5.12. When I try to launch <SPAN
596 >"port 8118 is already in use"</SPAN
597 > (or similar wording).
608 > port. Typically this message would mean that there
609 is already one instance of <SPAN
613 you are actually trying to start a second <SPAN
617 on the same port, which will not work. How and why this might happen varies
618 from platform to platform, but you need to check your installation and
619 start-up procedures.</P
627 >5.13. Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.</A
630 > This is caused by the <SPAN
633 > filter, which was introduced
634 in version 3.0.2, and was inappropriately turned on by default. You should
638 >, or at least upgrade to the most
642 > file available from
644 HREF="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118"
648 Or you can simply disable the demoronizer filter.</P
656 >5.14. Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when <SPAN
663 > This may also be caused by the <SPAN
667 in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting a file type. Binary
668 files are exempted from <SPAN
672 (unless the web server by mistake says the file is a plain text file). Either
676 >, or go to the most recent
680 > file available from <A
681 HREF="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118"
692 >5.15. What is the <SPAN
695 > and why is it there?</A
698 > The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
699 were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
700 to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages
701 that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a
702 standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
703 displayed correctly. <SPAN
707 script, introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
708 correct these errors on the fly. </P
710 > But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in some
713 > If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
714 pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will
715 cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <SPAN
723 > On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
724 notice wierd characters on pages, you might want to try it.</P
726 > This filter was introduced with version 3.0.2 of <SPAN
730 and was on by default in that version. It is off in all subsequent versions
731 (unless turned on by the user).</P
739 >5.16. Why do I keep seeing <SPAN
741 >"PrivoxyWindowOpen()"</SPAN
742 > in raw source code?</A
748 > is attempting to disable malicious
749 Javascript in this case, with the <VAR
751 >unsolicited-popups</VAR
756 > cannot tell very well
760 > code snippets from <SPAN
765 > If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
766 this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this
767 where it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file,
768 then you should set an exception for this site or page such that the
769 integrity of the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.</P
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