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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 "2.9.18">
12 <!entity p-status "beta">
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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 1.61.2.12 2002/08/06 11:43:46 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 1.61.2.12 2002/08/06 11:43:46 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 Just dragging the <application>Privoxy</application> folder to the trash is
490 not enough to delete it. <application>Privoxy</application> supplies an
491 <application>uninstall.command</application> file that takes care of
492 these details. Open the trash, drag the <application>uninstall.command</application>
493 file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
494 confirmation and the administration password.
497 The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
498 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
505 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
507 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
509 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
511 Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updated actions files will be
512 made available on the <ulink
513 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files section</ulink> of
514 our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project page</ulink>.
518 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
519 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
520 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
521 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
526 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
528 The syntax, number, and purpose of configuration files has substantially
529 changed from <application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions
530 of <application>Privoxy</application>. The old files, like <filename>blocklist</filename>
531 will not work at all. If you are upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will
532 need to port your configuration data to the new format. Note that even the
533 pattern syntax has changed! Even configuration files from the 2.9.x versions
534 will need to be adapted, as configuration syntax has been very much in flow
539 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
540 <title id="actionsfile">What is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
543 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">Actions files</ulink>
544 are where various <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink>
545 that <application>Privoxy</application> might take while processing a certain
546 request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
547 that apply to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
551 Actions can be defined on a <ulink
552 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</ulink> basis, i.e.
553 for single URLs, whole web sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be
554 grouped together and then applied to requests matching one or more patterns.
555 There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
556 if you are blocking cookies as one of your default actions, but need to accept
557 cookies from a given site, you would need to define an exception for this
558 site in one of your actions files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>
563 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionss">
564 <title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
565 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
567 For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer
568 to the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions file
569 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
570 manual</ulink>. It includes a <ulink
571 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">list of all actions</ulink>
572 and an <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions
573 file tutorial</ulink> to get you started.
578 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
579 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
580 way to do this?</title>
583 Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
584 with a text editor. The probably easiest way is to access
585 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface with your web browser
586 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
587 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and then select
588 <quote><ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View &
589 change the current configuration</ulink></quote> from the menu.
594 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
595 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
596 <title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
597 the differences?</title>
599 As of <application>Privoxy</application> v2.9.15, three actions files
600 are being included, to be used for
601 different purposes: These are
602 <filename>default.action</filename>, the <quote>main</quote> actions file
603 which is actively maintained by the <application>Privoxy</application>
604 developers, <filename>user.action</filename>, where users are encouraged
605 to make their private customizations, and <filename>standard.action</filename>,
606 which is for internal <application>Privoxy</application> use only.
607 Please see <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">the actions chapter</ulink>
608 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink> for a more
609 detailed explanation.
613 Earlier versions included three different versions of the
614 <filename>default.action</filename> file. The new scheme allows for
615 greater flexibility of local configuration, and for browser based
616 selection of pre-defined <quote>aggressiveness</quote> levels.
621 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/GMX account work?</title>
623 The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services.
624 It will, however, make all cookies temporary, so that your browser will forget your
625 login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would like not to have to log
626 in manually each time you access those websites, simply turn off all cookie handling
627 for them in the <filename>user.action</filename> file. An example for yahoo might
631 <screen># Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
633 { -<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> }
634 .login.yahoo.com</screen>
639 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
640 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Advanced</quote> defaults?</title>
642 Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To help you get
643 started, we provide you with three different default action <quote>packages</quote> in
644 the web based actions file editor at <ulink
645 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
646 The following table shows you, which of the most important features are enabled in each
650 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
651 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
658 <entry>Feature</entry>
659 <entry>Cautious</entry>
660 <entry>Intermadiate</entry>
661 <entry>Advanced</entry>
666 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
667 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
668 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
669 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
675 <entry>Ad-blocking by URL</entry>
682 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
689 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
696 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
703 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
705 <entry>session-only</entry>
710 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
717 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
724 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
731 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
738 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
745 <entry>Fun text replacements</entry>
752 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
759 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
771 Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
772 known popular <quote>problem</quote> sites are included, but in
773 general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more
774 exceptions you will have to make later. See the <ulink
775 url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink> for a more
781 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration
782 with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
784 It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files with their
785 browsers, although the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
786 belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
789 When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
790 itself is writing to the config files. Because
791 <application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>,
792 it can update the config files.
795 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in
796 a LAN), you will probably want to turn the web-based editor and remote toggle
797 features off by setting <quote><literal><ulink
798 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>
799 0</literal></quote> and <quote><literal><ulink
800 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">enable-remote-toggle</ulink>
801 0</literal></quote> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
804 Note that in the default configuration, only local users (i.e. those on
805 <quote>localhost</quote>) can connect to <application>Privoxy</application>,
806 so this is not (normally) a security problem.
811 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
812 <title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file? What is a <quote>filter</quote>?</title>
814 The <ulink url="../user-manual/filter-file.html"><filename>default.filter</filename></ulink>
815 file is where <emphasis>filters</emphasis> are defined, which can be used to modify or
816 remove, web page content on the fly. Filters apply to <emphasis>anything</emphasis>
817 in the page source, including HTML tags, and JavaScript. Regular expressions are used
818 to accomplish this. There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common
819 annoyances. The filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you need to use the
821 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"><literal>filter</literal>
822 action</ulink> in one of the actions files. Filtering is automatically
823 disabled for inappropriate MIME types.
827 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
828 the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and define
829 your own filters. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
830 requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
834 Presently, there is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
835 but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included
836 <filename>default.filter</filename> file with the <ulink
837 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
842 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
843 <title id="lanconfig">How can I set up <application>Privoxy</application> to act as a proxy for my
846 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
847 from <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> (localhost). To have it act as a server for
848 a network, this needs to be changed in the <ulink
849 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>. Look for
851 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink></literal>
852 option, which may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
853 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
854 and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you
855 wish to run <application>Privoxy</application> on port 8118, this line
861 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118</screen>
865 Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
866 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
870 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> on a LAN with untrusted users,
871 we recommend that you double-check the <ulink
872 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security</ulink>
879 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
880 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
882 The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the <ulink
883 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
884 action</ulink>. You have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
885 image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a redirect to a custom image of your choice.
886 Note that this choice only has effect for images which are blocked as images, i.e.
887 whose URLs match both a <literal><ulink
888 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink></literal>
889 <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><ulink
890 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> action.
893 If you want to see nothing, then change the <ulink
894 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
895 action</ulink> to <quote>blank</quote>. This can be done by editing the
896 <filename>default.action</filename> file, or trough the <ulink
897 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
902 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
903 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
905 Remember that <link linkend="whatsanad">telling which image is an ad and which
906 isn't</link>, is mostly guesswork. While we hope that the standard configuration
907 is rather smart, it can and will make errors. The checkerboard image is visually
908 decent, but it shows you that and where images were blocked, which can be very
909 helpful in case some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was
910 erraneously blocked. Some people might also enjoy seeing how many banners
911 they <emphasis>don't</emphasis> have to see..
916 <!-- This has changed with the adaptive "blocked" page
918 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
919 <title id="blockedisugly">I see large red banners on some pages that say
920 <quote>Blocked</quote>. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
922 These are URLs that match something in one of
923 <application>Privoxy's</application> block actions
925 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink>).
926 It is meant to be a warning so that you know something has been blocked and
927 an easy way for you to see why. These are handled differently than what has
928 been defined explicitly as <quote>images</quote> (e.g. ads that are GIF image
929 files). Depending on the URL itself, it is sometimes hard for
930 <application>Privoxy</application> to really know whether there is indeed an
931 ad image there or not. And there are limitations as to what
932 <application>Privoxy</application> can do to <quote>fool</quote> the
937 For instance, if the ad is in a frame, then it is embedded in the separate
938 HTML page used for the frame. In this case, you cannot just substitute an
939 aribitrary image (like we would for a <quote>blank</quote> image), for an HTML
940 page. The browser is expecting an HTML page, and that is what it must have
941 for frames. Such situations can be a little trickier to deal with, and
942 <application>Privoxy</application> may show the <quote>Blocked</quote> page,
943 despite your best efforts.
947 If you want these to be treated as if they were images, so that they can be
948 made invisible, you can try moving the offending URL from the
949 <quote>+block</quote> section to the <quote>+imageblock</quote> section of
950 your actions file. Just be forewarned, if any URL is made
951 <quote>invisible</quote>, you may not have any inkling that something has
952 been removed from that page, or why. If this approach does not work, then you are
953 probably dealing with a frame (or <quote>ilayer</quote>), and the only thing
954 that can go there is an HTML page of some sort.
957 To deal with this situation, you could modify the
958 <quote><filename>block</filename></quote> HTML template that is used by
959 <application>Privoxy</application> to display this, and make it something
960 more to your liking. Currently, there is no configuration option for this.
961 You will have to modify, or create your own page, and use this to replace
962 <filename>templates/blocked</filename>, which is what
963 <application>Privoxy</application> uses to display the <quote>Blocked</quote>
967 Another way to deal with this is find why and where
968 <application>Privoxy</application> is blocking the frame, and
969 diable this. Then let the <quote>+set-image-blocker</quote> action
970 handle the ad that is embedded in the frame's HTML page.
975 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="alliseeisred">
976 <title>I cannot see all of the <quote>Blocked</quote> page banner. Help.</title>
978 There is not enough available space to fit the entire Blocked page. Try right
979 clicking on the visible portion, and select <quote>Show Frame</quote>,
980 or equivalent. This will usually allow you to see the entire Privoxy
981 <quote>Blocked</quote> page, and from there you can see just what is being
985 As of Privoxy 2.9.14, the Blocked banner page is re-sizeable, and tries
986 to adjust to the allotted space. There may be occassions where there
987 just isn't enough room to display much of anything useful though.
994 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
995 <title id="blockedbytext">I see some images being replaced by a text
996 instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
998 This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of the
999 page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded into (i)frames
1000 or (i)layers, and these external HTML documents are blocked. Being non-images
1001 they get replaced by a substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image,
1002 which wouldn't work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts
1003 only HTML when it has requested an HTML document.
1006 The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself as a
1007 miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown with a
1008 large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
1011 If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to it that
1012 the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked. Clicking
1013 the <quote>See why</quote> link offered in the substitute page will show
1014 you which rule blocked the page. After changing the rule and un-blocking
1015 the HTML documents, the browser will try to load the actual banner images
1016 and the usual image blocking will (hopefully!) kick in.
1021 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="srvany">
1022 <title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> run as a service
1023 on Win2K/NT?</title>
1025 Yes, it can run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
1026 The only catch is that this will effectively disable the
1027 <application>Privoxy</application> icon (and its menu!) in the taskbar. You can have
1028 one or the other, but not both at this time :(
1031 There is a pending feature request for this functionality. See the discussion
1033 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>,
1034 for details, and a sample configuration.
1040 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherproxy">
1041 <title>How can I make <application>Privoxy</application> work with other
1042 proxies like <application>Squid</application>?</title>
1044 This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
1045 <application>Privoxy</application> with those of a caching proxy.
1047 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1048 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink> which
1049 describes how to do this.
1053 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
1054 <title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> run as a <quote>transparent
1055 </quote> proxy?</title>
1057 No, <application>Privoxy</application> currently does not have this ability,
1058 though it is planned for a future release. Transparent proxies require
1059 special handling of the request headers beyond what
1060 <application>Privoxy</application> is now capable of.
1064 Chaining <application>Privoxy</application> behind another proxy that has
1065 this ability should work though.
1067 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1068 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink>. As
1069 a transparent proxy to be used for chaining we recommend Transproxy
1070 (<ulink url="http://www.transproxy.nlc.net.au/">http://www.transproxy.nlc.net.au/</ulink>).
1077 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1080 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1082 <sect1 id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
1084 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1085 <title id="slowsme">How much does <application>Privoxy</application> slow my browsing down? This
1086 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
1088 It should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
1089 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not being displayed.
1090 The actual processing time required by <application>Privoxy</application>
1091 itself for each page, is relatively small in the overall scheme of things,
1092 and happens very quickly. This is typically more than offset by time saved
1093 not downloading and rendering ad images.
1097 <quote>Filtering</quote> content via the <literal><ulink
1098 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> or
1100 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1101 actions may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document needs to be buffered
1102 before displaying. See below.
1108 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I noticed considerable
1109 delays in page requests compared to the old Junkbuster. What's wrong?</title>
1111 If you use any <literal><ulink
1112 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> action,
1113 such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <literal><ulink
1114 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1115 action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
1116 mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time.
1119 The loading time does not really change in real numbers, but the feeling is
1120 different, because most browsers are able to start rendering incomplete
1121 content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is especially
1122 noticeable on slow dialup connections.
1125 Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types.
1131 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
1132 "http://p.p/"?</title>
1134 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> is the
1135 address of <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in user interface, and
1136 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> is a shortcut for it.
1139 Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet,
1140 it can simply intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in
1141 <quote>web server</quote>.
1144 This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
1145 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1146 takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote>, everything is OK.
1147 If you get a page saying <quote>Privoxy is not working</quote> instead, then
1148 your browser didn't use <application>Privoxy</application> for the request,
1149 hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <emphasis>real</emphasis>
1150 web site at config.privoxy.org.
1153 With recent versions of <application>Privoxy</application> (version 2.9.x and
1154 later), the user interface features information on the run time status, the
1155 configuration, and even a built-in editor for the <ulink
1156 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>.
1160 Note that the built-in URLs from earlier versions of <application>Junkbuster</application>
1161 / <application>Privoxy</application>, http://example.com/show-proxy-args and http://i.j.b/,
1162 are no longer supported. If you still use such an old version, you should really consider
1163 upgrading to &p-version;.
1168 FIXME: commented out until we have data. HB 03/18/02.
1170 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="badfiledesc"><title>I get the message 'Bad File Descriptor', why?</title>
1178 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
1180 No. The patterns for blocking now reside (among other things) in the <ulink
1181 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>, which are
1182 actively maintained instead. See next question ...
1186 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads?</title>
1188 Yes, absolutely! Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> for
1189 how to do that. Please note that you (technically) need the latest
1190 <application>Privoxy</application> version for this to work.
1195 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
1197 If you run both the browser and the proxy locally, you cannot hide your IP
1198 address with <application>Privoxy</application> or any other software. The
1199 server needs to know your IP address to send the answers back to you.
1202 Fortunately there are many publicly usable anonymous proxies out there, which
1203 solve the problem by providing a further level of indirection between you and
1204 the web server, shared by many people, and thus letting your requests "drown"
1205 in white noise of unrelated requests as far as user tracking is concerned.
1208 Most of them will, however, log your IP address and make it available to the
1209 authorities in case you abuse that anonymity for criminal purposes. In fact
1210 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
1211 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
1214 You can find a list of anonymous public proxies at <ulink
1215 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">multiproxy.org</ulink> and many
1216 more through Google. A particularly interesting project is the JAP service
1217 offered by the Technical University of Dresden (<ulink
1218 url="http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html">http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html</ulink>.
1221 There is, however, even in the single-machine case the possibility to make the
1222 server believe that your machine is in fact a shared proxy serving a whole big
1223 LAN, and we are looking into that.
1227 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1228 <title id="anonforsure">Can <application>Privoxy</application> guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
1230 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
1231 are an expert on Internet security it would be safest to assume that
1232 everything you do on the Web can be traced back to you.
1235 <application>Privoxy</application> can remove various information about you,
1236 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
1237 you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it's still possible
1238 that web sites can find out who you are. Here's one way this can happen.
1241 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
1242 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Privoxy</application>
1243 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
1244 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
1245 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
1248 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
1249 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
1250 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
1251 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
1252 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
1258 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1259 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information or
1260 content is being altered?</title>
1263 Definitely. More and more sites use HTTP header content to decide what to
1264 display and how to display it. There is many ways that this can be handled,
1265 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
1269 <quote>User-Agent</quote> in particular is often used in this way to identify
1270 the browser, and adjust content accordingly. Changing this now (at least not
1271 further than removing the OS information) is not recommended, since so many
1272 sites do look for it. You may get undesirable results by changing this.
1276 For instance, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
1277 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
1278 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
1279 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
1280 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
1281 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
1282 <quote>Referer</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
1283 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
1284 <quote>Referer</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
1285 can forge both headers without giving information away). There are
1286 many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server.
1290 Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree,
1295 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
1296 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
1297 be required, but by no means the only one.
1303 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1304 <title id="caching">Can <application>Privoxy</application> act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
1305 speed up web browsing?</title>
1307 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
1308 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> for this. And, yes,
1309 before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
1310 with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
1311 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding
1312 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
1313 manual</ulink> for details.
1317 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1318 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can <application>Privoxy</application> protect me?</title>
1320 Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can.
1321 <application>Privoxy</application> can help protect your privacy, but not
1322 protect you from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
1323 and recommended to use <emphasis>both</emphasis>.
1327 <!-- No longer needed
1328 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1329 <title id="logo">The <application>Privoxy</application> logo that replaces ads is very blocky
1330 and ugly looking. Can't a better font be used?</title>
1333 This is not a font problem. The logo is an image that is created by
1334 <application>Privoxy</application> on the fly. So as to not waste
1335 memory, the image is rather small. The blockiness comes when the
1336 image is scaled to fill a largish area. There is not much to be done
1337 about this, other than to use one of the other
1338 <quote>imageblock</quote> directives: <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>,
1339 <emphasis>blank</emphasis>, or a URL of your choosing.
1342 Given the above problem, we have decided to remove the logo option entirely
1348 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1349 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
1350 ads used to be. Why?</title>
1352 It would be technically possible eliminate the banners in a way that frees
1353 their screen estate in many cases, by doing all banner blocking with filters,
1354 i.e. eliminating the whole image references from the HTML pages instead
1355 of letting them stay in, and blocking the resulting requests for the
1359 But this would consume considerable CPU resources, would likely destroy
1360 the layout of many web pages which rely on the banners consuming a certain
1361 amount of screen space, and would fail in other cases, where the screen space
1362 is reserved e.g. by tables anyway. Also, making the banners disappear without
1363 a visual trace complicates troubleshooting.
1366 So we won't support this in the default configuration, but you can of course
1367 define appropriate filters yourself.
1371 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1372 <title id="ssl">How can <application>Privoxy</application> filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1374 Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
1375 and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably <emphasis>secure</emphasis>,
1376 there is little that <application>Privoxy</application> can do but hand the raw
1377 gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed.
1380 The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs
1381 to tell <application>Privoxy</application> the name of the remote server,
1382 so that <application>Privoxy</application> can establish the connection.
1383 If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.
1386 As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
1387 seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often
1388 the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless
1389 for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
1390 <application>Privoxy</application>'s ad blocking.
1395 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1396 <title id="secure"><application>Privoxy</application> runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1397 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1399 There are no known exploits that might affect
1400 <application>Privoxy</application>. On Unix-like systems,
1401 <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
1402 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1403 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens to requests
1404 from <quote>localhost</quote> only. The server aspect of
1405 <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly exposed to the
1406 Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1407 <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1408 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1409 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
1410 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration file and check all <ulink
1411 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security
1412 options</ulink>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address
1413 in the browser proxy configuration, but <application>Privoxy</application>
1414 will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in addition,
1415 and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
1420 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
1421 <title>How can I temporarily disable <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
1423 The easiest way is to access <application>Privoxy</application> with your
1424 browser by using the remote toggle URL: <ulink
1425 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>.
1426 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS">Bookmarklets section</ulink>
1427 of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> for an easy way to access this
1432 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="reallyoff">
1433 <title>When <quote>disabled</quote> is <application>Privoxy</application> totally
1434 out of the picture?</title>
1436 No, this just means all filtering and actions are disabled.
1437 <application>Privoxy</application> is still acting as a proxy, but just not
1438 doing any of the things that <application>Privoxy</application> would
1439 normally be expected to do. It is still a <quote>middle-man</quote> in
1440 the interaction between your browser and web sites.
1444 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
1445 <title>Where can I find more information about <application>Privoxy</application>
1446 and related issues?</title>
1447 <!-- Include seealso.sgml boilerplate: -->
1449 <!-- end boilerplate -->
1454 <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
1463 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1465 <sect1 id="trouble">
1466 <title>Troubleshooting</title>
1468 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1469 <title id="refused">I just upgraded and am getting <quote>connection refused</quote>
1470 with every web page?</title>
1472 Either <application>Privoxy</application> is not running, or your
1473 browser is configured for a different port than what
1474 <application>Privoxy</application> is using.
1478 The old <application>Privoxy</application> (and also
1479 <application>Junkbuster</application>) used port 8000 by
1480 default. This has been changed to port 8118 now, due to a conflict
1481 with NAS (Network Audio Service), which uses port 8000. If you haven't,
1482 you need to change your browser to the new port number, or alternately
1484 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS"><literal>listen-address</literal>
1485 option</ulink> in <application>Privoxy's</application> <ulink
1486 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
1491 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1492 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
1493 still getting through. How?</title>
1495 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
1496 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
1497 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Privoxy</application>
1498 will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flushing the browser's
1499 caches. And then try again.
1503 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
1504 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
1505 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
1506 and see if it really matches your new rule.
1511 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1512 <title id="badsite">One of my favorite sites does not work with <application>Privoxy</application>.
1513 What can I do?</title>
1516 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
1517 by toggling off <application>Privoxy</application> through <ulink
1518 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>,
1519 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
1520 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
1525 If still a problem, go to <ulink
1526 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
1527 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions
1528 are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions files are
1529 responsible for that. Now, armed with this information, go to <ulink
1530 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1531 and select the appropriate actions files for editing.
1534 You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
1535 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
1536 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
1537 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
1538 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
1539 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
1540 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
1543 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
1544 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
1545 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
1546 site to a <literal>{ fragile }</literal> section in <filename>user.action</filename>,
1547 which is an alias that turns off most <quote>dangerous</quote>
1548 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
1549 your privacy and protection more than necessary,
1552 Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <ulink
1553 url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">user-manual appendix</ulink>.
1554 There is also an <ulink
1555 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions tutorial</ulink>.
1561 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1563 <title>After installing <application>Privoxy</application>, I have to log in
1564 every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
1567 This is a quirk that effects the installation of
1568 <application>Privoxy</application>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
1569 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
1570 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.
1574 When setting up an NT based Windows system with
1575 <application>Privoxy</application> you may find that things do not seem to be
1576 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
1577 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
1578 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
1579 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
1580 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
1581 configured for the kids.
1585 When setting up <application>Privoxy</application> in this environment you
1586 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
1587 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
1588 <application>Privoxy</application>. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
1589 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
1590 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
1591 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
1592 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
1593 you have to store the password under each different user!
1597 The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
1598 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
1599 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
1600 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
1601 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
1602 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.
1606 [Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
1611 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1613 <title>I cannot connect to any FTP sites. <application>Privoxy</application>
1614 seems to be blocking me.</title>
1616 <application>Privoxy</application> cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
1617 so do not configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
1618 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for any protocol other than HTTP or HTTPS.
1622 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1624 <title>In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
1625 <application>Privoxy</application> as the HTTP proxy.</title>
1627 Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
1628 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
1629 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
1630 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
1631 is checked and enter <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> in the entry field.
1632 Enter <literal>8118</literal> in the Port field. The next time you start
1633 IE, it should reflect these values.
1642 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1644 FIXME: Commented out until we have something to put here. HB 03/18/02.
1645 <sect1 id="knownissues"><title>Known Issues</title>
1652 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1653 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
1654 <!-- Include contacting.sgml -->
1656 <!-- end contacting -->
1659 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1660 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
1662 <!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
1667 Portions of this document are <quote>borrowed</quote> from the original
1668 <application>Junkbuster</application> (tm) FAQ, and modified as
1669 appropriate for <application>Privoxy</application>.
1672 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1673 <sect2><title>License</title>
1674 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
1676 <!-- end copyright -->
1678 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1680 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1681 <sect2><title>History</title>
1682 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
1688 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1691 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1693 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
1695 <!-- Include seealso.sgml -->
1706 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
1708 Last modified: Mon Sep 10 19:22:09 CEST 2001
1710 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1711 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
1712 Public License as published by the Free Software
1713 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
1714 your option) any later version.
1716 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
1717 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
1718 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
1719 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
1720 License for more details.
1722 The GNU General Public License should be included with
1723 this file. If not, you can view it at
1724 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
1725 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
1726 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
1729 Revision 1.61.2.12 2002/08/06 11:43:46 david__schmidt
1730 Updated OSX uninstall FAQ... we have an uninstall script now.
1732 Revision 1.61.2.11 2002/08/06 08:54:03 oes
1733 Style police: Fixed formatting details
1735 Revision 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 david__schmidt
1736 Made the OSX removal commands far less dangerous
1738 Revision 1.61.2.9 2002/08/02 13:14:45 oes
1739 Added warning about sudo rm -r for Mac OSX deinstallation; moved this item to install section
1741 Revision 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt
1742 Add FAQ item for MSIE on OSX HTTP proxy confusion
1744 Revision 1.61.2.7 2002/08/02 01:46:01 david__schmidt
1745 Added FAQ item for Mac OSX uninstall woes
1747 Revision 1.61.2.6 2002/07/30 20:04:56 hal9
1748 Fix typo: 'schould'.
1750 Revision 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes
1751 - Updated to reflect changes in standard.action
1752 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
1754 Revision 1.61.2.4 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
1755 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
1757 Revision 1.61.2.3 2002/06/09 16:36:33 hal9
1758 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
1760 Revision 1.61.2.2 2002/06/06 02:51:34 hal9
1761 Fix typo in URL http:/config.privoxy.org
1763 Revision 1.61.2.1 2002/06/05 23:10:43 hal9
1764 Add new FAQ re: DUN/IE. Change release date from May to June :)
1766 Revision 1.61 2002/05/25 12:37:25 hal9
1767 Various minor changes and edits.
1769 Revision 1.60 2002/05/22 17:17:48 oes
1770 Proofread & added more links into u-m
1772 Revision 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9
1773 Fix ulink -> link markup.
1775 Revision 1.58 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
1776 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
1777 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
1778 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
1780 Revision 1.57 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
1781 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
1783 Revision 1.56 2002/05/04 08:44:44 swa
1786 Revision 1.55 2002/05/04 00:41:56 hal9
1787 -Remove TOC/first page kludge in favor of proper handling via dsl file.
1789 Revision 1.54 2002/05/03 05:06:44 hal9
1790 Add brief Q/A on transparent proxies.
1792 Revision 1.53 2002/05/03 01:34:52 hal9
1793 Fix section numbering for new sections (due to TOC kludge).
1795 Revision 1.52 2002/04/29 03:08:43 hal9
1796 -Added new Q/A on new actions file set up (pointer to u-m)
1797 -Fixed a few broken links and converted old actions as a result of
1800 Revision 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa
1801 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
1803 Revision 1.50 2002/04/26 05:25:23 hal9
1804 Mass commit to catch a few scattered fixes.
1806 Revision 1.49 2002/04/12 10:10:18 swa
1809 Revision 1.48 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
1812 Revision 1.47 2002/04/10 04:05:32 hal9
1815 Revision 1.45 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
1816 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
1818 Revision 1.44 2002/04/07 21:24:29 hal9
1819 Touch up on name change.
1821 Revision 1.43 2002/04/04 21:59:53 hal9
1822 Added NT/W2K service/icon situation.
1824 Revision 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
1825 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
1827 Revision 1.41 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
1828 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
1829 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
1830 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
1831 eventually be set by Makefile.
1832 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
1834 Revision 1.40 2002/04/03 04:22:03 hal9
1835 Fixed several typos.
1837 Revision 1.39 2002/04/03 03:53:03 hal9
1838 Revert some changes, and then make some news, to layout, and appearance.
1840 Revision 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9
1841 Major changes to doc structure and layout. Sections are not automatically
1842 numbered now. TOC is on page by itself.
1844 Revision 1.37 2002/04/01 16:24:07 hal9
1845 -Rework of supported Q/A.
1846 -Set up entities to include boilerplate text.
1848 Revision 1.36 2002/03/31 23:18:47 hal9
1849 More on dealing with BLOCKED.
1851 Revision 1.35 2002/03/30 04:14:19 hal9
1852 Fix privoxy.org/config links.
1854 Revision 1.34 2002/03/29 04:35:56 hal9
1857 Revision 1.33 2002/03/29 01:31:48 hal9
1858 Several new Q/A's and other touch ups.
1860 Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
1861 Touch ups for name change.
1863 Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
1864 we have a new homepage!
1866 Revision 1.30 2002/03/25 16:39:22 hal9
1867 A few new sections. Made all links relative to user-manual.
1869 Revision 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9
1870 Moved section, and touch ups.
1872 Revision 1.28 2002/03/25 04:27:33 hal9
1873 New section related to name change.
1875 Revision 1.25 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
1876 we are too lazy to make a block-built
1877 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
1879 Revision 1.24 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
1880 name change related issue.
1882 Revision 1.23 2002/03/24 12:33:01 swa
1885 Revision 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
1886 name change. changed filenames.
1888 Revision 1.21 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
1891 Revision 1.20 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
1892 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
1893 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
1894 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
1895 comments and remarks to history untouched.
1897 Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
1900 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
1903 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
1906 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
1907 A few more additions.
1909 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
1910 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
1912 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
1913 A little more added ...
1915 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
1916 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
1918 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
1921 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
1924 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
1925 correct feedback channels
1927 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
1928 more info on not hiding ip address
1930 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
1931 added default config section
1933 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
1936 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
1937 Committing changes by Stefan
1939 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
1940 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
1942 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
1943 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
1944 will work - no other changes are needed.
1946 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
1947 upload process established. run make webserver and
1948 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
1949 are now linked correctly.
1951 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
1952 merged standards into developer manual
1954 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
1955 source files for junkbuster documentation
1957 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
1958 first proposal of a structure.
1960 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
1961 docs should have an author.
1963 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
1964 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.