1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN"[
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
8 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
9 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
10 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
11 <!entity p-version "3.0.5">
12 <!entity p-status "BETA">
13 <!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
14 <!entity % p-stable "INCLUDE">
15 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
16 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
17 <!entity % p-supp-userman "INCLUDE"> <!-- Include all from supported.sgml -->
18 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
19 <!entity % p-newstuff "INCLUDE"> <!-- exclude stuff from devel versions -->
20 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
23 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/faq.sgml,v $
26 This file belongs into
27 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
29 $Id: faq.sgml,v 2.22 2006/10/14 20:33:10 hal9 Exp $
31 Copyright (C) 2001-2006 Privoxy Developers http://privoxy.org
34 Based partially on the Internet Junkbuster FAQ originally written by and
35 Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters Corporation.
36 http://www.junkbusters.com/
38 <Qandaset defaultlabel='qanda'>
53 ========================================================================
54 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
57 Please we keep the info in this file as version independent as possible
58 so we only have to maintain one FAQ. Where significant changes are
59 made to Privoxy configuration, please note the change in such a way that
60 it makes sense to both users of older and newer versions.
61 ========================================================================
67 <article id="index" class="faq">
69 <title>Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</title>
73 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
74 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
75 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2006 by
76 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
80 <pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.22 2006/10/14 20:33:10 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
84 Note: this should generate a separate page, and a live link to it.
85 But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave commented
86 unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the copyright
87 statement will be in copyright.smgl.
91 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
93 text goes here ........
103 <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
112 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
113 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
114 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
119 This FAQ gives quick answers to frequently asked questions about
120 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
121 It is not a substitute for the
122 <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
124 This works, at least in some situtations:
125 Test: <ulink url="privoxy-user-manual.pdf"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
129 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
130 <para>What is Privoxy?</para> &p-intro;
131 <!-- end boilerplate -->
134 Please note that this document is a work in progress. This copy represents
135 the state at the release of version &p-version;.
136 You can find the latest version of the document at <ulink
137 url="http://www.privoxy.org/faq/">http://www.privoxy.org/faq/</ulink>.
138 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> if you want to
139 contact the developers.
143 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
149 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
151 <sect1 id="general"><title>General Information</title>
152 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="who_uses"><title>Who should use Privoxy?</title>
154 Anyone that is interested in security, privacy, or in
155 finer-grained control over their web and Internet experience.
156 Everyone is encouraged to try &my-app;.
160 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="bestchoice"><title>Is Privoxy the best choice for
163 &my-app; is certainly a good choice, especially for those who want more
164 control and security. Those that have the ability to fine-tune their installation
165 will benefit the most. One of <application>Privoxy's</application>
166 strength's is that it is highly configurable giving you the ability to
167 completely personalize your installation. Being familiar with, or at least
168 having an interest in learning about <ulink
169 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Http">HTTP</ulink> and other networking
170 protocols, <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html">HTML</ulink>,
171 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol">IP (Internet
172 Protocol)</ulink>, and
173 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
174 Expressions</quote></ulink>
175 will be a big plus and will help you get the most out of &my-app;.
176 A new installation just includes a very basic configuration. The user
177 should take this as a starting point only, and enhance it as he or she
178 sees fit. In fact, the user is encouraged, and expected to, fine-tune the
182 Much of <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration can be done
183 with a <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser">Web browser</ulink>.
184 But there are areas where configuration is done using a
185 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_editors">text editor</ulink>
186 to edit configuration files.
190 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="proxymoron"><title>What is a <quote>proxy</quote>? How does
191 Privoxy work? </title>
193 A <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">web proxy</ulink>
194 is a service, based on a software such as
195 <application>Privoxy</application>, that clients (i.e. browsers) can use
196 instead of connecting directly to web servers on the Internet. The
197 clients then ask the proxy to fetch the objects they need (web pages,
198 images, movies etc) on their behalf, and when the proxy has done so, it
199 hands the results back to the client. It is a <quote>go-between</quote>. See
200 the <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">Wikipedia proxy
201 definition</ulink> for more.
204 There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security (firewalling),
205 efficiency (caching) and others, and there are any number of proxies
206 to accommodate those needs.
209 <application>Privoxy</application> is a proxy that is primarily focused on privacy
210 protection, ad and junk elimination and freeing the user from restrictions placed on his
211 activities. Sitting between your browser(s) and the Internet,
212 it is in a perfect position to filter outbound personal information that your
213 browser is leaking, as well as inbound junk. It uses a variety of techniques to do
214 this, all of which are under your complete control via the various configuration
219 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newjb"><title>What is this new version of
220 <quote><citetitle>Junkbuster</citetitle></quote>?</title>
222 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
229 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
230 <title id="whyprivoxy">Why <quote>Privoxy</quote>? Why change the name from
231 Junkbuster at all?</title>
233 <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>
234 continues to offer their original version of the <application>Internet
235 Junkbuster</application>, so publishing our
236 <application> Junkbuster</application>-derived software under the same name
240 There are also potential legal complications from the continued use of the
241 <application>Junkbuster</application> name, which is a registered trademark of
242 <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>.
243 There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
244 <application>Privoxy</application> project itself, and they, in fact, still
245 share our ideals and goals.
248 The developers also believed that there are so many improvements over the original
249 code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
250 a name in their own right.
253 <application>Privoxy</application> is the
254 <quote><emphasis>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</emphasis></quote>. Also, its content
255 modification and junk suppression gives <emphasis>you</emphasis>, the user, more
256 control, more freedom, and allows you to browse your personal and
257 <quote><emphasis>private</emphasis> edition</quote> of the web.
262 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="differs"><title>How does Privoxy differ
263 from the old Junkbuster?</title>
265 <application>Privoxy</application> picks up where
266 <application>Junkbuster</application> left off. All the old features remain.
267 The new <application>Privoxy</application> still blocks ads and banners,
269 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>, and still
270 helps protect your privacy. But, these are all greatly enhanced, and many,
271 many new features have been added, all in the same vein.
274 The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
275 users will notice right off the bat if upgrading from
276 <application>Junkbuster</application> 2.0.x. The <quote>blocklist</quote>
277 <quote>cookielist</quote>, <quote>imagelist</quote> and much more has been
278 combined into the <quote>actions</quote> files, with a completely different
279 syntax. <![%p-newstuff;[ See the <ulink url="../user-manual/whatsnew.html">What's New</ulink>
280 page for the latest updates.]]>
283 <application>Privoxy</application>'s new features include:
286 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml: -->
292 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whatsanad">
293 <title id="knows">How does Privoxy know what is
294 an ad, and what is not?</title>
296 <application>Privoxy</application>'s approach to blocking ads is twofold:
299 First, there are certain patterns in the <emphasis>locations</emphasis> (URLs)
300 of banner images. This applies to both the path (you wouldn't guess how many
301 web sites serve their banners from a directory called <quote>banners</quote>!)
302 and the host (blocking the big banner hosting services like doublecklick.net
303 already helps a lot). <application>Privoxy</application> takes advantage of this
304 fact by using <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL
305 patterns</ulink> to sort out and block the requests for things that sound
306 like they would be ads or banners.
309 Second, banners tend to come in certain <emphasis>sizes</emphasis>. But you
310 can't tell the size of an image by its URL without downloading it, and if you
311 do, it's too late to save bandwidth. Therefore, <application>Privoxy</application>
312 also inspects the HTML sources of web pages while they are loaded, and replaces
313 references to images with standard banner sizes by dummy references, so that
314 your browser doesn't request them anymore in the first place.
317 Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
318 and readily configurable.
322 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
323 <title id="mistakes">Can Privoxy make mistakes?
324 This does not sound very scientific.</title>
326 Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
327 rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. You will almost surely
328 run into such situations at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
329 cover every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
333 But this should not be a big concern since the
334 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is very flexible, and
335 includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
336 addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
337 (<link linkend="badsite">See the Troubleshooting section below</link>.)
343 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
344 <title id="configornot">Will I have to configure Privoxy
345 before I can use it?</title>
347 No, not really. The default installation should give you a good starting
348 point, and block <emphasis>most</emphasis> unwanted content.
351 But you will certainly run into situations where there are false positives,
352 or ads not being blocked that you may not want to see. In these cases, you
353 would certainly benefit by customizing <application>Privoxy's</application>
354 configuration to more closely match your individual situation. And we would
355 encourage you to do this. This is where the real power of
356 <application>Privoxy</application> lies!
359 You will have to tell your browser about <application>Privoxy</application>
360 (see the Installation section below).
365 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
366 Privoxy. Why should I use
367 Privoxy at all?</title>
369 Modern browsers do indeed have <emphasis>some</emphasis> of the same
370 functionality as <application>Privoxy</application>. Maybe this is
371 adequate for you. But <application>Privoxy</application> is much more
372 versatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
375 In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
376 have a LAN with multiple computers. This way all the configuration
377 is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar configuration
378 for possibly many browsers.
382 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whytrust"><title>Why should I trust Privoxy?</title>
384 The most important reason is because you have access to
385 <emphasis>everything</emphasis>, and you can control everything. You can
386 check every line of every configuration file yourself. You can check every
387 last bit of source code should you desire. And even if you can't read code,
388 there should be some comfort in knowing that thousands of other people can,
389 and do read it. You can build the software from scratch, if you want, so
390 that you know the executable is clean, and that it is
391 <emphasis>yours</emphasis>. In fact, we encourage this level of scrutiny. It
392 is one reason we use &my-app; ourselves.
396 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
397 warranty? Registration?</title>
399 <application>Privoxy</application> is licensed under the <ulink
400 url="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public License (GPL)</ulink>.
401 It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this
402 license. Please see the <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> section for more
403 information on the license and copyright. Or the <filename>LICENSE</filename> file
404 that should be included.
407 There is <emphasis>no warranty</emphasis> of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
408 That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
409 <application>Privoxy</application> really is <emphasis>free</emphasis>
415 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="spyware">
416 <title>Can Privoxy remove spyware? Adware? Viruses?</title>
418 No. &my-app; cannot remove anything. It is not a removal tool. It is a
419 preventative. &my-app; can help prevent contact from sites
420 that use such tactics with approriate configuration rules, and thus could
421 conceivably prevent contamination from such sites.
426 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherads">
427 <title>Can I use Privoxy with other ad-blocking software?</title>
429 &my-app; should work fine with other proxies and other software in general.
432 But it is probably not necessary to use &my-app; in conjunction with other
433 ad-blocking products, and this could conceivably cause undesirable results.
434 It would be better to choose one software or the other and work a little to
435 tweak its configuration to your liking.
439 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what can I do?</title>
441 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-work"><title>Would you like to participate?</title>
443 Well, we <emphasis>always</emphasis> need help. There is something for
444 everybody who wants to help us. We welcome new developers, packagers,
445 testers, documentation writers or really anyone with a desire to help in
446 any way. You <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> need to be a
447 <quote>programmer</quote>. There are many other tasks available. In fact,
448 the programmers often can't spend as much time programming because of some
449 of the other, more mundane things that need to be done, like checking the
450 Tracker feedback sections.
453 So first thing, <ulink
454 url="https://sourceforge.net/account/register.php">get an account on SourceForge.net</ulink>
455 and mail your id to the <ulink url="mailto:ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net">developers
456 mailing list</ulink>. Then, please read the <ulink
457 url="../developer-manual/index.html">Developer's Manual</ulink>, at least
458 the pertinent sections.
461 Once we have added you to the team, you'll have access to the <ulink
462 url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">CVS repository</ulink>, and
463 together we'll find a suitable task for you.
467 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-money"><title>Contribute!</title>
469 We, of course, welcome donations and could use money for domain registering,
470 buying software to test <application>Privoxy</application> with, and, of course,
471 for regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). If you enjoy the software and feel
472 like helping us with a donation, just <ulink
473 url="mailto: ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net">drop us a note</ulink>.
477 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-software"><title>Software</title>
479 If you are a vendor of a web-related software like a browser, web server
480 or proxy, and would like us to ensure that <application>Privoxy</application>
481 runs smoothly with your product, you might consider supplying us with a
482 copy or license. We can't, however, guarantee that we will fix all potential
483 compatibility issues as a result.
493 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
495 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
497 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichbrowsers">
498 <title>Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?</title>
500 Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
501 should be virtually all browsers, including
502 <application>Firefox</application>, <application>Internet
503 Explorer</application>, and <application>Opera</application> among others.
504 Direct browser support is not an absolute requirement since
505 <application>Privoxy</application> runs as a separate application and talks
506 to the browser in the standardized HTTP protocol, just like a web server
511 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichos">
512 <title>Which operating systems are supported?</title>
514 Include supported.sgml here:
519 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="email-client">
520 <title>Can I use Privoxy with my email client?</title>
522 As long as there is some way to set a HTTP proxy for the client, then yes,
523 any application can be used, whether it is strictly speaking a
524 <quote>browser</quote> or not. Though this may not be the best approach for
525 dealing with some of the common abuses of HTML in email. See <link
526 linkend="outlook">How can I configure <application>Privoxy</application>
527 with <application>Outlook Express</application>?</link> below for more on
531 Be aware that HTML email presents a number of unique security and privacy
532 related issues, that can require advanced skills to overcome. The developers
533 recommend using email clients that can be configured to convert HTML to plain
534 text for these reasons.
538 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
539 Privoxy over Junkbuster?</title>
541 We recommend you un-install <application>Junkbuster</application>
542 first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
543 save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
544 files and syntax have substantially changed, so you will need to manually
545 port your old patterns. See the <ulink url="../user-manual/upgradersnote.html">note
546 to upgraders</ulink> and <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">installation
547 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink>
551 Note: Some installers may automatically un-install
552 <application>Junkbuster</application>, if present!
557 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
558 <title id="firststep">I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything
559 special I have to do now?</title>
562 All browsers must be told to use <application>Privoxy</application>
563 as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
564 in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. See below.
565 You should also flush your browser's memory and disk cache to get rid of any
566 cached junk items, and remove any stored
567 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>.
574 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of Privoxy?</title>
576 If you set up the <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
577 the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
578 networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>
579 (sometimes referred to as <quote>localhost</quote>,
580 which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
581 to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have <application>Privoxy</application>
582 to run on a different port with the <ulink
583 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink> config option).
586 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
587 the word <quote>localhost</quote> or the IP address <quote>127.0.0.1</quote>
588 in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote> and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and
589 then the number <quote>8118</quote> for <quote>port</quote>.
590 This tells your browser to send all web requests to <application>Privoxy</application>
591 instead of directly to the Internet.
594 <application>Privoxy</application> can also be used to proxy for
595 a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
596 address of the LAN host where <application>Privoxy</application>
597 is running, or the equivalent hostname. Port assignment would be
598 same as above. Note that <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't
599 listen on any LAN interfaces by default.
602 <application>Privoxy</application> does not currently handle
603 any other protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, etc. Be sure that
604 proxying any of these other protocols is not activated.
608 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nothing">
609 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening.
610 All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
613 Did you configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
614 as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
615 the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
616 that <application>Privoxy</application> is running, and your browser
617 is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
618 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>.
619 <!-- Use http://p.p/ instead of http://config.privoxy.org/ here because
620 of potential redirect caching problem (see next Q). -->
621 This should take you to a page titled <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote> with
622 access to <application>Privoxy's</application> internal configuration.
623 If you see this, then you are good to go. If you receive a page saying
624 <quote>Privoxy is not running</quote>, then the browser is not set up to use
625 your <application>Privoxy</application> installation.
626 If you receive anything else (probably nothing at all), it could either
627 be that the browser is not set up correctly, or that
628 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running at all. Check the <ulink
629 url="../user-manual/config.html#LOGFILE">log file</ulink>. For instructions
630 on starting <application>Privoxy</application> and browser configuration,
631 see the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
632 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
633 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
638 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="notused">
639 <title>I get a <quote>Privoxy is not being used</quote> dummy page although
640 Privoxy is running and being used.</title>
643 First, make sure that Privoxy is <emphasis>really</emphasis> running and
644 being used by visiting <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. You
645 should see the <application>Privoxy</application> main page. If not, see
646 the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
647 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
648 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
652 Now if <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> works for you, but
653 other parts of <application>Privoxy</application>'s web interface show
654 the dummy page, your browser has cached a redirection it encountered before
655 <application>Privoxy</application> was being used. You need to clear your
656 browser's cache. Note that shift-reloading the dummy page won't help, since
657 that'll only refresh the dummy page, not the redirection that lead you there.
661 The procedure for clearing the cache varies from browser to browser. For
662 example, <application>Mozilla/Netscape</application> users would click
663 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -->
664 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
665 then click both <quote><guibutton>Clear Memory Cache</guibutton></quote>
666 and <quote><guibutton>Clear Disk Cache</guibutton></quote>.
667 And, <application>Firefox</application> users would click
668 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -->
669 <guibutton>Privacy</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
670 then click <quote><guibutton>Clear Cache Now</guibutton></quote>.
678 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
680 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
681 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
682 <title id="actionsfile">What exactly is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
685 &my-app; utilizes the concept of <quote>
686 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink></quote>
687 that are used to manipulate and control web page data.
688 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">Actions files</ulink>
689 are where these <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink>
690 that <application>Privoxy</application> could take while processing a certain
691 request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
692 that apply globally to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
693 There is a wide array of actions available that give the user a high degree
694 of control and flexibility on how to process each and every web page.
698 Actions can be defined on a <ulink
699 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</ulink> basis, i.e.
700 for single URLs, whole web sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be
701 grouped together and then applied to requests matching one or more patterns.
702 There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
703 if you are blocking <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
704 as one of your default actions, but need to accept cookies from a given site,
705 you would need to define an exception for this site in one of your actions
706 files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>.
711 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionss">
712 <title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
713 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
715 For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer
716 to the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions file
717 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User
718 Manual</ulink>. It includes a <ulink
719 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">list of all actions</ulink>
720 and an <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions
721 file tutorial</ulink> to get you started.
726 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
727 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
728 way to do this?</title>
731 Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
732 with a text editor. But probably the easiest way is to access
733 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface with your web browser
734 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
735 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and then select
736 <quote><ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View &
737 change the current configuration</ulink></quote> from the menu.
742 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
743 <title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
744 the differences?</title>
747 are being included by the developers, to be used for
748 different purposes: These are
749 <filename>default.action</filename>, the <quote>main</quote> actions file
750 which is actively maintained by the <application>Privoxy</application>
751 developers and typically sets the default policies, <filename>user.action</filename>, where users are encouraged
752 to make their private customizations, and <filename>standard.action</filename>,
753 which is for internal <application>Privoxy</application> use only.
754 Please see <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">the actions chapter</ulink>
755 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> for a more
756 detailed explanation.
760 Earlier versions included three different versions of the
761 <filename>default.action</filename> file. The new scheme allows for
762 greater flexibility of local configuration, and for browser based
763 selection of pre-defined <quote>aggressiveness</quote> levels.
768 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
770 Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updates of
771 <filename>default.action</filename> will be
772 made available from time to time on the <ulink
773 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files section</ulink> of
774 our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project page</ulink>.
778 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
779 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
780 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
781 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
786 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
788 The syntax and purpose of configuration files has remained the same
789 throughout the 3.x series. Although each release contains updated,
790 <quote>improved</quote> versions and it is recommended to use the newer
793 If upgrading from version prior to 3.0.4 the syntax for <literal>fast-redirects</literal>
794 has changed. See the <ulink url="../user-manual/whatsnew.html">What's New section</ulink>
795 of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> for details.]]>
798 But all configuration files have substantially
799 changed from the <application>Junkbuster</application> days, and early
800 versions of <application>Privoxy 2.x</application>. The old files, like
801 <filename>blocklist</filename> will not work at all.
803 <![%p-newstuff;[ <para>
804 Refer to the <ulink url="../user-manual/whatsnew.html">What's New</ulink>
805 page for information on configuration changes that may occur from one release to another.
809 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="difficult">
810 <title>Why is the configuration so complicated?</title>
812 <quote>Complicated</quote> is in the eye of the beholder. Those that are
813 familiar with some of the underlying concepts, such as regular expression
814 syntax, take to it like a fish takes to water. Also, software that tries
815 hard to be <quote>user friendly</quote>, often lacks sophistication and
816 flexibility. There is always that trade-off there between power vs.
817 easy-of-use. Furthermore, anyone is welcome to contribute ideas and
818 implementations to enhance &my-app;.
822 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account work?</title>
824 The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services.
825 It will, however, make all <ulink
826 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
827 temporary, so that your browser will forget your
828 login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would like not to have to log
829 in manually each time you access those websites, simply turn off all cookie handling
830 for them in the <filename>user.action</filename> file. An example for yahoo might
834 <screen># Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
836 { -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</ulink> -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</ulink> -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</ulink> }
837 .login.yahoo.com</screen>
840 These kinds of sites are often quite complex and heavy with
841 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> and
842 thus <quote>fragile</quote>. So if <emphasis>still</emphasis> a problem,
844 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> just for such
848 <screen># Gmail is a _fragile_ site:
850 { <literal>fragile</literal> }
851 mail.google.com</screen>
854 Be sure to flush your browser's caches whenever making these kinds of
855 changes, just to make sure the changes <quote>take</quote>.
858 Make sure the domain, host and path are appropriate as well. Your browser can
859 tell you where you are specifically and you should use that information for
860 your configuration settings. Note that above it is not referenced as
861 <literal>gmail.com</literal>, which is a valid domain name.
866 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
867 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Advanced</quote> defaults?</title>
869 Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To
870 help you get started, we provide you with three different default action
871 <quote>profiles</quote> in the web based actions file editor at <ulink
872 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
873 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html"><citetitle>User
874 Manual</citetitle></ulink> for a list of actions, and how the default
879 Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
880 known popular <quote>problem</quote> sites are included, but in
881 general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more exceptions
882 you will have to make later. New users are best to start off in
883 <quote>Cautious</quote> setting. This is safest and will have the fewest
884 problems. See the <ulink
885 url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>
886 for a more detailed discussion.
890 It should be noted that the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile (formerly known
891 as the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> profile) is more
892 aggressive, and will make use of some of
893 <application>Privoxy's</application> advanced features. Use at your own risk!
898 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration
899 with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
901 It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files with their
902 browsers, although the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
903 belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
906 When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
907 itself is writing to the config files. Because
908 <application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>,
909 it can update the config files.
912 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in
913 a LAN), you will probably want to turn the web-based editor and remote toggle
914 features off by setting <quote><literal><ulink
915 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>
916 0</literal></quote> and <quote><literal><ulink
917 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">enable-remote-toggle</ulink>
918 0</literal></quote> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
921 Note that in the default configuration, only local users (i.e. those on
922 <quote>localhost</quote>) can connect to <application>Privoxy</application>,
923 so this is not (normally) a security problem.
928 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
929 <title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file? What is a <quote>filter</quote>?</title>
931 The <ulink url="../user-manual/filter-file.html"><filename>default.filter</filename></ulink>
932 file is where <emphasis>filters</emphasis> as supplied by the developers are defined.
933 Filters are a special subset of actions that can be used to modify or
934 remove, web page content on the fly. Filters apply to <emphasis>anything</emphasis>
935 in the page source (and optionally both client and server headers), including
936 HTML tags, and JavaScript. Regular expressions are used to accomplish this.
937 There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common annoyances. The
938 filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you need to use the
940 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"><literal>filter</literal>
941 action</ulink> in one of the actions files. Filtering is automatically
942 disabled for inappropriate MIME types.
946 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
947 the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and define
948 your own filters. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
949 requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
950 <![%p-newstuff;[ You should
951 place any modifications to the default filters, or any new ones you create
952 in a separate file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>, so they won't
953 be overwritten during upgrades.
954 The ability to define multiple filter files
955 in <filename>config</filename> is a new feature as of v. 3.0.5.]]>
959 There is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
960 but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included
961 <filename>default.filter</filename> file with the <ulink
962 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
967 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
968 <title id="lanconfig">How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my
971 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
972 from <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> (localhost). To have it act as a server for
973 a network, this needs to be changed in the <ulink
974 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>. Look for
976 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink></literal>
977 option, which may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
978 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
979 and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you
980 wish to run <application>Privoxy</application> on port 8118, this line
986 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118</screen>
990 Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
991 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
995 Alternately, you can have <application>Privoxy</application> listen on
996 all available interfaces:
1001 listen-address :8118</screen>
1005 And then use <application>Privoxy's</application>
1007 url="../user-manual/config.html#PERMIT-ACCESS">permit-access</ulink>
1008 feature to limit connections. A firewall in this situation is recommended
1013 The above steps should be the same for any TCP network, regardless of
1018 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> on a LAN with untrusted users,
1019 we recommend that you double-check the <ulink
1020 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security</ulink>
1027 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1028 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
1030 The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the <ulink
1031 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1032 action</ulink>. You have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
1033 image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a redirect to a custom image of your choice.
1034 Note that this choice only has effect for images which are blocked as images, i.e.
1035 whose URLs match both a <literal><ulink
1036 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink></literal>
1037 <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><ulink
1038 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> action.
1041 If you want to see nothing, then change the <ulink
1042 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1043 action</ulink> to <quote>blank</quote>. This can be done by editing the
1044 <filename>user.action</filename> file, or through the <ulink
1045 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
1050 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1051 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
1053 Remember that <link linkend="whatsanad">telling which image is an ad and which
1054 isn't</link>, is an educated guess. While we hope that the standard configuration
1055 is rather smart, it will make occasional mistakes. The checkerboard image is visually
1056 decent, but it shows you that and where images were blocked, which can be very
1057 helpful in case some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was
1058 erroneously blocked. It is recommended for new users so they can
1059 <quote>see</quote> what is happening. Some people might also enjoy seeing how
1060 many banners they <emphasis>don't</emphasis> have to see.
1065 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1066 <title id="blockedbytext">I see some images being replaced by a text
1067 instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
1069 This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of the
1070 page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded into (i)frames
1071 or (i)layers, and these external HTML documents are blocked. Being non-images
1072 they get replaced by a substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image,
1073 which wouldn't work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts
1074 only HTML when it has requested an HTML document.
1077 The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself as a
1078 miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown with a
1079 large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
1082 If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to it that
1083 the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked. Clicking
1084 the <quote>See why</quote> link offered in the substitute page will show
1085 you which rule blocked the page. After changing the rule and un-blocking
1086 the HTML documents, the browser will try to load the actual banner images
1087 and the usual image blocking will (hopefully!) kick in.
1092 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="srvany">
1093 <title>Can Privoxy run as a service
1094 on Win2K/NT/XP?</title>
1097 Yes. Version 3.0.5 introduces full <application>Windows</application> service
1098 functionality. See <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html#installation-pack-win">
1099 the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink> for details on how to install and configure
1100 <application>Privoxy</application> as a service.
1103 Earlier ]]>3.x versions could run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
1104 See the discussion at <ulink
1105 url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=361118&aid=485617&group_id=11118">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=361118&aid=485617&group_id=11118</ulink>,
1106 for details, and a sample configuration.
1111 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherproxy">
1112 <title>How can I make Privoxy work with other
1113 proxies like Squid or Tor?</title>
1115 This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
1116 <application>Privoxy</application> with those of a another proxy.
1118 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1119 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> which
1120 describes how to do this, and the <link linkend="TOR">
1121 How do I use Privoxy together with
1122 Tor</link> section below.
1126 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="port-80">
1127 <title>Can I just set Privoxy to use port 80
1128 and thus avoid individual browser configuration?</title>
1131 No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special kinds
1132 of proxies known as <quote>transparent</quote> proxies (see below).
1137 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
1138 <title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>transparent
1139 </quote> proxy?</title>
1141 No, <application>Privoxy</application> currently does not have this ability,
1142 though it may be added in a future release. Transparent proxies require
1143 special handling of the request headers beyond what
1144 <application>Privoxy</application> is now capable of.
1148 Chaining <application>Privoxy</application> behind another proxy that has
1149 this ability should work though.
1151 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1152 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink>. As
1153 a transparent proxy to be used for chaining we suggest Transproxy
1154 (<ulink url="http://transproxy.sourceforge.net/">http://transproxy.sourceforge.net/</ulink>).
1159 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook">
1160 <title>How can I configure Privoxy for use with Outlook
1163 <application>Outlook Express</application> uses <application>Internet Explorer</application>
1164 components to both render HTML, and fetch any HTTP requests that may be embedded in an HTML email.
1165 So however you have <application>Privoxy</application> configured to work
1166 with IE, this configuration should automatically be shared.
1170 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook-more">
1171 <title>How can I have separate rules just for HTML mail?</title>
1173 The short answer is, you can't. <application>Privoxy</application> has no way
1174 of knowing which particular application makes a request, so there is no way to
1175 distinguish between web pages and HTML mail.
1176 <application>Privoxy</application> just blindly proxies all requests. In the
1177 case of <application>Outlook Express</application> (see above), OE uses
1178 IE anyway, and there is no way for <application>Privoxy</application> to ever
1179 be able to distinguish between them (nor could any other proxy type application for
1183 For a good discussion of some of the issues involved (including privacy and
1184 security issues), see
1185 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=211118&aid=629518&group_id=11118">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=211118&aid=629518&group_id=11118</ulink>.
1189 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="sneaky-cookies">
1190 <title>I sometimes notice cookies sneaking through. How?</title>
1193 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Cookies</ulink> can be
1194 set in several ways. The classic method is via the
1195 <literal>Set-Cookie</literal> HTTP header. This is straightforward, and an
1196 easy one to manipulate, such as the &my-app; concept of
1197 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</ulink>.
1198 There is also the possibility of using
1199 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> to
1200 set cookies (&my-app; calls these <literal>content-cookies</literal>). This
1201 is trickier because the syntax can vary widely, and thus requires a certain
1202 amount of guesswork. It is not realistic to catch all of these short of
1203 disabling Javascript, which would break many sites. And lastly, if the
1204 cookies are embedded in a HTTPS/SSL secure session via Javascript, they are beyond
1205 <application>Privoxy's</application> reach.
1208 All in all, &my-app; can help manage cookies in general, can help minimize
1209 the loss of privacy posed by cookies, but can't realistically stop all
1214 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="evil-cookies">
1215 <title>Are all cookies bad? Why?</title>
1217 No, in fact there are many beneficial uses of
1219 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>. Cookies are just a
1220 method that browsers can use to store data between pages, or between browser
1221 sessions. Sometimes there is a good reason for this, and the user's life is a
1222 bit easier as a result. But there is a long history of some websites taking
1223 advantage of this layer of trust, and using the data they glean from you and
1224 your browsing habits for their own purposes, and maybe to your potential
1225 detriment. Such sites are using you and storing their data on your system.
1226 That is why the security conscious watch from whom those cookies come, and why
1227 they really <emphasis>need</emphasis> to be there.
1231 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Wikipedia cookie
1232 definition</ulink> for more.
1236 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allow-cookies">
1237 <title>How can I allow permanent cookies for my trusted sites?</title>
1240 There are several actions that relate to cookies. The default behavior is to
1241 allow only <quote>session cookies</quote>, which means the cookies only last
1242 for the current browser session. This eliminates most kinds of abuse related
1243 to cookies. But there may be cases where we want cookies to last.
1246 To disable all cookie actions, so that cookies are allowed unrestricted,
1247 both in and out, for <literal>example.com</literal>:
1251 { -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only -filter{content-cookies} }
1252 .example.com</screen>
1255 Place the above in <filename>user.action</filename>. Note some of these may
1256 be off by default anyway, so this might be redundant, but there is no harm
1257 being explicit in what you want to happen. <filename>user.action</filename>
1258 includes an alias for this situation, called
1259 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal>.
1263 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="multiples">
1264 <title>Can I have separate configurations for different users?</title>
1266 Each instance of <application>Privoxy</application> has its own
1267 configuration, including such attributes as the TCP port that it listens on.
1268 What you can do is run multiple instances of <application>Privoxy</application>, each with
1270 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink>
1271 configuration setting, and configuration path, and then
1272 each of these can have their own configurations. Think of it as per-port
1276 Simple enough for a few users, but for large installations, consider having
1277 groups of users that might share like configurations.
1281 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whitelists">
1282 <title>Can I set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of
1283 <quote>good</quote> sites?</title>
1285 Sure. There are a couple of things you can do for simple white-listing.
1286 Here's one real easy one:
1289 ############################################################
1291 ############################################################
1292 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
1293 / # Block *all* URLs
1295 ############################################################
1297 ############################################################
1298 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
1301 games.example.com</screen>
1303 This allows access to only those three sites by first blocking all URLs, and
1304 then subsequently allowing three specific exceptions.
1307 A more interesting approach is <application>Privoxy's</application>
1308 <literal>trustfile</literal> concept, which incorporates the notion of
1309 <quote>trusted referrers</quote>. See the <ulink
1310 url="../user-manual/config.html#TRUSTFILE">User Manual Trust</ulink>
1314 These are fairly simple approaches and are not completely foolproof. There
1315 are various other configuration options that should be disabled (described
1316 elsewhere here and in <ulink url="../user-manual/">the User Manual</ulink>)
1317 so that users can't modify their own configuration and easily circumvent the
1322 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="no-adblock">
1323 <title>How can I turn off ad-blocking?</title>
1325 Ad blocking is achieved through a complex application of various &my-app;
1326 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions</ulink>. These
1327 actions are deployed against simple images, banners, flash animations,
1328 text pages, JavaScript, pop-ups and pop-unders, etc., so its not as simple as
1329 just turning one or two actions off. The various actions that make up
1330 &my-app; ad blocking are hard-coded into the default configuration files. It
1331 has been assumed that everyone using &my-app; is interested in this
1335 If you want to do without this, there are several approaches you can take:
1336 You can manually undo the many block rules in
1337 <filename>default.action</filename>. Or even easier, just create your own
1338 <filename>default.action</filename> file from scratch without the many ad
1339 blocking rules, and corresponding exceptions. Or lastly, if you are not
1340 concerned about the additional blocks that are done for privacy reasons, you
1341 can very easily over-ride <emphasis>all</emphasis> blocking with the
1342 following very simple rule in your <filename>user.action</filename>:
1346 # Unblock everybody, everywhere
1347 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
1348 / # UN-Block *all* URLs
1352 Or even a more comprehensive reversing of various ad related actions:
1356 # Unblock everybody, everywhere, and turn off appropriate filtering, etc
1357 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> \
1358 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">-filter{banners-by-size}</ulink> \
1359 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">-filter{banners-by-link}</ulink> \
1360 <literal>allow-popups</literal> \
1362 / # UN-Block *all* URLs and allow ads
1366 This last <quote>action</quote> in this compound statement,
1367 <literal>allow-popups</literal>, is an <ulink
1368 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> that disables
1369 various pop-up blocking features.
1373 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="templates">
1374 <title>How can I have custom template pages, like the
1375 <emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
1377 &my-app; <quote>templates</quote> are specialized text files utilized by
1378 &my-app; for various purposes and can easily be modified using any text
1379 editor. All the template pages are installed in a sub-directory appropriately
1380 named: <filename>templates</filename>. Knowing something about HTML syntax
1381 will of course be helpful. You cannot rename any of these files, or create
1382 completely new templates, that is not possible. But you can change the page
1383 content to whatever you like. Be forewarned that these files are subject to
1384 being overwritten during upgrades, so be sure to save any customizations.
1388 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blockall">
1389 <title>How can I remove the <quote>Go There Anyway</quote> link from
1390 the <emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
1392 Editing the BLOCKED template page (see above) may dissuade some users, but
1393 this method is easily circumvented. Where you need this level of control, you
1394 should build &my-app; from source, and enable various features that are
1395 available as compile-time options. You should
1396 <command>configure</command> the sources as follows:
1400 ./configure --disable-toggle --disable-editor --disable-force
1404 This will create an executable with hard-coded security features so that
1405 &my-app; does not allow easy bypassing of blocked sites, or changing the
1406 current configuration via any connected user's web browser. Some of these
1407 features can also be toggled on/off via options in
1408 <application>Privoxy's</application> main
1410 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">config</ulink> file. But
1411 compiled-in compliance is a much better method of ensuring that a block is
1415 Default builds of &my-app; are typically built with these features
1422 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1425 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1427 <sect1 id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
1429 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1430 <title id="slowsme">How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This
1431 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
1433 How much of an impact depends on many things, including the CPU of the host
1434 system, how aggressive the configuration is, which specific actions are being triggered,
1435 the size of the page, the bandwidth of the connection, etc.
1438 Overall, it should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
1439 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not typically being
1440 retrieved and displayed. The actual processing time required by
1441 <application>Privoxy</application> itself for each page, is relatively small
1442 in the overall scheme of things, and happens very quickly. This is typically
1443 more than offset by time saved not downloading and rendering ad images (if ad
1444 blocking is being used).
1448 <quote>Filtering</quote> content via the <literal><ulink
1449 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> or
1451 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1452 actions will certainly cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document
1453 needs to be buffered before displaying. And on very large documents, filtering may have
1454 some measurable impact. How much depends on the page size, the actual
1455 definition of the filter(s), etc. See below. Most other actions have little
1456 to no impact on speed.
1459 Also, when filtering is enabled, typically there is a disabling of
1460 compression, (see <ulink
1461 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>).
1462 This can have an impact on speed as well. Again, the page size, etc. will
1463 determine how much of an impact.
1469 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I notice considerable
1470 delays in page requests compared to the old Junkbuster. What's wrong?</title>
1472 If you use any <literal><ulink
1473 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> action,
1474 such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <literal><ulink
1475 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1476 action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
1477 mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time.
1480 The loading time typically does not really change much in real numbers, but
1481 the feeling is different, because most browsers are able to start rendering
1482 incomplete content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is
1483 more noticeable on slower dialup connections. Extremely large documents
1484 may have some impact on the time to load the page where there is filtering
1485 being done. But overall, the difference should be very minimal. If there is a
1486 big impact, then probably some other situation is contributing (like
1487 anti-virus software).
1490 Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types. But note
1491 that if the web server mis-reports the MIME type, then content that should
1492 not be filtered, could be. <application>Privoxy</application> only knows how
1493 to differentiate filterable content because of the MIME type as reported by
1494 the server, or because of some configuration setting that enables/disables
1500 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
1501 "http://p.p/"?</title>
1503 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> is the
1504 address of <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in user interface, and
1505 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> is a shortcut for it.
1508 Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet,
1509 it can simply intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in
1510 <quote>web server</quote>.
1513 This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
1514 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1515 takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy ...</quote>, everything is OK.
1516 If you get a page saying <quote>Privoxy is not working</quote> instead, then
1517 your browser didn't use <application>Privoxy</application> for the request,
1518 hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <emphasis>real</emphasis>
1519 web site at config.privoxy.org.
1522 With recent versions of <application>Privoxy</application> (version 2.9.x and
1523 later), the user interface features information on the run time status, the
1524 configuration, and even a built-in editor for the <ulink
1525 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>.
1529 Note that the built-in URLs from earlier versions of <application>Junkbuster</application>
1530 / <application>Privoxy</application>, http://example.com/show-proxy-args and http://i.j.b/,
1531 are no longer supported. If you still use such an old version, you should really consider
1532 upgrading to &p-version;.
1537 out of date 09/02/06 HB
1538 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
1540 No. The patterns for blocking now reside (among other things) in the <ulink
1541 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>, which are
1542 actively maintained instead. See next question ...
1546 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads, or report
1549 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> for
1550 various ways to interact with the developers.
1555 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads2"><title>If I do submit missed ads, will
1556 they be included in future updates?</title>
1558 Whether such submissions are eventually included in the
1559 <filename>default.action</filename> configuration file depends on how
1560 significant the issue is. We of course want to address any potential
1561 problem with major, high-profile sites such as <citetitle>Google</citetitle>,
1562 <citetitle>Yahoo</citetitle>, etc. Any site with global or regional reach,
1563 has a good chance of being a candidate. But at the other end of the spectrum
1564 are any number of smaller, low-profile sites such as for local clubs or
1565 schools. Since their reach and impact are much less, they are best handled by
1566 inclusion in the user's <filename>user.action</filename>, and thus would be
1567 unlikely to be included.
1573 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="noonecares"><title>Why doesn't anyone answer my support
1576 Rest assured that it has been read and considered. Why it is not answered,
1577 could be for various reasons, including no one has a good answer for it, no
1578 one has had time to yet investigate it thoroughly, it has been reported
1579 numerous times already, or because not enough information was provided to help
1580 us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.
1586 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
1588 If you run both the browser and &my-app; locally, you cannot hide your IP
1589 address with <application>Privoxy</application> or ultimately any other
1590 software alone. The server needs to know your IP address so that it knows
1591 where to send the responses back.
1594 There are many publicly usable "anonymous" proxies out there, which
1595 provide a further level of indirection between you and the web server.
1598 However, these proxies are called "anonymous" because you don't need
1599 a password, not because they would offer any real anonymity.
1600 Most of them will log your IP address and make it available to the
1601 authorities in case you violate the law of the country they run in. In fact
1602 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
1603 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
1606 Your best bet is to chain <application>Privoxy</application>
1607 with <ulink url="http://tor.eff.org/">Tor</ulink>,
1608 an <ulink url="http://www.eff.org/">EFF</ulink> supported onion routing system.
1609 The configuration details can be found in
1610 <ulink url="#TOR">How do I use <application>Privoxy</application> together with <application>Tor</application> section</ulink>
1615 There is, however, even in the single-machine case the possibility to make the
1616 server believe that your machine is in fact a shared proxy serving a large
1617 LAN, and we are looking into that.
1619 I assume this is about sending fake forward IP addresses?
1620 David and I looked into it and considered it a waste of time to implement.
1625 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1626 <title id="anonforsure">Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
1628 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
1629 <ulink url="#TOR">chain <application>Privoxy</application> with <application>Tor</application></ulink>
1630 or a similar system and know what you're doing when it comes to configuring
1631 the rest of your system, it would be safest to assume that everything you do
1632 on the Web can be traced back to you.
1635 <application>Privoxy</application> can remove various information about you,
1636 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
1637 you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it neither
1638 hides your IP address, nor can it guarantee that the rest of the system
1639 behaves correctly. There are several possibilities how a web sites can find
1640 out who you are, even if you are using a strict <application>Privoxy</application>
1641 configuration and chained it with <application>Tor</application>.
1644 Most of <application>Privoxy's</application> protection can be easily subverted
1645 by an insecure browser configuration, therefore you should use a browser that can
1646 be configured to only execute code from trusted sites, and be careful which sites you trust.
1647 For example there is no point in having <application>Privoxy</application>
1648 modify the User-Agent header, if websites can get all the information they want
1649 through JavaScript, ActiveX, Flash, Java etc.
1652 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
1653 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Privoxy</application>
1654 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
1655 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
1656 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
1659 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
1660 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
1661 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
1662 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
1663 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
1669 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1670 <title id="proxytest">A test site says I am not using a Proxy.</title>
1672 Good! Actually, they are probably testing for some other kinds of proxies.
1673 Hiding yourself completely would require additional steps.
1677 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="tor"><title>How do I use Privoxy
1678 together with Tor?</title>
1680 Before you configure <application>Privoxy</application> to use <application>Tor</application>
1681 (<ulink url="http://tor.eff.org/">http://tor.eff.org/</ulink>),
1682 please follow the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> chapters
1683 <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">2. Installation</ulink> and
1684 <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">5. Startup</ulink> to make sure
1685 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is setup correctly.
1688 If it is, refer to <ulink url="http://tor.eff.org/documentation.html.en">Tor's
1689 extensive documentation</ulink> to learn how to install <application>Tor</application>,
1690 and make sure <application>Tor</application>'s logfile says that
1691 <quote>Tor has successfully opened a circuit</quote> and it
1692 <quote>looks like client functionality is working</quote>.
1695 If either <application>Tor</application> or <application>Privoxy</application>
1696 isn't working, their combination most likely will neither. Testing them on their
1697 own will also help you to direct problem reports to the right audience.
1698 If <application>Privoxy</application> isn't working, don't bother the
1699 <application>Tor</application> developers. If <application>Tor</application>
1700 isn't working, don't send bug reports to the <application>Privoxy</application> Team.
1703 If you verified that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>Tor</application>
1704 are working, it is time to connect them. As far as <application>Privoxy</application>
1705 is concerned, <application>Tor</application> is just another proxy that can be reached
1706 by socks4 or socks4a. Most likely you are interested in <application>Tor</application>
1707 to increase your anonymity level, therefore you should use socks4a,
1708 to make sure <application>Privoxy's</application> DNS requests are
1709 done through <application>Tor</application> and thus invisible to your local network.
1714 Since <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.5, its
1715 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>
1716 is already prepared for <application>Tor</application>, if you are using a
1717 default <application>Tor</application> configuration and run it on the same
1718 system as &my-app;, you just have to edit the
1719 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding section</ulink>
1720 and uncomment the line:
1724 # forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
1728 This is enough to reach the Internet, but additionally you should
1729 uncomment the following forward rules, to make sure your local network is still
1730 reachable through Privoxy:
1734 # forward 192.168.*.*/ .
1735 # forward 10.*.*.*/ .
1736 # forward 127.*.*.*/ .
1740 Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will
1741 be as (un)secure as the local network is, but the alternative is
1742 that you can't reach the network at all.
1743 If you also want to be able to reach servers in your local
1744 network by using their names, you will need additional
1745 exceptions that look like this:
1749 # forward localhost/ .
1753 Save the modified configuration file and open
1754 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status/</ulink>
1755 in your browser, confirm that <application>Privoxy</application> has reloaded its configuration
1756 and that there are no other forward lines, unless you know that you need them. If everything looks good,
1758 <ulink url="http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ#head-0e1cc2ac330ede8c6ad1ac0d0db0ac163b0e6143">Tor
1759 Faq 4.2</ulink> to learn how to verify that you are really using <application>Tor</application>.
1762 Afterwards, please take the time to at least skim through the rest
1763 of <application>Tor's</application> documentation. Make sure you understand
1764 what <application>Tor</application> does, why it is no replacement for
1765 application level security, and why you shouldn't use it for unencrypted logins.
1769 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1770 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information or
1771 content is being altered?</title>
1774 Definitely. It is common for sites to use browser type, browser version,
1775 HTTP header content, and various other techniques in order to dynamically
1776 decide what to display and how to display it. What you see, and what I see,
1777 might be very different. There are many, many ways that this can be handled,
1778 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
1782 <quote>User-Agent</quote> is often used in this way to identify
1783 the browser, and adjust content accordingly. Changing this now (at least not
1784 further than removing the OS information) is not recommended, since so many
1785 sites do look for it. You may get undesirable results by changing just this
1790 Also, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
1791 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
1792 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
1793 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
1794 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
1795 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
1796 <quote>Referer</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
1797 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
1798 <quote>Referer</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
1799 can forge both headers without giving information away). There are
1800 many other ways things that can go wrong when trying to fool a web server. The
1801 results of which could inadvertently cause pages to load incorrectly,
1802 partially, or even not at all. And there may be no obvious clues as to just
1803 what went wrong, or why. Nowhere will there be a message that says
1804 <quote><emphasis>Turn off <literal>fast-redirects</literal> or else!</emphasis>
1809 Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree,
1814 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
1815 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
1816 be required, but by no means the only one.
1822 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1823 <title id="caching">Can Privoxy act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
1824 speed up web browsing?</title>
1826 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
1827 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> for this. And, yes,
1828 before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
1829 with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
1830 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding
1831 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
1832 manual</ulink> for details.
1836 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1837 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?</title>
1839 Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can.
1840 <application>Privoxy</application> can help protect your privacy, but not
1841 protect you from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
1842 and recommended to use <emphasis>both</emphasis>.
1846 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1847 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
1848 ads used to be. Why?</title>
1850 It is technically possible to eliminate banners and ads in a way that frees
1851 their allocated page space. This could easily be done by blocking with
1852 <application>Privoxy's</application> filters,
1853 and eliminating the <emphasis>entire</emphasis> image references from the
1857 But, this would consume considerably more CPU resources (IOW, slow things
1858 down), would likely destroy the layout of some web pages which rely on the
1859 banners utilizing a certain amount of page space, and might fail in other
1860 cases, where the screen space is reserved (e.g. by HTML tables for instance).
1861 Also, making ads and banners disappear without any trace complicates
1862 troubleshooting, and would sooner or later be problematic.
1865 The better alternative is to instead let them stay, and block the resulting
1866 requests for the banners themselves as is now the case. This leaves either
1867 empty space, or the familiar checkerboard pattern.
1870 So the developers won't support this in the default configuration, but you
1871 can of course define appropriate filters yourself to achieve this.
1875 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1876 <title id="ssl">How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1878 Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
1879 and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably <emphasis>secure</emphasis>,
1880 there is little that <application>Privoxy</application> can do but hand the raw
1881 gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed.
1884 The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs
1885 to tell <application>Privoxy</application> the name of the remote server,
1886 so that <application>Privoxy</application> can establish the connection.
1887 If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.
1890 As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
1891 seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often
1892 the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless
1893 for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
1894 <application>Privoxy</application>'s ad blocking.
1897 <quote>Content cookies</quote> (those that are embedded in the actual HTML or
1898 JS page content, see <literal><ulink
1899 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</ulink></literal>),
1900 in an SSL transaction will be impossible to block under these conditions.
1901 Fortunately, this does not seem to be a very common scenario since most
1902 cookies come by traditional means.
1907 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1908 <title id="secure">Privoxy runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1909 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1911 There are no known exploits that might affect
1912 <application>Privoxy</application>. On Unix-like systems,
1913 <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
1914 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1915 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens to requests
1916 from <quote>localhost</quote> only. The server aspect of
1917 <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly exposed to the
1918 Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1919 <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1920 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1921 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
1922 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration file and check all <ulink
1923 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security
1924 options</ulink>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address
1925 in the browser proxy configuration, but <application>Privoxy</application>
1926 will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in addition,
1927 and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
1932 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
1933 <title>How can I temporarily disable Privoxy?</title>
1935 The easiest way is to access <application>Privoxy</application> with your
1936 browser by using the remote toggle URL: <ulink
1937 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>.
1938 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS">Bookmarklets section</ulink>
1939 of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> for an easy way to access this
1945 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="reallyoff">
1946 <title>When <quote>disabled</quote> is Privoxy totally
1947 out of the picture?</title>
1949 No, this just means all filtering and actions are disabled.
1950 <application>Privoxy</application> is still acting as a proxy, but just not
1951 doing any of the things that <application>Privoxy</application> would
1952 normally be expected to do. It is still a <quote>middle-man</quote> in
1953 the interaction between your browser and web sites. See below to bypass
1958 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff2">
1959 <title>How can I tell Privoxy to totally ignore certain sites?</title>
1961 Bypassing a proxy, or proxying based on arbitrary criteria, is purely a browser
1962 configuration issue, not a &my-app; issue. Modern browsers typically do have
1963 settings for not proxying certain sites. Check your browser's help files.
1968 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="crunch">
1969 <title>My logs show Privoxy <quote>crunches</quote>
1970 ads, but also its own internal CGI pages. What is a <quote>crunch</quote>?</title>
1972 A <quote>crunch</quote> simply means <application>Privoxy</application> intercepted
1973 <emphasis>something</emphasis>, nothing more. Often this is indeed ads or
1974 banners, but <application>Privoxy</application> uses the same mechanism for
1975 trapping requests for its own internal pages. For instance, a request for
1976 <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration page at: <ulink
1977 url="http://config.privoxy.org">http://config.privoxy.org</ulink>, is
1978 intercepted (i.e. it does not go out to the 'net), and the familiar CGI
1979 configuration is returned to the browser, and the log consequently will show
1980 a <quote>crunch</quote>.
1984 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads">
1985 <title>Can Privoxy effect files that I download
1986 from a webserver? FTP server?</title>
1988 From the webserver's perspective, there is no difference between
1989 viewing a document (i.e. a page), and downloading a file. The same is true of
1990 <application>Privoxy</application>. If there is a match for a <literal><ulink
1991 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> pattern,
1992 it will still be blocked, and of course this is obvious.
1995 Filtering is potentially more of a concern since the results are not always
1996 so obvious, and the effects of filtering are there whether the file is simply
1997 viewed, or downloaded. And potentially whether the content is some obnoxious
1998 advertisement, or Mr. Jimmy's latest/greatest source code jewel. Of course,
1999 one of these presumably is <quote>bad</quote> content that we don't want, and
2000 the other is <quote>good</quote> content that we do want.
2001 <application>Privoxy</application> is blind to the differences, and can only
2002 distinguish <quote>good from bad</quote> by the configuration parameters
2003 <emphasis>we</emphasis> give it.
2006 <application>Privoxy</application> knows the differences in files according
2007 to the <quote>Document Type</quote> as reported by the webserver. If this is
2008 reported accurately (e.g. <quote>application/zip</quote> for a zip archive),
2009 then <application>Privoxy</application> knows to ignore these where
2010 appropriate. <application>Privoxy</application> potentially can filter HTML
2011 as well as plain text documents, subject to configuration parameters of
2012 course. Also, documents that are of an unknown type (generally assumed to be
2013 <quote>text/plain</quote>) can be filtered, as will those that might be
2014 incorrectly reported by the webserver. If such a file is a downloaded file
2015 that is intended to be saved to disk, then any content that might have been
2016 altered by filtering, will be saved too, for these (probably rare) cases.
2019 Note that versions later than 3.0.2 do NOT filter document types reported as
2020 <quote>text/plain</quote>. Prior to this, <application>Privoxy</application>
2021 did filter this document type.
2024 In short, filtering is <quote>ON</quote> if a) the Document Type as reported
2025 by the webserver is appropriate <emphasis>and</emphasis> b) the configuration
2026 allows it (or at least does not disallow it). That's it. There is no magic
2027 cookie anywhere to say this is <quote>good</quote> and this is
2028 <quote>bad</quote>. It's the configuration that let's it all happen or not.
2031 If you download text files, you probably do not want these to be filtered,
2032 particularly if the content is source code, or other critical content. Source
2033 code sometimes might be mistaken for Javascript (i.e. the kind that might
2034 open a pop-up window). It is recommended to turn off filtering for download
2035 sites (particularly if the content may be plain text files and you are using
2036 version 3.0.2 or earlier) in your <filename>user.action</filename> file. And
2037 also, for any site or page where making <emphasis>any</emphasis> changes at
2038 all to the content is to be avoided.
2041 <application>Privoxy</application> does not do FTP at all, only HTTP
2042 and HTTPS (SSL) protocols, so please don't try.
2046 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads2">
2047 <title>I just downloaded a Perl script, and Privoxy
2048 altered it! Yikes, what is wrong!</title>
2054 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="hostsfile">
2055 <title>Should I continue to use a <quote>HOSTS</quote> file for ad-blocking?</title>
2057 One time-tested technique to defeat common ads is to trick the local DNS
2058 system by giving a phony IP address for the ad generator in the local
2059 <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, typically using <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>, aka
2060 <literal>localhost</literal>. This effectively blocks the ad.
2063 There is no reason to use this technique in conjunction with
2064 <application>Privoxy</application>. <application>Privoxy</application>
2065 does essentially the same thing, much more elegantly and with much more
2066 flexibility. A large <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, in fact, not only
2067 duplicates effort, but may get in the way. It is recommended to remove
2068 such entries from your <filename>HOSTS</filename> file. If you think
2069 your hosts list is neglected by <application>Privoxy's </application>
2070 configuration, consider adding your list to your <filename>user.action</filename> file:
2077 ads.galore.example.com
2078 etc.example.com</screen>
2082 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
2083 <title>Where can I find more information about Privoxy
2084 and related issues?</title>
2085 <!-- Include seealso.sgml boilerplate: -->
2087 <!-- end boilerplate -->
2092 <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
2098 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="microsuck">
2099 <title>I've noticed that Privoxy changes <quote>Microsoft</quote> to
2100 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>! Why are you manipulating my browsing?</title>
2103 We're not. The text substitutions that you are seeing are disabled
2104 in the default configuration as shipped. You have either manually
2105 activated the <quote><literal>fun</literal></quote> filter which
2106 is clearly labeled <quote>Text replacements for subversive browsing
2107 fun!</quote> or you are using an older Privoxy version and have implicitly
2108 activated it by choosing the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> profile in the
2109 web-based editor. Please upgrade!
2116 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2118 <sect1 id="trouble">
2119 <title>Troubleshooting</title>
2121 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
2122 <title id="refused">I cannot connect to any websites. Or, I am getting
2123 <quote>connection refused</quote> message with every web page. Why?</title>
2125 There are several possibilities:
2130 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running. Solution: verify
2131 that &my-app; is installed correctly, has not crashed, and is indeed running.
2132 Look at <application>Privoxy's</application> logs to see what they say.
2134 <listitem><para>Or your browser is configured for a different port than what
2135 <application>Privoxy</application> is using. Solution: verify that &my-app;
2136 and your browser are set to the same port (<literal>listen-address</literal>).
2138 <listitem><para>Or if using a forwarding rule, you have a configuration problem or a
2139 problem with a host in the forwarding chain. Solution: temporarily alter your
2140 configuration and take the forwarders out of the equation.
2143 Or you have a firewall that is interfering and blocking you. Solution:
2144 try disabling or removing the firewall as a simple test.
2151 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2152 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="error503">
2153 <title>Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</title>
2155 More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has
2156 been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running! The solution is
2157 to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
2158 something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products
2159 may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
2163 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
2164 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
2165 still getting through. How?</title>
2167 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
2168 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
2169 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Privoxy</application>
2170 will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flushing the browser's
2171 caches. And then try again.
2175 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
2176 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
2177 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
2178 and see if it really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking
2179 spam: a lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game. And
2180 remember you need to block the URL of the ad in question, which may be
2181 entirely different from the site URL itself. Most ads are hosted on different
2182 servers than the main site itself. If you right-click on the ad, you should
2183 be able to get all the relevant information you need. Alternately, you can
2184 find the correct URL by looking at <application>Privoxy's</application> logs.
2189 <sect2 id="badsite" renderas="sect3">
2190 <title >One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy.
2191 What can I do?</title>
2194 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
2195 by toggling off <application>Privoxy</application> through <ulink
2196 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>,
2197 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
2198 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
2203 If still a problem, go to <ulink
2204 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
2205 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions
2206 are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions files are
2207 responsible for that. Now, armed with this information, go to <ulink
2208 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2209 and select the appropriate actions files for editing.
2212 You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
2213 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
2214 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
2215 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
2216 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
2217 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
2218 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
2221 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
2222 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
2223 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
2224 site to a <literal>{ fragile }</literal> section in <filename>user.action</filename>,
2225 which is an alias that turns off most <quote>dangerous</quote>
2226 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
2227 your privacy and protection more than necessary,
2230 Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <ulink
2231 url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">User Manual appendix,
2232 Troubleshooting: the Anatomy of an Action</ulink>.
2233 There is also an <ulink
2234 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions tutorial</ulink>
2235 with general configuration information and examples.
2241 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2242 <sect2 id="dun" renderas="sect3">
2243 <title>After installing Privoxy, I have to log in
2244 every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
2247 This is a quirk that effects the installation of
2248 <application>Privoxy</application>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
2249 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
2250 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.
2254 When setting up an NT based Windows system with
2255 <application>Privoxy</application> you may find that things do not seem to be
2256 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
2257 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
2258 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
2259 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
2260 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
2261 configured for the kids.
2265 When setting up <application>Privoxy</application> in this environment you
2266 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
2267 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
2268 <application>Privoxy</application>. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
2269 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
2270 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
2271 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
2272 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
2273 you have to store the password under each different user!
2277 The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
2278 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
2279 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
2280 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
2281 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
2282 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.
2286 [Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
2291 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2292 <sect2 id="ftp" renderas="sect3">
2293 <title>I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy
2294 is blocking me.</title>
2296 <application>Privoxy</application> cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
2297 so do not configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
2298 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for <emphasis>any protocol other than HTTP
2299 or HTTPS (SSL)</emphasis>.
2302 Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
2303 a URL like <literal>ftp://ftp.example.com</literal>, your browser is making
2304 an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
2305 speak FTP, <application>Privoxy</application> does not, and cannot proxy
2309 To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <quote>proxy</quote>
2310 setting, which will enable various protocols, including
2311 <emphasis>both</emphasis> HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is possible to
2312 accidentally enable FTP proxying in these cases. And of course, if this
2313 happens, <application>Privoxy</application> will indeed cause problems since
2314 it does not know FTP. <![%p-newstuff;[Newer version will give a sane error
2315 message if a FTP connection is attempted.]]> Just disable the FTP setting
2316 and all will be well again.
2319 Will <application>Privoxy</application> ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely.
2320 There just is not much reason, and the work to make this happen is more than
2325 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2326 <sect2 id="osxie" renderas="sect3">
2327 <title>In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
2328 Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.</title>
2330 Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
2331 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
2332 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
2333 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
2334 is checked and enter <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> in the entry field.
2335 Enter <literal>8118</literal> in the Port field. The next time you start
2336 IE, it should reflect these values.
2340 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2341 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="osxuninstall">
2342 <title>In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
2343 uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
2344 empty the trash.</title>
2346 Just dragging the <application>Privoxy</application> folder to the trash is
2347 not enough to delete it. <application>Privoxy</application> supplies an
2348 <application>uninstall.command</application> file that takes care of
2349 these details. Open the trash, drag the <application>uninstall.command</application>
2350 file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
2351 confirmation and the administration password.
2354 The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
2355 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
2360 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2361 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="osximages">
2362 <title>In Mac OSX Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
2363 experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
2364 <literal>localhost</literal> as my browser's proxy setting.</title>
2366 We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in OSX, but don't fully
2367 understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
2368 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> instead of <literal>localhost</literal>
2369 works around the problem.
2373 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2374 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blankpage">
2375 <title>I get a completely blank page at one site. <quote>View Source</quote>
2376 shows only: <markup><![CDATA[<html><body></body></html>]]></markup>. Without
2377 Privoxy the page loads fine.</title>
2379 Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
2380 <ulink url="http://www.php.net/"><application>PHP</application></ulink>,
2381 which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
2382 an uncompressed page, like <application>Privoxy</application> does.
2383 This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
2386 To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
2387 the site to a <literal>-prevent-compression</literal> section in
2388 <filename>user.action</filename>:
2391 # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
2393 {-prevent-compression}
2394 .example.com</screen>
2396 If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
2397 site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
2398 instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
2399 or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
2403 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nohostname">
2404 <title>My logs show many <quote>Unable to get my own hostname</quote> lines.
2407 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to get the hostname of the system
2408 its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to
2409 (from the <filename>config</filename> file
2410 <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> setting). If the system cannot supply
2411 this information, <application>Privoxy</application> logs this condition.
2414 Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration error. It is
2415 not a fatal error to <application>Privoxy</application> however, but may
2416 result in a much slower response from <application>Privoxy</application> on
2417 some platforms due to DNS timeouts.
2420 This can be caused by a problem with the local <filename>HOSTS</filename>
2421 file. If this file has been changed from the original, try reverting it to
2422 see if that helps. Make sure what ever name(s) are used for the local system,
2423 that they resolve both ways.
2427 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="inuse">
2428 <title>When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an
2429 error message <quote>port 8118 is already in use</quote> (or similar wording).
2432 Port 8118 is <application>Privoxy's</application> default TCP
2433 <quote>listening</quote> port. Typically this message would mean that there
2434 is already one instance of <application>Privoxy</application> running, and
2435 your system is actually trying to start a second
2436 <application>Privoxy</application> on the same port, which will not work.
2437 (You can have multiple instances but they must be assigned different ports.)
2438 How and why this might happen varies from platform to platform, but you need
2439 to check your installation and start-up procedures.
2443 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer">
2445 Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.
2448 This is caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter. You should either
2449 upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or at least upgrade to the most
2450 recent <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
2451 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
2452 Or you can simply disable the demoronizer filter.
2456 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer2">
2458 Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy
2462 This may also be caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter,
2463 in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting a file type. Binary
2464 files are exempted from <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering
2465 (unless the web server by mistake says the file is something else). Either
2466 upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or go to the most recent
2467 <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
2468 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
2472 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer3">
2474 What is the <quote>demoronizer</quote> and why is it there?
2477 The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
2478 were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
2479 to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages
2480 that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a
2481 standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
2482 displayed correctly. <application>Privoxy</application> borrowed from this
2483 script, introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
2484 correct these errors on the fly.
2487 But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in some
2491 If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
2492 pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will
2493 cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <emphasis>should not be on</emphasis>.
2496 On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
2497 notice wierd characters on pages, you might want to try it.
2501 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="windowopen">
2503 Why do I keep seeing <quote>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</quote> in raw source code?
2506 <application>Privoxy</application> is attempting to disable malicious
2507 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink>
2508 in this case, with the <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal>
2509 filter. <application>Privoxy</application> cannot tell very well
2510 <quote>good</quote> code snippets from <quote>bad</quote> code snippets.
2513 If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
2514 this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this
2515 where it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file,
2516 then you should set an exception for this site or page such that the
2517 integrity of the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.
2521 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="dnserrors">
2523 I am getting too many DNS errors like <quote>404 No Such Domain</quote>. Why
2524 can't Privoxy do this better?
2527 There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS resolution
2528 is done by the underlying operating system -- not
2529 <application>Privoxy</application> itself. <application>Privoxy</application>
2530 merely initiates the process and hands it off, and then later reports
2531 whatever the outcome was. And tries to give a coherent message if there seems
2532 to be a problem. In some cases, this might otherwise be mitigated by the
2533 browser itself which might try some work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g
2534 adding <quote>www.</quote> to the URL). In other cases, if
2535 <application>Privoxy</application> is being chained with another proxy, this
2536 could complicate the issue, and cause undue
2537 delays and timeouts. In the case of a <quote>socks4a</quote> proxy, the socks
2538 server handles all the DNS. <application>Privoxy</application> would just be
2539 the <quote>messenger</quote> which is reporting whatever problem occurred
2540 downstream, and not the root cause of the error.
2544 In any case, newer versions include various improvements to help
2545 <application>Privoxy</application> better handle these cases.
2549 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allcpu">
2551 At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking
2552 all CPU. Why is this?
2555 This is probably a manifestation of the <quote>100% cpu</quote> problem that
2556 occurs on pages containing many (thousands upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines
2557 are in the raw HTML source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the
2558 pattern matching in <application>Privoxy's</application> page filtering
2559 mechanism is trying to match against absurdly long strings and this becomes
2560 very CPU-intensive, taking a long, long time to complete. Until a better
2561 solution comes along, disable filtering on these pages, particularly the
2562 <literal>js-annoyances</literal> and <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal>
2567 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="slowcrawl">
2568 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and all my
2569 browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? </title>
2571 This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users world-wide,
2572 it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent interaction of software
2573 components such as anti-virus software, spyware protectors, personal
2574 firewalls or similar components. Try disabling (or uninstalling) these one
2575 at a time and see if that helps.
2579 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="preventcomp">
2580 <title>Why do my filters work on some sites but not on others? </title>
2582 It's probably due to compression. It is a common practice for web servers to
2583 send their content <quote>compressed</quote> in order to speed things up, and
2584 then let the browser <quote>uncompress</quote> them. &my-app; does not (yet)
2585 support compression. But we can force the web server to bend to our will ;-)
2586 So for filtering, make sure you have <ulink
2587 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>
2595 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2596 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
2597 <!-- Include contacting.sgml -->
2599 <!-- end contacting -->
2602 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2603 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
2605 <!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
2611 Portions of this document are <quote>borrowed</quote> from the original
2612 <application>Junkbuster</application> (tm) FAQ, and modified as
2613 appropriate for <application>Privoxy</application>.
2616 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2617 <sect2><title>License</title>
2618 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
2620 <!-- end copyright -->
2622 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2624 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2625 <sect2><title>History</title>
2626 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
2632 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2635 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2637 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
2639 <!-- Include seealso.sgml -->
2650 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
2652 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
2653 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
2654 Public License as published by the Free Software
2655 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
2656 your option) any later version.
2658 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
2659 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
2660 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
2661 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
2662 License for more details.
2664 The GNU General Public License should be included with
2665 this file. If not, you can view it at
2666 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
2667 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
2668 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
2671 Revision 2.22 2006/10/14 20:33:10 hal9
2672 Three new FAQ's re: templates and blocking, and various minor touch-ups/improvements.
2674 Revision 2.21 2006/10/03 14:40:51 fabiankeil
2675 Added links from the Tor faq to the
2676 configuration chapter in the User Manual.
2678 Revision 2.20 2006/09/26 10:12:37 fabiankeil
2681 Revision 2.19 2006/09/22 10:54:32 hal9
2682 Change references to 3.0.4 to 3.0.5 and minor adjustments.
2684 Revision 2.18 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
2685 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
2686 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
2688 Revision 2.17 2006/09/17 14:56:32 hal9
2689 This includes yet several more new FAQs, some improved wording, enhanced
2690 mark-up, various hyper links to wikipedia to explain key terminology to the
2691 uninitiated, etc. This is ready for release IMO pending final tagging of cvs
2692 and Privoxy version stamping.
2694 Revision 2.16 2006/09/10 15:30:46 hal9
2697 Revision 2.15 2006/09/08 23:05:07 hal9
2698 Fix broken links. Add faq on hosts files. Move most of new windows service
2699 feature to user manual and reference in faq. Various other small changes.
2701 Revision 2.14 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
2702 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
2704 Revision 2.13 2006/09/04 19:20:33 fabiankeil
2705 Adjusted anonymity related sections to match reality.
2706 Added a section about using Privoxy with Tor.
2708 Revision 2.12 2006/09/03 14:15:30 hal9
2709 Various updates, including 7 or 8 new FAQs, and updates/changes to various
2710 other ones to better reflect improvements, additions and changes for the
2711 upcoming release. This is close to final form for 3.0.4 IMHO.
2713 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:50 david__schmidt
2714 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
2715 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
2717 Revision 1.61.2.41 2004/04/05 13:44:05 oes
2718 Fixed allow-all-cookies alias name; closes SR #929746
2720 Revision 1.61.2.40 2004/01/30 17:00:33 oes
2721 Added OSX Panther problem
2723 Revision 1.61.2.39 2004/01/29 22:53:08 hal9
2724 Minor changes for exempting docs of text/plain. Change copyright date.
2726 Revision 1.61.2.38 2003/12/10 03:39:45 hal9
2727 Added FAQs for: demoronizer, related problems and why its included. Also,
2728 port 8118 already in use questions, and PrivoxyWindowOpen() questions. All in
2729 troubleshooting section.
2731 Revision 1.61.2.37 2003/10/17 11:01:50 oes
2732 Added Q&A for "not being used" page problem
2734 Revision 1.61.2.36 2003/06/26 23:49:20 hal9
2735 More on the filter/source code problem.
2737 Revision 1.61.2.35 2003/06/26 13:38:08 hal9
2738 Add FAQ on whether configuring Privoxy is necessary or not.
2740 Revision 1.61.2.34 2003/06/26 03:00:03 hal9
2741 Sorry, found another copyright date.
2743 Revision 1.61.2.33 2003/06/26 02:57:05 hal9
2744 Fix typo (finally!) and very minor modifications.
2746 Revision 1.61.2.32 2003/06/26 02:52:04 hal9
2749 Revision 1.61.2.31 2003/06/25 01:27:51 hal9
2750 Fix copyright, and a few nits.
2752 Revision 1.61.2.30 2003/06/25 01:13:52 hal9
2755 - FAQ on "Unable to get my own hostname"
2756 - Another one on filtering effects on text files.
2758 Revision 1.61.2.29 2003/06/15 21:32:58 hal9
2759 Add to the 4.17 (filtering effects on downloaded files).
2761 Revision 1.61.2.28 2003/03/18 19:37:21 oes
2762 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
2764 Revision 1.61.2.27 2002/12/01 06:31:58 hal9
2765 Add faq on win32 error 503 due to ZoneAlarm.
2767 Revision 1.61.2.26 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
2768 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
2771 Revision 1.61.2.25 2002/10/29 03:21:50 hal9
2772 Add 3 Q/A's relating to HTML in email. Other minor touchups.
2774 Revision 1.61.2.24 2002/10/15 12:50:22 oes
2775 s/Advanced/Radical/ (stupid me)
2777 Revision 1.61.2.23 2002/10/15 12:38:56 oes
2778 Added Microsuck faq; more detail for PHP problem
2780 Revision 1.61.2.22 2002/10/12 01:13:13 hal9
2781 Updates for demoronizer, more commentary on Radical profile, and update on
2782 the srvany.exe/icon fix.
2784 Revision 1.61.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
2785 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
2787 Revision 1.61.2.20 2002/09/26 01:22:45 hal9
2788 Small additions for LAN setup, content-cookies/SSL, and FTP non-support.
2790 Revision 1.61.2.19 2002/08/25 23:31:56 hal9
2791 Fix one grammatical error. Add brief FAQ relating to tranparent proxies (ie
2792 port 80 setting). Add FAQ on effects of Privoxy on downloaded files
2793 (especially filtering).
2795 Revision 1.61.2.18 2002/08/14 16:39:37 hal9
2796 Fix wrong tag on FAQ addition.
2798 Revision 1.61.2.17 2002/08/14 00:01:18 hal9
2801 Revision 1.61.2.16 2002/08/13 00:10:38 hal9
2802 Add faq to troubleshooting re: blank page syndrome, ie {-prevent-compression}.
2804 Revision 1.61.2.15 2002/08/10 11:34:22 oes
2805 Add disclaimer about probably being out-of-date
2807 Revision 1.61.2.14 2002/08/07 02:53:43 hal9
2808 Fix some minor markup errors, and move one OSX Q/A to troubleshooting section.
2810 Revision 1.61.2.13 2002/08/06 11:55:32 oes
2811 Added missing close tag
2813 Revision 1.61.2.12 2002/08/06 11:43:46 david__schmidt
2814 Updated OSX uninstall FAQ... we have an uninstall script now.
2816 Revision 1.61.2.11 2002/08/06 08:54:03 oes
2817 Style police: Fixed formatting details
2819 Revision 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 david__schmidt
2820 Made the OSX removal commands far less dangerous
2822 Revision 1.61.2.9 2002/08/02 13:14:45 oes
2823 Added warning about sudo rm -r for Mac OSX deinstallation; moved this item to install section
2825 Revision 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt
2826 Add FAQ item for MSIE on OSX HTTP proxy confusion
2828 Revision 1.61.2.7 2002/08/02 01:46:01 david__schmidt
2829 Added FAQ item for Mac OSX uninstall woes
2831 Revision 1.61.2.6 2002/07/30 20:04:56 hal9
2832 Fix typo: 'schould'.
2834 Revision 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes
2835 - Updated to reflect changes in standard.action
2836 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
2838 Revision 1.61.2.4 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
2839 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
2841 Revision 1.61.2.3 2002/06/09 16:36:33 hal9
2842 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
2844 Revision 1.61.2.2 2002/06/06 02:51:34 hal9
2845 Fix typo in URL http:/config.privoxy.org
2847 Revision 1.61.2.1 2002/06/05 23:10:43 hal9
2848 Add new FAQ re: DUN/IE. Change release date from May to June :)
2850 Revision 1.61 2002/05/25 12:37:25 hal9
2851 Various minor changes and edits.
2853 Revision 1.60 2002/05/22 17:17:48 oes
2854 Proofread & added more links into u-m
2856 Revision 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9
2857 Fix ulink -> link markup.
2859 Revision 1.58 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
2860 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
2861 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
2862 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
2864 Revision 1.57 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
2865 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
2867 Revision 1.56 2002/05/04 08:44:44 swa
2870 Revision 1.55 2002/05/04 00:41:56 hal9
2871 -Remove TOC/first page kludge in favor of proper handling via dsl file.
2873 Revision 1.54 2002/05/03 05:06:44 hal9
2874 Add brief Q/A on transparent proxies.
2876 Revision 1.53 2002/05/03 01:34:52 hal9
2877 Fix section numbering for new sections (due to TOC kludge).
2879 Revision 1.52 2002/04/29 03:08:43 hal9
2880 -Added new Q/A on new actions file set up (pointer to u-m)
2881 -Fixed a few broken links and converted old actions as a result of
2884 Revision 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa
2885 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
2887 Revision 1.50 2002/04/26 05:25:23 hal9
2888 Mass commit to catch a few scattered fixes.
2890 Revision 1.49 2002/04/12 10:10:18 swa
2893 Revision 1.48 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
2896 Revision 1.47 2002/04/10 04:05:32 hal9
2899 Revision 1.45 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
2900 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
2902 Revision 1.44 2002/04/07 21:24:29 hal9
2903 Touch up on name change.
2905 Revision 1.43 2002/04/04 21:59:53 hal9
2906 Added NT/W2K service/icon situation.
2908 Revision 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
2909 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
2911 Revision 1.41 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
2912 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
2913 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
2914 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
2915 eventually be set by Makefile.
2916 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
2918 Revision 1.40 2002/04/03 04:22:03 hal9
2919 Fixed several typos.
2921 Revision 1.39 2002/04/03 03:53:03 hal9
2922 Revert some changes, and then make some news, to layout, and appearance.
2924 Revision 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9
2925 Major changes to doc structure and layout. Sections are not automatically
2926 numbered now. TOC is on page by itself.
2928 Revision 1.37 2002/04/01 16:24:07 hal9
2929 -Rework of supported Q/A.
2930 -Set up entities to include boilerplate text.
2932 Revision 1.36 2002/03/31 23:18:47 hal9
2933 More on dealing with BLOCKED.
2935 Revision 1.35 2002/03/30 04:14:19 hal9
2936 Fix privoxy.org/config links.
2938 Revision 1.34 2002/03/29 04:35:56 hal9
2941 Revision 1.33 2002/03/29 01:31:48 hal9
2942 Several new Q/A's and other touch ups.
2944 Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
2945 Touch ups for name change.
2947 Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
2948 we have a new homepage!
2950 Revision 1.30 2002/03/25 16:39:22 hal9
2951 A few new sections. Made all links relative to user-manual.
2953 Revision 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9
2954 Moved section, and touch ups.
2956 Revision 1.28 2002/03/25 04:27:33 hal9
2957 New section related to name change.
2959 Revision 1.25 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
2960 we are too lazy to make a block-built
2961 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
2963 Revision 1.24 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
2964 name change related issue.
2966 Revision 1.23 2002/03/24 12:33:01 swa
2969 Revision 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
2970 name change. changed filenames.
2972 Revision 1.21 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
2975 Revision 1.20 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
2976 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
2977 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
2978 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
2979 comments and remarks to history untouched.
2981 Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
2984 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
2987 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
2990 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
2991 A few more additions.
2993 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
2994 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
2996 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
2997 A little more added ...
2999 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
3000 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
3002 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
3005 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
3008 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
3009 correct feedback channels
3011 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
3012 more info on not hiding ip address
3014 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
3015 added default config section
3017 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
3020 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
3021 Committing changes by Stefan
3023 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
3024 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
3026 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
3027 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
3028 will work - no other changes are needed.
3030 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
3031 upload process established. run make webserver and
3032 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
3033 are now linked correctly.
3035 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
3036 merged standards into developer manual
3038 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
3039 source files for junkbuster documentation
3041 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
3042 first proposal of a structure.
3044 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
3045 docs should have an author.
3047 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
3048 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.