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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">
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 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 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 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 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 carefully enter the following commands:
500 sudo rm -rf Privoxy</screen>
503 The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
504 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
508 Be extra-sure to enter the commands <emphasis>EXACTLY</emphasis> as shown
509 above. Removing files recusively with administrator priviledges (as happens
510 with <literal>sudo rm -rf</literal> is serious business and even small
511 typos can have devasting effects!
519 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
521 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
523 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
525 Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updated actions files will be
526 made available on the <ulink
527 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files section</ulink> of
528 our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project page</ulink>.
532 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
533 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
534 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
535 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
540 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
542 The syntax, number, and purpose of configuration files has substantially
543 changed from <application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions
544 of <application>Privoxy</application>. The old files, like <filename>blocklist</filename>
545 will not work at all. If you are upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will
546 need to port your configuration data to the new format. Note that even the
547 pattern syntax has changed! Even configuration files from the 2.9.x versions
548 will need to be adapted, as configuration syntax has been very much in flow
553 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
554 <title id="actionsfile">What is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
557 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">Actions files</ulink>
558 are where various <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink>
559 that <application>Privoxy</application> might take while processing a certain
560 request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
561 that apply to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
565 Actions can be defined on a <ulink
566 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</ulink> basis, i.e.
567 for single URLs, whole web sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be
568 grouped together and then applied to requests matching one or more patterns.
569 There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
570 if you are blocking cookies as one of your default actions, but need to accept
571 cookies from a given site, you would need to define an exception for this
572 site in one of your actions files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>
577 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionss">
578 <title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
579 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
581 For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer
582 to the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions file
583 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
584 manual</ulink>. It includes a <ulink
585 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">list of all actions</ulink>
586 and an <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions
587 file tutorial</ulink> to get you started.
592 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
593 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
594 way to do this?</title>
597 Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
598 with a text editor. The probably easiest way is to access
599 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface with your web browser
600 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
601 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and then select
602 <quote><ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View &
603 change the current configuration</ulink></quote> from the menu.
608 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
609 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
610 <title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
611 the differences?</title>
613 As of <application>Privoxy</application> v2.9.15, three actions files
614 are being included, to be used for
615 different purposes: These are
616 <filename>default.action</filename>, the <quote>main</quote> actions file
617 which is actively maintained by the <application>Privoxy</application>
618 developers, <filename>user.action</filename>, where users are encouraged
619 to make their private customizations, and <filename>standard.action</filename>,
620 which is for internal <application>Privoxy</application> use only.
621 Please see <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">the actions chapter</ulink>
622 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink> for a more
623 detailed explanation.
627 Earlier versions included three different versions of the
628 <filename>default.action</filename> file. The new scheme allows for
629 greater flexibility of local configuration, and for browser based
630 selection of pre-defined <quote>aggressiveness</quote> levels.
635 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/GMX account work?</title>
637 The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services.
638 It will, however, make all cookies temporary, so that your browser will forget your
639 login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would like not to have to log
640 in manually each time you access those websites, simply turn off all cookie handling
641 for them in the <filename>user.action</filename> file. An example for yahoo might
645 <screen># Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
647 { -<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> }
648 .login.yahoo.com</screen>
653 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
654 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Advanced</quote> defaults?</title>
656 Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To help you get
657 started, we provide you with three different default action <quote>packages</quote> in
658 the web based actions file editor at <ulink
659 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
660 The following table shows you, which of the most important features are enabled in each
664 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
665 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
672 <entry>Feature</entry>
673 <entry>Cautious</entry>
674 <entry>Intermadiate</entry>
675 <entry>Advanced</entry>
680 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
681 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
682 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
683 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
689 <entry>Ad-blocking by URL</entry>
696 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
703 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
710 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
717 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
719 <entry>session-only</entry>
724 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
731 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
738 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
745 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
752 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
759 <entry>Fun text replacements</entry>
766 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
773 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
785 Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
786 known popular <quote>problem</quote> sites are included, but in
787 general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more
788 exceptions you will have to make later. See the <ulink
789 url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink> for a more
795 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration
796 with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
798 It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files with their
799 browsers, although the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
800 belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
803 When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
804 itself is writing to the config files. Because
805 <application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>,
806 it can update the config files.
809 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in
810 a LAN), you will probably want to turn the web-based editor and remote toggle
811 features off by setting <quote><literal><ulink
812 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>
813 0</literal></quote> and <quote><literal><ulink
814 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">enable-remote-toggle</ulink>
815 0</literal></quote> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
818 Note that in the default configuration, only local users (i.e. those on
819 <quote>localhost</quote>) can connect to <application>Privoxy</application>,
820 so this is not (normally) a security problem.
825 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
826 <title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file? What is a <quote>filter</quote>?</title>
828 The <ulink url="../user-manual/filter-file.html"><filename>default.filter</filename></ulink>
829 file is where <emphasis>filters</emphasis> are defined, which can be used to modify or
830 remove, web page content on the fly. Filters apply to <emphasis>anything</emphasis>
831 in the page source, including HTML tags, and JavaScript. Regular expressions are used
832 to accomplish this. There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common
833 annoyances. The filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you need to use the
835 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"><literal>filter</literal>
836 action</ulink> in one of the actions files. Filtering is automatically
837 disabled for inappropriate MIME types.
841 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
842 the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and define
843 your own filters. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
844 requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
848 Presently, there is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
849 but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included
850 <filename>default.filter</filename> file with the <ulink
851 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
856 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
857 <title id="lanconfig">How can I set up <application>Privoxy</application> to act as a proxy for my
860 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
861 from <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> (localhost). To have it act as a server for
862 a network, this needs to be changed in the <ulink
863 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>. Look for
865 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink></literal>
866 option, which may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
867 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
868 and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you
869 wish to run <application>Privoxy</application> on port 8118, this line
875 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118</screen>
879 Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
880 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
884 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> on a LAN with untrusted users,
885 we recommend that you double-check the <ulink
886 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security</ulink>
893 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
894 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
896 The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the <ulink
897 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
898 action</ulink>. You have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
899 image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a redirect to a custom image of your choice.
900 Note that this choice only has effect for images which are blocked as images, i.e.
901 whose URLs match both a <literal><ulink
902 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink></literal>
903 <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><ulink
904 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> action.
907 If you want to see nothing, then change the <ulink
908 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
909 action</ulink> to <quote>blank</quote>. This can be done by editing the
910 <filename>default.action</filename> file, or trough the <ulink
911 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
916 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
917 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
919 Remember that <link linkend="whatsanad">telling which image is an ad and which
920 isn't</link>, is mostly guesswork. While we hope that the standard configuration
921 is rather smart, it can and will make errors. The checkerboard image is visually
922 decent, but it shows you that and where images were blocked, which can be very
923 helpful in case some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was
924 erraneously blocked. Some people might also enjoy seeing how many banners
925 they <emphasis>don't</emphasis> have to see..
930 <!-- This has changed with the adaptive "blocked" page
932 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
933 <title id="blockedisugly">I see large red banners on some pages that say
934 <quote>Blocked</quote>. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
936 These are URLs that match something in one of
937 <application>Privoxy's</application> block actions
939 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink>).
940 It is meant to be a warning so that you know something has been blocked and
941 an easy way for you to see why. These are handled differently than what has
942 been defined explicitly as <quote>images</quote> (e.g. ads that are GIF image
943 files). Depending on the URL itself, it is sometimes hard for
944 <application>Privoxy</application> to really know whether there is indeed an
945 ad image there or not. And there are limitations as to what
946 <application>Privoxy</application> can do to <quote>fool</quote> the
951 For instance, if the ad is in a frame, then it is embedded in the separate
952 HTML page used for the frame. In this case, you cannot just substitute an
953 aribitrary image (like we would for a <quote>blank</quote> image), for an HTML
954 page. The browser is expecting an HTML page, and that is what it must have
955 for frames. Such situations can be a little trickier to deal with, and
956 <application>Privoxy</application> may show the <quote>Blocked</quote> page,
957 despite your best efforts.
961 If you want these to be treated as if they were images, so that they can be
962 made invisible, you can try moving the offending URL from the
963 <quote>+block</quote> section to the <quote>+imageblock</quote> section of
964 your actions file. Just be forewarned, if any URL is made
965 <quote>invisible</quote>, you may not have any inkling that something has
966 been removed from that page, or why. If this approach does not work, then you are
967 probably dealing with a frame (or <quote>ilayer</quote>), and the only thing
968 that can go there is an HTML page of some sort.
971 To deal with this situation, you could modify the
972 <quote><filename>block</filename></quote> HTML template that is used by
973 <application>Privoxy</application> to display this, and make it something
974 more to your liking. Currently, there is no configuration option for this.
975 You will have to modify, or create your own page, and use this to replace
976 <filename>templates/blocked</filename>, which is what
977 <application>Privoxy</application> uses to display the <quote>Blocked</quote>
981 Another way to deal with this is find why and where
982 <application>Privoxy</application> is blocking the frame, and
983 diable this. Then let the <quote>+set-image-blocker</quote> action
984 handle the ad that is embedded in the frame's HTML page.
989 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="alliseeisred">
990 <title>I cannot see all of the <quote>Blocked</quote> page banner. Help.</title>
992 There is not enough available space to fit the entire Blocked page. Try right
993 clicking on the visible portion, and select <quote>Show Frame</quote>,
994 or equivalent. This will usually allow you to see the entire Privoxy
995 <quote>Blocked</quote> page, and from there you can see just what is being
999 As of Privoxy 2.9.14, the Blocked banner page is re-sizeable, and tries
1000 to adjust to the allotted space. There may be occassions where there
1001 just isn't enough room to display much of anything useful though.
1008 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1009 <title id="blockedbytext">I see some images being replaced by a text
1010 instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
1012 This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of the
1013 page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded into (i)frames
1014 or (i)layers, and these external HTML documents are blocked. Being non-images
1015 they get replaced by a substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image,
1016 which wouldn't work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts
1017 only HTML when it has requested an HTML document.
1020 The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself as a
1021 miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown with a
1022 large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
1025 If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to it that
1026 the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked. Clicking
1027 the <quote>See why</quote> link offered in the substitute page will show
1028 you which rule blocked the page. After changing the rule and un-blocking
1029 the HTML documents, the browser will try to load the actual banner images
1030 and the usual image blocking will (hopefully!) kick in.
1035 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="srvany">
1036 <title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> run as a service
1037 on Win2K/NT?</title>
1039 Yes, it can run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
1040 The only catch is that this will effectively disable the
1041 <application>Privoxy</application> icon (and its menu!) in the taskbar. You can have
1042 one or the other, but not both at this time :(
1045 There is a pending feature request for this functionality. See the discussion
1047 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>,
1048 for details, and a sample configuration.
1054 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherproxy">
1055 <title>How can I make <application>Privoxy</application> work with other
1056 proxies like <application>Squid</application>?</title>
1058 This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
1059 <application>Privoxy</application> with those of a caching proxy.
1061 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1062 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink> which
1063 describes how to do this.
1067 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
1068 <title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> run as a <quote>transparent
1069 </quote> proxy?</title>
1071 No, <application>Privoxy</application> currently does not have this ability,
1072 though it is planned for a future release. Transparent proxies require
1073 special handling of the request headers beyond what
1074 <application>Privoxy</application> is now capable of.
1078 Chaining <application>Privoxy</application> behind another proxy that has
1079 this ability should work though.
1081 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1082 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink>. As
1083 a transparent proxy to be used for chaining we recommend Transproxy
1084 (<ulink url="http://www.transproxy.nlc.net.au/">http://www.transproxy.nlc.net.au/</ulink>).
1091 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1094 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1096 <sect1 id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
1098 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1099 <title id="slowsme">How much does <application>Privoxy</application> slow my browsing down? This
1100 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
1102 It should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
1103 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not being displayed.
1104 The actual processing time required by <application>Privoxy</application>
1105 itself for each page, is relatively small in the overall scheme of things,
1106 and happens very quickly. This is typically more than offset by time saved
1107 not downloading and rendering ad images.
1111 <quote>Filtering</quote> content via the <literal><ulink
1112 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> or
1114 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1115 actions may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document needs to be buffered
1116 before displaying. See below.
1122 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I noticed considerable
1123 delays in page requests compared to the old Junkbuster. What's wrong?</title>
1125 If you use any <literal><ulink
1126 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> action,
1127 such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <literal><ulink
1128 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1129 action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
1130 mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time.
1133 The loading time does not really change in real numbers, but the feeling is
1134 different, because most browsers are able to start rendering incomplete
1135 content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is especially
1136 noticeable on slow dialup connections.
1139 Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types.
1145 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
1146 "http://p.p/"?</title>
1148 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> is the
1149 address of <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in user interface, and
1150 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> is a shortcut for it.
1153 Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet,
1154 it can simply intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in
1155 <quote>web server</quote>.
1158 This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
1159 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1160 takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote>, everything is OK.
1161 If you get a page saying <quote>Privoxy is not working</quote> instead, then
1162 your browser didn't use <application>Privoxy</application> for the request,
1163 hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <emphasis>real</emphasis>
1164 web site at config.privoxy.org.
1167 With recent versions of <application>Privoxy</application> (version 2.9.x and
1168 later), the user interface features information on the run time status, the
1169 configuration, and even a built-in editor for the <ulink
1170 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>.
1174 Note that the built-in URLs from earlier versions of <application>Junkbuster</application>
1175 / <application>Privoxy</application>, http://example.com/show-proxy-args and http://i.j.b/,
1176 are no longer supported. If you still use such an old version, you should really consider
1177 upgrading to &p-version;.
1182 FIXME: commented out until we have data. HB 03/18/02.
1184 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="badfiledesc"><title>I get the message 'Bad File Descriptor', why?</title>
1192 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
1194 No. The patterns for blocking now reside (among other things) in the <ulink
1195 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>, which are
1196 actively maintained instead. See next question ...
1200 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads?</title>
1202 Yes, absolutely! Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> for
1203 how to do that. Please note that you (technically) need the latest
1204 <application>Privoxy</application> version for this to work.
1209 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
1211 If you run both the browser and the proxy locally, you cannot hide your IP
1212 address with <application>Privoxy</application> or any other software. The
1213 server needs to know your IP address to send the answers back to you.
1216 Fortunately there are many publicly usable anonymous proxies out there, which
1217 solve the problem by providing a further level of indirection between you and
1218 the web server, shared by many people, and thus letting your requests "drown"
1219 in white noise of unrelated requests as far as user tracking is concerned.
1222 Most of them will, however, log your IP address and make it available to the
1223 authorities in case you abuse that anonymity for criminal purposes. In fact
1224 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
1225 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
1228 You can find a list of anonymous public proxies at <ulink
1229 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">multiproxy.org</ulink> and many
1230 more through Google. A particularly interesting project is the JAP service
1231 offered by the Technical University of Dresden (<ulink
1232 url="http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html">http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html</ulink>.
1235 There is, however, even in the single-machine case the possibility to make the
1236 server believe that your machine is in fact a shared proxy serving a whole big
1237 LAN, and we are looking into that.
1241 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1242 <title id="anonforsure">Can <application>Privoxy</application> guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
1244 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
1245 are an expert on Internet security it would be safest to assume that
1246 everything you do on the Web can be traced back to you.
1249 <application>Privoxy</application> can remove various information about you,
1250 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
1251 you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it's still possible
1252 that web sites can find out who you are. Here's one way this can happen.
1255 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
1256 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Privoxy</application>
1257 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
1258 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
1259 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
1262 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
1263 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
1264 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
1265 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
1266 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
1272 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1273 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information or
1274 content is being altered?</title>
1277 Definitely. More and more sites use HTTP header content to decide what to
1278 display and how to display it. There is many ways that this can be handled,
1279 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
1283 <quote>User-Agent</quote> in particular is often used in this way to identify
1284 the browser, and adjust content accordingly. Changing this now (at least not
1285 further than removing the OS information) is not recommended, since so many
1286 sites do look for it. You may get undesirable results by changing this.
1290 For instance, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
1291 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
1292 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
1293 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
1294 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
1295 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
1296 <quote>Referer</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
1297 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
1298 <quote>Referer</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
1299 can forge both headers without giving information away). There are
1300 many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server.
1304 Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree,
1309 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
1310 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
1311 be required, but by no means the only one.
1317 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1318 <title id="caching">Can <application>Privoxy</application> act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
1319 speed up web browsing?</title>
1321 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
1322 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> for this. And, yes,
1323 before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
1324 with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
1325 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding
1326 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
1327 manual</ulink> for details.
1331 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1332 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can <application>Privoxy</application> protect me?</title>
1334 Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can.
1335 <application>Privoxy</application> can help protect your privacy, but not
1336 protect you from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
1337 and recommended to use <emphasis>both</emphasis>.
1341 <!-- No longer needed
1342 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1343 <title id="logo">The <application>Privoxy</application> logo that replaces ads is very blocky
1344 and ugly looking. Can't a better font be used?</title>
1347 This is not a font problem. The logo is an image that is created by
1348 <application>Privoxy</application> on the fly. So as to not waste
1349 memory, the image is rather small. The blockiness comes when the
1350 image is scaled to fill a largish area. There is not much to be done
1351 about this, other than to use one of the other
1352 <quote>imageblock</quote> directives: <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>,
1353 <emphasis>blank</emphasis>, or a URL of your choosing.
1356 Given the above problem, we have decided to remove the logo option entirely
1362 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1363 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
1364 ads used to be. Why?</title>
1366 It would be technically possible eliminate the banners in a way that frees
1367 their screen estate in many cases, by doing all banner blocking with filters,
1368 i.e. eliminating the whole image references from the HTML pages instead
1369 of letting them stay in, and blocking the resulting requests for the
1373 But this would consume considerable CPU resources, would likely destroy
1374 the layout of many web pages which rely on the banners consuming a certain
1375 amount of screen space, and would fail in other cases, where the screen space
1376 is reserved e.g. by tables anyway. Also, making the banners disappear without
1377 a visual trace complicates troubleshooting.
1380 So we won't support this in the default configuration, but you can of course
1381 define appropriate filters yourself.
1385 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1386 <title id="ssl">How can <application>Privoxy</application> filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1388 Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
1389 and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably <emphasis>secure</emphasis>,
1390 there is little that <application>Privoxy</application> can do but hand the raw
1391 gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed.
1394 The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs
1395 to tell <application>Privoxy</application> the name of the remote server,
1396 so that <application>Privoxy</application> can establish the connection.
1397 If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.
1400 As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
1401 seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often
1402 the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless
1403 for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
1404 <application>Privoxy</application>'s ad blocking.
1409 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1410 <title id="secure"><application>Privoxy</application> runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1411 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1413 There are no known exploits that might affect
1414 <application>Privoxy</application>. On Unix-like systems,
1415 <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
1416 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1417 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens to requests
1418 from <quote>localhost</quote> only. The server aspect of
1419 <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly exposed to the
1420 Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1421 <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1422 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1423 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
1424 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration file and check all <ulink
1425 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security
1426 options</ulink>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address
1427 in the browser proxy configuration, but <application>Privoxy</application>
1428 will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in addition,
1429 and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
1434 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
1435 <title>How can I temporarily disable <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
1437 The easiest way is to access <application>Privoxy</application> with your
1438 browser by using the remote toggle URL: <ulink
1439 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>.
1440 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS">Bookmarklets section</ulink>
1441 of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> for an easy way to access this
1446 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="reallyoff">
1447 <title>When <quote>disabled</quote> is <application>Privoxy</application> totally
1448 out of the picture?</title>
1450 No, this just means all filtering and actions are disabled.
1451 <application>Privoxy</application> is still acting as a proxy, but just not
1452 doing any of the things that <application>Privoxy</application> would
1453 normally be expected to do. It is still a <quote>middle-man</quote> in
1454 the interaction between your browser and web sites.
1458 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
1459 <title>Where can I find more information about <application>Privoxy</application>
1460 and related issues?</title>
1461 <!-- Include seealso.sgml boilerplate: -->
1463 <!-- end boilerplate -->
1468 <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
1477 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1479 <sect1 id="trouble">
1480 <title>Troubleshooting</title>
1482 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1483 <title id="refused">I just upgraded and am getting <quote>connection refused</quote>
1484 with every web page?</title>
1486 Either <application>Privoxy</application> is not running, or your
1487 browser is configured for a different port than what
1488 <application>Privoxy</application> is using.
1492 The old <application>Privoxy</application> (and also
1493 <application>Junkbuster</application>) used port 8000 by
1494 default. This has been changed to port 8118 now, due to a conflict
1495 with NAS (Network Audio Service), which uses port 8000. If you haven't,
1496 you need to change your browser to the new port number, or alternately
1498 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS"><literal>listen-address</literal>
1499 option</ulink> in <application>Privoxy's</application> <ulink
1500 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
1505 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1506 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
1507 still getting through. How?</title>
1509 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
1510 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
1511 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Privoxy</application>
1512 will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flushing the browser's
1513 caches. And then try again.
1517 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
1518 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
1519 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
1520 and see if it really matches your new rule.
1525 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1526 <title id="badsite">One of my favorite sites does not work with <application>Privoxy</application>.
1527 What can I do?</title>
1530 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
1531 by toggling off <application>Privoxy</application> through <ulink
1532 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>,
1533 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
1534 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
1539 If still a problem, go to <ulink
1540 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
1541 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions
1542 are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions files are
1543 responsible for that. Now, armed with this information, go to <ulink
1544 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1545 and select the appropriate actions files for editing.
1548 You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
1549 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
1550 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
1551 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
1552 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
1553 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
1554 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
1557 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
1558 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
1559 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
1560 site to a <literal>{ fragile }</literal> section in <filename>user.action</filename>,
1561 which is an alias that turns off most <quote>dangerous</quote>
1562 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
1563 your privacy and protection more than necessary,
1566 Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <ulink
1567 url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">user-manual appendix</ulink>.
1568 There is also an <ulink
1569 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions tutorial</ulink>.
1575 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1577 <title>After installing <application>Privoxy</application>, I have to log in
1578 every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
1581 This is a quirk that effects the installation of
1582 <application>Privoxy</application>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
1583 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
1584 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.
1588 When setting up an NT based Windows system with
1589 <application>Privoxy</application> you may find that things do not seem to be
1590 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
1591 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
1592 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
1593 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
1594 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
1595 configured for the kids.
1599 When setting up <application>Privoxy</application> in this environment you
1600 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
1601 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
1602 <application>Privoxy</application>. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
1603 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
1604 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
1605 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
1606 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
1607 you have to store the password under each different user!
1611 The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
1612 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
1613 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
1614 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
1615 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
1616 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.
1620 [Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
1625 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1627 <title>I cannot connect to any FTP sites. <application>Privoxy</application>
1628 seems to be blocking me.</title>
1630 <application>Privoxy</application> cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
1631 so do not configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
1632 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for any protocol other than HTTP or HTTPS.
1636 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1638 <title>In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
1639 <application>Privoxy</application> as the HTTP proxy.</title>
1641 Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
1642 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
1643 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
1644 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
1645 is checked and enter <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> in the entry field.
1646 Enter <literal>8118</literal> in the Port field. The next time you start
1647 IE, it should reflect these values.
1656 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1658 FIXME: Commented out until we have something to put here. HB 03/18/02.
1659 <sect1 id="knownissues"><title>Known Issues</title>
1666 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1667 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
1668 <!-- Include contacting.sgml -->
1670 <!-- end contacting -->
1673 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1674 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
1676 <!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
1681 Portions of this document are <quote>borrowed</quote> from the original
1682 <application>Junkbuster</application> (tm) FAQ, and modified as
1683 appropriate for <application>Privoxy</application>.
1686 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1687 <sect2><title>License</title>
1688 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
1690 <!-- end copyright -->
1692 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1694 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1695 <sect2><title>History</title>
1696 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
1702 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1705 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1707 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
1709 <!-- Include seealso.sgml -->
1720 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
1722 Last modified: Mon Sep 10 19:22:09 CEST 2001
1724 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1725 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
1726 Public License as published by the Free Software
1727 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
1728 your option) any later version.
1730 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
1731 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
1732 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
1733 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
1734 License for more details.
1736 The GNU General Public License should be included with
1737 this file. If not, you can view it at
1738 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
1739 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
1740 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
1743 Revision 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 david__schmidt
1744 Made the OSX removal commands far less dangerous
1746 Revision 1.61.2.9 2002/08/02 13:14:45 oes
1747 Added warning about sudo rm -r for Mac OSX deinstallation; moved this item to install section
1749 Revision 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt
1750 Add FAQ item for MSIE on OSX HTTP proxy confusion
1752 Revision 1.61.2.7 2002/08/02 01:46:01 david__schmidt
1753 Added FAQ item for Mac OSX uninstall woes
1755 Revision 1.61.2.6 2002/07/30 20:04:56 hal9
1756 Fix typo: 'schould'.
1758 Revision 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes
1759 - Updated to reflect changes in standard.action
1760 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
1762 Revision 1.61.2.4 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
1763 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
1765 Revision 1.61.2.3 2002/06/09 16:36:33 hal9
1766 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
1768 Revision 1.61.2.2 2002/06/06 02:51:34 hal9
1769 Fix typo in URL http:/config.privoxy.org
1771 Revision 1.61.2.1 2002/06/05 23:10:43 hal9
1772 Add new FAQ re: DUN/IE. Change release date from May to June :)
1774 Revision 1.61 2002/05/25 12:37:25 hal9
1775 Various minor changes and edits.
1777 Revision 1.60 2002/05/22 17:17:48 oes
1778 Proofread & added more links into u-m
1780 Revision 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9
1781 Fix ulink -> link markup.
1783 Revision 1.58 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
1784 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
1785 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
1786 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
1788 Revision 1.57 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
1789 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
1791 Revision 1.56 2002/05/04 08:44:44 swa
1794 Revision 1.55 2002/05/04 00:41:56 hal9
1795 -Remove TOC/first page kludge in favor of proper handling via dsl file.
1797 Revision 1.54 2002/05/03 05:06:44 hal9
1798 Add brief Q/A on transparent proxies.
1800 Revision 1.53 2002/05/03 01:34:52 hal9
1801 Fix section numbering for new sections (due to TOC kludge).
1803 Revision 1.52 2002/04/29 03:08:43 hal9
1804 -Added new Q/A on new actions file set up (pointer to u-m)
1805 -Fixed a few broken links and converted old actions as a result of
1808 Revision 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa
1809 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
1811 Revision 1.50 2002/04/26 05:25:23 hal9
1812 Mass commit to catch a few scattered fixes.
1814 Revision 1.49 2002/04/12 10:10:18 swa
1817 Revision 1.48 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
1820 Revision 1.47 2002/04/10 04:05:32 hal9
1823 Revision 1.45 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
1824 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
1826 Revision 1.44 2002/04/07 21:24:29 hal9
1827 Touch up on name change.
1829 Revision 1.43 2002/04/04 21:59:53 hal9
1830 Added NT/W2K service/icon situation.
1832 Revision 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
1833 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
1835 Revision 1.41 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
1836 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
1837 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
1838 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
1839 eventually be set by Makefile.
1840 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
1842 Revision 1.40 2002/04/03 04:22:03 hal9
1843 Fixed several typos.
1845 Revision 1.39 2002/04/03 03:53:03 hal9
1846 Revert some changes, and then make some news, to layout, and appearance.
1848 Revision 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9
1849 Major changes to doc structure and layout. Sections are not automatically
1850 numbered now. TOC is on page by itself.
1852 Revision 1.37 2002/04/01 16:24:07 hal9
1853 -Rework of supported Q/A.
1854 -Set up entities to include boilerplate text.
1856 Revision 1.36 2002/03/31 23:18:47 hal9
1857 More on dealing with BLOCKED.
1859 Revision 1.35 2002/03/30 04:14:19 hal9
1860 Fix privoxy.org/config links.
1862 Revision 1.34 2002/03/29 04:35:56 hal9
1865 Revision 1.33 2002/03/29 01:31:48 hal9
1866 Several new Q/A's and other touch ups.
1868 Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
1869 Touch ups for name change.
1871 Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
1872 we have a new homepage!
1874 Revision 1.30 2002/03/25 16:39:22 hal9
1875 A few new sections. Made all links relative to user-manual.
1877 Revision 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9
1878 Moved section, and touch ups.
1880 Revision 1.28 2002/03/25 04:27:33 hal9
1881 New section related to name change.
1883 Revision 1.25 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
1884 we are too lazy to make a block-built
1885 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
1887 Revision 1.24 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
1888 name change related issue.
1890 Revision 1.23 2002/03/24 12:33:01 swa
1893 Revision 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
1894 name change. changed filenames.
1896 Revision 1.21 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
1899 Revision 1.20 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
1900 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
1901 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
1902 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
1903 comments and remarks to history untouched.
1905 Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
1908 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
1911 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
1914 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
1915 A few more additions.
1917 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
1918 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
1920 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
1921 A little more added ...
1923 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
1924 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
1926 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
1929 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
1932 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
1933 correct feedback channels
1935 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
1936 more info on not hiding ip address
1938 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
1939 added default config section
1941 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
1944 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
1945 Committing changes by Stefan
1947 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
1948 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
1950 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
1951 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
1952 will work - no other changes are needed.
1954 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
1955 upload process established. run make webserver and
1956 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
1957 are now linked correctly.
1959 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
1960 merged standards into developer manual
1962 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
1963 source files for junkbuster documentation
1965 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
1966 first proposal of a structure.
1968 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
1969 docs should have an author.
1971 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
1972 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.