Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions
-[ Copyright 2001-2007 by Privoxy Developers ]
+[ Copyright 2001-2008 by Privoxy Developers ]
-$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.33 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9 Exp $
+$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.37 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9 Exp $
This FAQ gives quick answers to frequently asked questions about Privoxy. It is
not a substitute for the Privoxy User Manual.
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 3.0.7. You can find the latest version of the
+state at the release of version 3.0.8. 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?
+ 1.1. Who should give Privoxy a try?
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?
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?
+ 4.17. 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
1. General Information
-1.1. Who should use Privoxy?
+1.1. Who should give Privoxy a try?
-Anyone that is interested in security, privacy, or in finer-grained control
-over their web and Internet experience. Everyone is encouraged to try Privoxy.
+Anyone who is interested in security, privacy, or in finer-grained control over
+their web and Internet experience.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
+and security. Those with the willingness to read the documentation and the
+ability to fine-tune their installation will benefit the most.
+
+One of Privoxy's strengths 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, 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.
+files. Also note that the web-based action editor doesn't use authentication
+and should only be enabled in environments where all clients with access to
+Privoxy listening port can be trusted.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.3. What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
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"?
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?
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 have all been greatly enhanced, and
-many, many new features have been added, all in the same vein.
+helps protect your privacy. But, most of these features have been enhanced, and
+many new ones have been added, all in the same vein.
Privoxy's new features include:
- • Integrated browser based configuration and control utility at http://
+ * Can be run as an "intercepting" proxy, which obviates the need to configure
+ browsers individually.
+
+ * Sophisticated actions and filters for manipulating both server and client
+ headers.
+
+ * Can be chained with other proxies.
+
+ * 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.)
+ * Web page filtering (text replacements, removes banners based on size,
+ invisible "web-bugs", JavaScript and HTML annoyances, pop-up windows, etc.)
- • Modularized configuration that allows for standard settings and user
+ * 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.
- • Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files,
- and generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
- previous versions.
+ * Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files,
+ and a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax.
- • Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
+ * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
- • GIF de-animation.
+ * GIF de-animation.
- • Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
+ * Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
- • Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
+ * Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
- • User-customizable HTML templates for all proxy-generated pages (e.g.
+ * User-customizable HTML templates for all proxy-generated pages (e.g.
"blocked" page).
- • Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
+ * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
- • Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
+ * Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
- • Every feature now controllable on a per-site or per-location basis,
+ * 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
+ * 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?
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.
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.
+That depends on your expectations. The default installation should give you a
+good starting point, and block most ads and unwanted content, but many of the
+more advanced features are off by default, and 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!
+your individual situation. And we 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?
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.
+this is adequate for you. But Privoxy is very versatile and powerful, and can
+probably do a number of things your browser 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.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+Note, however, that it's recommended to leverage both your browser's and
+Privoxy's privacy enhancing features at the same time. While your browser
+probably lacks some features Privoxy offers, it should also be able to do some
+things more reliable, for example restricting and suppressing JavaScript.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.13. Why should I trust Privoxy?
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) version 2. 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.
+Privoxy is free software and licensed under the GNU General Public License
+(GPL) version 2. 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?
Privoxy could help prevent contact from (known) sites that use such tactics
with appropriate configuration rules, and thus could conceivably prevent
-contamination from such sites.
+contamination from such sites. However, keeping such a configuration up to date
+would require a lot of time and effort that would be better spend on keeping
+your software itself up to date so it doesn't have known vulnerabilities.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.16. Can I use Privoxy with other ad-blocking software?
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
+might be better to choose one software or the other and work a little to tweak
its configuration to your liking.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+Note that this is an advice specific to ad blocking.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.17. I would like to help you, what can I do?
developers mailing list. Then, please read the Developer's Manual, at least the
pertinent sections.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+You can also start helping out without SourceForge.net account, simply by
+showing up on the mailing list, helping out other users, providing general
+feedback or reporting problems you noticed.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
+a donation, just drop us a note and get your name on the list of contributors.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.17.3. Software
however, guarantee that we will fix all potential compatibility issues as a
result.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Installation
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?
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?
recommend using email clients that can be configured to convert HTML to plain
text for these reasons.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4. 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
+All browsers should 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.
+browser. It's possible to combine Privoxy with a packet filter to intercept
+HTTP requests even if the client isn't explicitly configured to use Privoxy,
+but where possible, configuring the client is recommended. See the User Manual
+for more details. You should also flush your browser's memory and disk cache to
+get rid of any cached junk items, and remove any stored cookies.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.5. What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
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).
+(unless you used the listen-address config option to tell Privoxy to run on a
+different port).
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
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.
+IRC, ICQ, etc.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.6. I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening. All the ads are there.
What's wrong?
starting Privoxy and browser configuration, see the chapter on starting Privoxy
in the User Manual.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.7. I get a "Privoxy is not being used" dummy page although Privoxy is running
and being used.
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".
+--> Cache and then click both "Clear Memory Cache" and "Clear Disk Cache". In
+some Firefox versions it's Tools --> Options --> Privacy --> Cache and then
+click "Clear Cache Now".
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Configuration
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".
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?
this feature must be explicitly enabled in the main config file (see
enable-edit-actions).
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.4. There are several different "actions" files. What are the differences?
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?
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 roughly the same
throughout the 3.x series, but backwards compatibility is not guaranteed. Also
each release contains updated, "improved" versions and it is therefore strongly
-recommended to use the newer configuration files.
+recommended to install the newer configuration files and merge back your
+modifications.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.7. Why is the configuration so complicated?
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?
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?
"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?
files. Because Privoxy is running as the user "privoxy", it can update its own
config files.
-If you run Privoxy for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in a LAN), you will
-probably want to make sure that the the web-based editor and remote toggle
-features are "off" by setting "enable-edit-actions 0" and "enable-remote-toggle
-0" in the main configuration file.
+If you run Privoxy for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in a LAN) or aren't
+entirely in control of your own browser, you will probably want to make sure
+that the the web-based editor and remote toggle features are "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 (normally) not a security
-problem.
+As of Privoxy 3.0.7 these options are disabled by default.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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. Filters should not be confused with blocks, which is a completely
-different action, and is more typically used to block ads and unwanted sites.
+remove web page content or headers on the fly. Content filters can be applied
+to anything in the page source, header filters can be applied to either server
+or client headers. 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. Content filtering is automatically disabled
+for inappropriate MIME types, but if you now better than Privoxy what should or
+should not be filtered you can filter any content you like.
+
+Filters should not be confused with blocks, which is a completely different
+action, and is more typically used to block ads and unwanted sites.
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
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 Note that the custom actions editor
-must be explicitly enabled in the main config file (see enable-edit-actions).
+file with the web-based actions file editor. Note that the custom actions
+editor must be explicitly enabled in the main config file (see
+enable-edit-actions).
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+If you intend to develop your own filters, you might want to have a look at
+Privoxy-Filter-Test.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.12. How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN?
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.
"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?
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 with text instead of the checkerboard
image. Why and how do I get rid of this?
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?
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?
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 "intercepting" proxies (see below).
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.19. Can Privoxy run as a "transparent" proxy?
However, some people say "transparent proxy" when they mean "intercepting
proxy". If you are one of them, please read the next entry.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.20. Can Privoxy run as a "intercepting" proxy?
intercepted and redirected with a packet filter (like PF or iptables), as long
as the Host header is present.
-As the Host header is required by HTTP/1.1 and as most web sites don't work if
-it isn't set, this limitation shouldn't be a problem.
+As the Host header is required by HTTP/1.1 and as most web sites rely on it
+anyway, this limitation shouldn't be a problem.
Please refer to your packet filter's documentation to learn how to intercept
and redirect traffic into Privoxy. Afterward you just have to configure Privoxy
to accept intercepted requests.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.21. How can I configure Privoxy for use with Outlook Express?
have Privoxy configured to work with IE, this configuration should
automatically be shared.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.22. How can I have separate rules just for HTML mail?
security issues), see http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=211118&
aid=629518&group_id=11118.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.23. I sometimes notice cookies sneaking through. How?
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.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.24. Are all cookies bad? Why?
See the Wikipedia cookie definition for more.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.25. How can I allow permanent cookies for my trusted sites?
you want to happen. user.action includes an alias for this situation, called
allow-all-cookies.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.26. Can I have separate configurations for different users?
Simple enough for a few users, but for large installations, consider having
groups of users that might share like configurations.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.27. Can I set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of "good" sites?
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.
+Another approach is Privoxy's trustfile concept, which incorporates the notion
+of "trusted referrers". See the Trust documentation for details.
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.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.28. How can I turn off ad-blocking?
This last "action" in this compound statement, allow-popups, is an alias that
disables various pop-up blocking features.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.29. 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. Be forewarned that the
-default templates are subject to being overwritten during upgrades. You can,
-however, create completely new templates by specifying an alternate path for
-them in the main config, see the templdir option.
+something about HTML syntax will of course be helpful.
+
+Be forewarned that the default templates are subject to being overwritten
+during upgrades. You can, however, create completely new templates, place them
+in another directory and specify the alternate path in the main config. For
+details, have a look at the templdir option.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.30. How can I remove the "Go There Anyway" link from the BLOCKED page?
-There is more than one way to do it.
+There is more than one way to do it (although Perl is not involved).
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:
+method is easily circumvented. Where you need this level of control, you might
+want to build Privoxy from source, and disable various features that are
+available as compile-time options. You should configure the sources as follows:
./configure --disable-toggle --disable-editor --disable-force
Privoxy does not allow easy bypassing of blocked sites, or changing the current
configuration via any connected user's web browser.
-Note that all of these features can also be toggled on/off via options in
+Finally, all of these features can also be toggled on/off via options in
Privoxy's main config file which means you don't have to recompile anything.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Miscellaneous
Also, when filtering is enabled but zlib support isn't available, compression
is often disabled (see prevent-compression). This can have an impact on speed
-as well. Again, the page size, etc. will determine how much of an impact.
+as well, although it's probably smaller than you might think. Again, the page
+size, etc. will determine how much of an impact.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.2. I notice considerable delays in page requests. What's wrong?
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/"?
not be intercepted, and you have accessed the real web site at
config.privoxy.org.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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?
impact are much less, they are best handled by inclusion in the user's
user.action, and thus would be unlikely to be included.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.6. Why doesn't anyone answer my support request?
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?
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.
+If you want to hide your IP address from most adversaries, you should consider
+chaining Privoxy with Tor. 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.
+No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are improved, but unless you chain
+Privoxy with Tor or a similar proxy and know what you're doing when it comes to
+configuring the rest of your system, you should 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
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?
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.
+for application level security, and why you probably don't want to use it for
+unencrypted logins.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.11. Might some things break because header information or content is being
altered?
The "User-Agent" is sometimes used in this way to identify the browser, and
adjust content accordingly.
-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
+Also, different browsers use different encodings of non-English 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! "
+ways things 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.
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?
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?
Privoxy can help protect your privacy, but can't protect your system from
intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible to use both.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.14. I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where ads used to
be. Why?
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?
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?
be defined in addition, and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe
than sorry.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4.17. How can I temporarily disable Privoxy?
+4.17. 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. Note that this is a
-feature that may need to be enabled in the main config file.
+Privoxy doesn't have a transparent proxy mode, but you can toggle off blocking
+and content filtering.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+The easiest way to do that is to point your browser to 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. Note that this is a feature that may need to be enabled in the main
+config file.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.18. When "disabled" is Privoxy totally out of the picture?
No, this just means all optional 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
+still acting as a proxy, but just doing less 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?
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"?
Since version 3.0.7, Privoxy will also log the crunch reason. If you are using
an older version you might want to upgrade.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.21. Can Privoxy effect files that I download from a webserver? FTP server?
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?
etc.example.com
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.24. Where can I find more information about Privoxy and related issues?
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?
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!
+choosing the "Adventuresome" profile in the web-based editor. Please upgrade.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.26. Does Privoxy produce "valid" HTML (or XHTML)?
to the HTML 4.01 specifications, it has not been validated against this or any
other standard.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Troubleshooting
There are several possibilities:
- • Privoxy is not running. Solution: verify that Privoxy is installed
+ * Privoxy is not running. Solution: verify that Privoxy is installed
correctly, has not crashed, and is indeed running. Turn on Privoxy's
logging, and look at the logs to see what they say.
- • Or your browser is configured for a different port than what Privoxy is
+ * 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
+ * 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
+ * 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?
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?
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?
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?
[Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.6. I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy is blocking me.
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.
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
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
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.
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?
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?
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.
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?
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?
On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
notice weird characters on pages, you might want to try it.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.16. Why do I keep seeing "PrivoxyWindowOpen()" in raw source code?
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?
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.
+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.
+In any case, versions newer than 3.0.3 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?
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?
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?
decompress content before filtering, otherwise you may want to enable
prevent-compression.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
configuration. However, please note the following hints, so we can provide you
with the best support:
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.1. Get Support
get CC'd. Otherwise some responses will be directed to the mailing list only,
and you won't see them.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
+ * 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
+ * "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
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 be sure to provide the following information:
- • The exact Privoxy version you are using (if you got the source from CVS,
+ * The exact Privoxy version you are using (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
+ * 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, in case of GNU/Linux, please also name the distribution.
- • The name, platform, and version of the browser you were using (e.g.
+ * 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
+ * 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 Privoxy developers
+ * Whether your version of Privoxy is one supplied by the Privoxy developers
via SourceForge, or if you got your copy somewhere else.
- • Whether you are using Privoxy in tandem with another proxy such as Tor. If
+ * Whether you are using Privoxy in tandem with another proxy such as Tor. If
so, please temporary disable the other proxy to see if the symptoms change.
- • Whether you are using a personal firewall product. If so, does Privoxy work
+ * 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
+ * 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).
The appendix of the Privoxy User Manual also has helpful information on
understanding actions, and action debugging.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.3. Request New Features
improvement through our feature request tracker at http://sourceforge.net/
tracker/?atid=361118&group_id=11118.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.4. Other
mailing lists, including list archives, at: http://sourceforge.net/mail/?
group_id=11118.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Privoxy Copyright, License and History
-Copyright 2001 - 2007 by Privoxy Developers <
+Copyright 2001-2008 by Privoxy Developers <
ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net>
Some source code is based on code Copyright 1997 by Anonymous Coders and
Portions of this document are "borrowed" from the original Junkbuster (tm) FAQ,
and modified as appropriate for Privoxy.
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1. License
Boston, MA 02110-1301
USA
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.2. History
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff