Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions
-By: Privoxy Developers
+Copyright © 2001-2006 by Privoxy Developers
-$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.44 2002/04/07 21:24:29 hal9 Exp $
+$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.23 2006/10/21 22:19:52 hal9 Exp $
-This FAQ gives users and developers alike answers to frequently asked questions
-about Privoxy .
+This FAQ gives quick answers to frequently asked questions about Privoxy. It is
+not a substitute for the Privoxy User Manual.
+
+What is Privoxy?
Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting
-privacy, filtering web page content, managing cookies, controlling access, and
+privacy, modifying web page data, managing cookies, controlling access, and
removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a
very flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and
tastes. Privoxy has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user
networks.
-Privoxy is based on the code of the Internet Junkbuster (tm). Junkbuster was
-originally written by Junkbusters Corporation, and was released as free
-open-source software under the GNU GPL. Stefan Waldherr made many improvements,
-and started the SourceForge project to continue development.
-
-Privoxy continues the Junkbuster tradition, but adds many refinements,
-enhancements and new features.
+Privoxy is based on Internet Junkbuster (tm).
-You can find the latest version of the document at http://www.privoxy.org/faq/.
-Please see the Contact section if you want to contact the developers.
+Please note that this document is a work in progress. This copy represents the
+state at the release of version 3.0.6. You can find the latest version of the
+document at http://www.privoxy.org/faq/. Please see the Contact section if you
+want to contact the developers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
-
1. General Information
- 1.1. What is this new version of Privoxy?
- 1.2. Why "Privoxy"? Why a name change at all?
- 1.3. How does Privoxy differ from the old Junkbuster?
- 1.4. What are some of the new features?
- 1.5. What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
- 1.6. How does Privoxy know what is an ad, and what is not?
- 1.7. Can Privoxy make mistakes? This does not sound very scientific.
- 1.8. My browser does the same things as Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy
+ 1.1. Who should use Privoxy?
+ 1.2. Is Privoxy the best choice for me?
+ 1.3. What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
+ 1.4. Does Privoxy do anything more than ad blocking?
+ 1.5. What is this new version of "Junkbuster"?
+ 1.6. Why "Privoxy"? Why change the name from Junkbuster at all?
+ 1.7. How does Privoxy differ from the old Junkbuster?
+ 1.8. How does Privoxy know what is an ad, and what is not?
+ 1.9. Can Privoxy make mistakes? This does not sound very scientific.
+ 1.10. Will I have to configure Privoxy before I can use it?
+ 1.11. Can Privoxy run as a server on a network?
+ 1.12. My browser does the same things as Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy
at all?
- 1.9. Is there is a license or fee? What about a warranty? Registration?
- 1.10. I would like to help you, what do I do?
+ 1.13. Why should I trust Privoxy?
+ 1.14. Is there is a license or fee? What about a warranty? Registration?
+ 1.15. Can Privoxy remove spyware? Adware? Viruses?
+ 1.16. Can I use Privoxy with other ad-blocking software?
+ 1.17. I would like to help you, what can I do?
- 1.10.1. Money Money Money
- 1.10.2. You want to work with us?
+ 1.17.1. Would you like to participate?
+ 1.17.2. Contribute!
+ 1.17.3. Software
2. Installation
2.1. Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?
2.2. Which operating systems are supported?
- 2.3. Can I install Privoxy over Junkbuster?
- 2.4. I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything special I have to do now?
- 2.5. What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
- 2.6. I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening. All the ads are
+ 2.3. Can I use Privoxy with my email client?
+ 2.4. Can I install Privoxy over Junkbuster?
+ 2.5. I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything special I have to do now?
+ 2.6. What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
+ 2.7. I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening. All the ads are
there. What's wrong?
+ 2.8. I get a "Privoxy is not being used" dummy page although Privoxy is
+ running and being used.
3. Configuration
- 3.1. Can I use my old config files?
- 3.2. What is an "actions" file?
- 3.3. The "actions" concept confuses me. Please list some of these
+ 3.1. What exactly is an "actions" file?
+ 3.2. The "actions" concept confuses me. Please list some of these
"actions".
- 3.4. How are actions files configured? What is the easiest way to do this?
- 3.5. What are the differences between intermediate.action, basic.action,
- etc.?
- 3.6. Why can I change the configuration with a browser? Does that not raise
- security issues?
- 3.7. What is "default.filter"?
- 3.8. How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN?
- 3.9. Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see
+ 3.3. How are actions files configured? What is the easiest way to do this?
+ 3.4. There are several different "actions" files. What are the differences?
+ 3.5. Where can I get updated Actions Files?
+ 3.6. Can I use my old config files?
+ 3.7. Why is the configuration so complicated?
+ 3.8. How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account work?
+ 3.9. What's the difference between the "Cautious", "Medium" and "Advanced"
+ defaults?
+ 3.10. Why can I change the configuration with a browser? Does that not
+ raise security issues?
+ 3.11. What is the default.filter file? What is a "filter"?
+ 3.12. How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN?
+ 3.13. Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see
anything.
- 3.10. Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?
- 3.11. I see large red banners on some pages that say "Blocked". Why and how
- do I get rid of this?
- 3.12. I cannot see all of the "Blocked" page banner. All I see is a bright
- red square.
- 3.13. Can Privoxy run as a service on Win2K/NT?
- 3.14. How can I make Privoxy work with other proxies like Squid?
+ 3.14. Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?
+ 3.15. I see some images being replaced by a text instead of the
+ checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this?
+ 3.16. Can Privoxy run as a service on Win2K/NT/XP?
+ 3.17. How can I make Privoxy work with other proxies like Squid or Tor?
+ 3.18. Can I just set Privoxy to use port 80 and thus avoid individual
+ browser configuration?
+ 3.19. Can Privoxy run as a "transparent" proxy?
+ 3.20. How can I configure Privoxy for use with Outlook Express?
+ 3.21. How can I have separate rules just for HTML mail?
+ 3.22. I sometimes notice cookies sneaking through. How?
+ 3.23. Are all cookies bad? Why?
+ 3.24. How can I allow permanent cookies for my trusted sites?
+ 3.25. Can I have separate configurations for different users?
+ 3.26. Can I set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of "good" sites?
+ 3.27. How can I turn off ad-blocking?
+ 3.28. How can I have custom template pages, like the BLOCKED page?
+ 3.29. How can I remove the "Go There Anyway" link from the BLOCKED page?
4. Miscellaneous
4.1. How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This has to add extra
time to browsing.
- 4.2. I noticed considerable delays in page requests compared to the old
+ 4.2. I notice considerable delays in page requests compared to the old
Junkbuster. What's wrong?
- 4.3. What is the "http://p.p/"?
- 4.4. Do you still maintain the blocklists?
- 4.5. How can I submit new ads?
- 4.6. How can I hide my IP address?
- 4.7. Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?
- 4.8. Might some things break because header information is being altered?
- 4.9. Can Privoxy act as a "caching" proxy to speed up web browsing?
- 4.10. What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?
- 4.11. The Privoxy logo that replaces ads is very blocky and ugly looking.
- Can't a better font be used?
- 4.12. I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be. Why?
- 4.13. How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?
- 4.14. Privoxy runs as a "server". How secure is it? Do I need to take any
+ 4.3. What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and "http://p.p/"?
+ 4.4. How can I submit new ads, or report problems?
+ 4.5. If I do submit missed ads, will they be included in future updates?
+ 4.6. Why doesn't anyone answer my support request?
+ 4.7. How can I hide my IP address?
+ 4.8. Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?
+ 4.9. A test site says I am not using a Proxy.
+ 4.10. How do I use Privoxy together with Tor?
+ 4.11. Might some things break because header information or content is
+ being altered?
+ 4.12. Can Privoxy act as a "caching" proxy to speed up web browsing?
+ 4.13. What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?
+ 4.14. I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where ads used
+ to be. Why?
+ 4.15. How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?
+ 4.16. Privoxy runs as a "server". How secure is it? Do I need to take any
special precautions?
- 4.15. How can I temporarily disable Privoxy?
- 4.16. Where can I find more information about Privoxy and related issues?
+ 4.17. How can I temporarily disable Privoxy?
+ 4.18. When "disabled" is Privoxy totally out of the picture?
+ 4.19. How can I tell Privoxy to totally ignore certain sites?
+ 4.20. My logs show Privoxy "crunches" ads, but also its own internal CGI
+ pages. What is a "crunch"?
+ 4.21. Can Privoxy effect files that I download from a webserver? FTP
+ server?
+ 4.22. I just downloaded a Perl script, and Privoxy altered it! Yikes, what
+ is wrong!
+ 4.23. Should I continue to use a "HOSTS" file for ad-blocking?
+ 4.24. Where can I find more information about Privoxy and related issues?
+ 4.25. I've noticed that Privoxy changes "Microsoft" to "MicroSuck"! Why are
+ you manipulating my browsing?
5. Troubleshooting
- 5.1. I just upgraded and am getting "connection refused" with every web
- page?
- 5.2. I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is still getting through.
+ 5.1. I cannot connect to any websites. Or, I am getting "connection
+ refused" message with every web page. Why?
+ 5.2. Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?
+ 5.3. I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is still getting through.
How?
- 5.3. One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy. What can I do?
- 5.4. Where can I get help? Report bugs? Feature Requests? Etc?
- 5.5. What time is it?
+ 5.4. One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy. What can I do?
+ 5.5. After installing Privoxy, I have to log in every time I start IE. What
+ gives?
+ 5.6. I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy is blocking me.
+ 5.7. In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
+ Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.
+ 5.8. In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
+ uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient
+ privileges to empty the trash.
+ 5.9. In Mac OSX Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
+ experience random delays in page loading. I'm using localhost as my
+ browser's proxy setting.
+ 5.10. I get a completely blank page at one site. "View Source" shows only:
+ <html><body></body></html>. Without Privoxy the page loads fine.
+ 5.11. My logs show many "Unable to get my own hostname" lines. Why?
+ 5.12. When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an error message "port 8118 is
+ already in use" (or similar wording). Why?
+ 5.13. Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.
+ 5.14. Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy is used?
+ 5.15. What is the "demoronizer" and why is it there?
+ 5.16. Why do I keep seeing "PrivoxyWindowOpen()" in raw source code?
+ 5.17. I am getting too many DNS errors like "404 No Such Domain". Why can't
+ Privoxy do this better?
+ 5.18. At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking all CPU. Why is
+ this?
+ 5.19. I just installed Privoxy, and all my browsing has slowed to a crawl.
+ What gives?
+ 5.20. Why do my filters work on some sites but not on others?
+
+6. Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
+
+ 6.1. Get Support
+ 6.2. Reporting Problems
+
+ 6.2.1. Reporting Ads or Other Configuration Problems
+ 6.2.2. Reporting Bugs
+
+ 6.3. Request New Features
+ 6.4. Other
-7. Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
-8. Copyright and History
+7. Privoxy Copyright, License and History
- 8.1. Copyright
- 8.2. History
+ 7.1. License
+ 7.2. History
+1. General Information
+
+1.1. Who should use Privoxy?
+
+Anyone that is interested in security, privacy, or in finer-grained control
+over their web and Internet experience. Everyone is encouraged to try Privoxy.
+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1. General Information
+1.2. Is Privoxy the best choice for me?
+
+Privoxy is certainly a good choice, especially for those who want more control
+and security. Those that have the ability to fine-tune their installation will
+benefit the most. One of Privoxy's strength's is that it is highly configurable
+giving you the ability to completely personalize your installation. Being
+familiar with, or at least having an interest in learning about HTTP and other
+networking protocols, HTML, IP (Internet Protocol), and "Regular Expressions"
+will be a big plus and will help you get the most out of Privoxy. A new
+installation just includes a very basic configuration. The user should take
+this as a starting point only, and enhance it as he or she sees fit. In fact,
+the user is encouraged, and expected to, fine-tune the configuration.
+
+Much of Privoxy's configuration can be done with a Web browser. But there are
+areas where configuration is done using a text editor to edit configuration
+files.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.3. What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
+
+A web proxy is a service, based on a software such as Privoxy, that clients
+(i.e. browsers) can use instead of connecting directly to web servers on the
+Internet. The clients then ask the proxy to fetch the objects they need (web
+pages, images, movies etc) on their behalf, and when the proxy has done so, it
+hands the results back to the client. It is a "go-between". See the Wikipedia
+proxy definition for more.
+
+There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security (firewalling),
+efficiency (caching) and others, and there are any number of proxies to
+accommodate those needs.
+
+Privoxy is a proxy that is primarily focused on privacy protection, ad and junk
+elimination and freeing the user from restrictions placed on his activities.
+Sitting between your browser(s) and the Internet, it is in a perfect position
+to filter outbound personal information that your browser is leaking, as well
+as inbound junk. It uses a variety of techniques to do this, all of which are
+under your complete control via the various configuration files and options.
+Being a proxy also makes it easier to share configurations among multiple
+browsers and/or users.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.4. Does Privoxy do anything more than ad blocking?
+
+Yes, ad blocking is but one possible use. There are many, many ways Privoxy can
+be used to sanitize and customize web browsing.
-1.1. What is this new version of Privoxy?
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.5. What is this new version of "Junkbuster"?
+
+A long time ago, there was the Internet Junkbuster, by Anonymous Coders and
+Junkbusters Corporation. This saved many users a lot of pain in the early days
+of web advertising and user tracking.
-The original Internet JunkbusterTM (tm) is a copyrighted product of Junkbusters
-Corporation. Development of this effort stopped some time ago as of version
-2.0.2. Stefan Waldherr started the ijbswa project on Sourceforge to rekindle
-development. Other developers subsequently joined with Stefan, and have since
-added many new features, refinements and enhancements. The result of this
-effort is Privoxy.
+But the web, its protocols and standards, and with it, the techniques for
+forcing ads on users, give up autonomy over their browsing, and for tracking
+them, keeps evolving. Unfortunately, the Internet Junkbuster did not. Version
+2.0.2, published in 1998, was (and is) the last official release available from
+Junkbusters Corporation. Fortunately, it had been released under the GNU GPL,
+which allowed further development by others.
-Privoxy has evolved from the Junkbuster 2.0.2 code base, and has advanced
-significantly at this point.
+So Stefan Waldherr started maintaining an improved version of the software, to
+which eventually a number of people contributed patches. It could already
+replace banners with a transparent image, and had a first version of pop-up
+killing, but it was still very closely based on the original, with all its
+limitations, such as the lack of HTTP/1.1 support, flexible per-site
+configuration, or content modification. The last release from this effort was
+version 2.0.2-10, published in 2000.
-Please see the History section for more information on the history of
-Junkbuster and Privoxy.
+Then, some developers picked up the thread, and started turning the software
+inside out, upside down, and then reassembled it, adding many new features
+along the way.
+
+The result of this is Privoxy, whose first stable version, 3.0, was released
+August, 2002.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1.2. Why "Privoxy"? Why a name change at all?
+1.6. Why "Privoxy"? Why change the name from Junkbuster at all?
+
+Though outdated, Junkbusters Corporation continues to offer their original
+version of the Internet Junkbuster, so publishing our Junkbuster-derived
+software under the same name led to confusion.
-Privoxy is the "Privacy Enhancing Proxy".
+There are also potential legal complications from our use of the Junkbuster
+name, which is a registered trademark of Junkbusters Corporation. There are,
+however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the Privoxy project
+itself, and they, in fact, still share our ideals and goals.
-There are potential legal complications from the continued use of the
-Junkbuster name, which is a registered trademark of Junkbusters Corporation.
-And thus they "own" the rights to the name. (There are, however, no objections
-from Junkbusters Corporation to the Privoxy project itself, and they, in fact,
-still share our ideals and goals.)
+The developers also believed that there are so many improvements over the
+original code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make a
+name in their own right.
-The developers also believed that there are so many changes from the original
-code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make a name in
-their own right, especially now with the pending release of version 3.0.
+Privoxy is the "Privacy Enhancing Proxy". Also, its content modification and
+junk suppression gives you, the user, more control, more freedom, and allows
+you to browse your personal and "private edition" of the web.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1.3. How does Privoxy differ from the old Junkbuster?
+1.7. How does Privoxy differ from the old Junkbuster?
Privoxy picks up where Junkbuster left off. All the old features remain. The
new Privoxy still blocks ads and banners, still manages cookies, and still
-helps protect your privacy. But, these are all enhanced, and many new features
-have been added, all in the same vein.
+helps protect your privacy. But, these are all greatly enhanced, and many, many
+new features have been added, all in the same vein.
The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
-users will notice right off the bat if you are upgrading from Junkbuster 2.0.x.
-The "blocklist" file does not exist any more. This is replaced by "actions"
-files, such as default.actions. This is where most of the per site
-configuration is now.
-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+users will notice right off the bat if upgrading from Junkbuster 2.0.x. The
+"blocklist" "cookielist", "imagelist" and much more has been combined into the
+"actions" files, with a completely different syntax. See the What's New page
+for the latest updates.
-1.4. What are some of the new features?
+Privoxy's new features include:
- * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility (http://p.p).
- Browser-based tracing of rule and filter effects.
+ * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility at http://
+ config.privoxy.org/ (shortcut: http://p.p/). Browser-based tracing of rule
+ and filter effects. Remote toggling.
+
+ * Web page filtering (text replacements, removes banners based on size,
+ invisible "web-bugs", JavaScript and HTML annoyances, pop-up windows,
+ header manipulation, etc.)
- * Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
+ * Modularized configuration that allows for standard settings and user
+ settings to reside in separate files, so that installing updated actions
+ files won't overwrite individual user settings.
- * HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 1.1 features are supported).
+ * HTTP/1.1 compliant (but not all optional 1.1 features are supported).
* Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files,
and generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
previous versions.
- * GIF de-animation.
+ * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
- * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size, invisible
- "web-bugs", JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse, etc.)
+ * GIF de-animation.
* Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
* Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
- * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
+ * User-customizable HTML templates for all proxy-generated pages (e.g.
+ "blocked" page).
- * User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
-
- * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
+ * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
* Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
- * Builds from source on most UNIX-like systems. Packages available for: Linux
- (RedHat, SuSE, or Debian), Windows, Sun Solaris, Mac OSX, OS/2, HP-UX 11
- and AmigaOS.
+ * Every feature now controllable on a per-site or per-location basis,
+ configuration more powerful and versatile over-all.
- * In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile
- over-all.
+ * Many smaller new features added, limitations and bugs removed, and security
+ holes fixed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1.5. What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
+1.8. How does Privoxy know what is an ad, and what is not?
-When you connect to a web site with Privoxy, you are really connecting to your
-locally running version of Privoxy. Privoxy intercepts your requests for the
-web page, and relays that to the "real" web site. The web site sends the HTTP
-data stream back to Privoxy, where Privoxy can work its magic before it relays
-this data back to your web browser.
+Privoxy's approach to blocking ads is twofold:
-Since Privoxy sits between you and the WWW, it is in a position to intercept
-and completely manage all web traffic and HTTP content before it gets to your
-browser. Privoxy uses various programming methods to do this, all of which is
-under your control via the various configuration files and options.
-
-There are many kinds of proxies. Privoxy best fits the "filtering proxy"
-category.
-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+First, there are certain patterns in the locations (URLs) of banner images.
+This applies to both the path (you wouldn't guess how many web sites serve
+their banners from a directory called "banners"!) and the host (blocking the
+big banner hosting services like doublecklick.net already helps a lot). Privoxy
+takes advantage of this fact by using URL patterns to sort out and block the
+requests for things that sound like they would be ads or banners.
-1.6. How does Privoxy know what is an ad, and what is not?
+Second, banners tend to come in certain sizes. But you can't tell the size of
+an image by its URL without downloading it, and if you do, it's too late to
+save bandwidth. Therefore, Privoxy also inspects the HTML sources of web pages
+while they are loaded, and replaces references to images with standard banner
+sizes by dummy references, so that your browser doesn't request them anymore in
+the first place.
-Privoxy processes all the raw content of every web page. So it reads everything
-on each page. It then compares this to the rules as set up in the configuration
-files, and looks for any matches to these rules. Privoxy makes heavy use of
-"regular expressions". (If you are not familiar with regular expressions, it is
-explained briefly in the user manual.) Regular expressions facilitate matching
-of one text string against another, using wildcards to build complex patterns.
-So Privoxy will typically look for URLs and other content that match certain
-key words and expressions as defined in the configuration files. For instance a
-URL that contains "/banners", has a high probability of containing ad banners,
-and thus would be a prime candidate to have a matching rule.
-
-So Privoxy will look for these kinds of obvious looking culprits. And also,
-will use lists of known organizations that specialize in ads. Again, using
-complex patterns to match as many potential combinations as possible since
-there tend to be many, many variations used by advertisers, and new ones are
-being introduced all the time.
+Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
+and readily configurable.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1.7. Can Privoxy make mistakes? This does not sound very scientific.
+1.9. Can Privoxy make mistakes? This does not sound very scientific.
Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
-rule accidentally block something by mistake. There is a good chance you may
-run into such a situation at some point. It is tricky writing rules to cover
+rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. You will almost surely
+run into such situations at some point. It is tricky writing rules to cover
every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
But this should not be a big concern since the Privoxy configuration is very
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1.8. My browser does the same things as Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy at
+1.10. Will I have to configure Privoxy before I can use it?
+
+No, not really. The default installation should give you a good starting point,
+and block most ads and unwanted content. Many of the more advanced features are
+off by default, and would require you to activate them.
+
+You do have to set up your browser to use Privoxy (see the Installation section
+below).
+
+And you will certainly run into situations where there are false positives, or
+ads not being blocked that you may not want to see. In these cases, you would
+certainly benefit by customizing Privoxy's configuration to more closely match
+your individual situation. And we would encourage you to do this. This is where
+the real power of Privoxy lies!
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.11. Can Privoxy run as a server on a network?
+
+Yes, Privoxy runs as a server already, and can easily be configured to "serve"
+more than one client. See How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN
+below.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.12. My browser does the same things as Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy at
all?
Modern browsers do indeed have some of the same functionality as Privoxy. Maybe
can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or have a LAN
-with multiple computers. This way all the configuration is in one place, and
-you don't have to maintain a similar configuration for possibly many browsers.
+with multiple computers since Privoxy can run as a server application. This way
+all the configuration is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar
+configuration for possibly many browsers or users.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.13. Why should I trust Privoxy?
+
+The most important reason is because you have access to everything, and you can
+control everything. You can check every line of every configuration file
+yourself. You can check every last bit of source code should you desire. And
+even if you can't read code, there should be some comfort in knowing that
+thousands of other people can, and do read it. You can build the software from
+scratch, if you want, so that you know the executable is clean, and that it is
+yours. In fact, we encourage this level of scrutiny. It is one reason we use
+Privoxy ourselves.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1.9. Is there is a license or fee? What about a warranty? Registration?
+1.14. Is there is a license or fee? What about a warranty? Registration?
Privoxy is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It is free to
use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this license.
Please see the Copyright section for more information on the license and
-copyright.
+copyright. Or the LICENSE file that should be included.
There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise. That is
something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1.10. I would like to help you, what do I do?
+1.15. Can Privoxy remove spyware? Adware? Viruses?
-1.10.1. Money Money Money
+No. Privoxy cannot remove anything. It is not a removal tool. It is a
+preventative. Privoxy can help prevent contact from sites that use such tactics
+with appropriate configuration rules, and thus could conceivably prevent
+contamination from such sites.
-We, of course, welcome donations and use the money for domain registering,
-regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). Anyway, we'll soon describe the
-process how to donate money to the team.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.16. Can I use Privoxy with other ad-blocking software?
+
+Privoxy should work fine with other proxies and other software in general.
+
+But it is probably not necessary to use Privoxy in conjunction with other
+ad-blocking products, and this could conceivably cause undesirable results. It
+would be better to choose one software or the other and work a little to tweak
+its configuration to your liking.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1.10.2. You want to work with us?
+1.17. I would like to help you, what can I do?
+
+1.17.1. Would you like to participate?
+
+Well, we always need help. There is something for everybody who wants to help
+us. We welcome new developers, packagers, testers, documentation writers or
+really anyone with a desire to help in any way. You DO NOT need to be a
+"programmer". There are many other tasks available. In fact, the programmers
+often can't spend as much time programming because of some of the other, more
+mundane things that need to be done, like checking the Tracker feedback
+sections.
+
+So first thing, get an account on SourceForge.net and mail your id to the
+developers mailing list. Then, please read the Developer's Manual, at least the
+pertinent sections.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.17.2. Contribute!
+
+We, of course, welcome donations and could use money for domain registering,
+buying software to test Privoxy with, and, of course, for regular world-wide
+get-togethers (hahaha). If you enjoy the software and feel like helping us with
+a donation, just drop us a note.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Well, helping the team is always a good idea. We welcome new developers, RPM
-gurus or documentation makers. Simply get an account on sourceforge.net and
-mail your id to the developer mailing list. Then read the section Quickstart in
-the Developer's Manual.
+1.17.3. Software
-Once we have added you to the team, you'll have write access to the CVS
-repository, and together we'll find a suitable task for you.
+If you are a vendor of a web-related software like a browser, web server or
+proxy, and would like us to ensure that Privoxy runs smoothly with your
+product, you might consider supplying us with a copy or license. We can't,
+however, guarantee that we will fix all potential compatibility issues as a
+result.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1. Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?
-Any browser that can be configured to use a "proxy", which should be virtually
-all browsers. Direct browser support is not necessary since Privoxy runs as a
-separate application and just exchanges standard HTML data with your browser,
-just like a web server does.
+Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which should be virtually
+all browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera among others.
+Direct browser support is not an absolute requirement since Privoxy runs as a
+separate application and talks to the browser in the standardized HTTP
+protocol, just like a web server does.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.2. Which operating systems are supported?
-At present, Privoxy is known to run on Win32, Mac OSX, OS/2, AmigaOS, Linux
-(RedHat, Suse, Debian), FreeBSD, and many flavors of Unix. There are source and
-binary releases for these available for download at http://sourceforge.net/
-project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118.
+At present, Privoxy is known to run on Windows(95, 98, ME, 2000, XP), Linux
+(RedHat, SuSE, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Slackware and others), Mac OSX, OS/2,
+AmigaOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, and various other flavors of Unix.
But any operating system that runs TCP/IP, can conceivably take advantage of
Privoxy in a networked situation where Privoxy would run as a server on a LAN
gateway. Then only the "gateway" needs to be running one of the above operating
systems.
-Source code is freely available, so porting to other operating systems, is
+Source code is freely available, so porting to other operating systems is
always a possibility.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-2.3. Can I install Privoxy over Junkbuster?
+2.3. Can I use Privoxy with my email client?
-We recommend you uninstall Junkbuster first to minimize conflicts and
-confusion. You may want to save your old configuration files for future
-reference. The configuration is substantially changed.
+As long as there is some way to set a HTTP proxy for the client, then yes, any
+application can be used, whether it is strictly speaking a "browser" or not.
+Though this may not be the best approach for dealing with some of the common
+abuses of HTML in email. See How can I configure Privoxy with Outlook Express?
+below for more on this.
+
+Be aware that HTML email presents a number of unique security and privacy
+related issues, that can require advanced skills to overcome. The developers
+recommend using email clients that can be configured to convert HTML to plain
+text for these reasons.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2.4. Can I install Privoxy over Junkbuster?
-See the user-manual for platform specific installation instructions.
+We recommend you un-install Junkbuster first to minimize conflicts and
+confusion. You may want to save your old configuration files for future
+reference. The configuration files and syntax have substantially changed, so
+you will need to manually port your old patterns. See the note to upgraders and
+installation chapter in the User Manual for details.
-Note: Some installers may automatically uninstall Junkbuster, if present!
+Note: Some installers may automatically un-install Junkbuster, if present!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-2.4. I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything special I have to do now?
+2.5. I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything special I have to do now?
All browsers must be told to use Privoxy as a proxy by specifying the correct
proxy address and port number in the appropriate configuration area for the
-browser. See below. Also, you should flush your browser's memory and disk cache
-to get rid of any cached items.
+browser. See the User Manual for more details. You should also flush your
+browser's memory and disk cache to get rid of any cached junk items, and remove
+any stored cookies.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-2.5. What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
+2.6. What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
If you set up the Privoxy to run on the computer you browse from (rather than
your ISP's server or some networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on
-"localhost" (which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet
-to refer to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have Privoxy to run
-on a different port with the listen-address config option).
+127.0.0.1 (sometimes referred to as "localhost", which is the special name used
+by every computer on the Internet to refer to itself) and the port will be 8118
+(unless you have Privoxy to run on a different port with the listen-address
+config option).
When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter the word
-"localhost" in the boxes next to "HTTP" and "Secure" (HTTPS) and then the
-number "8118" for "port". This tells your browser to send all web requests to
-Privoxy instead of directly to the Internet.
+"localhost" or the IP address "127.0.0.1" in the boxes next to "HTTP" and
+"Secure" (HTTPS) and then the number "8118" for "port". This tells your browser
+to send all web requests to Privoxy instead of directly to the Internet.
Privoxy can also be used to proxy for a Local Area Network. In this case, your
would enter either the IP address of the LAN host where Privoxy is running, or
-the equivalent hostname. Port assignment would be same as above.
+the equivalent hostname, e.g. 192.168.1.1. Port assignment would be same as
+above. Note that Privoxy doesn't listen on any LAN interfaces by default.
-Privoxy does not currently handle protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, or
-other Internet protocols.
+Privoxy does not currently handle any other protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM,
+IRC, ICQ, etc. Be sure that proxying any of these other protocols is not
+activated.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-2.6. I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening. All the ads are there.
+2.7. I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening. All the ads are there.
What's wrong?
Did you configure your browser to use Privoxy as a proxy? It does not sound
like it. See above. You might also try flushing the browser's caches to force a
full re-reading of pages. You can verify that Privoxy is running, and your
browser is correctly configured by entering the special URL: http://p.p/. This
-should give you a banner that says "This is Privoxy" and access to Privoxy's
-internal configuration. If you see this, then you are good to go. If not, the
-browser or Privoxy are not set up correctly.
+should take you to a page titled "This is Privoxy.." with access to Privoxy's
+internal configuration. If you see this, then you are good to go. If you
+receive a page saying "Privoxy is not running", then the browser is not set up
+to use your Privoxy installation. If you receive anything else (probably
+nothing at all), it could either be that the browser is not set up correctly,
+or that Privoxy is not running at all. Check the log file. For instructions on
+starting Privoxy and browser configuration, see the chapter on starting Privoxy
+in the User Manual.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2.8. I get a "Privoxy is not being used" dummy page although Privoxy is running
+and being used.
+
+First, make sure that Privoxy is really running and being used by visiting
+http://p.p/. You should see the Privoxy main page. If not, see the chapter on
+starting Privoxy in the User Manual.
+
+Now if http://p.p/ works for you, but other parts of Privoxy's web interface
+show the dummy page, your browser has cached a redirection it encountered
+before Privoxy was being used. You need to clear your browser's cache. Note
+that shift-reloading the dummy page won't help, since that'll only refresh the
+dummy page, not the redirection that lead you there.
+
+The procedure for clearing the cache varies from browser to browser. For
+example, Mozilla/Netscape users would click Edit --> Preferences --> Advanced
+--> Cache and then click both "Clear Memory Cache" and "Clear Disk Cache". And,
+Firefox users would click Tools --> Options --> Privacy --> Cache and then
+click "Clear Cache Now".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Configuration
-3.1. Can I use my old config files?
+3.1. What exactly is an "actions" file?
+
+Privoxy utilizes the concept of " actions" that are used to manipulate and
+control web page data. Actions files are where these actions that Privoxy could
+take while processing a certain request, are configured. Typically, you would
+define a set of default actions that apply globally to all URLs, then add
+exceptions to these defaults where needed. There is a wide array of actions
+available that give the user a high degree of control and flexibility on how to
+process each and every web page.
-There are major changes to Junkbuster/ Privoxy configuration from version 2.0.x
-to 2.9.x and later. Most of the older files will not work at all. This is
-especially true of blocklist. If this is the case, you will need to re-enter
-your old data into the new configuration structure. This is probably also a
-good recommendation even if upgrading from 2.9.x to 3.x since there were many
-minor changes along the way.
+Actions can be defined on a URL pattern basis, i.e. for single URLs, whole web
+sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be grouped together and
+then applied to requests matching one or more patterns. There are many possible
+actions that might apply to any given site. As an example, if you are blocking
+cookies as one of your default actions, but need to accept cookies from a given
+site, you would need to define an exception for this site in one of your
+actions files, preferably in user.action.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.2. What is an "actions" file?
+3.2. The "actions" concept confuses me. Please list some of these "actions".
+
+For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer to the
+actions file chapter in the User Manual. It includes a list of all actions and
+an actions file tutorial to get you started.
-"actions" files are where various actions that Privoxy might take, are
-configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions that apply to
-all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Actions can be defined on a per site basis, or for groups of sites. Actions can
-also be grouped together and then applied to one or more sites. There are many
-possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example, if we are
-blocking cookies as one of our default actions, but need to accept cookies from
-a given site, we would define this in our "actions" file.
+3.3. How are actions files configured? What is the easiest way to do this?
-Privoxy comes with several default actions files, with varying degrees of
-filtering and blocking, as starting points for your own configuration (see
-below).
+Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited with a
+text editor. But probably the easiest way is to access Privoxy's user interface
+with your web browser at http://config.privoxy.org/ (Shortcut: http://p.p/) and
+then select "View & change the current configuration" from the menu.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.3. The "actions" concept confuses me. Please list some of these "actions".
+3.4. There are several different "actions" files. What are the differences?
+
+Three actions files are being included by the developers, to be used for
+different purposes: These are default.action, the "main" actions file which is
+actively maintained by the Privoxy developers and typically sets the default
+policies, user.action, where users are encouraged to make their private
+customizations, and standard.action, which is for internal Privoxy use only.
+Please see the actions chapter in the User Manual for a more detailed
+explanation.
-These are all explained in the user-manual. Please refer to that.
+Earlier versions included three different versions of the default.action file.
+The new scheme allows for greater flexibility of local configuration, and for
+browser based selection of pre-defined "aggressiveness" levels.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.4. How are actions files configured? What is the easiest way to do this?
+3.5. Where can I get updated Actions Files?
-The easiest way to do this, is to access Privoxy with your web browser at http:
-//p.p/, and then select "Edit the actions list" from the selection list. You
-can also do this by editing the appropriate file with a text editor.
+Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updates of
+default.action will be made available from time to time on the files section of
+our project page.
-Please see the user-manual for a detailed explanation of these and other
-configuration files, and their various options and syntax.
+If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
+Privoxy or the actions file, subscribe to our announce mailing list,
+ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.5. What are the differences between intermediate.action, basic.action, etc.?
+3.6. Can I use my old config files?
-Configuring Privoxy is not easy. To help you get started, we provide you with
-three different default configurations. The following table shows you, which
-features are enabled in each configuration.
+The syntax and purpose of configuration files has remained the same throughout
+the 3.x series. Although each release contains updated, "improved" versions and
+it is recommended to use the newer configuration files. If upgrading from
+version prior to 3.0.4 the syntax for fast-redirects has changed. See the
+What's New section of the User Manual for details.
-Table 1. Default Configurations
+But all configuration files have substantially changed from the Junkbuster
+days, and early versions of Privoxy 2.x. The old files, like blocklist will not
+work at all.
-+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-|Feature |default.action|basic.action |intermediate.action|advanced.action|
-|--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
-|ad-filtering |? |x |x |x |
-|--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
-|blank image |? |x |x |x |
-|--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
-|de-animate GIFs |? |x |x |x |
-|--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
-|referer forging |? |x |x |x |
-|--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
-|jon's |? |x |x |x |
-|+no-cookies-keep | | | | |
-|(i.e. session | | | | |
-|cookies only) | | | | |
-|--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
-|no-popup windows |? | |x |x |
-|--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
-|fast redirects |? | |x |x |
-|--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
-|hide-referrer |? | |x |x |
-|--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
-|hide-useragent |? | |x |x |
-|--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
-|content-modification|? | | |x |
-|--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
-|feature-x |? | | | |
-|--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
-|feature-y |? | | | |
-|--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
-|feature-z |? | | | |
-+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+Refer to the What's New page for information on configuration changes that may
+occur from one release to another.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.6. Why can I change the configuration with a browser? Does that not raise
+3.7. Why is the configuration so complicated?
+
+"Complicated" is in the eye of the beholder. Those that are familiar with some
+of the underlying concepts, such as regular expression syntax, take to it like
+a fish takes to water. Also, software that tries hard to be "user friendly",
+often lacks sophistication and flexibility. There is always that trade-off
+there between power vs. easy-of-use. Furthermore, anyone is welcome to
+contribute ideas and implementations to enhance Privoxy.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.8. How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account work?
+
+The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these
+services. It may, however, make all cookies temporary, so that your browser
+will forget your login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would
+like not to have to log in manually each time you access those websites, simply
+turn off all cookie handling for them in the user.action file. An example for
+yahoo might look like:
+
+# Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
+#
+{ -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only }
+.login.yahoo.com
+
+These kinds of sites are often quite complex and heavy with Javascript and thus
+"fragile". So if still a problem, we have an alias just for such sticky
+situations:
+
+# Gmail is a _fragile_ site:
+#
+{ fragile }
+ # Gmail is ...
+ mail.google.com
+
+Be sure to flush your browser's caches whenever making these kinds of changes,
+just to make sure the changes "take".
+
+Make sure the domain, host and path are appropriate as well. Your browser can
+tell you where you are specifically and you should use that information for
+your configuration settings. Note that above it is not referenced as gmail.com,
+which is a valid domain name.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.9. What's the difference between the "Cautious", "Medium" and "Advanced"
+defaults?
+
+Configuring Privoxy is not entirely trivial. To help you get started, we
+provide you with three different default action "profiles" in the web based
+actions file editor at http://config.privoxy.org/show-status. See the User
+Manual for a list of actions, and how the default profiles are set.
+
+Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for known popular
+"problem" sites are included, but in general, the more aggressive your default
+settings are, the more exceptions you will have to make later. New users are
+best to start off in "Cautious" setting. This is safest and will have the
+fewest problems. See the User Manual for a more detailed discussion.
+
+It should be noted that the "Advanced" profile (formerly known as the
+"Adventuresome" profile) is more aggressive, and will make use of some of
+Privoxy's advanced features. Use at your own risk!
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.10. Why can I change the configuration with a browser? Does that not raise
security issues?
-What I don't understand, is how I can browser edit the config file as a regular
-user, while the whole /etc/privoxy hierarchy belongs to the user "privoxy",
-with only 644 permissions.
+It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files with their
+browsers, although the whole /etc/privoxy hierarchy belongs to the user
+"privoxy", with only 644 permissions.
When you use the browser-based editor, Privoxy itself is writing to the config
files. Because Privoxy is running as the user "privoxy", it can update the
config files.
-If you don't like this, setting "enable-edit-actions 0" in the config file will
-disable the browser-based editor. If you're that paranoid, you should also
-consider setting "enable-remote-toggle 0" to prevent browser-based enabling/
-disabling of Privoxy.
+If you run Privoxy for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in a LAN), you will
+probably want to turn the web-based editor and remote toggle features off by
+setting "enable-edit-actions 0" and "enable-remote-toggle 0" in the main
+configuration file.
-Note that normally only local users can connect to Privoxy, so this is not
-(normally) a security problem.
+Note that in the default configuration, only local users (i.e. those on
+"localhost") can connect to Privoxy, so this is not (normally) a security
+problem.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.7. What is "default.filter"?
+3.11. What is the default.filter file? What is a "filter"?
-The "default.filter" file is used to "filter" any web page content. By
-"filtering" we mean it can modify, remove, or change anything on the page,
-including HTML tags, and JavaScript. Regular expressions are used to accomplish
-this, and operate on a line by line basis. This is potentially a very powerful
-feature, but requires some expertise.
+The default.filter file is where filters as supplied by the developers are
+defined. Filters are a special subset of actions that can be used to modify or
+remove, web page content on the fly. Filters apply to anything in the page
+source (and optionally both client and server headers), including HTML tags,
+and JavaScript. Regular expressions are used to accomplish this. There are a
+number of pre-defined filters to deal with common annoyances. The filters are
+only defined here, to invoke them, you need to use the filter action in one of
+the actions files. Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME
+types.
If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at the
-provided default.filter with a text editor and see some of things it can be
-used for.
+provided default.filter with a text editor and define your own filters. This is
+potentially a very powerful feature, but requires some expertise in both
+regular expressions and HTML/HTTP. You should place any modifications to the
+default filters, or any new ones you create in a separate file, such as
+user.filter, so they won't be overwritten during upgrades. The ability to
+define multiple filter files in config is a new feature as of v. 3.0.5.
-Presently, there is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
-but you can disable/enable various sections of the included default file with
-the "Actions List Editor" from your browser.
+There is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration, but you can
+disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included default.filter
+file with the web-based actions file editor.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.8. How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN?
+3.12. How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN?
-By default, Privoxy only responds to requests from localhost. To have it act as
-a server for a network, this needs to be changed in the main config file where
-the Privoxy configuration is located. In that file is a "listen-address"
-option. It may be commented out with a "#" symbol. Make sure it is uncommented,
-and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface, and port number to use:
+By default, Privoxy only responds to requests from 127.0.0.1 (localhost). To
+have it act as a server for a network, this needs to be changed in the main
+configuration file. Look for the listen-address option, which may be commented
+out with a "#" symbol. Make sure it is uncommented, and assign it the address
+of the LAN gateway interface, and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address
+is 192.168.1.1 and you wish to run Privoxy on port 8118, this line should look
+like:
listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118
-
Save the file, and restart Privoxy. Configure all browsers on the network then
to use this address and port number.
+Alternately, you can have Privoxy listen on all available interfaces:
+
+ listen-address :8118
+
+And then use Privoxy's permit-access feature to limit connections. A firewall
+in this situation is recommended as well.
+
+The above steps should be the same for any TCP network, regardless of operating
+system.
+
+If you run Privoxy on a LAN with untrusted users, we recommend that you
+double-check the access control and security options!
+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.9. Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see
+3.13. Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see
anything.
-This is a configuration option for images that Privoxy is stopping. You have
-the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF image (aka
-"blank"), or a custom URL of your choice. Note that to fit this category, the
-URL must match both the "+image" and "+block" actions.
-
-If you want to see nothing, then change the "+image-blocker" action to
-"+image-blocker{blank}". This can be done from the "Edit Actions List"
-selection at http://p.p/. Or by hand editing the appropriate actions file. This
-will only effect what is defined as "images" though. Also, some URLs that
-generate the bright red "Blocked" banner, can be moved to the "+image-blocker"
-section for the same reason, but there are some limits and risks to this (see
-below).
+The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the set-image-blocker
+action. You have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
+image (aka "blank"), or a redirect to a custom image of your choice. Note that
+this choice only has effect for images which are blocked as images, i.e. whose
+URLs match both a handle-as-image and block action.
+
+If you want to see nothing, then change the set-image-blocker action to
+"blank". This can be done by editing the user.action file, or through the
+web-based actions file editor.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.14. Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?
+
+Remember that telling which image is an ad and which isn't, is an educated
+guess. While we hope that the standard configuration is rather smart, it will
+make occasional mistakes. The checkerboard image is visually decent, and it
+shows you where images have been blocked, which can be very helpful in case
+some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was erroneously blocked. It is
+recommended for new users so they can "see" what is happening. Some people
+might also enjoy seeing how many banners they don't have to see.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.10. Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?
+3.15. I see some images being replaced by a text instead of the checkerboard
+image. Why and how do I get rid of this?
-This can be helpful for troubleshooting problems. It might also be good for
-anyone new to Privoxy so that they can see if their favorite pages are
-displaying correctly, and Privoxy is not inadvertently removing something
-important.
+This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of the page
+itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded into (i)frames or
+(i)layers, and these external HTML documents are blocked. Being non-images they
+get replaced by a substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image, which
+wouldn't work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts only HTML
+when it has requested an HTML document.
+
+The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself as a
+miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown with a large red
+"BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
+
+If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to it that the
+HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked. Clicking the "See
+why" link offered in the substitute page will show you which rule blocked the
+page. After changing the rule and un-blocking the HTML documents, the browser
+will try to load the actual banner images and the usual image blocking will
+(hopefully!) kick in.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.11. I see large red banners on some pages that say "Blocked". Why and how do
-I get rid of this?
+3.16. Can Privoxy run as a service on Win2K/NT/XP?
-These are URLs that match something in one of Privoxy's block actions (+block).
-It is meant to be a warning so that you know something has been blocked and an
-easy way for you to see why. These are handled differently than what has been
-defined explicitly as "images" (e.g. ad banners). Depending on the URL itself,
-it is sometimes hard for Privoxy to really know whether there is indeed an ad
-image there or not. And there are limitations as to what Privoxy can do to
-"fool" the browser.
+Yes. Version 3.0.5 introduces full Windows service functionality. See the User
+Manual for details on how to install and configure Privoxy as a service.
-For instance, if the ad is in a frame, then it is embedded in the separate HTML
-page used for the frame. In this case, you cannot just substitute an aribitray
-image (like we would for a "blank" image), for an HTML page. The browser is
-expecting an HTML page, and that is what it must have for frames. So this
-situation can be a little trickier to deal with, and Privoxy will use the
-"Blocked" page.
+Earlier 3.x versions could run as a system service using srvany.exe. See the
+discussion at http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=361118&aid=
+485617&group_id=11118, for details, and a sample configuration.
-If you want these to be treated as if they were images, so that they can be
-made invisible, you can try moving the offending URL from the "+block" section
-to the "+imageblock" section of your actions file. Just be forewarned, if any
-URL is made "invisible", you may not have any inkling that something has been
-removed from that page, or why. If this approach does not work, then you are
-probably dealing with a frame (or "ilayer"), and the only thing that can go
-there is an HTML page of some sort.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-To deal with this situation, you could modify the "block" HTML template that is
-used by Privoxy to display this, and make it something more to your liking.
-Currently, there is no configuration option for this. You will have to modify,
-or create your own page, and use this to replace templates/blocked, which is
-what Privoxy uses to display the "Blocked" page.
+3.17. How can I make Privoxy work with other proxies like Squid or Tor?
-Another way to deal with this is find why and where Privoxy is blocking the
-frame, and diable this. Then let the "+image-blocker" action handle the ad that
-is embedded in the frame's HTML page.
+This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of Privoxy with
+those of a another proxy. See the forwarding chapter in the User Manual which
+describes how to do this, and the How do I use Privoxy together with Tor
+section below.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.12. I cannot see all of the "Blocked" page banner. All I see is a bright red
-square.
+3.18. Can I just set Privoxy to use port 80 and thus avoid individual browser
+configuration?
-There is not enough space to fit the entire page. Try right clicking on the
-visible, red portion, and select "Show Frame", or equivalent. This will usually
-allow you to see the entire Privoxy "Blocked" page, and from there you can see
-just what is being blocked, and why.
+No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special kinds of
+proxies known as "transparent" proxies (see below).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.13. Can Privoxy run as a service on Win2K/NT?
+3.19. Can Privoxy run as a "transparent" proxy?
-Yes, it can run as a system service using srvany.exe. The only catch is that
-this will effectively disable the Privoxy icon in the taskbar. You can have one
-or the other, but not both at this time :(
+No, Privoxy currently does not have this ability, though it may be added in a
+future release. Transparent proxies require special handling of the request
+headers beyond what Privoxy is now capable of.
-There is a pending feature request for this functionality. See thread: http://
-sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=361118&aid=485617&group_id=11118, for
-details, and a sample configuration.
+Chaining Privoxy behind another proxy that has this ability should work though.
+See the forwarding chapter in the User Manual. As a transparent proxy to be
+used for chaining we suggest Transproxy (http://transproxy.sourceforge.net/).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.14. How can I make Privoxy work with other proxies like Squid?
+3.20. How can I configure Privoxy for use with Outlook Express?
-This can be done. See the user manual, which describes how to do this.
+Outlook Express uses Internet Explorer components to both render HTML, and
+fetch any HTTP requests that may be embedded in an HTML email. So however you
+have Privoxy configured to work with IE, this configuration should
+automatically be shared.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.21. How can I have separate rules just for HTML mail?
+
+The short answer is, you can't. Privoxy has no way of knowing which particular
+application makes a request, so there is no way to distinguish between web
+pages and HTML mail. Privoxy just blindly proxies all requests. In the case of
+Outlook Express (see above), OE uses IE anyway, and there is no way for Privoxy
+to ever be able to distinguish between them (nor could any other proxy type
+application for that matter).
+
+For a good discussion of some of the issues involved (including privacy and
+security issues), see http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=211118&
+aid=629518&group_id=11118.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.22. I sometimes notice cookies sneaking through. How?
+
+Cookies can be set in several ways. The classic method is via the Set-Cookie
+HTTP header. This is straightforward, and an easy one to manipulate, such as
+the Privoxy concept of session-cookies-only. There is also the possibility of
+using Javascript to set cookies (Privoxy calls these content-cookies). This is
+trickier because the syntax can vary widely, and thus requires a certain amount
+of guesswork. It is not realistic to catch all of these short of disabling
+Javascript, which would break many sites. And lastly, if the cookies are
+embedded in a HTTPS/SSL secure session via Javascript, they are beyond
+Privoxy's reach.
+
+All in all, Privoxy can help manage cookies in general, can help minimize the
+loss of privacy posed by cookies, but can't realistically stop all cookies.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.23. Are all cookies bad? Why?
+
+No, in fact there are many beneficial uses of cookies. Cookies are just a
+method that browsers can use to store data between pages, or between browser
+sessions. Sometimes there is a good reason for this, and the user's life is a
+bit easier as a result. But there is a long history of some websites taking
+advantage of this layer of trust, and using the data they glean from you and
+your browsing habits for their own purposes, and maybe to your potential
+detriment. Such sites are using you and storing their data on your system. That
+is why the security conscious watch from whom those cookies come, and why they
+really need to be there.
+
+See the Wikipedia cookie definition for more.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.24. How can I allow permanent cookies for my trusted sites?
+
+There are several actions that relate to cookies. The default behavior is to
+allow only "session cookies", which means the cookies only last for the current
+browser session. This eliminates most kinds of abuse related to cookies. But
+there may be cases where we want cookies to last.
+
+To disable all cookie actions, so that cookies are allowed unrestricted, both
+in and out, for example.com:
+
+ { -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only -filter{content-cookies} }
+ .example.com
+
+Place the above in user.action. Note some of these may be off by default
+anyway, so this might be redundant, but there is no harm being explicit in what
+you want to happen. user.action includes an alias for this situation, called
+allow-all-cookies.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.25. Can I have separate configurations for different users?
+
+Each instance of Privoxy has its own configuration, including such attributes
+as the TCP port that it listens on. What you can do is run multiple instances
+of Privoxy, each with a unique listen-address configuration setting, and
+configuration path, and then each of these can have their own configurations.
+Think of it as per-port configuration.
+
+Simple enough for a few users, but for large installations, consider having
+groups of users that might share like configurations.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.26. Can I set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of "good" sites?
+
+Sure. There are a couple of things you can do for simple white-listing. Here's
+one real easy one:
+
+ ############################################################
+ # Blacklist
+ ############################################################
+ { +block }
+ / # Block *all* URLs
+
+ ############################################################
+ # Whitelist
+ ############################################################
+ { -block }
+ kids.example.com
+ toys.example.com
+ games.example.com
+
+This allows access to only those three sites by first blocking all URLs, and
+then subsequently allowing three specific exceptions.
+
+A more interesting approach is Privoxy's trustfile concept, which incorporates
+the notion of "trusted referrers". See the User Manual Trust documentation.
+
+These are fairly simple approaches and are not completely foolproof. There are
+various other configuration options that should be disabled (described
+elsewhere here and in the User Manual) so that users can't modify their own
+configuration and easily circumvent the whitelist.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.27. How can I turn off ad-blocking?
+
+Ad blocking is achieved through a complex application of various Privoxy
+actions. These actions are deployed against simple images, banners, flash
+animations, text pages, JavaScript, pop-ups and pop-unders, etc., so its not as
+simple as just turning one or two actions off. The various actions that make up
+Privoxy ad blocking are hard-coded into the default configuration files. It has
+been assumed that everyone using Privoxy is interested in this particular
+feature.
+
+If you want to do without this, there are several approaches you can take: You
+can manually undo the many block rules in default.action. Or even easier, just
+create your own default.action file from scratch without the many ad blocking
+rules, and corresponding exceptions. Or lastly, if you are not concerned about
+the additional blocks that are done for privacy reasons, you can very easily
+over-ride all blocking with the following very simple rule in your user.action:
+
+ # Unblock everybody, everywhere
+ { -block }
+ / # UN-Block *all* URLs
+
+Or even a more comprehensive reversing of various ad related actions:
+
+ # Unblock everybody, everywhere, and turn off appropriate filtering, etc
+ { -block \
+ -filter{banners-by-size} \
+ -filter{banners-by-link} \
+ allow-popups \
+ }
+ / # UN-Block *all* URLs and allow ads
+
+This last "action" in this compound statement, allow-popups, is an alias that
+disables various pop-up blocking features.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.28. How can I have custom template pages, like the BLOCKED page?
+
+Privoxy "templates" are specialized text files utilized by Privoxy for various
+purposes and can easily be modified using any text editor. All the template
+pages are installed in a sub-directory appropriately named: templates. Knowing
+something about HTML syntax will of course be helpful. You cannot rename any of
+these files, or create completely new templates, that is not possible. But you
+can change the page content to whatever you like. Be forewarned that these
+files are subject to being overwritten during upgrades, so be sure to save any
+customizations.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.29. How can I remove the "Go There Anyway" link from the BLOCKED page?
+
+Editing the BLOCKED template page (see above) may dissuade some users, but this
+method is easily circumvented. Where you need this level of control, you should
+build Privoxy from source, and enable various features that are available as
+compile-time options. You should configure the sources as follows:
+
+ ./configure --disable-toggle --disable-editor --disable-force
+
+This will create an executable with hard-coded security features so that
+Privoxy does not allow easy bypassing of blocked sites, or changing the current
+configuration via any connected user's web browser. Some of these features can
+also be toggled on/off via options in Privoxy's main config file. But
+compiled-in compliance is a much better method of ensuring that a block is
+really a block.
+
+Default builds of Privoxy are typically built with these features disabled.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.1. How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This has to add extra time to
browsing.
-It should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help speed
-things up since ads, banners and other junk are not being displayed. The actual
-processing time required by Privoxy itself for each page, is relatively small
-in the overall scheme of things, and happens very quickly. This is typically
-more than offset by time saved not downloading and rendering ad images.
+How much of an impact depends on many things, including the CPU of the host
+system, how aggressive the configuration is, which specific actions are being
+triggered, the size of the page, the bandwidth of the connection, etc.
+
+Overall, it should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
+speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not typically being
+retrieved and displayed. The actual processing time required by Privoxy itself
+for each page, is relatively small in the overall scheme of things, and happens
+very quickly. This is typically more than offset by time saved not downloading
+and rendering ad images (if ad blocking is being used).
-"Filtering" via the filterfile mechanism may cause a perceived slowdown, since
-the entire page is buffered before displaying. See below.
+"Filtering" content via the filter or deanimate-gifs actions will certainly
+cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document needs to be buffered
+before displaying. And on very large documents, filtering may have some
+measurable impact. How much depends on the page size, the actual definition of
+the filter(s), etc. See below. Most other actions have little to no impact on
+speed.
+
+Also, when filtering is enabled, typically there is a disabling of compression,
+(see prevent-compression). This can have an impact on speed as well. Again, the
+page size, etc. will determine how much of an impact.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.2. I noticed considerable delays in page requests compared to the old
+4.2. I notice considerable delays in page requests compared to the old
Junkbuster. What's wrong?
-Using the default filtering configuration, I noticed considerable delays in
-page requests compared to the old Junkbuster. Loading pages with large contents
-seemed to take forever, then suddenly delivering all the content at once.
+If you use any filter action, such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc,
+or the deanimate-gifs action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in
+order for the filtering mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser
+during this time.
+
+The loading time typically does not really change much in real numbers, but the
+feeling is different, because most browsers are able to start rendering
+incomplete content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is
+more noticeable on slower dialup connections. Extremely large documents may
+have some impact on the time to load the page where there is filtering being
+done. But overall, the difference should be very minimal. If there is a big
+impact, then probably some other situation is contributing (like anti-virus
+software).
+
+Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types. But note that
+if the web server mis-reports the MIME type, then content that should not be
+filtered, could be. Privoxy only knows how to differentiate filterable content
+because of the MIME type as reported by the server, or because of some
+configuration setting that enables/disables filtering.
-The whole content must be loaded in order to filter, and nothing is is sent to
-the browser during this time. The loading time does not really change in real
-numbers, but the feeling is different, because most browsers are able to start
-rendering incomplete content, giving the user a feeling of "it works".
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-To modify the content of a page (i.e. make frames resizeable again, etc.) and
-not just replace ads, Privoxy needs to download the entire page first, do its
-content magic and then send the page to the browser.
+4.3. What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and "http://p.p/"?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+http://config.privoxy.org/ is the address of Privoxy's built-in user interface,
+and http://p.p/ is a shortcut for it.
-4.3. What is the "http://p.p/"?
+Since Privoxy sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can simply
+intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in "web
+server".
-Since Privoxy sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can be
-programmed to handle certain pages specially.
+This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
+URL http://config.privoxy.org/ takes you to a page saying "This is Privoxy
+...", everything is OK. If you get a page saying "Privoxy is not working"
+instead, then your browser didn't use Privoxy for the request, hence it could
+not be intercepted, and you have accessed the real web site at
+config.privoxy.org.
-With recent versions of Privoxy (version 2.9.x), you can get some information
-about Privoxy and change some settings by going to http://p.p/ or,
-equivalently, http://config.privoxy.org/ (Note that p.p is far easier to type
-but may not work in some configurations. With the name change to Privoxy, this
-is changed from the previous http://i.j.b/ or earlier 2.9.x versions).
+With recent versions of Privoxy (version 2.9.x and later), the user interface
+features information on the run time status, the configuration, and even a
+built-in editor for the actions files.
-These pages are not forwarded to a server on the Internet - instead they are
-handled by a special web server which is built in to Privoxy.
+Note that the built-in URLs from earlier versions of Junkbuster / Privoxy,
+http://example.com/show-proxy-args and http://i.j.b/, are no longer supported.
+If you still use such an old version, you should really consider upgrading to
+3.0.6.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-If you are not running Privoxy, then http://p.p/ will fail, and http://
-config.privoxy.org/ will return a web page telling you you're not running
-Privoxy.
+4.4. How can I submit new ads, or report problems?
-If you have version 2.0.2, then the equivalent is http://example.com/
-show-proxy-args (but you get far less information, and you should really
-consider upgrading to 2.9.14).
+Please see the Contact section for various ways to interact with the
+developers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.4. Do you still maintain the blocklists?
+4.5. If I do submit missed ads, will they be included in future updates?
-No. The format of the blocklists has changed significantly in versions 2.9.x
-and later. Once we have released the new stable version, v3.0, there will again
-be blocklists that you can update automatically.
+Whether such submissions are eventually included in the default.action
+configuration file depends on how significant the issue is. We of course want
+to address any potential problem with major, high-profile sites such as Google,
+Yahoo, etc. Any site with global or regional reach, has a good chance of being
+a candidate. But at the other end of the spectrum are any number of smaller,
+low-profile sites such as for local clubs or schools. Since their reach and
+impact are much less, they are best handled by inclusion in the user's
+user.action, and thus would be unlikely to be included.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.5. How can I submit new ads?
+4.6. Why doesn't anyone answer my support request?
-As of now, please discontinue to submit new ad blocking infos. Once we have
-released the new version, there will again be a form on the website, which you
-can use to contribute new ads.
+Rest assured that it has been read and considered. Why it is not answered,
+could be for various reasons, including no one has a good answer for it, no one
+has had time to yet investigate it thoroughly, it has been reported numerous
+times already, or because not enough information was provided to help us help
+you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.6. How can I hide my IP address?
+4.7. How can I hide my IP address?
-You cannot hide your IP address with Privoxy or any other software, since the
-server needs to know your IP address to send the answer to you.
+If you run both the browser and Privoxy locally, you cannot hide your IP
+address with Privoxy or ultimately any other software alone. The server needs
+to know your IP address so that it knows where to send the responses back.
-Fortunately there are many publicly usable anonymous proxies out there, which
-solve the problem by providing a further level of indirection between you and
-the web server, shared by many people and thus letting your requests "drown" in
-white noise of unrelated requests as far as user tracking is concerned.
+There are many publicly usable "anonymous" proxies out there, which provide a
+further level of indirection between you and the web server.
-Most of them will, however, log your IP address and make it available to the
-authorities in case you abuse that anonymity for criminal purposes. In fact you
-can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information on
-(those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
+However, these proxies are called "anonymous" because you don't need a
+password, not because they would offer any real anonymity. Most of them will
+log your IP address and make it available to the authorities in case you
+violate the law of the country they run in. In fact you can't even rule out
+that some of them only exist to *collect* information on (those suspicious)
+people with a more than average preference for privacy.
-You can find a list of anonymous public proxies at multiproxy.org and many more
-through Google.
+Your best bet is to chain Privoxy with Tor, an EFF supported onion routing
+system. The configuration details can be found in How do I use Privoxy together
+with Tor section just below.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.7. Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?
+4.8. Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?
-No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
-are an expert on Internet security it would be safest to assume that everything
-you do on the Web can be traced back to you.
+No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
+chain Privoxy with Tor or a similar system and know what you're doing when it
+comes to configuring the rest of your system, it would be safest to assume that
+everything you do on the Web can be traced back to you.
Privoxy can remove various information about you, and allows you more freedom
to decide which sites you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But
-it's still possible that web sites can find out who you are. Here's one way
-this can happen.
+it neither hides your IP address, nor can it guarantee that the rest of the
+system behaves correctly. There are several possibilities how a web sites can
+find out who you are, even if you are using a strict Privoxy configuration and
+chained it with Tor.
+
+Most of Privoxy's protection can be easily subverted by an insecure browser
+configuration, therefore you should use a browser that can be configured to
+only execute code from trusted sites, and be careful which sites you trust. For
+example there is no point in having Privoxy modify the User-Agent header, if
+websites can get all the information they want through JavaScript, ActiveX,
+Flash, Java etc.
A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such as
when transferring a file by FTP. Privoxy does not filter FTP. If you need this
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.8. Might some things break because header information is being altered?
+4.9. A test site says I am not using a Proxy.
-Definitely. More and more sites use HTTP header content to decide what to
-display and how to display it. There is many ways that this can be handled, so
-having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
+Good! Actually, they are probably testing for some other kinds of proxies.
+Hiding yourself completely would require additional steps.
-"USER AGENT" in particular is often used in this way to identify the browser,
-and adjust content accordingly. Changing this now is not recommended, since so
-many sites do look for this. You may get undesirable results by changing this.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.10. How do I use Privoxy together with Tor?
+
+Before you configure Privoxy to use Tor (http://tor.eff.org/), please follow
+the User Manual chapters 2. Installation and 5. Startup to make sure Privoxy
+itself is setup correctly.
+
+If it is, refer to Tor's extensive documentation to learn how to install Tor,
+and make sure Tor's logfile says that "Tor has successfully opened a circuit"
+and it "looks like client functionality is working".
+
+If either Tor or Privoxy isn't working, their combination most likely will
+neither. Testing them on their own will also help you to direct problem reports
+to the right audience. If Privoxy isn't working, don't bother the Tor
+developers. If Tor isn't working, don't send bug reports to the Privoxy Team.
+
+If you verified that Privoxy and Tor are working, it is time to connect them.
+As far as Privoxy is concerned, Tor is just another proxy that can be reached
+by socks4 or socks4a. Most likely you are interested in Tor to increase your
+anonymity level, therefore you should use socks4a, to make sure Privoxy's DNS
+requests are done through Tor and thus invisible to your local network.
+
+Since Privoxy 3.0.5, its main configuration file is already prepared for Tor,
+if you are using a default Tor configuration and run it on the same system as
+Privoxy, you just have to edit the forwarding section and uncomment the line:
+
+# forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
+
+
+This is enough to reach the Internet, but additionally you should uncomment the
+following forward rules, to make sure your local network is still reachable
+through Privoxy:
+
+# forward 192.168.*.*/ .
+# forward 10.*.*.*/ .
+# forward 127.*.*.*/ .
+
-For instance, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
+Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will be as (un)
+secure as the local network is, but the alternative is that you can't reach the
+network at all. If you also want to be able to reach servers in your local
+network by using their names, you will need additional exceptions that look
+like this:
+
+# forward localhost/ .
+
+
+Save the modified configuration file and open http://config.privoxy.org/
+show-status/ in your browser, confirm that Privoxy has reloaded its
+configuration and that there are no other forward lines, unless you know that
+you need them. If everything looks good, refer to Tor Faq 4.2 to learn how to
+verify that you are really using Tor.
+
+Afterward, please take the time to at least skim through the rest of Tor's
+documentation. Make sure you understand what Tor does, why it is no replacement
+for application level security, and why you shouldn't use it for unencrypted
+logins.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.11. Might some things break because header information or content is being
+altered?
+
+Definitely. It is common for sites to use browser type, browser version, HTTP
+header content, and various other techniques in order to dynamically decide
+what to display and how to display it. What you see, and what I see, might be
+very different. There are many, many ways that this can be handled, so having
+hard and fast rules, is tricky.
+
+"User-Agent" is often used in this way to identify the browser, and adjust
+content accordingly. Changing this now (at least not further than removing the
+OS information) is not recommended, since so many sites do look for it. You may
+get undesirable results by changing just this one aspect.
+
+Also, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the User
Agent header. Giving a "User Agent" with the wrong operating system or browser
manufacturer causes some sites in these languages to be garbled; Surfers to
Eastern European sites should change it to something closer. And then some page
-access counters work by looking at the "REFERER" header; they may fail or break
+access counters work by looking at the "Referer" header; they may fail or break
if unavailable. The weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their
-server when no "REFERER" or cookie is provided, is another example. There are
-many, many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server.
+server when no "Referer" or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
+can forge both headers without giving information away). There are many other
+ways things that can go wrong when trying to fool a web server. The results of
+which could inadvertently cause pages to load incorrectly, partially, or even
+not at all. And there may be no obvious clues as to just what went wrong, or
+why. Nowhere will there be a message that says "Turn off fast-redirects or
+else! "
+
+Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree, HTML
+elements.
If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may be
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.9. Can Privoxy act as a "caching" proxy to speed up web browsing?
+4.12. Can Privoxy act as a "caching" proxy to speed up web browsing?
No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like Squid for
this. And, yes, before you ask, Privoxy can co-exist with other kinds of
-proxies like Squid.
+proxies like Squid. See the forwarding chapter in the user manual for details.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.10. What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?
+4.13. What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?
-Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can, or a proxy that has
-this specific capability. Privoxy can help protect your privacy, but not really
-protect you from intrusion attempts.
+Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can. Privoxy can help
+protect your privacy, but not protect you from intrusion attempts. It is, of
+course, perfectly possible and recommended to use both.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.11. The Privoxy logo that replaces ads is very blocky and ugly looking. Can't
-a better font be used?
+4.14. I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where ads used to
+be. Why?
-This is not a font problem. The logo is an image that is created by Privoxy on
-the fly. So as to not waste memory, the image is rather small. The blockiness
-comes when the image is scaled to fill a largish area. There is not much to be
-done about this, other than to use one of the other "imageblock" directives:
-pattern, blank, or a URL of your choosing.
+It is technically possible to eliminate banners and ads in a way that frees
+their allocated page space. This could easily be done by blocking with
+Privoxy's filters, and eliminating the entire image references from the HTML
+page source.
-Given the above problem, we have decided to remove the logo option entirely [as
-of v2.9.13].
+But, this would consume considerably more CPU resources (IOW, slow things
+down), would likely destroy the layout of some web pages which rely on the
+banners utilizing a certain amount of page space, and might fail in other
+cases, where the screen space is reserved (e.g. by HTML tables for instance).
+Also, making ads and banners disappear without any trace complicates
+troubleshooting, and would sooner or later be problematic.
+
+The better alternative is to instead let them stay, and block the resulting
+requests for the banners themselves as is now the case. This leaves either
+empty space, or the familiar checkerboard pattern.
+
+So the developers won't support this in the default configuration, but you can
+of course define appropriate filters yourself to achieve this.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.12. I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be. Why?
+4.15. How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?
-It would be easy enough to just eliminate this space altogether, rather than
-fill it with blank space. But, this would create problems with many pages that
-use the overall size of the ad to help organize the page layout and position
-the various components of the page where they were intended to be. It is best
-left this way.
+Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
+and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably secure, there is little that
+Privoxy can do but hand the raw gibberish data though from one end to the other
+unprocessed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs to
+tell Privoxy the name of the remote server, so that Privoxy can establish the
+connection. If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be
+blocked.
-4.13. How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?
+As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
+seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often the
+banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless for
+efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of Privoxy's ad
+blocking.
-This is a limitation since HTTPS transactions are encrypted SSL sessions
-between your browser and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably secure
-and private. This means that all cookies and HTTP header information are also
-encrypted from the time they leave your browser, to the site, and vice versa.
-Privoxy does not try to unencrypt this information, so it just passes through
-as is. Privoxy can still catch images and ads that are embedded in the SSL
-stream though.
+"Content cookies" (those that are embedded in the actual HTML or JS page
+content, see filter{content-cookies}), in an SSL transaction will be impossible
+to block under these conditions. Fortunately, this does not seem to be a very
+common scenario since most cookies come by traditional means.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.14. Privoxy runs as a "server". How secure is it? Do I need to take any
+4.16. Privoxy runs as a "server". How secure is it? Do I need to take any
special precautions?
-There are no known exploits that might effect Privoxy. On Unix-like systems,
+There are no known exploits that might affect Privoxy. On Unix-like systems,
Privoxy can run as a non-privileged user, which is how we recommend it be run.
-Also, by default Privoxy only listens to requests from "localhost". The server
-aspect of Privoxy is not itself directly exposed to the Internet in this
+Also, by default Privoxy only listens to requests from "localhost" only. The
+server aspect of Privoxy is not itself directly exposed to the Internet in this
configuration. If you want to have Privoxy serve as a LAN proxy, this will have
to be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend you
specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main Privoxy
-config file. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address in the
-browser proxy configuration. In this way, Privoxy will not listen on any
-external ports. Of course, a firewall is always good too. Better safe than
-sorry.
+configuration file and check all access control and security options. All LAN
+hosts can then use this as their proxy address in the browser proxy
+configuration, but Privoxy will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can
+be defined in addition, and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe
+than sorry.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.17. How can I temporarily disable Privoxy?
+
+The easiest way is to access Privoxy with your browser by using the remote
+toggle URL: http://config.privoxy.org/toggle. See the Bookmarklets section of
+the User Manual for an easy way to access this feature.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.18. When "disabled" is Privoxy totally out of the picture?
+
+No, this just means all filtering and actions are disabled. Privoxy is still
+acting as a proxy, but just not doing any of the things that Privoxy would
+normally be expected to do. It is still a "middle-man" in the interaction
+between your browser and web sites. See below to bypass the proxy.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.19. How can I tell Privoxy to totally ignore certain sites?
+
+Bypassing a proxy, or proxying based on arbitrary criteria, is purely a browser
+configuration issue, not a Privoxy issue. Modern browsers typically do have
+settings for not proxying certain sites. Check your browser's help files.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.20. My logs show Privoxy "crunches" ads, but also its own internal CGI pages.
+What is a "crunch"?
+
+A "crunch" simply means Privoxy intercepted something, nothing more. Often this
+is indeed ads or banners, but Privoxy uses the same mechanism for trapping
+requests for its own internal pages. For instance, a request for Privoxy's
+configuration page at: http://config.privoxy.org, is intercepted (i.e. it does
+not go out to the 'net), and the familiar CGI configuration is returned to the
+browser, and the log consequently will show a "crunch".
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.21. Can Privoxy effect files that I download from a webserver? FTP server?
+
+From the webserver's perspective, there is no difference between viewing a
+document (i.e. a page), and downloading a file. The same is true of Privoxy. If
+there is a match for a block pattern, it will still be blocked, and of course
+this is obvious.
+
+Filtering is potentially more of a concern since the results are not always so
+obvious, and the effects of filtering are there whether the file is simply
+viewed, or downloaded. And potentially whether the content is some obnoxious
+advertisement, or Mr. Jimmy's latest/greatest source code jewel. Of course, one
+of these presumably is "bad" content that we don't want, and the other is
+"good" content that we do want. Privoxy is blind to the differences, and can
+only distinguish "good from bad" by the configuration parameters we give it.
+
+Privoxy knows the differences in files according to the "Document Type" as
+reported by the webserver. If this is reported accurately (e.g. "application/
+zip" for a zip archive), then Privoxy knows to ignore these where appropriate.
+Privoxy potentially can filter HTML as well as plain text documents, subject to
+configuration parameters of course. Also, documents that are of an unknown type
+(generally assumed to be "text/plain") can be filtered, as will those that
+might be incorrectly reported by the webserver. If such a file is a downloaded
+file that is intended to be saved to disk, then any content that might have
+been altered by filtering, will be saved too, for these (probably rare) cases.
+
+Note that versions later than 3.0.2 do NOT filter document types reported as
+"text/plain". Prior to this, Privoxy did filter this document type.
+
+In short, filtering is "ON" if a) the Document Type as reported by the
+webserver is appropriate and b) the configuration allows it (or at least does
+not disallow it). That's it. There is no magic cookie anywhere to say this is
+"good" and this is "bad". It's the configuration that let's it all happen or
+not.
+
+If you download text files, you probably do not want these to be filtered,
+particularly if the content is source code, or other critical content. Source
+code sometimes might be mistaken for Javascript (i.e. the kind that might open
+a pop-up window). It is recommended to turn off filtering for download sites
+(particularly if the content may be plain text files and you are using version
+3.0.2 or earlier) in your user.action file. And also, for any site or page
+where making any changes at all to the content is to be avoided.
+
+Privoxy does not do FTP at all, only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) protocols, so please
+don't try.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.22. I just downloaded a Perl script, and Privoxy altered it! Yikes, what is
+wrong!
+
+Please read above.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.15. How can I temporarily disable Privoxy?
+4.23. Should I continue to use a "HOSTS" file for ad-blocking?
-The easiest way is to access Privoxy with your browser by using the special
-URL: http://p.p/ and select "Toggle Privoxy on or off" from that page.
+One time-tested technique to defeat common ads is to trick the local DNS system
+by giving a phony IP address for the ad generator in the local HOSTS file,
+typically using 127.0.0.1, aka localhost. This effectively blocks the ad.
+
+There is no reason to use this technique in conjunction with Privoxy. Privoxy
+does essentially the same thing, much more elegantly and with much more
+flexibility. A large HOSTS file, in fact, not only duplicates effort, but may
+get in the way. It is recommended to remove such entries from your HOSTS file.
+If you think your hosts list is neglected by Privoxy's configuration, consider
+adding your list to your user.action file:
+
+ { +block }
+ www.ad.example1.com
+ ad.example2.com
+ ads.galore.example.com
+ etc.example.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.16. Where can I find more information about Privoxy and related issues?
+4.24. Where can I find more information about Privoxy and related issues?
Other references and sites of interest to Privoxy users:
-http://www.privoxy.org/, The Privoxy Home page.
+http://www.privoxy.org/, the Privoxy Home page.
+
+http://www.privoxy.org/faq/, the Privoxy FAQ.
-http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa, the Project Page for Privoxy on
-Sourceforge.
+http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/, the Project Page for Privoxy on
+SourceForge.
-http://p.p/, access Privoxy from your browser. Alternately, http://
-config.privoxy.org may work in some situations where the first does not.
+http://config.privoxy.org/, the web-based user interface. Privoxy must be
+running for this to work. Shortcut: http://p.p/
-http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html
+http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288, to submit "misses"
+and other configuration related suggestions to the developers.
-http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/
+http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html, an explanation how cookies are
+used to track web users.
-http://privacy.net/analyze/
+http://www.junkbusters.com/ijb.html, the original Internet Junkbuster.
+
+http://privacy.net/, a useful site to check what information about you is
+leaked while you browse the web.
+
+http://www.squid-cache.org/, a very popular caching proxy, which is often used
+together with Privoxy.
+
+http://tor.eff.org/, Tor can help anonymize web browsing, web publishing,
+instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications.
+
+http://www.privoxy.org/developer-manual/, the Privoxy developer manual.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-http://www.squid-cache.org/
+4.25. I've noticed that Privoxy changes "Microsoft" to "MicroSuck"! Why are you
+manipulating my browsing?
-
+We're not. The text substitutions that you are seeing are disabled in the
+default configuration as shipped. You have either manually activated the "fun"
+filter which is clearly labeled "Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!
+" or you are using an older Privoxy version and have implicitly activated it by
+choosing the "Adventuresome" profile in the web-based editor. Please upgrade!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Troubleshooting
-5.1. I just upgraded and am getting "connection refused" with every web page?
+5.1. I cannot connect to any websites. Or, I am getting "connection refused"
+message with every web page. Why?
-Either Privoxy is not running, or your browser is configured for a different
-port than what Privoxy is using.
+There are several possibilities:
-The old Privoxy (and also Junkbuster) used port 8000 by default. This has been
-changed to port 8118 now, due to a conflict with NAS (Network Audio Service),
-which uses port 8000. If you haven't, you need to change your browser to the
-new port number, or alternately change Privoxy's "listen-address" setting in
-the config file used to start Privoxy.
+ * Privoxy is not running. Solution: verify that Privoxy is installed
+ correctly, has not crashed, and is indeed running. Look at Privoxy's logs
+ to see what they say.
+
+ * Or your browser is configured for a different port than what Privoxy is
+ using. Solution: verify that Privoxy and your browser are set to the same
+ port (listen-address).
+
+ * Or if using a forwarding rule, you have a configuration problem or a
+ problem with a host in the forwarding chain. Solution: temporarily alter
+ your configuration and take the forwarders out of the equation.
+
+ * Or you have a firewall that is interfering and blocking you. Solution: try
+ disabling or removing the firewall as a simple test.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.2. Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?
+
+More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has
+been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running! The solution is to
+either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
+something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products
+may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-5.2. I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is still getting through.
+5.3. I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is still getting through.
How?
If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be held
in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without the need
-for any request to the server, and Privoxy will not be in the picture. The best
-thing to do is try flushing the browser's caches. And then try again.
+for any request to the server, and Privoxy will not be involved. Flush the
+browser's caches, and then try again.
If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you applied. Try
pasting the full URL of the offending ad into http://config.privoxy.org/
-show-url-info and see if any actions match your new rule.
+show-url-info and see if it really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like
+blocking spam: a lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game. And
+remember you need to block the URL of the ad in question, which may be entirely
+different from the site URL itself. Most ads are hosted on different servers
+than the main site itself. If you right-click on the ad, you should be able to
+get all the relevant information you need. Alternately, you can find the
+correct URL by looking at Privoxy's logs.
+
+Below is a slightly modified real-life log snippet that originates with one
+requested URL: www.example.com (name of site was changed for this example, the
+number of requests is real). You can see in this the complexity of what goes
+into making up this one "page". There are eight different domains involved
+here, with thirty two separate URLs requested in all, making up all manner of
+images, Shockwave Flash, JavaScript, CSS stylesheets, scripts, and other
+related content. Some of this content is obviously "good" or "bad", but not
+all. Many of the more questionable looking requests, are going to outside
+domains that seem to be identifying themselves with suspicious looking names,
+making our job a little easier. Privoxy has "crunched" (meaning caught and
+BLOCKED) quite a few items in this example, but perhaps missed a few as well.
+
+Request: www.example.com/
+Request: www.example.com/favicon.ico
+Request: img.example.com/main.css
+Request: img.example.com/sr.js
+Request: example.betamarker.com/example.html
+Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/bestsellers/skyscraper.php?likref=BSellers
+Request: img.example.com/pb.png
+Request: www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js crunch!
+Request: www.advertising-department.com/ats/switch.ps.php?26856 crunch!
+Request: img.example.com/p.gif
+Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example&mode=behind crunch!
+Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=5c3cf&tmpl=PBa.tmpl crunch!
+Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example crunch!
+Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/best_sellers.css
+Request: www.adtrak.net/adx.js crunch!
+Request: img.example.com/hbg.gif
+Request: img.example.com/example.jpg
+Request: img.example.com/mt.png
+Request: img.example.com/mm.png
+Request: img.example.com/mb.png
+Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=a71b91fa5&tmpl=Ua.tmp crunch!
+Request: www.example.com/tracker.js
+Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/lsi_head.gif
+Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=020548130&what=zone:61 crunch!
+Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=463594413&what=zone:58&source=Ua crunch!
+Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/bottomani.swf
+Request: mmm.elitemediagroup.net/install.php?allowpop=no&popupmincook=0&allowsp2=1 crunch!
+Request: www.example.com/tracker.js?screen=1400x1050&win=962x693
+Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=61 crunch!
+Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=5c3cf599a9efd0320d26&si
+Request: 66.70.21.80/img/pixel.gif
+Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=58&source=Ua&block=86400 crunch!
+Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=a71b9f6504b0c5681fa5&si=Ua
+
+Despite 12 out of 32 requests being blocked, the page looked, and seemed to
+behave perfectly "normal" (minus some ads, of course).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-5.3. One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy. What can I do?
+5.4. One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy. What can I do?
+
+First verify that it is indeed a Privoxy problem, by toggling off Privoxy
+through http://config.privoxy.org/toggle, and then shift-reloading the problem
+page (i.e. holding down the shift key while clicking reload. Alternatively,
+flush your browser's disk and memory caches).
+
+If the problem went away, we know we have a configuration related problem. Now
+go to http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info and paste the full URL of the
+page in question into the prompt. See which actions are being applied to the
+URL, and which matches in which actions files are responsible for that. It
+might be helpful also to look at your logs for this site too, to see what else
+might be happening. Many sites are complex and require a number of related
+pages to help present their content. Look at what else might be used by the
+page in question, and what of that might be required. Now, armed with this
+information, go to http://config.privoxy.org/show-status and select the
+appropriate actions files for editing.
+
+You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that you
+suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there, or make up
+a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended way is to
+disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only if the
+problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have identified the
+culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions on again. Remember
+to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
-First verify that it is indeed a Privoxy problem, by disabling Privoxy
-filtering and blocking. Go to http://p.p/ and click on "Toggle Privoxy On or
-Off", then disable it. Now try that page again. It's probably a good idea to
-flush the browser cache as well.
+Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish the
+same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest way to
+deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your site to a { fragile
+} section in user.action, which is an alias that turns off most "dangerous"
+actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus
+lower your privacy and protection more than necessary,
-If still a problem, go to "Show which actions apply to a URL and why" from
-http://p.p/ and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See
-which actions are being applied to the URL. Now, armed with this information,
-go to "Edit the actions list". Here you should see various sections that have
-various Privoxy features disabled for specific sites. Most disabled "actions"
-will have a "-" (minus sign) in front of them. Some aliases are used just to
-disable other actions, e.g. "shop" and "fragile", and won't necessarily use a
-"+" or "-" sign. Add your problem page URL to one of these sections that looks
-like it is disabling the feature that is causing the problem. Rember to flush
-your browser's caches when making such changes! As a last resort, try "fragile"
-which disables most actions. Now re-try the page. There might be some trial and
-error involved. This is discussed in a little more detail in the user-manual
-appendix.
+Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the User Manual
+appendix, Troubleshooting: the Anatomy of an Action. There is also an actions
+tutorial with general configuration information and examples.
-Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish the
-same thing by editing the appropriate "actions" file.
+As a last resort, you can always see if your browser has a setting that will
+bypass the proxy setting for selective sites. Modern browsers can do this.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.5. After installing Privoxy, I have to log in every time I start IE. What
+gives?
+
+This is a quirk that effects the installation of Privoxy, in conjunction with
+Internet Explorer and Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows
+XP. The symptoms may appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or
+passwords.
+
+When setting up an NT based Windows system with Privoxy you may find that
+things do not seem to be doing what you expect. When you set your system up you
+will probably have set up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up
+Networking (DUN) when logged in with administrator privileges. You will
+probably have made this DUN connection available to other accounts that you may
+have set-up on your system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes
+accounts suitably configured for the kids.
+
+When setting up Privoxy in this environment you will have to alter the proxy
+set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the specific DUN connection on which you
+wish to use Privoxy. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up becomes user specific.
+In this instance you will see no difference if you change the DUN connection
+under the account used to set-up the connection. However when you do this from
+another user you will notice that the DUN connection changes to make available
+to "Me only". You will also find that you have to store the password under each
+different user!
+
+The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
+set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for each
+user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations rather than
+common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after re-booting
+your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for the password.
+Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.
+
+[Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-5.4. Where can I get help? Report bugs? Feature Requests? Etc?
+5.6. I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy is blocking me.
+
+Privoxy cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic, so do not configure your browser
+to use Privoxy as an FTP proxy. The same is true for any protocol other than
+HTTP or HTTPS (SSL).
+
+Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with a
+URL like ftp://ftp.example.com, your browser is making an FTP connection, and
+not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may speak FTP, Privoxy does not,
+and cannot proxy such traffic.
-Feedback is encouraged, whether good, bad or ugly. Please see the contact page
-in the user-manual for details.
+To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic "proxy" setting, which
+will enable various protocols, including both HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is
+possible to accidentally enable FTP proxying in these cases. And of course, if
+this happens, Privoxy will indeed cause problems since it does not know FTP.
+Newer version will give a sane error message if a FTP connection is attempted.
+Just disable the FTP setting and all will be well again.
+
+Will Privoxy ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely. There just is not much reason,
+and the work to make this happen is more than it may seem.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-5.5. What time is it?
+5.7. In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use Privoxy
+as the HTTP proxy.
-Time for you to go!
+Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide network
+settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System Preferences, and click
+on the Network icon. In the settings pane that comes up, click on the Proxies
+tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox is checked and enter 127.0.0.1 in
+the entry field. Enter 8118 in the Port field. The next time you start IE, it
+should reflect these values.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-7. Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
+5.8. In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
+uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
+empty the trash.
-We value your feedback. However, to provide you with the best support, please
-note:
+Just dragging the Privoxy folder to the trash is not enough to delete it.
+Privoxy supplies an uninstall.command file that takes care of these details.
+Open the trash, drag the uninstall.command file out of the trash and
+double-click on it. You will be prompted for confirmation and the
+administration password.
- * Use the Sourceforge Support Forum to get help:
-
- http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=211118
-
+The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash from the
+desktop should make it appear empty again.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.9. In Mac OSX Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I experience
+random delays in page loading. I'm using localhost as my browser's proxy
+setting.
+
+We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in OSX, but don't fully
+understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to 127.0.0.1
+instead of localhost works around the problem.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.10. I get a completely blank page at one site. "View Source" shows only:
+<html><body></body></html>. Without Privoxy the page loads fine.
+
+Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in PHP, which results in empty
+pages being sent if the client explicitly requests an uncompressed page, like
+Privoxy does. This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
+
+To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding the site
+to a -prevent-compression section in user.action:
+
+ # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
+ #
+ {-prevent-compression}
+ .example.com
+
+If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the site's
+webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression instead of ob_gzhandler
+in their PHP applications (workaround) or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.11. My logs show many "Unable to get my own hostname" lines. Why?
+
+Privoxy tries to get the hostname of the system its running on from the IP
+address of the system interface it is bound to (from the config file
+listen-address setting). If the system cannot supply this information, Privoxy
+logs this condition.
+
+Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration error. It is
+not a fatal error to Privoxy however, but may result in a much slower response
+from Privoxy on some platforms due to DNS timeouts.
+
+This can be caused by a problem with the local HOSTS file. If this file has
+been changed from the original, try reverting it to see if that helps. Make
+sure whatever name(s) are used for the local system, that they resolve both
+ways.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.12. When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an error message "port 8118 is
+already in use" (or similar wording). Why?
+
+Port 8118 is Privoxy's default TCP "listening" port. Typically this message
+would mean that there is already one instance of Privoxy running, and your
+system is actually trying to start a second Privoxy on the same port, which
+will not work. (You can have multiple instances but they must be assigned
+different ports.) How and why this might happen varies from platform to
+platform, but you need to check your installation and start-up procedures.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.13. Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.
+
+This is caused by the "demoronizer" filter. You should either upgrade Privoxy,
+or at least upgrade to the most recent default.action file available from
+SourceForge. Or you can simply disable the demoronizer filter.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.14. Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy is used?
+
+This may also be caused by the "demoronizer" filter, in conjunction with a web
+server that is misreporting a file type. Binary files are exempted from
+Privoxy's filtering (unless the web server by mistake says the file is
+something else). Either upgrade Privoxy, or go to the most recent
+default.action file available from SourceForge.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.15. What is the "demoronizer" and why is it there?
+
+The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
+were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary
+extensions to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused
+problems for pages that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are
+expecting to see a standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these
+errors so the pages displayed correctly. Privoxy borrowed from this script,
+introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
+correct these errors on the fly.
+
+But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in
+some other situations.
+
+If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
+pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will cause
+corruption of the fonts, and thus should not be on.
+
+On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
+notice wierd characters on pages, you might want to try it.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.16. Why do I keep seeing "PrivoxyWindowOpen()" in raw source code?
+
+Privoxy is attempting to disable malicious Javascript in this case, with the
+unsolicited-popups filter. Privoxy cannot tell very well "good" code snippets
+from "bad" code snippets.
+
+If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
+this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this where
+it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file, then
+you should set an exception for this site or page such that the integrity of
+the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.17. I am getting too many DNS errors like "404 No Such Domain". Why can't
+Privoxy do this better?
+
+There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS resolution is
+done by the underlying operating system -- not Privoxy itself. Privoxy merely
+initiates the process and hands it off, and then later reports whatever the
+outcome was. And tries to give a coherent message if there seems to be a
+problem. In some cases, this might otherwise be mitigated by the browser itself
+which might try some work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g adding "www."
+to the URL). In other cases, if Privoxy is being chained with another proxy,
+this could complicate the issue, and cause undue delays and timeouts. In the
+case of a "socks4a" proxy, the socks server handles all the DNS. Privoxy would
+just be the "messenger" which is reporting whatever problem occurred
+downstream, and not the root cause of the error.
+
+In any case, newer versions include various improvements to help Privoxy better
+handle these cases.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.18. At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking all CPU. Why is this?
+
+This is probably a manifestation of the "100% cpu" problem that occurs on pages
+containing many (thousands upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines are
+in the raw HTML source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the
+pattern matching in Privoxy's page filtering mechanism is trying to match
+against absurdly long strings and this becomes very CPU-intensive, taking a
+long, long time to complete. Until a better solution comes along, disable
+filtering on these pages, particularly the js-annoyances and unsolicited-popups
+filters.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.19. I just installed Privoxy, and all my browsing has slowed to a crawl. What
+gives?
+
+This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users world-wide, it
+does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent interaction of software
+components such as anti-virus software, spyware protectors, personal firewalls
+or similar components. Try disabling (or uninstalling) these one at a time and
+see if that helps.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.20. Why do my filters work on some sites but not on others?
+
+It's probably due to compression. It is a common practice for web servers to
+send their content "compressed" in order to speed things up, and then let the
+browser "uncompress" them. Privoxy does not (yet) support compression. But we
+can force the web server to bend to our will ;-) So for filtering, make sure
+you have prevent-compression turned ON!
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+6. Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
+
+We value your feedback. In fact, we rely on it to improve Privoxy and its
+configuration. However, please note the following hints, so we can provide you
+with the best support:
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+6.1. Get Support
+
+For casual users, our support forum at SourceForge is probably best suited:
+http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=211118
+
+All users are of course welcome to discuss their issues on the users mailing
+list, where the developers also hang around.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+6.2. Reporting Problems
+
+"Problems" for our purposes, come in two forms:
+
+ * Configuration issues, such as ads that slip through, or sites that don't
+ function properly due to one Privoxy "action" or another being turned "on".
- * Submit bugs only through our Sourceforge Bug Forum:
-
- http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=111118.
-
+ * "Bugs" in the programming code that makes up Privoxy, such as that might
+ cause a crash.
- Make sure that the bug has not already been submitted. Please try to verify
- that it is a Privoxy bug, and not a browser or site bug first. If you are
- using your own custom configuration, please try the stock configs to see if
- the problem is a configuration related bug. And if not using the latest
- development snapshot, please try the latest one. Or even better, CVS
- sources. Please be sure to include the Privoxy/Junkbuster version,
- platform, browser, any pertinent log data, any other relevant details
- (please be specific) and, if possible, some way to reproduce the bug.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+6.2.1. Reporting Ads or Other Configuration Problems
+
+Please send feedback on ads that slipped through, innocent images that were
+blocked, sites that don't work properly, and other configuration related
+problem of default.action file, to http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=
+11118&atid=460288, the Actions File Tracker.
+
+New, improved default.action files may occasionally be made available based on
+your feedback. These will be announced on the ijbswa-announce list and
+available from our the files section of our project page.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+6.2.2. Reporting Bugs
+
+Please report all bugs only through our bug tracker: http://sourceforge.net/
+tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=111118.
+
+Before doing so, please make sure that the bug has not already been submitted
+and observe the additional hints at the top of the submit form. If already
+submitted, please feel free to add any info to the original report that might
+help to solve the issue.
+
+Please try to verify that it is a Privoxy bug, and not a browser or site bug
+first. If unsure, try toggling off Privoxy, and see if the problem persists. If
+you are using your own custom configuration, please try the stock configs to
+see if the problem is configuration related.
+
+If not using the latest version, the bug may have been found and fixed in the
+meantime. We would appreciate if you could take the time to upgrade to the
+latest version (or even the latest CVS snapshot) and verify your bug.
+
+Please be sure to provide the following information:
+
+ * The exact Privoxy version of the proxy software (if you got the source from
+ CVS, please also provide the source code revisions as shown in http://
+ config.privoxy.org/show-version).
- * Submit feature requests only through our Sourceforge feature request
- forum:
-
- http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=361118&group_id=11118&func=browse.
-
+ * The operating system and versions you run Privoxy on, (e.g. Windows XP
+ SP2), if you are using a Unix flavor, sending the output of "uname -a"
+ should do.
- * We will soon have an automated way to submit advertisements, incorrectly
- blocked images, popups and the like. Check back.
-
+ * The name, platform, and version of the browser you were using (e.g.
+ Internet Explorer v5.5 for Mac).
+
+ * The URL where the problem occurred, or some way for us to duplicate the
+ problem (e.g. http://somesite.example.com/?somethingelse=123).
+
+ * Whether your version of Privoxy is one supplied by the developers of
+ Privoxy via SourceForge, or somewhere else.
- * For any other issues, feel free to use the mailing lists:
-
- http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=11118.
-
+ * Whether you are using Privoxy in tandem with another proxy such as Tor. If
+ so, please try disabling the other proxy.
- Anyone interested in actively participating in development and related
- discussions can also join the appropriate mailing list. Archives are
- available too.
+ * Whether you are using a personal firewall product. If so, does Privoxy work
+ without it?
+ * Any other pertinent information to help identify the problem such as config
+ or log file excerpts (yes, you should have log file entries for each action
+ taken).
+
+ * Please provide your SF login, or email address, in case we need to contact
+ you.
+
+The appendix of the Privoxy User Manual also has helpful information on
+understanding actions, and action debugging.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+6.3. Request New Features
+
+You are welcome to submit ideas on new features or other proposals for
+improvement through our feature request tracker at http://sourceforge.net/
+tracker/?atid=361118&group_id=11118.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+6.4. Other
+
+For any other issues, feel free to use the mailing lists. Technically
+interested users and people who wish to contribute to the project are also
+welcome on the developers list! You can find an overview of all Privoxy-related
+mailing lists, including list archives, at: http://sourceforge.net/mail/?
+group_id=11118.
+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-8. Copyright and History
+7. Privoxy Copyright, License and History
-8.1. Copyright
+Copyright © 2001 - 2006 by Privoxy Developers <
+ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net>
+
+Some source code is based on code Copyright © 1997 by Anonymous Coders and
+Junkbusters, Inc. and licensed under the GNU General Public License.
+
+Portions of this document are "borrowed" from the original Junkbuster (tm) FAQ,
+and modified as appropriate for Privoxy.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.1. License
Privoxy is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
-terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
-Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
-version.
+terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2, as published by the Free
+Software Foundation.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details, which
-is available from the Free Software Foundation, Inc, 59 Temple Place - Suite
-330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
+is available from the Free Software Foundation, Inc, 51 Franklin Street, Fifth
+Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
-this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple
-Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.
+this program; if not, write to the
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Free Software
+ Foundation, Inc. 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
+ Boston, MA 02110-1301
+ USA
-8.2. History
-
-Privoxy is evolved, and derived from, the Internet Junkbuster, with many
-improvments and enhancements over the original.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Junkbuster was originally written by Anonymous Coders and Junkbuster's
-Corporation, and was released as free open-source software under the GNU GPL.
-Stefan Waldherr made many improvements, and started the SourceForge project
-Privoxy to rekindle development. There are now several active developers
-contributing. The last stable release of Junkbuster was v2.0.2, which has now
-grown whiskers ;-).
+7.2. History
+
+A long time ago, there was the Internet Junkbuster, by Anonymous Coders and
+Junkbusters Corporation. This saved many users a lot of pain in the early days
+of web advertising and user tracking.
+
+But the web, its protocols and standards, and with it, the techniques for
+forcing ads on users, give up autonomy over their browsing, and for tracking
+them, keeps evolving. Unfortunately, the Internet Junkbuster did not. Version
+2.0.2, published in 1998, was (and is) the last official release available from
+Junkbusters Corporation. Fortunately, it had been released under the GNU GPL,
+which allowed further development by others.
+
+So Stefan Waldherr started maintaining an improved version of the software, to
+which eventually a number of people contributed patches. It could already
+replace banners with a transparent image, and had a first version of pop-up
+killing, but it was still very closely based on the original, with all its
+limitations, such as the lack of HTTP/1.1 support, flexible per-site
+configuration, or content modification. The last release from this effort was
+version 2.0.2-10, published in 2000.
+
+Then, some developers picked up the thread, and started turning the software
+inside out, upside down, and then reassembled it, adding many new features
+along the way.
+
+The result of this is Privoxy, whose first stable version, 3.0, was released
+August, 2002.
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff