+Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions
+
+Copyright © 2001-2006 by Privoxy Developers
+
+$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.23 2006/10/21 22:19:52 hal9 Exp $
+
+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, 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 Internet Junkbuster (tm).
+
+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. 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?
+ 1.13. 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?
+
+ 1.17.1. 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 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. What exactly is an "actions" file?
+ 3.2. The "actions" concept confuses me. Please list some of these
+ "actions".
+ 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.
+ 3.14. 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 notice considerable delays in page requests compared to the old
+ Junkbuster. What's wrong?
+ 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?
+ 4.17. 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 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?
+ 5.4. 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. Privoxy Copyright, License and 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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.2. 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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.5. 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.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.7. 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 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 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.
+
+Privoxy's new features include:
+
+ * 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.)
+
+ * 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 (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.
+
+ * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
+
+ * GIF de-animation.
+
+ * Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
+
+ * Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
+
+ * User-customizable HTML templates for all proxy-generated pages (e.g.
+ "blocked" page).
+
+ * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
+
+ * Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
+
+ * Every feature now controllable on a per-site or per-location basis,
+ configuration more powerful and versatile over-all.
+
+ * Many smaller new features added, limitations and bugs removed, and security
+ holes fixed.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.8. How does Privoxy know what is an ad, and what is not?
+
+Privoxy's approach to blocking ads is twofold:
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
+and readily configurable.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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 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
+flexible, and includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they
+can be addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation. (See
+the Troubleshooting section below.)
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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
+this is adequate for you. But Privoxy is much more versatile and powerful, and
+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 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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.14. 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. 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.
+Privoxy really is free in every respect!
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.15. Can Privoxy remove spyware? Adware? Viruses?
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.17. 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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.17.3. Software
+
+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. Installation
+
+2.1. Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?
+
+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 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
+always a possibility.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2.3. Can I use Privoxy with my email client?
+
+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?
+
+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 un-install Junkbuster, if present!
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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 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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2.6. 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
+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" 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, 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 any other protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM,
+IRC, ICQ, etc. Be sure that proxying any of these other protocols is not
+activated.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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 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. 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.
+
+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. 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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.3. How are actions files configured? What is the easiest way to do this?
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.4. 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.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.5. Where can I get updated Actions Files?
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.6. Can I use my old config files?
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Refer to the What's New page for information on configuration changes that may
+occur from one release to another.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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?
+
+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 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 in the default configuration, only local users (i.e. those on
+"localhost") can connect to Privoxy, so this is not (normally) a security
+problem.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.11. What is the default.filter file? What is a "filter"?
+
+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 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.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.12. How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN?
+
+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!
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.13. Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see
+anything.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.15. I see some images being replaced by a text instead of the checkerboard
+image. Why and how do I get rid of this?
+
+This 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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.16. Can Privoxy run as a service on Win2K/NT/XP?
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.17. How can I make Privoxy work with other proxies like Squid or Tor?
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.18. Can I just set Privoxy to use port 80 and thus avoid individual browser
+configuration?
+
+No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special kinds of
+proxies known as "transparent" proxies (see below).
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.19. Can Privoxy run as a "transparent" proxy?
+
+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.
+
+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/).
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.20. How can I configure Privoxy for use with Outlook Express?
+
+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. Miscellaneous
+
+4.1. How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This has to add extra time to
+browsing.
+
+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" 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 notice considerable delays in page requests compared to the old
+Junkbuster. What's wrong?
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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.
+
+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".
+
+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 and later), the user interface
+features information on the run time status, the configuration, and even a
+built-in editor for the actions files.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.4. How can I submit new ads, or report problems?
+
+Please see the Contact section for various ways to interact with the
+developers.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.5. If I do submit missed ads, will they be included in future updates?
-Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions
+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.
- By: Privoxy Developers
-
- $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa Exp $
-
- The FAQ document gives users and developers alike answers to
- frequently asked questions about Privoxy. Privoxy is a web proxy with
- advanced filtering capabilities for protecting privacy, filtering web
- page content, 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.
-
- You can find the latest version of the document at
- [1]http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/. Please see the Contact section
- in the [2]user-manual if you want to contact the developers.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Table of Contents
- 1. [3]Frequently Asked Questions
-
- 1.1. [4]General Information
-
- 1.1.1. [5]What is this new version of Privoxy?
- 1.1.2. [6]How does it differ from the old Junkbuster?
- 1.1.3. [7]What are some of the new features?
- 1.1.4. [8]What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
- 1.1.5. [9]My browser does the same things as Privoxy. Why
- should I use Privoxy at all?
-
- 1.1.6. [10]Is there is a license or fee? What about a
- warranty? Registration?
-
- 1.1.7. [11]I would like to help you, what do I do?
-
- 1.2. [12]Installation
-
- 1.2.1. [13]Can I install the new Privoxy over the old one?
- 1.2.2. [14]I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything
- special I have to do now?
-
- 1.2.3. [15]What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
- 1.2.4. [16]I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is
- happening. All the ads are there. What's wrong?
-
- 1.3. [17]Configuration
-
- 1.3.1. [18]Can I use my old config files?
- 1.3.2. [19]What is an "actions" file?
- 1.3.3. [20]The "actions"concept confuses me. Please list
- some of these "actions".
-
- 1.3.4. [21]How are actions files configured? What is the
- easiest way to do this?
-
- 1.3.5. [22]What are the differences between
- intermediate.action, basic.action, etc.?
-
- 1.3.6. [23]Why can I change the configuration with a
- browser? Does that not raise security issues?
-
- 1.3.7. [24]How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for
- my LAN?
-
- 1.3.8. [25]Instead of ads, now I get a Privoxy logo [or
- checkerboard]. I don't want to see anything.
-
- 1.3.9. [26]Why would anybody want to see the logo or
- checkerboard?
-
- 1.3.10. [27]I see large red banners on some pages that say
- "Blocked". How do I get rid of this?
-
- 1.4. [28]Misc
-
- 1.4.1. [29]How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down?
- This has to add extra time to browsing.
-
- 1.4.2. [30]I noticed considerable delays in page requests
- compared to the old Junkbuster. What's wrong?
-
- 1.4.3. [31]What is the "http://i.j.b/"?
- 1.4.4. [32]Do you still maintain the blocklists?
- 1.4.5. [33]How can I submit new ads?
- 1.4.6. [34]How can I hide my IP address?
- 1.4.7. [35]Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?
- 1.4.8. [36]Might some things break because header
- information is being altered?
-
- 1.4.9. [37]Can Privoxy act as a "caching" proxy to speed up
- web browsing?
-
- 1.4.10. [38]What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect
- me?
-
- 1.4.11. [39]The Privoxy logo that replaces ads is very
- blocky and ugly looking. Can't a better font be
- used?
-
- 1.4.12. [40]I have large empty spaces now where ads used to
- be. Why does Privoxy leave these large gaps?
-
- 1.4.13. [41]How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?
- 1.4.14. [42]Privoxy runs as a "server". How secure is it?
- Do I need to take any special precautions?
-
- 1.4.15. [43]What is a "default.filter"?
-
- 1.5. [44]Troubleshooting
-
- 1.5.1. [45]I just upgraded and am getting "connection
- refused" with every web page?
-
- 1.5.2. [46]I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
- still getting through. How?
-
- 1.5.3. [47]One of my favorite sites does not work with
- Privoxy. What can I do?
-
- 1.5.4. [48]What time is it?
-
- 2. [49]Contact the developers
- 3. [50]Copyright and History
- 4. [51]See also
-
-1. Frequently Asked Questions
-
-1.1. General Information
-
-1.1.1. What is this new version of Privoxy?
-
- The original Internet Junkbuster (tm) is a coyrighted product of
- [52]Junkbusters Corporation. Development of this effort stopped some
- time ago as of version 2.0.2. Stefan Waldherr started the ijbswa
- project on [53]Sourceforge to rekindle development. Other developers
- subsequently joined with Stefan, and have since added many new
- features, refinements and enhancements.
-
- The new Privoxy started with the same code base, but has changed
- significantly at this point.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.1.2. How does it differ from the old Junkbuster?
-
- 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.
-
- The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something
- that users will notice right off the bat. 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.1.3. What are some of the new features?
-
- * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility
- ([54]http://i.j.b). Browser-based tracing of rule and filter
- effects.
- * Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
- * HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 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.
- * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size,
- invisible "web-bugs", JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse, etc.)
- * 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 (e.g. 404 error page).
- * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
- * 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.
- * In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile
- over-all.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.1.4. What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
-
- 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.
-
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.1.5. 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 this is adequate for you. But Privoxy is much more
- verstatile and powerful, and 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.1.6. 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. See [55]http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html for
- specifics.
-
- There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
- That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no
- registration either. Privoxy really is free in every respect!
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.1.7. I would like to help you, what do I do?
-
-1.1.7.1. Money Money Money
-
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.1.7.2. You want to work with us?
-
- 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 developers manual.
-
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.2. Installation
-
-1.2.1. Can I install the new Privoxy over the old one?
-
- We recommend you uninstall the old Junkbuster first to minimize
- conflicts and confusion. You may want to save your old configuration
- files for future reference. The configuration is substantially
- changed.
-
- See the [56]user-manual for platform specific installation
- instructions. [FIXME: This is meant for after the name change for
- 3.0!]
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.2.2. 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.2.3. 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).
-
- 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 Interenet.
-
- 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.
-
- Privoxy does not currently handle protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM,
- IRC, ICQ, or other Internet protocols.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.2.4. 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: [57]http://i.j.b/. 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3. Configuration
-
-1.3.1. Can I use my old config files?
-
- There are major changes to Junkbuster configuration from version 2.0.x
- to 2.9.x and later. The older files will not work at all. 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3.2. What is an "actions" file?
-
- "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.
-
- Privoxy comes with several default actions files, with varying degrees
- of filtering and blocking, as starting points for your own
- configuration (see below).
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3.3. The "actions"concept confuses me. Please list some of these
-"actions".
-
- These are all explained in the [58]user-manual. Please refer to that.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3.4. How are actions files configured? What is the easiest way to do this?
-
- The easiest way to do this, is to access Privoxy with your web browser
- at [59]http://i.j.b/, and then select "[60]Edit the actions list" from
- the selection list. You can also do this by editing the appropriate
- file with a text editor.
-
- Please see the [61]user-manual for a detailed explanation of these and
- other configuration files, and their various options and syntax.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3.5. What are the differences between intermediate.action, basic.action,
-etc.?
-
- 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.
-
- Table 1. Default Configurations
- 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 +no-cookies-keep (i.e. session cookies only) ? x x x
- 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 ?
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3.6. 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 perms.
-
- 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.
-
- Note that normally only local users can connect to Privoxy, so this is
- not (normally) a security problem.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3.7. 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:
-
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3.8. Instead of ads, now I get a Privoxy logo [or checkerboard]. I don't
-want to see anything.
-
- This is a configuration option for images that Privoxy is stopping.
- You have the choice of the Privoxy logo, a checkerboard pattern (this
- scales better), a transparent 1x1 GIF image, or a custom URL or your
- choice.
-
- 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 [62]http://i.j.b/. Or by hand editing the appropriate
- actions file. This will only effect what is defined as "images"
- though.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3.9. Why would anybody want to see the logo or checkerboard?
-
- 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 inadvertantly
- removing something important.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3.10. I see large red banners on some pages that say "Blocked". How do I
-get rid of this?
-
- 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 as "images" (e.g. ad banners).
- If you want them to be treated as if they were images, so that they
- can be invisible, then move the offending URL from the "+block"
- section to the "+imageblock" section of your actions file.
- Alternately, you could modify the "block" HTML template that is used
- by Privoxy to display this, and make it something more to your liking.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4. Misc
-
-1.4.1. 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.
-
- "Filtering" via the filterfile mechanism may cause a perceived
- slowdown, since the entire page is buffered before displaying. See
- below.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.2. I noticed considerable delays in page requests compared to the old
-Junkbuster. What's wrong?
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.6. Why doesn't anyone answer my support request?
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.7. How can I hide my IP address?
+
+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.
+
+There are many publicly usable "anonymous" proxies out there, which provide a
+further level of indirection between you and the web server.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.8. Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?
+
+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 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
+feature, or are concerned about the mail handler of your browser disclosing
+your email address, you might consider products such as NSClean.
+
+Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give out
+any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
+agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
+that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
+source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
+Luke!
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.9. A test site says I am not using a Proxy.
+
+Good! Actually, they are probably testing for some other kinds of proxies.
+Hiding yourself completely would require additional steps.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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.*.*.*/ .
+
+
+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/ .
+
- 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.
-
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.3. What is the "http://i.j.b/"?
-
- Since Privoxy sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can
- be programmed to handle certain pages specially.
-
- With recent versions of Privoxy (version 2.9.x), you can get some
- information about Privoxy and change some settings by going to
- http://i.j.b/ or, equivalently, http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/
- (Note that i.j.b is far easier to type but may not work in some
- configurations).
-
- 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.
-
- If you are not running Privoxy, then http://i.j.b/ will fail, and
- http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/ will return a web page telling
- you you're not running Privoxy.
-
- 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.x).
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.4. Do you still maintain the blocklists?
-
- No. The format of the blocklists has changed significantly in the
- versions 2.9.x. Once we have released the new version, there will
- again be blocklists that you can update automatically.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.5. How can I submit new ads?
-
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.6. 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.
-
- 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.
-
- 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.
-
- You can find a list of anonymous public proxies at [63]multiproxy.org
- and many more through Google.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.7. 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.
-
- Privoxy can remove various information about you, and allows you more
- freedom to decide which sites you can trust. But it's still possible
- that web sites can find out who you are. Here's one way this can
- happen.
-
- 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 feature, or are concerned about the mail
- handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
- consider products such as NSClean.
-
- Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to
- give out any information they can have access to: see the
- manufacturer's license agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and
- prevent every breach of privacy that might occur. The professionally
- paranoid prefer browsers available as source code, because
- anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source, Luke!
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.8. Might some things break because header information is being altered?
-
- 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.
-
- "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.
-
- For instance, 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 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.
-
- 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 required, but by no means the only one.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.9. 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
- [64]Squid for this. And, yes, before you ask, Privoxy can co-exist
- with other kinds of proxies like "Squid".
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.10. 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.11. The Privoxy logo that replaces ads is very blocky and ugly looking.
-Can't a better font be used?
-
- 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
- chosing.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.12. I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be. Why does Privoxy
-leave these large gaps?
-
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.13. How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?
-
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.14. Privoxy runs as a "server". How secure is it? Do I need to take any
+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
+if unavailable. The weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their
+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
+required, but by no means the only one.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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. See the forwarding chapter in the user manual for details.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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. Privoxy can help
+protect your privacy, but not protect you from intrusion attempts. It is, of
+course, perfectly possible and recommended to use both.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.14. I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where ads used to
+be. Why?
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.15. How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.16. 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, 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". It 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.15. What is a "default.filter"?
-
- The "default.filter" is used to "filter" any 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. This is potentially a very powerful feature,
- but requires some expertise.
-
- 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.
-
- Presently, there is no GUI editor option for this part of the
- configuration.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.5. Troubleshooting
-
-1.5.1. I just upgraded and am getting "connection refused" with every web
-page?
-
- Either Privoxy is not running, or your browser is configured for a
- different port than what Privoxy is using.
-
- The old Privoxy 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.5.2. 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 flusing 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
- [65]http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info and see if any
- actions match your new rule.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.5.3. One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy. What can I do?
-
- First verify that it is indeed a Privoxy problem, by disabling Privoxy
- filtering and blocking. Go to [66]http://i.j.b/ and click on "Toggle
- Privoxy On or Off", then disable it. Now try that page again.
-
- If still a problem, go to "Show which actions apply to a URL and why"
- from [67]http://i.j.b/ 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. Disabled "actions" will have a "-" (minus
- sign) in front of them. Add your problem page URL to one of these
- sections that looks like it is disabling the feature that is causing
- the problem. Re-try the page. There might be some trial and error
- involved. This is discussed in a little more detail in the
- [68]user-manual appendix.
-
- Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can
- accomplish the same thing by editing the appropriate "actions" file.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.5.4. What time is it?
-
- Time for you to go!
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-2. Contact the developers
-
- Please see the user manual for information on how to contact the
- developers.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-3. Copyright and History
-
- Please see the user manual for information on Copyright and History.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-4. See also
-
- Please see the user manual for information on references.
-
-References
-
- 1. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/
- 2. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/contact.html
- 3. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#QUESTIONS
- 4. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#GENERAL
- 5. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#NEWJB
- 6. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#DIFFERS
- 7. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#FEATURES
- 8. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#PROXYMORON
- 9. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#BROWSERS2
- 10. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#LICENSE
- 11. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#JOINTEAM
- 12. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#INSTALLATION
- 13. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#NEWINSTALL
- 14. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN124
- 15. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#LOCALHOST
- 16. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN149
- 17. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#CONFIGURATION
- 18. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#NEWCONFIG
- 19. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN165
- 20. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#ACTIONSS
- 21. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN183
- 22. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#CONFIGFILES
- 23. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#BROWSECONFIG
- 24. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN300
- 25. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN312
- 26. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN323
- 27. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN328
- 28. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#MISC
- 29. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN341
- 30. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#LOADINGTIMES
- 31. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#CONFIGURL
- 32. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#BLOCKLIST
- 33. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#NEWADS
- 34. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#IP
- 35. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN382
- 36. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN393
- 37. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN403
- 38. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN411
- 39. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN416
- 40. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN424
- 41. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN428
- 42. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN435
- 43. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN447
- 44. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN458
- 45. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN460
- 46. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN472
- 47. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN478
- 48. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN496
- 49. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#CONTACT
- 50. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#COPYRIGHT
- 51. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#SEEALSO
- 52. http://www.junkbusters.com/
- 53. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/
- 54. http://i.j.b/
- 55. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
- 56. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/
- 57. http://i.j.b/
- 58. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE
- 59. http://i.j.b/
- 60. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/edit-actions
- 61. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE
- 62. http://i.j.b/
- 63. http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm
- 64. http://www.squid-cache.org/
- 65. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info
- 66. http://i.j.b/
- 67. http://i.j.b/
- 68. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/appenix.html#ACTIONSANAT
+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" 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
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.23. Should I continue to use a "HOSTS" file for ad-blocking?
+
+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
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.24. 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/faq/, the Privoxy FAQ.
+
+http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/, the Project Page for Privoxy on
+SourceForge.
+
+http://config.privoxy.org/, the web-based user interface. Privoxy must be
+running for this to work. Shortcut: http://p.p/
+
+http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288, to submit "misses"
+and other configuration related suggestions to the developers.
+
+http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html, an explanation how cookies are
+used to track web users.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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 cannot connect to any websites. Or, I am getting "connection refused"
+message with every web page. Why?
+
+There are several possibilities:
+
+ * 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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.3. 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 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 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).
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.4. 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!
+
+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,
+
+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.
+
+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.]
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.6. 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.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.7. In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use Privoxy
+as the HTTP proxy.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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".
+
+ * "Bugs" in the programming code that makes up Privoxy, such as that might
+ cause a crash.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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).
+
+ * 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.
+
+ * 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.
+
+ * Whether you are using Privoxy in tandem with another proxy such as Tor. If
+ so, please try disabling the other proxy.
+
+ * 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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7. Privoxy Copyright, License and History
+
+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, 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, 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. 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
+ Boston, MA 02110-1301
+ USA
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+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