1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN">
3 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/faq.sgml,v $
7 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
9 $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9 Exp $
11 Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
12 IJBSWA team. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net
14 Based on the Internet Junkbuster originally written
15 by and Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and
16 Junkbusters Corporation. http://www.junkbusters.com
21 <title>Junkbuster Frequently Asked Questions</title>
23 <pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
28 <orgname>By: Junkbuster Developers</orgname>
35 The FAQ document gives users and developers alike answers to frequently asked
36 questions about the Internet Junkbuster. <application>Internet
37 Junkbuster</application> is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities
38 for protecting privacy, filtering web page content, managing cookies,
39 controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious
40 Internet Junk. Junkbuster has a very flexible configuration and can be
41 customized to suit individual needs and tastes. <application>Internet
42 Junkbuster</application> has application for both stand-alone systems and
46 You can find the latest version of the document at <ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/">http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/</ulink>.
47 Please see the Contact section in the user-manual if you want to contact the developers.
51 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
57 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
60 <sect1 id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
66 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
68 <sect1 id="questions"><title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
70 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
72 <sect2 id="general"><title>General Information</title>
74 <sect3 id="newjb"><title>What is this new <application>Junkbuster</application>?</title>
76 The original <application>Junkbuster</application> was a product of
77 Junkbusters Corporation (tm). Development of this effort stopped
78 as of version 2.0.2. Stefan Walherr started the ijbswa project on
79 <ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net">Sourceforge</ulink> to
80 rekindle development. Other developers subsequently joined with
81 Stefan, and have since added many new features and enhancements.
85 <sect3 id="differs"><title>How does it differ from the old <application>Junkbuster?</application></title>
87 All the old features remain. The new <application>Junkbuster</application>
88 still blocks ads and banners, still manages cookies, and protects
89 privacy. But, these are all enhanced, and many new features have been
90 added, all in the same vein.
93 The configuration has changed significantly. This is something that users
94 will notice right off the bat. The <quote>blocklist</quote> file does
95 not exist any more. This is replaced by <quote>actions</quote>
96 files, such as <filename>ijb.actions</filename>. This is where most of
97 the per site configuration is now.
102 <sect3 id="features"><title>What are some of the new features?</title>
104 The section is in both user-manual and faq. Please keep in sync!!!
111 Integrated browser based configuration and control utility (<ulink
112 url="http://i.j.b">http://i.j.b</ulink>). Browser-based tracing of rule
119 Modularized configuration that will allow for system wide settings, and
120 individual user settings. (not implemented yet, probably a 3.1 feature)
126 Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
132 HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 1.1 features are supported).
138 Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files, and
139 generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
152 Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size,
153 invisible <quote>web-bugs</quote>, JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse,
160 Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
167 Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
173 Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
179 User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
185 Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
191 Builds from source on most UNIX-like systems. Packages available for: Linux
192 (RedHat, SuSE, or Debian), Windows, Sun Solaris, Mac OSX, OS/2, HP-UX 11 and AmigaOS.
199 In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile over-all.
208 <sect3 id="proxymoron"><title>How does <application>Junkbuster</application>
209 work? What is a <quote>proxy</quote>?</title>
211 When you connect to a web site with <application>Junkbuster</application>,
212 you are really connecting to your locally running version of
213 <application>Junkbuster</application>. <application>Junkbuster</application>
214 intercepts your requests for the web page, and relays that to the
215 <quote>real</quote> web site. The web site sends the HTTP data stream
216 back to <application>Junkbuster</application>, where
217 <application>Junkbuster</application> can work its magic before it
218 relays this data back to your web browser.
223 Since <application>Junkbuster</application> sits between you and the
224 WWW, it is in a position to intercept and completely manage all web traffic and
225 HTTP content before it gets to your browser.
226 <application>Junkbuster</application> uses various programming methods to do
227 this, all of which is under your control via the various configuration
233 <sect3 id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
234 Junkbuster. Why should I use Junkbuster at all?</title>
236 Modern browsers do indeed have <emphasis>some</emphasis> of the same
237 functionality as <application>Junkbuster</application>. Maybe this is
238 adequate for you. But <application>Junkbuster</application> is much more
239 verstatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
242 In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
243 have a LAN with multiple computers. This way all the configuration
244 is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar configuration
245 for possibly many browsers.
252 <sect3 id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
253 warranty? Registration?</title>
255 <application>Junkbuster</application> is licensed under the
256 GNU General Public License (GPL). It is free to use, copy,
257 modify or distribute as you wish.
260 There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise. That is something
261 that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
262 <application>Junkbuster</application> really is <emphasis>free</emphasis>
271 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
273 <sect2 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
274 <sect3 id="newinstall"><title>Can I install the new
275 <application>Junkbuster</application> over the old one?</title>
277 We recommend you uninstall the old <application>Junkbuster</application>
278 first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
279 save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
280 is substantially changed.
283 See the user-manual for platform specific installation instructions.
284 [FIXME: This is meant for after the name change!]
289 <sect3 id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of Junkbuster?</title>
291 If you set up the <application>Junkbuster</application> to run on
292 the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
293 networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <quote>localhost</quote>
294 (which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
295 to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have told the Internet
296 Junkbuster to run on a different port with the
297 <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> config option).
300 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
301 the word <quote>localhost</quote> in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote>
302 and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and then the number <quote>8118</quote>
303 for <quote>port</quote>.
306 <application>Junkbuster</application> can also be used to proxy for
307 a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
308 address of the LAN host where <application>Junkbuster</application>
309 is running, or the equivalent hostname. Port assignment would be
313 <application>Junkbuster</application> does not currently handle
314 protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, or other Internet
322 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
324 <sect2 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
326 <sect3 id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
328 No. These will not work. You will need to re-enter your old
329 data into the new configuration structure.
334 <sect3 id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo account work?</title>
340 <sect3 id="hotmail"> <title>How can I make my Hotmail account work?</title>
346 <sect3 id="gmx"> <title>How can I make my GMX account work?</title>
352 <sect3 id="configfiles"> <title>What are the differences between
353 ijb-intermediate.action, ijb-basic.action, etc.?</title>
355 Configuring the Internet Junkbuster is not easy. To help you get started, we
356 provide you with three different default configurations. The following table
357 shows you, which features are enabled in each configuration.
360 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
361 <tgroup cols=5 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
369 <entry>Feature</entry>
370 <entry>ijb.action</entry>
371 <entry>ijb-basic.action</entry>
372 <entry>ijb-intermediate.action</entry>
373 <entry>ijb-advanced.action</entry>
379 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
380 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
381 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
382 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
383 <!-- <entry>f5</entry> -->
390 <entry>ad-filtering</entry>
398 <entry>blank image</entry>
406 <entry>de-animate GIFs</entry>
414 <entry>referer forging</entry>
422 <entry>jon's +no-cookies-keep (i.e. session cookies only)</entry>
430 <entry>no-popup windows</entry>
438 <entry>fast redirects</entry>
446 <entry>hide-referrer</entry>
454 <entry>hide-useragent</entry>
462 <entry>content-modification</entry>
470 <entry>feature-x</entry>
478 <entry>feature-y</entry>
486 <entry>feature-z</entry>
499 <sect3 id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration with a
500 browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
502 What I don't understand, is how I can browser edit the config file as a
503 regular user, while the whole /etc/junkbuster hierarchy belongs to the user
504 "junkbuster", with only 644 perms.
507 When you use the browser-based editor, JunkBuster itself is writing to the
508 config files. Because JunkBuster is running as the user "junkbuster", it can
509 update the config files.
512 If you don't like this, setting "enable-edit-actions 0" in the config file
513 will disable the browser-based editor. If you're that paranoid, you should
514 also consider setting "enable-remote-toggle 0" to prevent browser-based
515 enabling/disabling of JunkBuster.
518 Note that normally only local users can connect to JunkBuster, so this is not
519 (normally) a security problem.
525 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
527 <sect2 id="misc"><title>Misc</title>
529 <sect3 id="loadingtimes"><title>I noticed considerable
530 delays in page requests compared to the old IJB. What's wrong?</title>
532 Using the default filtering configuration, I noticed considerable delays in
533 page requests compared to the old IJB. Loading pages with large contents
534 seemed to take forever, then suddenly delivering all the content at once.
537 The whole content must be loaded in order to filter, and nothing is is
538 sent to the browser during this time. The loading time does not really
539 change in real numbers, but the feeling is different, because most
540 browsers are able to start rendering incomplete content, giving the
541 user a feeling of "it works".
544 To modify the content of a page (i.e. make frames resizeable again, etc.) and
545 not just replace ads, the Internet Junkbuster needs to download the entire
546 page first, do its content magic and then send the page to the browser.
551 <sect3 id="configurl"><title>What is the "http://i.j.b/"?</title>
553 Since JunkBuster sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can be
554 programmed to handle certain pages specially.
558 With recent versions of JunkBuster (version 2.9.x), you can get some
559 information about JunkBuster and change some settings by going to
560 http://i.j.b/ or, equivalently, http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/
561 (Note that i.j.b is far easier to type but may not work in some
566 These pages are *not* forwarded to a server on the internet - instead they are
567 handled by a special web server which is built in to JunkBuster.
571 If you are not running JunkBuster, then http://i.j.b/ will fail, and
572 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/ will return a web page telling you
573 you're not running JunkBuster.
577 If you have version 2.0.2, then the equivalent is
578 http://example.com/show-proxy-args (but you get far less information, and you
579 should really consider upgrading to 2.9.x).
584 <sect3 id="badfiledesc"><title>I get the message 'Bad File Descriptor', why?</title>
590 <sect3 id="proxy-chaining"><title>How do I chain Junkbuster with other proxies
591 (e.g. squid)?</title>
597 <sect3 id="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what do I do?</title>
599 Well, helping the team is always a good idea. We welcome new developers,
600 RPM gurus or documentation makers. Simply get an account on sourceforge.net
601 and mail your id to the developer mailing list. Once we have added you to
602 the team, you'll have write access to the CVS repository, and together
603 we'll find a suitable task for you.
607 <sect3 id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
609 No. The format of the blocklists has changed significantly in the versions
610 2.9.x. Once we have released the new version, there will again be
611 blocklists that you can update automatically.
615 <sect3 id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads?</title>
617 As of now, please discontinue to submit new ad blocking infos. Once we
618 have released the new version, there will again be a form on the website,
619 which you can use to contribute new ads.
623 <sect3 id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
625 You cannot hide your IP address with Junkbuster or any other software, since
626 the server needs to know your IP address to send the answer to you.
629 Fortunately there are many publicly usable anonymous proxies out there, which
630 solve the problem by providing a further level of indirection between you and
631 the web server, shared by many people and thus letting your requests "drown"
632 in white noise of unrelated requests as far as user tracking is concerned.
635 Most of them will, however, log your IP address and make it available to the
636 authorities in case you abuse that anonymity for criminal purposes. In fact
637 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
638 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
641 You can find a list of anonymous public proxies at <ulink
642 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">multiproxy.org</ulink> and many
647 <!-- <sect3 id="image"><title>What is the imagefile (simage.ini, etc.) for?</title> -->
649 <!-- Anytime the Junkbuster determines (with the help of the blocklist) that a URL -->
650 <!-- contains an advertisement, it has to decide whether this advertisement is an -->
651 <!-- image or not. The Junkbuster uses the imagefile for that purpose. -->
656 <title id="anonforsure">Can Junkbuster guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
658 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
659 are an expert on Internet security it would be safest to assume that
660 everything you do on the Web can be traced back to you.
663 <application>Junkbuster</application> can remove various information about you,
664 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
665 you can trust. But it's still possible that web sites can find out who you
666 are. Here's one way this can happen.
669 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
670 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Junkbuster</application>
671 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
672 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
673 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
676 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
677 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
678 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
679 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
680 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
687 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information is
691 Definitely. More and more sites use HTTP header content to decide what to
692 display and how to display it. There is many ways that this can be handled,
693 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
697 <quote>USER AGENT</quote> in particular is often used in this way to identify
698 the browser, and adjust content accordingly. Changing this now is not
699 recommended, since so many sites do look for this. You may get undesirable
700 results by changing this.
704 For instance, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
705 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
706 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
707 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
708 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
709 something closer. Some page access counters work by looking at the
710 <quote>REFERER</quote> header; they may fail or break if deprived. The
711 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
712 <quote>REFERER</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. There
713 are many, many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a
718 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
719 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
720 be required, but by no means the only one.
727 <title id="caching">Can Junkbuster act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy?</title>
729 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
730 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> for this. And, yes,
731 before you ask, <application>Junkbuster</application> can co-exist
732 with other kinds of proxies like <quote>Squid</quote>.
739 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
742 <title id="trouble">Troubleshooting</title>
745 <title id="refused">I just upgraded and am getting <quote>connection refused</quote>
746 with every web page?</title>
748 Either <application>Junkbuster</application> is not running, or your
749 browser is configured for a different port than what
750 <application>Junkbuster</application> is using.
755 The old <application>Junkbuster</application> used port 8000 by
756 default. This has been changed to port 8118 now, due to a conflict
757 with NAS (Network Audio Service), which uses port 8000. If you haven't,
758 you need to change your browser to the new port number, or alternately
759 change <application>Junkbuster's</application> <quote>listen-address</quote>
760 setting in the default <filename>config</filename> file.
767 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
768 still getting through. How?</title>
770 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it
771 will probably be held in cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
772 the need for any request to the server. The best thing to do is try
773 flusing the browser's caches.
777 If this doesn't help, you probably don't have the configuration applied
778 incorrectly. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into
779 <ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info">http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info</ulink>
780 and see if any actions match.
790 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
791 <sect1 id="knownissues"><title>Known Issues</title>
797 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
798 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contact the developers</title>
799 <para>Please see the user manual for information on how to contact the developers.
803 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
804 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Copyright and History</title>
805 <para>Please see the user manual for information on Copyright and History.
809 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
810 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
811 <para>Please see the user manual for information on references.
817 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
819 Last modified: Mon Sep 10 19:22:09 CEST 2001
821 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
822 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
823 Public License as published by the Free Software
824 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
825 your option) any later version.
827 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
828 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
829 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
830 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
831 License for more details.
833 The GNU General Public License should be included with
834 this file. If not, you can view it at
835 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
836 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
837 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
840 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
841 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
843 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
846 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
849 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
850 correct feedback channels
852 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
853 more info on not hiding ip address
855 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
856 added default config section
858 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
861 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
862 Committing changes by Stefan
864 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
865 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
867 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
868 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
869 will work - no other changes are needed.
871 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
872 upload process established. run make webserver and
873 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
874 are now linked correctly.
876 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
877 merged standards into developer manual
879 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
880 source files for junkbuster documentation
882 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
883 first proposal of a structure.
885 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
886 docs should have an author.
888 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
889 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.