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6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
8 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
9 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
10 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
11 <!entity p-version "2.9.17">
12 <!entity p-status "beta">
13 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
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18 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
21 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/faq.sgml,v $
24 This file belongs into
25 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
27 $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt Exp $
29 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
32 Based partially on the Internet Junkbuster FAQ originally written by and
33 Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters Corporation.
34 http://www.junkbusters.com/
36 <Qandaset defaultlabel='qanda'>
51 ========================================================================
52 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
53 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation. You have been warned!
54 Failure to abide by this rule will result in the revocation of your license
55 to live a peaceful existence!
56 ========================================================================
62 <article id="index" class="faq">
64 <title>Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</title>
68 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
69 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
70 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
71 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
75 <pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt Exp $</pubdate>
79 Note: this should generate a separate page, and a live link to it.
80 But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave commented
81 unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the copyright
82 statement will be in copyright.smgl.
86 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
88 text goes here ........
98 <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
107 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
108 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
109 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
114 This FAQ gives quick answers to frequently asked questions about
115 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>
116 <![%p-stable;[ v.&p-version]]>. It can't and doesn't replace the
117 <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
120 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
122 <!-- end boilerplate -->
125 You can find the latest version of the document at <ulink
126 url="http://www.privoxy.org/faq/">http://www.privoxy.org/faq/</ulink>.
127 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> if you want to
128 contact the developers.
132 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
138 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
140 <sect1 id="general"><title>General Information</title>
142 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newjb"><title>What is this new version of <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
144 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
151 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
152 <title id="whyprivoxy">Why <quote>Privoxy</quote>? Why a name change at all?</title>
154 <application>Privoxy</application> is the
155 <quote><emphasis>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</emphasis></quote>. Also, its content
156 modification and junk suppression allow you to browse your
157 <quote><emphasis>private</emphasis> edition</quote> of the web.
160 <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>
161 continues to offer their original version of the <application>Internet
162 Junkbuster</application>, so publishing our
163 <application> Junkbuster</application>-derived software under the same name
167 There are also potential legal complications from the continued use of the
168 <application>Junkbuster</application> name, which is a registered trademark of
169 <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>.
170 There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
171 <application>Privoxy</application> project itself, and they, in fact, still
172 share our ideals and goals.
175 The developers also believed that there are so many changes from the original
176 code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
177 a name in their own right<![%p-not-stable;[, especially now with the pending
178 release of version 3.0]]>.
183 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="differs"><title>How does <application>Privoxy</application> differ
184 from the old <application>Junkbuster?</application></title>
186 <application>Privoxy</application> picks up where
187 <application>Junkbuster</application> left off. All the old features remain.
188 The new <application>Privoxy</application> still blocks ads and banners,
189 still manages cookies, and still helps protect your privacy. But, these are
190 all enhanced, and many new features have been added, all in the same vein.
193 The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
194 users will notice right off the bat if upgrading from
195 <application>Junkbuster</application> 2.0.x. The <quote>blocklist</quote>
196 <quote>cookielist</quote>, <quote>imagelist</quote> and much more has been
197 combined into the <quote>actions</quote> files, with a completely different
198 syntax. See the <ulink url="../user-manual/upgradersnote.html">note to
199 upgraders</ulink> for details.
202 <application>Privoxy</application>'s new features include:
205 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml: -->
211 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="proxymoron"><title>What is a <quote>proxy</quote>? How does
212 <application>Privoxy</application> work? </title>
214 A web proxy is a service, based on a software such as <application>Privoxy</application>,
215 that clients (i.e. browsers) can use instead of connecting directly to the web
216 servers on the Internet. The clients then ask the proxy to fetch the objects
217 they need (web pages, images, movies etc) on their behalf, and when the proxy
218 has done so, it hands the results back to the client.
221 There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security (firewalling),
222 efficiency (caching) and others, and there are just as many different proxies
223 to accommodate those needs.
226 <application>Privoxy</application> is a proxy that is solely focused on privacy
227 protection and junk elimination. Sitting between your browser(s) and the Internet,
228 it is in a perfect position to filter outbound personal information that your
229 browser is leaking, as well as inbound junk. It uses a variety of techniques to do
230 this, all of which are under your control via the various configuration
236 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whatsanad">
237 <title id="knows">How does <application>Privoxy</application> know what is
238 an ad, and what is not?</title>
240 <application>Privoxy</application>'s approach to blocking ads is twofold:
243 First, there are certain patterns in the <emphasis>locations</emphasis> (URLs)
244 of banner images. This applies to both the path (you wouldn't guess how many
245 web sites serve their banners from a directory called <quote>banners</quote>!)
246 and the host (blocking the big banner hosting services like doublecklick.net
247 already helps a lot). <application>Privoxy</application> takes advantage of this
248 fact by using <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL
249 patterns</ulink> to sort out and block the requests for banners.
252 Second, banners tend to come in certain <emphasis>sizes</emphasis>. But you
253 can't tell the size of an image by its URL without downloading it, and if you
254 do, it's too late to save bandwidth. Therefore, <application>Privoxy</application>
255 also inspects the HTML sources of web pages while they are loaded, and replaces
256 references to images with standard banner sizes by dummy references, so that
257 your browser doesn't request them anymore in the first place.
260 Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
265 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
266 <title id="mistakes">Can <application>Privoxy</application> make mistakes?
267 This does not sound very scientific.</title>
269 Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
270 rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. There is a good chance
271 you may run into such a situation at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
272 cover every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
276 But this should not be a big concern since the
277 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is very flexible, and
278 includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
279 addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
280 (<link linkend="badsite">See the Troubleshooting section below</link>.)
286 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
287 <application>Privoxy</application>. Why should I use
288 <application>Privoxy</application> at all?</title>
290 Modern browsers do indeed have <emphasis>some</emphasis> of the same
291 functionality as <application>Privoxy</application>. Maybe this is
292 adequate for you. But <application>Privoxy</application> is much more
293 versatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
296 In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
297 have a LAN with multiple computers. This way all the configuration
298 is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar configuration
299 for possibly many browsers.
305 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
306 warranty? Registration?</title>
308 <application>Privoxy</application> is licensed under the <ulink
309 url="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public License (GPL)</ulink>.
310 It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this
311 license. Please see the <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> section for more
312 information on the license and copyright. Or the <filename>LICENSE</filename> file
313 that should be included.
316 There is <emphasis>no warranty</emphasis> of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
317 That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
318 <application>Privoxy</application> really is <emphasis>free</emphasis>
324 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what do I do?</title>
326 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-money"><title>Money Money Money</title>
328 We, of course, welcome donations and could use money for domain registering,
329 buying software to test <application>Privoxy</application> with, and, of course,
330 for regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). If you enjoy the software and feel
331 like helping us with a donation, just <ulink
332 url="mailto:developers@privoxy.org">drop us a note</ulink>.
336 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-software"><title>Software</title>
338 If you are a vendor of a web-related software like a browser, web server
339 or proxy, and would like us to ensure that <application>Privoxy</application>
340 runs smoothly with your product, you might consider supplying us with a
341 copy or license. We can't, however, guarantee that we will fix all potential
342 compatibility issues as a result.
346 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-work"><title>You want to work with us?</title>
348 Well, helping the team is always a good idea. We welcome new developers,
349 packaging gurus or documentation writers. Simply <ulink
350 url="https://sourceforge.net/account/register.php">get an account on SourceForge.net</ulink>
351 and mail your id to the <ulink url="mailto:developers@privoxy.org">developers
352 mailing list</ulink>. Then read the <ulink
353 url="../developer-manual/index.html">Developer's Manual</ulink>.
356 Once we have added you to the team, you'll have write access to the <ulink
357 url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">CVS repository</ulink>, and
358 together we'll find a suitable task for you.
367 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
369 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
371 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichbrowsers">
372 <title>Which browsers are supported by <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
374 Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
375 should be virtually all browsers. Direct browser support is not necessary
376 since <application>Privoxy</application> runs as a separate application and
377 talks to the browser in the standardized HTTP protocol, just like a web server
382 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichos">
383 <title>Which operating systems are supported?</title>
385 Include supported.sgml here:
390 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
391 <application>Privoxy</application> over <application>Junkbuster</application>?</title>
393 We recommend you un-install <application>Junkbuster</application>
394 first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
395 save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
396 files and syntax have substantially changed, so you will need to manually
397 port your old patterns. See the <ulink url="../user-manual/upgradersnote.html">note
398 to upgraders</ulink> and <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">installation
399 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink>
403 Note: Some installers may automatically un-install
404 <application>Junkbuster</application>, if present!
409 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
410 <title id="firststep">I just installed <application>Privoxy</application>. Is there anything
411 special I have to do now?</title>
414 All browsers must be told to use <application>Privoxy</application>
415 as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
416 in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. See below.
417 You should also flush your browser's memory and disk cache to get rid of any
425 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
427 If you set up the <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
428 the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
429 networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>
430 (sometimes referred to as <quote>localhost</quote>,
431 which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
432 to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have <application>Privoxy</application>
433 to run on a different port with the <ulink
434 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink> config option).
437 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
438 the word <quote>localhost</quote> or the IP address <quote>127.0.0.1</quote>
439 in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote> and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and
440 then the number <quote>8118</quote> for <quote>port</quote>.
441 This tells your browser to send all web requests to <application>Privoxy</application>
442 instead of directly to the Internet.
445 <application>Privoxy</application> can also be used to proxy for
446 a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
447 address of the LAN host where <application>Privoxy</application>
448 is running, or the equivalent hostname. Port assignment would be
449 same as above. Note that <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't
450 listen on any LAN interfaces by default.
453 <application>Privoxy</application> does not currently handle
454 protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, or other Internet
459 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
460 <title id="nothing">I just installed <application>Privoxy</application>, and nothing is happening.
461 All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
464 Did you configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
465 as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
466 the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
467 that <application>Privoxy</application> is running, and your browser
468 is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
469 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>.
470 This should take you to a page titled <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote> with
471 access to <application>Privoxy's</application> internal configuration.
472 If you see this, then you are good to go. If you receive a page saying
473 <quote>Privoxy is not running</quote>, then the browser is not set up to use
474 your <application>Privoxy</application> installation.
475 If you receive anything else (probably nothing at all), it could either
476 be that the browser is not set up correctly, or that
477 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running at all. Check the <ulink
478 url="../user-manual/config.html#LOGFILE">log file</ulink>.
483 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
484 <sect2 id="osxuninstall">
485 <title>In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
486 uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
487 empty the trash.</title>
489 <application>Privoxy</application> is installed with root permissions.
490 When you drag the Privoxy folder to the trash, the general user does not
491 have (as the Finder says) sufficient privileges to delete it. Unfortunately,
492 the finder does not offer a way to enter the administrator password in order
493 to prove you do in fact own this computer. To fix this situation, open the
494 Terminal application and enter the following command:
495 <literal>sudo rm -rf ~/.Trash/*</literal>
496 The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
497 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
501 Be extra-sure to enter the command <emphasis>EXACTLY</emphasis> as shown
502 above. Removing files recusively with administrator priviledges is a
503 serious business and even small typos can have devasting effects! Inserting
504 a space after <quote>Trash</quote> would e.g. <emphasis>completely wipe out
505 your harddisks</emphasis> without any further questions asked.
513 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
515 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
517 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
519 Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updated actions files will be
520 made available on the <ulink
521 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files section</ulink> of
522 our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project page</ulink>.
526 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
527 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
528 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
529 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
534 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
536 The syntax, number, and purpose of configuration files has substantially
537 changed from <application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions
538 of <application>Privoxy</application>. The old files, like <filename>blocklist</filename>
539 will not work at all. If you are upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will
540 need to port your configuration data to the new format. Note that even the
541 pattern syntax has changed! Even configuration files from the 2.9.x versions
542 will need to be adapted, as configuration syntax has been very much in flow
547 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
548 <title id="actionsfile">What is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
551 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">Actions files</ulink>
552 are where various <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink>
553 that <application>Privoxy</application> might take while processing a certain
554 request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
555 that apply to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
559 Actions can be defined on a <ulink
560 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</ulink> basis, i.e.
561 for single URLs, whole web sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be
562 grouped together and then applied to requests matching one or more patterns.
563 There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
564 if you are blocking cookies as one of your default actions, but need to accept
565 cookies from a given site, you would need to define an exception for this
566 site in one of your actions files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>
571 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionss">
572 <title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
573 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
575 For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer
576 to the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions file
577 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
578 manual</ulink>. It includes a <ulink
579 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">list of all actions</ulink>
580 and an <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions
581 file tutorial</ulink> to get you started.
586 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
587 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
588 way to do this?</title>
591 Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
592 with a text editor. The probably easiest way is to access
593 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface with your web browser
594 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
595 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and then select
596 <quote><ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View &
597 change the current configuration</ulink></quote> from the menu.
602 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
603 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
604 <title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
605 the differences?</title>
607 As of <application>Privoxy</application> v2.9.15, three actions files
608 are being included, to be used for
609 different purposes: These are
610 <filename>default.action</filename>, the <quote>main</quote> actions file
611 which is actively maintained by the <application>Privoxy</application>
612 developers, <filename>user.action</filename>, where users are encouraged
613 to make their private customizations, and <filename>standard.action</filename>,
614 which is for internal <application>Privoxy</application> use only.
615 Please see <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">the actions chapter</ulink>
616 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink> for a more
617 detailed explanation.
621 Earlier versions included three different versions of the
622 <filename>default.action</filename> file. The new scheme allows for
623 greater flexibility of local configuration, and for browser based
624 selection of pre-defined <quote>aggressiveness</quote> levels.
629 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/GMX account work?</title>
631 The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services.
632 It will, however, make all cookies temporary, so that your browser will forget your
633 login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would like not to have to log
634 in manually each time you access those websites, simply turn off all cookie handling
635 for them in the <filename>user.action</filename> file. An example for yahoo might
639 <screen># Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
641 { -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</ulink> -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</ulink> -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</ulink> }
642 .login.yahoo.com</screen>
647 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
648 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Advanced</quote> defaults?</title>
650 Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To help you get
651 started, we provide you with three different default action <quote>packages</quote> in
652 the web based actions file editor at <ulink
653 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
654 The following table shows you, which of the most important features are enabled in each
658 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
659 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
666 <entry>Feature</entry>
667 <entry>Cautious</entry>
668 <entry>Intermadiate</entry>
669 <entry>Advanced</entry>
674 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
675 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
676 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
677 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
683 <entry>Ad-blocking by URL</entry>
690 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
697 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
704 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
711 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
713 <entry>session-only</entry>
718 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
725 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
732 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
739 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
746 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
753 <entry>Fun text replacements</entry>
760 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
767 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
779 Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
780 known popular <quote>problem</quote> sites are included, but in
781 general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more
782 exceptions you will have to make later. See the <ulink
783 url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink> for a more
789 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration
790 with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
792 It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files with their
793 browsers, although the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
794 belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
797 When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
798 itself is writing to the config files. Because
799 <application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>,
800 it can update the config files.
803 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in
804 a LAN), you will probably want to turn the web-based editor and remote toggle
805 features off by setting <quote><literal><ulink
806 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>
807 0</literal></quote> and <quote><literal><ulink
808 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">enable-remote-toggle</ulink>
809 0</literal></quote> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
812 Note that in the default configuration, only local users (i.e. those on
813 <quote>localhost</quote>) can connect to <application>Privoxy</application>,
814 so this is not (normally) a security problem.
819 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
820 <title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file? What is a <quote>filter</quote>?</title>
822 The <ulink url="../user-manual/filter-file.html"><filename>default.filter</filename></ulink>
823 file is where <emphasis>filters</emphasis> are defined, which can be used to modify or
824 remove, web page content on the fly. Filters apply to <emphasis>anything</emphasis>
825 in the page source, including HTML tags, and JavaScript. Regular expressions are used
826 to accomplish this. There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common
827 annoyances. The filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you need to use the
829 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"><literal>filter</literal>
830 action</ulink> in one of the actions files. Filtering is automatically
831 disabled for inappropriate MIME types.
835 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
836 the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and define
837 your own filters. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
838 requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
842 Presently, there is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
843 but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included
844 <filename>default.filter</filename> file with the <ulink
845 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
850 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
851 <title id="lanconfig">How can I set up <application>Privoxy</application> to act as a proxy for my
854 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
855 from <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> (localhost). To have it act as a server for
856 a network, this needs to be changed in the <ulink
857 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>. Look for
859 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink></literal>
860 option, which may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
861 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
862 and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you
863 wish to run <application>Privoxy</application> on port 8118, this line
869 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118</screen>
873 Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
874 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
878 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> on a LAN with untrusted users,
879 we recommend that you double-check the <ulink
880 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security</ulink>
887 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
888 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
890 The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the <ulink
891 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
892 action</ulink>. You have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
893 image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a redirect to a custom image of your choice.
894 Note that this choice only has effect for images which are blocked as images, i.e.
895 whose URLs match both a <literal><ulink
896 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink></literal>
897 <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><ulink
898 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> action.
901 If you want to see nothing, then change the <ulink
902 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
903 action</ulink> to <quote>blank</quote>. This can be done by editing the
904 <filename>default.action</filename> file, or trough the <ulink
905 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
910 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
911 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
913 Remember that <link linkend="whatsanad">telling which image is an ad and which
914 isn't</link>, is mostly guesswork. While we hope that the standard configuration
915 is rather smart, it can and will make errors. The checkerboard image is visually
916 decent, but it shows you that and where images were blocked, which can be very
917 helpful in case some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was
918 erraneously blocked. Some people might also enjoy seeing how many banners
919 they <emphasis>don't</emphasis> have to see..
924 <!-- This has changed with the adaptive "blocked" page
926 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
927 <title id="blockedisugly">I see large red banners on some pages that say
928 <quote>Blocked</quote>. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
930 These are URLs that match something in one of
931 <application>Privoxy's</application> block actions
933 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink>).
934 It is meant to be a warning so that you know something has been blocked and
935 an easy way for you to see why. These are handled differently than what has
936 been defined explicitly as <quote>images</quote> (e.g. ads that are GIF image
937 files). Depending on the URL itself, it is sometimes hard for
938 <application>Privoxy</application> to really know whether there is indeed an
939 ad image there or not. And there are limitations as to what
940 <application>Privoxy</application> can do to <quote>fool</quote> the
945 For instance, if the ad is in a frame, then it is embedded in the separate
946 HTML page used for the frame. In this case, you cannot just substitute an
947 aribitrary image (like we would for a <quote>blank</quote> image), for an HTML
948 page. The browser is expecting an HTML page, and that is what it must have
949 for frames. Such situations can be a little trickier to deal with, and
950 <application>Privoxy</application> may show the <quote>Blocked</quote> page,
951 despite your best efforts.
955 If you want these to be treated as if they were images, so that they can be
956 made invisible, you can try moving the offending URL from the
957 <quote>+block</quote> section to the <quote>+imageblock</quote> section of
958 your actions file. Just be forewarned, if any URL is made
959 <quote>invisible</quote>, you may not have any inkling that something has
960 been removed from that page, or why. If this approach does not work, then you are
961 probably dealing with a frame (or <quote>ilayer</quote>), and the only thing
962 that can go there is an HTML page of some sort.
965 To deal with this situation, you could modify the
966 <quote><filename>block</filename></quote> HTML template that is used by
967 <application>Privoxy</application> to display this, and make it something
968 more to your liking. Currently, there is no configuration option for this.
969 You will have to modify, or create your own page, and use this to replace
970 <filename>templates/blocked</filename>, which is what
971 <application>Privoxy</application> uses to display the <quote>Blocked</quote>
975 Another way to deal with this is find why and where
976 <application>Privoxy</application> is blocking the frame, and
977 diable this. Then let the <quote>+set-image-blocker</quote> action
978 handle the ad that is embedded in the frame's HTML page.
983 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="alliseeisred">
984 <title>I cannot see all of the <quote>Blocked</quote> page banner. Help.</title>
986 There is not enough available space to fit the entire Blocked page. Try right
987 clicking on the visible portion, and select <quote>Show Frame</quote>,
988 or equivalent. This will usually allow you to see the entire Privoxy
989 <quote>Blocked</quote> page, and from there you can see just what is being
993 As of Privoxy 2.9.14, the Blocked banner page is re-sizeable, and tries
994 to adjust to the allotted space. There may be occassions where there
995 just isn't enough room to display much of anything useful though.
1002 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1003 <title id="blockedbytext">I see some images being replaced by a text
1004 instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
1006 This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of the
1007 page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded into (i)frames
1008 or (i)layers, and these external HTML documents are blocked. Being non-images
1009 they get replaced by a substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image,
1010 which wouldn't work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts
1011 only HTML when it has requested an HTML document.
1014 The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself as a
1015 miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown with a
1016 large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
1019 If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to it that
1020 the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked. Clicking
1021 the <quote>See why</quote> link offered in the substitute page will show
1022 you which rule blocked the page. After changing the rule and un-blocking
1023 the HTML documents, the browser will try to load the actual banner images
1024 and the usual image blocking will (hopefully!) kick in.
1029 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="srvany">
1030 <title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> run as a service
1031 on Win2K/NT?</title>
1033 Yes, it can run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
1034 The only catch is that this will effectively disable the
1035 <application>Privoxy</application> icon (and its menu!) in the taskbar. You can have
1036 one or the other, but not both at this time :(
1039 There is a pending feature request for this functionality. See the discussion
1041 url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=361118&aid=485617&group_id=11118">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=361118&aid=485617&group_id=11118</ulink>,
1042 for details, and a sample configuration.
1048 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherproxy">
1049 <title>How can I make <application>Privoxy</application> work with other
1050 proxies like <application>Squid</application>?</title>
1052 This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
1053 <application>Privoxy</application> with those of a caching proxy.
1055 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1056 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink> which
1057 describes how to do this.
1061 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
1062 <title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> run as a <quote>transparent
1063 </quote> proxy?</title>
1065 No, <application>Privoxy</application> currently does not have this ability,
1066 though it is planned for a future release. Transparent proxies require
1067 special handling of the request headers beyond what
1068 <application>Privoxy</application> is now capable of.
1072 Chaining <application>Privoxy</application> behind another proxy that has
1073 this ability should work though.
1075 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1076 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink>. As
1077 a transparent proxy to be used for chaining we recommend Transproxy
1078 (<ulink url="http://www.transproxy.nlc.net.au/">http://www.transproxy.nlc.net.au/</ulink>).
1085 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1088 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1090 <sect1 id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
1092 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1093 <title id="slowsme">How much does <application>Privoxy</application> slow my browsing down? This
1094 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
1096 It should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
1097 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not being displayed.
1098 The actual processing time required by <application>Privoxy</application>
1099 itself for each page, is relatively small in the overall scheme of things,
1100 and happens very quickly. This is typically more than offset by time saved
1101 not downloading and rendering ad images.
1105 <quote>Filtering</quote> content via the <literal><ulink
1106 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> or
1108 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1109 actions may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document needs to be buffered
1110 before displaying. See below.
1116 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I noticed considerable
1117 delays in page requests compared to the old Junkbuster. What's wrong?</title>
1119 If you use any <literal><ulink
1120 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> action,
1121 such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <literal><ulink
1122 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1123 action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
1124 mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time.
1127 The loading time does not really change in real numbers, but the feeling is
1128 different, because most browsers are able to start rendering incomplete
1129 content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is especially
1130 noticeable on slow dialup connections.
1133 Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types.
1139 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
1140 "http://p.p/"?</title>
1142 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> is the
1143 address of <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in user interface, and
1144 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> is a shortcut for it.
1147 Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet,
1148 it can simply intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in
1149 <quote>web server</quote>.
1152 This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
1153 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1154 takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote>, everything is OK.
1155 If you get a page saying <quote>Privoxy is not working</quote> instead, then
1156 your browser didn't use <application>Privoxy</application> for the request,
1157 hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <emphasis>real</emphasis>
1158 web site at config.privoxy.org.
1161 With recent versions of <application>Privoxy</application> (version 2.9.x and
1162 later), the user interface features information on the run time status, the
1163 configuration, and even a built-in editor for the <ulink
1164 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>.
1168 Note that the built-in URLs from earlier versions of <application>Junkbuster</application>
1169 / <application>Privoxy</application>, http://example.com/show-proxy-args and http://i.j.b/,
1170 are no longer supported. If you still use such an old version, you should really consider
1171 upgrading to &p-version;.
1176 FIXME: commented out until we have data. HB 03/18/02.
1178 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="badfiledesc"><title>I get the message 'Bad File Descriptor', why?</title>
1186 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
1188 No. The patterns for blocking now reside (among other things) in the <ulink
1189 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>, which are
1190 actively maintained instead. See next question ...
1194 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads?</title>
1196 Yes, absolutely! Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> for
1197 how to do that. Please note that you (technically) need the latest
1198 <application>Privoxy</application> version for this to work.
1203 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
1205 If you run both the browser and the proxy locally, you cannot hide your IP
1206 address with <application>Privoxy</application> or any other software. The
1207 server needs to know your IP address to send the answers back to you.
1210 Fortunately there are many publicly usable anonymous proxies out there, which
1211 solve the problem by providing a further level of indirection between you and
1212 the web server, shared by many people, and thus letting your requests "drown"
1213 in white noise of unrelated requests as far as user tracking is concerned.
1216 Most of them will, however, log your IP address and make it available to the
1217 authorities in case you abuse that anonymity for criminal purposes. In fact
1218 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
1219 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
1222 You can find a list of anonymous public proxies at <ulink
1223 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">multiproxy.org</ulink> and many
1224 more through Google. A particularly interesting project is the JAP service
1225 offered by the Technical University of Dresden (<ulink
1226 url="http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html">http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html</ulink>.
1229 There is, however, even in the single-machine case the possibility to make the
1230 server believe that your machine is in fact a shared proxy serving a whole big
1231 LAN, and we are looking into that.
1235 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1236 <title id="anonforsure">Can <application>Privoxy</application> guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
1238 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
1239 are an expert on Internet security it would be safest to assume that
1240 everything you do on the Web can be traced back to you.
1243 <application>Privoxy</application> can remove various information about you,
1244 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
1245 you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it's still possible
1246 that web sites can find out who you are. Here's one way this can happen.
1249 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
1250 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Privoxy</application>
1251 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
1252 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
1253 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
1256 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
1257 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
1258 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
1259 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
1260 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
1266 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1267 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information or
1268 content is being altered?</title>
1271 Definitely. More and more sites use HTTP header content to decide what to
1272 display and how to display it. There is many ways that this can be handled,
1273 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
1277 <quote>User-Agent</quote> in particular is often used in this way to identify
1278 the browser, and adjust content accordingly. Changing this now (at least not
1279 further than removing the OS information) is not recommended, since so many
1280 sites do look for it. You may get undesirable results by changing this.
1284 For instance, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
1285 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
1286 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
1287 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
1288 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
1289 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
1290 <quote>Referer</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
1291 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
1292 <quote>Referer</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
1293 can forge both headers without giving information away). There are
1294 many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server.
1298 Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree,
1303 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
1304 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
1305 be required, but by no means the only one.
1311 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1312 <title id="caching">Can <application>Privoxy</application> act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
1313 speed up web browsing?</title>
1315 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
1316 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> for this. And, yes,
1317 before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
1318 with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
1319 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding
1320 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
1321 manual</ulink> for details.
1325 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1326 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can <application>Privoxy</application> protect me?</title>
1328 Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can.
1329 <application>Privoxy</application> can help protect your privacy, but not
1330 protect you from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
1331 and recommended to use <emphasis>both</emphasis>.
1335 <!-- No longer needed
1336 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1337 <title id="logo">The <application>Privoxy</application> logo that replaces ads is very blocky
1338 and ugly looking. Can't a better font be used?</title>
1341 This is not a font problem. The logo is an image that is created by
1342 <application>Privoxy</application> on the fly. So as to not waste
1343 memory, the image is rather small. The blockiness comes when the
1344 image is scaled to fill a largish area. There is not much to be done
1345 about this, other than to use one of the other
1346 <quote>imageblock</quote> directives: <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>,
1347 <emphasis>blank</emphasis>, or a URL of your choosing.
1350 Given the above problem, we have decided to remove the logo option entirely
1356 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1357 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
1358 ads used to be. Why?</title>
1360 It would be technically possible eliminate the banners in a way that frees
1361 their screen estate in many cases, by doing all banner blocking with filters,
1362 i.e. eliminating the whole image references from the HTML pages instead
1363 of letting them stay in, and blocking the resulting requests for the
1367 But this would consume considerable CPU resources, would likely destroy
1368 the layout of many web pages which rely on the banners consuming a certain
1369 amount of screen space, and would fail in other cases, where the screen space
1370 is reserved e.g. by tables anyway. Also, making the banners disappear without
1371 a visual trace complicates troubleshooting.
1374 So we won't support this in the default configuration, but you can of course
1375 define appropriate filters yourself.
1379 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1380 <title id="ssl">How can <application>Privoxy</application> filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1382 Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
1383 and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably <emphasis>secure</emphasis>,
1384 there is little that <application>Privoxy</application> can do but hand the raw
1385 gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed.
1388 The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs
1389 to tell <application>Privoxy</application> the name of the remote server,
1390 so that <application>Privoxy</application> can establish the connection.
1391 If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.
1394 As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
1395 seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often
1396 the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless
1397 for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
1398 <application>Privoxy</application>'s ad blocking.
1403 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1404 <title id="secure"><application>Privoxy</application> runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1405 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1407 There are no known exploits that might affect
1408 <application>Privoxy</application>. On Unix-like systems,
1409 <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
1410 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1411 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens to requests
1412 from <quote>localhost</quote> only. The server aspect of
1413 <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly exposed to the
1414 Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1415 <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1416 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1417 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
1418 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration file and check all <ulink
1419 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security
1420 options</ulink>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address
1421 in the browser proxy configuration, but <application>Privoxy</application>
1422 will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in addition,
1423 and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
1428 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
1429 <title>How can I temporarily disable <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
1431 The easiest way is to access <application>Privoxy</application> with your
1432 browser by using the remote toggle URL: <ulink
1433 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>.
1434 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS">Bookmarklets section</ulink>
1435 of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> for an easy way to access this
1440 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="reallyoff">
1441 <title>When <quote>disabled</quote> is <application>Privoxy</application> totally
1442 out of the picture?</title>
1444 No, this just means all filtering and actions are disabled.
1445 <application>Privoxy</application> is still acting as a proxy, but just not
1446 doing any of the things that <application>Privoxy</application> would
1447 normally be expected to do. It is still a <quote>middle-man</quote> in
1448 the interaction between your browser and web sites.
1452 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
1453 <title>Where can I find more information about <application>Privoxy</application>
1454 and related issues?</title>
1455 <!-- Include seealso.sgml boilerplate: -->
1457 <!-- end boilerplate -->
1462 <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
1471 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1473 <sect1 id="trouble">
1474 <title>Troubleshooting</title>
1476 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1477 <title id="refused">I just upgraded and am getting <quote>connection refused</quote>
1478 with every web page?</title>
1480 Either <application>Privoxy</application> is not running, or your
1481 browser is configured for a different port than what
1482 <application>Privoxy</application> is using.
1486 The old <application>Privoxy</application> (and also
1487 <application>Junkbuster</application>) used port 8000 by
1488 default. This has been changed to port 8118 now, due to a conflict
1489 with NAS (Network Audio Service), which uses port 8000. If you haven't,
1490 you need to change your browser to the new port number, or alternately
1492 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS"><literal>listen-address</literal>
1493 option</ulink> in <application>Privoxy's</application> <ulink
1494 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
1499 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1500 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
1501 still getting through. How?</title>
1503 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
1504 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
1505 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Privoxy</application>
1506 will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flushing the browser's
1507 caches. And then try again.
1511 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
1512 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
1513 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
1514 and see if it really matches your new rule.
1519 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1520 <title id="badsite">One of my favorite sites does not work with <application>Privoxy</application>.
1521 What can I do?</title>
1524 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
1525 by toggling off <application>Privoxy</application> through <ulink
1526 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>,
1527 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
1528 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
1533 If still a problem, go to <ulink
1534 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
1535 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions
1536 are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions files are
1537 responsible for that. Now, armed with this information, go to <ulink
1538 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1539 and select the appropriate actions files for editing.
1542 You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
1543 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
1544 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
1545 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
1546 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
1547 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
1548 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
1551 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
1552 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
1553 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
1554 site to a <literal>{ fragile }</literal> section in <filename>user.action</filename>,
1555 which is an alias that turns off most <quote>dangerous</quote>
1556 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
1557 your privacy and protection more than necessary,
1560 Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <ulink
1561 url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">user-manual appendix</ulink>.
1562 There is also an <ulink
1563 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions tutorial</ulink>.
1569 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1571 <title>After installing <application>Privoxy</application>, I have to log in
1572 every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
1575 This is a quirk that effects the installation of
1576 <application>Privoxy</application>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
1577 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
1578 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.
1582 When setting up an NT based Windows system with
1583 <application>Privoxy</application> you may find that things do not seem to be
1584 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
1585 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
1586 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
1587 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
1588 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
1589 configured for the kids.
1593 When setting up <application>Privoxy</application> in this environment you
1594 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
1595 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
1596 <application>Privoxy</application>. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
1597 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
1598 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
1599 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
1600 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
1601 you have to store the password under each different user!
1605 The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
1606 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
1607 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
1608 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
1609 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
1610 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.
1614 [Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
1619 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1621 <title>I cannot connect to any FTP sites. <application>Privoxy</application>
1622 seems to be blocking me.</title>
1624 <application>Privoxy</application> cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
1625 so do not configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
1626 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for any protocol other than HTTP or HTTPS.
1630 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1632 <title>In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
1633 <application>Privoxy</application> as the HTTP proxy.</title>
1635 Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
1636 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
1637 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
1638 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
1639 is checked and enter <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> in the entry field.
1640 Enter <literal>8118</literal> in the Port field. The next time you start
1641 IE, it should reflect these values.
1650 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1652 FIXME: Commented out until we have something to put here. HB 03/18/02.
1653 <sect1 id="knownissues"><title>Known Issues</title>
1660 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1661 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
1662 <!-- Include contacting.sgml -->
1664 <!-- end contacting -->
1667 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1668 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
1670 <!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
1675 Portions of this document are <quote>borrowed</quote> from the original
1676 <application>Junkbuster</application> (tm) FAQ, and modified as
1677 appropriate for <application>Privoxy</application>.
1680 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1681 <sect2><title>License</title>
1682 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
1684 <!-- end copyright -->
1686 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1688 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1689 <sect2><title>History</title>
1690 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
1696 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1699 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1701 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
1703 <!-- Include seealso.sgml -->
1714 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
1716 Last modified: Mon Sep 10 19:22:09 CEST 2001
1718 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1719 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
1720 Public License as published by the Free Software
1721 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
1722 your option) any later version.
1724 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
1725 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
1726 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
1727 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
1728 License for more details.
1730 The GNU General Public License should be included with
1731 this file. If not, you can view it at
1732 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
1733 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
1734 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
1737 Revision 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt
1738 Add FAQ item for MSIE on OSX HTTP proxy confusion
1740 Revision 1.61.2.7 2002/08/02 01:46:01 david__schmidt
1741 Added FAQ item for Mac OSX uninstall woes
1743 Revision 1.61.2.6 2002/07/30 20:04:56 hal9
1744 Fix typo: 'schould'.
1746 Revision 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes
1747 - Updated to reflect changes in standard.action
1748 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
1750 Revision 1.61.2.4 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
1751 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
1753 Revision 1.61.2.3 2002/06/09 16:36:33 hal9
1754 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
1756 Revision 1.61.2.2 2002/06/06 02:51:34 hal9
1757 Fix typo in URL http:/config.privoxy.org
1759 Revision 1.61.2.1 2002/06/05 23:10:43 hal9
1760 Add new FAQ re: DUN/IE. Change release date from May to June :)
1762 Revision 1.61 2002/05/25 12:37:25 hal9
1763 Various minor changes and edits.
1765 Revision 1.60 2002/05/22 17:17:48 oes
1766 Proofread & added more links into u-m
1768 Revision 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9
1769 Fix ulink -> link markup.
1771 Revision 1.58 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
1772 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
1773 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
1774 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
1776 Revision 1.57 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
1777 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
1779 Revision 1.56 2002/05/04 08:44:44 swa
1782 Revision 1.55 2002/05/04 00:41:56 hal9
1783 -Remove TOC/first page kludge in favor of proper handling via dsl file.
1785 Revision 1.54 2002/05/03 05:06:44 hal9
1786 Add brief Q/A on transparent proxies.
1788 Revision 1.53 2002/05/03 01:34:52 hal9
1789 Fix section numbering for new sections (due to TOC kludge).
1791 Revision 1.52 2002/04/29 03:08:43 hal9
1792 -Added new Q/A on new actions file set up (pointer to u-m)
1793 -Fixed a few broken links and converted old actions as a result of
1796 Revision 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa
1797 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
1799 Revision 1.50 2002/04/26 05:25:23 hal9
1800 Mass commit to catch a few scattered fixes.
1802 Revision 1.49 2002/04/12 10:10:18 swa
1805 Revision 1.48 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
1808 Revision 1.47 2002/04/10 04:05:32 hal9
1811 Revision 1.45 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
1812 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
1814 Revision 1.44 2002/04/07 21:24:29 hal9
1815 Touch up on name change.
1817 Revision 1.43 2002/04/04 21:59:53 hal9
1818 Added NT/W2K service/icon situation.
1820 Revision 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
1821 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
1823 Revision 1.41 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
1824 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
1825 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
1826 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
1827 eventually be set by Makefile.
1828 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
1830 Revision 1.40 2002/04/03 04:22:03 hal9
1831 Fixed several typos.
1833 Revision 1.39 2002/04/03 03:53:03 hal9
1834 Revert some changes, and then make some news, to layout, and appearance.
1836 Revision 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9
1837 Major changes to doc structure and layout. Sections are not automatically
1838 numbered now. TOC is on page by itself.
1840 Revision 1.37 2002/04/01 16:24:07 hal9
1841 -Rework of supported Q/A.
1842 -Set up entities to include boilerplate text.
1844 Revision 1.36 2002/03/31 23:18:47 hal9
1845 More on dealing with BLOCKED.
1847 Revision 1.35 2002/03/30 04:14:19 hal9
1848 Fix privoxy.org/config links.
1850 Revision 1.34 2002/03/29 04:35:56 hal9
1853 Revision 1.33 2002/03/29 01:31:48 hal9
1854 Several new Q/A's and other touch ups.
1856 Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
1857 Touch ups for name change.
1859 Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
1860 we have a new homepage!
1862 Revision 1.30 2002/03/25 16:39:22 hal9
1863 A few new sections. Made all links relative to user-manual.
1865 Revision 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9
1866 Moved section, and touch ups.
1868 Revision 1.28 2002/03/25 04:27:33 hal9
1869 New section related to name change.
1871 Revision 1.25 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
1872 we are too lazy to make a block-built
1873 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
1875 Revision 1.24 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
1876 name change related issue.
1878 Revision 1.23 2002/03/24 12:33:01 swa
1881 Revision 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
1882 name change. changed filenames.
1884 Revision 1.21 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
1887 Revision 1.20 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
1888 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
1889 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
1890 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
1891 comments and remarks to history untouched.
1893 Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
1896 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
1899 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
1902 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
1903 A few more additions.
1905 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
1906 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
1908 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
1909 A little more added ...
1911 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
1912 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
1914 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
1917 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
1920 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
1921 correct feedback channels
1923 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
1924 more info on not hiding ip address
1926 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
1927 added default config section
1929 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
1932 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
1933 Committing changes by Stefan
1935 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
1936 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
1938 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
1939 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
1940 will work - no other changes are needed.
1942 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
1943 upload process established. run make webserver and
1944 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
1945 are now linked correctly.
1947 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
1948 merged standards into developer manual
1950 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
1951 source files for junkbuster documentation
1953 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
1954 first proposal of a structure.
1956 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
1957 docs should have an author.
1959 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
1960 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.