X-Git-Url: http://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fsource%2Ffaq.sgml;h=883e75476acf13452721a0b3c0d2a14a3de064ce;hb=43f6e87f5d98bd4f1e0b74a96cf53dc3e5e6e397;hp=9857eb324ab11c12bbdf316a7e4b16ad2dd1260d;hpb=d09495686ceb54f830dfecefcdfdde1061cc8f33;p=privoxy.git
diff --git a/doc/source/faq.sgml b/doc/source/faq.sgml
index 9857eb32..883e7547 100644
--- a/doc/source/faq.sgml
+++ b/doc/source/faq.sgml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
-
+
@@ -26,9 +26,9 @@
This file belongs into
ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
- $Id: faq.sgml,v 2.23 2006/10/21 22:19:52 hal9 Exp $
+ $Id: faq.sgml,v 2.26 2007/08/05 15:37:55 fabiankeil Exp $
- Copyright (C) 2001-2006 Privoxy Developers http://privoxy.org
+ Copyright (C) 2001-2007 Privoxy Developers http://privoxy.org
See LICENSE.
Based partially on the Internet Junkbuster FAQ originally written by and
@@ -72,12 +72,12 @@
- Copyright &my-copy; 2001-2006 by
- Privoxy Developers
+ Copyright &my-copy; 2001-2007 by
+ Privoxy Developers
-$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.23 2006/10/21 22:19:52 hal9 Exp $
+$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.26 2007/08/05 15:37:55 fabiankeil Exp $
@@ -1655,7 +1664,7 @@ us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.
configuration and chained it with Tor.
- Most of Privoxy's protection can be easily subverted
+ Most of Privoxy's privacy-enhancing features 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
@@ -1718,8 +1727,7 @@ us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.
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
+ to increase your anonymity level, therefore you should use socks4a, to make sure DNS requests are
done through Tor and thus invisible to your local network.
@@ -1739,7 +1747,7 @@ us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.
- This is enough to reach the Internet, but additionally you should
+ This is enough to reach the Internet, but additionally you might want to
uncomment the following forward rules, to make sure your local network is still
reachable through Privoxy:
@@ -1753,10 +1761,15 @@ us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.
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:
+ that your browser can't reach the network at all. Then again,
+ that may actually be desired and if you don't know for sure
+ that your browser has to be able to reach the local network,
+ there's no reason to allow it.
+
+
+ If you want your browser to be able to reach servers in your local
+ network by using their names, you will need additional exceptions
+ that look like this:
@@ -1793,11 +1806,8 @@ content is being altered?
- 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.
+ The User-Agent is sometimes used in this way to identify
+ the browser, and adjust content accordingly.
@@ -1838,8 +1848,9 @@ content is being altered?
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
+ Squid or
+ Polipo 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
@@ -1850,10 +1861,10 @@ speed up web browsing?
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.
+ Not in the way you mean, or in the way some firewall vendors claim they can.
+ Privoxy can help protect your privacy, but can't
+ protect your system from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
+ to use both.
@@ -1922,14 +1933,14 @@ ads used to be. Why?
Privoxy runs as a server. How
secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?
- 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
+ On Unix-like systems, Privoxy can run as a non-privileged
+ user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
+ Privoxy 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
@@ -1960,7 +1971,7 @@ secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?
When disabled is Privoxy totally
out of the picture?
- No, this just means all filtering and actions are disabled.
+ 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
@@ -1993,6 +2004,10 @@ ads, but also its own internal CGI pages. What is a crunch?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.
+
@@ -2018,7 +2033,7 @@ from a webserver? FTP server?
Privoxy knows the differences in files according
- to the Document Type as reported by the webserver. If this is
+ to the Content 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
@@ -2035,11 +2050,11 @@ from a webserver? FTP server?
did filter this document type.
- In short, filtering is ON if a) the Document Type as reported
+ In short, filtering is ON if a) the content 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.
+ bad. It's the configuration that lets it all happen or not.
If you download text files, you probably do not want these to be filtered,
@@ -2078,8 +2093,8 @@ altered it! Yikes, what is wrong!
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
+ duplicates effort, but may get in the way and seriously slow down your system.
+ 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:
@@ -2124,6 +2139,18 @@ and related issues?
+
+Does Privoxy produce valid HTML (or XHTML)?
+
+
+ Privoxy generates HTML in both its own templates, and possibly
+ whenever there are text substitutions via a &my-app; filter. While this
+ should always conform to the HTML 4.01 specifications, it has not been
+ validated against this or any other standard.
+
+
+
+
@@ -2540,7 +2567,7 @@ Why?
This may also be caused by the demoronizer filter,
- in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting a file type. Binary
+ in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting the content 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
@@ -2661,11 +2688,10 @@ browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives?
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. &my-app; 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!
+ then let the browser uncompress them. When compiled with zlib support
+ &my-app; can decompress content before filtering, otherwise you may want to enable
+prevent-compression.
@@ -2748,6 +2774,23 @@ browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives?
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
$Log: faq.sgml,v $
+Revision 2.26 2007/08/05 15:37:55 fabiankeil
+- Don't claim that thousands of people read our code.
+- Specify the GPL version and link to GPLv2 instead of v3.
+- Note that configuration syntax may change between releases.
+- Mention zlib support.
+- Answer the "transparent proxy" question properly.
+- Add "intercepting proxy" entry.
+- Mention Polipo.
+- Rephrase some other sentences for various reasons.
+
+Revision 2.25 2007/07/18 11:00:34 hal9
+Add misc note about valid mark-up in Privoxy.
+
+Revision 2.24 2006/11/14 01:57:46 hal9
+Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
+manual.
+
Revision 2.23 2006/10/21 22:19:52 hal9
Two new FAQs, a rewrite or two, and some touch ups.