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28 <h1 class="SECT1"><a name="MISC" id="MISC">4. Miscellaneous</a></h1>
30 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="SLOWSME" id="SLOWSME">4.1. How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This has to
31 add extra time to browsing.</a></h3>
32 <p>How much of an impact depends on many things, including the CPU of the host system, how aggressive the
33 configuration is, which specific actions are being triggered, the size of the page, the bandwidth of the
35 <p>Overall, it should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help speed things up since ads,
36 banners and other junk are not typically being retrieved and displayed. The actual processing time required by
37 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> itself for each page, is relatively small in the overall scheme of
38 things, and happens very quickly. This is typically more than offset by time saved not downloading and rendering
39 ad images and other junk content (if ad blocking is being used).</p>
40 <p><span class="QUOTE">"Filtering"</span> content via the <tt class="LITERAL"><a href=
41 "../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER" target="_top">filter</a></tt> or <tt class="LITERAL"><a href=
42 "../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS" target="_top">deanimate-gifs</a></tt> actions may cause a
43 perceived slowdown, since the entire document needs to be buffered before displaying. And on very large
44 documents, filtering may have some measurable impact. How much depends on the page size, the actual definition of
45 the filter(s), etc. See below. Most other actions have little to no impact on speed.</p>
46 <p>Also, when filtering is enabled but zlib support isn't available, compression is often disabled (see <a href=
47 "../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION" target="_top">prevent-compression</a>). This can have an
48 impact on speed as well, although it's probably smaller than you might think. Again, the page size, etc. will
49 determine how much of an impact.</p>
52 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="LOADINGTIMES" id="LOADINGTIMES">4.2. I notice considerable delays in page requests.
53 What's wrong?</a></h3>
54 <p>If you use any <tt class="LITERAL"><a href="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER" target=
55 "_top">filter</a></tt> action, such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <tt class=
56 "LITERAL"><a href="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS" target="_top">deanimate-gifs</a></tt> action,
57 the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering mechanism to work, and nothing is sent
58 to the browser during this time.</p>
59 <p>The loading time typically does not really change much in real numbers, but the feeling is different, because
60 most browsers are able to start rendering incomplete content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This
61 effect is more noticeable on slower dialup connections. Extremely large documents may have some impact on the
62 time to load the page where there is filtering being done. But overall, the difference should be very minimal. If
63 there is a big impact, then probably some other situation is contributing (like anti-virus software).</p>
64 <p>Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types. But note that if the web server mis-reports
65 the MIME type, then content that should not be filtered, could be. <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> only
66 knows how to differentiate filterable content because of the MIME type as reported by the server, or because of
67 some configuration setting that enables/disables filtering.</p>
70 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="CONFIGURL" id="CONFIGURL">4.3. What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
71 "http://p.p/"?</a></h3>
72 <p><a href="http://config.privoxy.org/" target="_top">http://config.privoxy.org/</a> is the address of
73 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>'s built-in user interface, and <a href="http://p.p/" target=
74 "_top">http://p.p/</a> is a shortcut for it.</p>
75 <p>Since <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can simply
76 intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in <span class="QUOTE">"web
78 <p>This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the URL <a href=
79 "http://config.privoxy.org/" target="_top">http://config.privoxy.org/</a> takes you to a page saying <span class=
80 "QUOTE">"This is Privoxy ..."</span>, everything is OK. If you get a page saying <span class="QUOTE">"Privoxy is
81 not working"</span> instead, then your browser didn't use <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> for the
82 request, hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <span class="emphasis"><i class=
83 "EMPHASIS">real</i></span> web site at config.privoxy.org.</p>
84 <p>Note that config.privoxy.org resolves to a public IP address. If you use config.privoxy.org as ping or
85 traceroute target you will reach the system on the Internet (Privoxy can't intercept ICMP requests). If you want
86 to ping the system Privoxy runs on, you should use its IP address or local DNS name (if it has got one).</p>
89 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="NEWADS" id="NEWADS">4.4. How can I submit new ads, or report problems?</a></h3>
90 <p>Please see the <a href="contact.html">Contact section</a> for various ways to interact with the
94 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="NEWADS2" id="NEWADS2">4.5. If I do submit missed ads, will they be included in future
96 <p>Whether such submissions are eventually included in the <tt class="FILENAME">default.action</tt> configuration
97 file depends on how significant the issue is. We of course want to address any potential problem with major,
98 high-profile sites such as <i class="CITETITLE">Google</i>, <i class="CITETITLE">Yahoo</i>, etc. Any site with
99 global or regional reach, has a good chance of being a candidate. But at the other end of the spectrum are any
100 number of smaller, low-profile sites such as for local clubs or schools. Since their reach and impact are much
101 less, they are best handled by inclusion in the user's <tt class="FILENAME">user.action</tt>, and thus would be
102 unlikely to be included.</p>
105 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="NOONECARES" id="NOONECARES">4.6. Why doesn't anyone answer my support
107 <p>Rest assured that it has been read and considered. Why it is not answered, could be for various reasons,
108 including no one has a good answer for it, no one has had time to yet investigate it thoroughly, it has been
109 reported numerous times already, or because not enough information was provided to help us help you. Your efforts
110 are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.</p>
113 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="IP" id="IP">4.7. How can I hide my IP address?</a></h3>
114 <p>If you run both the browser and <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> locally, you cannot hide your IP
115 address with <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> or ultimately any other software alone. The server needs to
116 know your IP address so that it knows where to send the responses back.</p>
117 <p>There are many publicly usable "anonymous" proxies out there, which provide a further level of indirection
118 between you and the web server.</p>
119 <p>However, these proxies are called "anonymous" because you don't need to authenticate, not because they would
120 offer any real anonymity. Most of them will log your IP address and make it available to the authorities in case
121 you violate the law of the country they run in. In fact you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to
122 *collect* information on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.</p>
123 <p>If you want to hide your IP address from most adversaries, you should consider chaining <span class=
124 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> with <a href="https://www.torproject.org/" target="_top">Tor</a>. The configuration
125 details can be found in <a href="#TOR" target="_top">How do I use <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
126 together with <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span> section</a> just below.</p>
129 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="ANONFORSURE" id="ANONFORSURE">4.8. Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?</a></h3>
130 <p>No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are improved, but unless you <a href="#TOR" target="_top">chain
131 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> with <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span></a> or a similar proxy and
132 know what you're doing when it comes to configuring the rest of your system, you should assume that everything
133 you do on the Web can be traced back to you.</p>
134 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can remove various information about you, and allows <span class=
135 "emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">you</i></span> more freedom to decide which sites you can trust, and what details
136 you want to reveal. But it neither hides your IP address, nor can it guarantee that the rest of the system
137 behaves correctly. There are several possibilities how a web sites can find out who you are, even if you are
138 using a strict <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> configuration and chained it with <span class=
139 "APPLICATION">Tor</span>.</p>
140 <p>Most of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> privacy-enhancing features can be easily subverted by an
141 insecure browser configuration, therefore you should use a browser that can be configured to only execute code
142 from trusted sites, and be careful which sites you trust. For example there is no point in having <span class=
143 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> modify the User-Agent header, if websites can get all the information they want
144 through JavaScript, ActiveX, Flash, Java etc.</p>
145 <p>A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such as when transferring a file by
146 FTP. <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned
147 about the mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might consider products such as
148 <span class="APPLICATION">NSClean</span>.</p>
149 <p>Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give out any information they can have
150 access to: see the manufacturer's license agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of
151 privacy that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as source code, because
152 anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source, Luke!</p>
155 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="PROXYTEST" id="PROXYTEST">4.9. A test site says I am not using a Proxy.</a></h3>
156 <p>Good! Actually, they are probably testing for some other kinds of proxies. Hiding yourself completely would
157 require additional steps.</p>
160 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="TOR" id="TOR">4.10. How do I use Privoxy together with Tor?</a></h3>
161 <p>Before you configure <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/"
162 target="_top">Tor</a>, please follow the <i class="CITETITLE">User Manual</i> chapters <a href=
163 "../user-manual/installation.html" target="_top">2. Installation</a> and <a href="../user-manual/startup.html"
164 target="_top">5. Startup</a> to make sure <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> itself is setup correctly.</p>
165 <p>If it is, refer to <a href="https://www.torproject.org/documentation.html" target="_top">Tor's extensive
166 documentation</a> to learn how to install <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span>, and make sure <span class=
167 "APPLICATION">Tor</span>'s logfile says that <span class="QUOTE">"Tor has successfully opened a circuit"</span>
168 and it <span class="QUOTE">"looks like client functionality is working"</span>.</p>
169 <p>If either <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span> or <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> isn't working,
170 their combination most likely will neither. Testing them on their own will also help you to direct problem
171 reports to the right audience. If <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> isn't working, don't bother the
172 <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span> developers. If <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span> isn't working, don't
173 send bug reports to the <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> Team.</p>
174 <p>If you verified that <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> and <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span> are
175 working, it is time to connect them. As far as <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is concerned,
176 <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span> is just another proxy that can be reached by socks4, socks4a and socks5.
177 Most likely you are interested in <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span> to increase your anonymity level,
178 therefore you should use socks5, to make sure DNS requests are done through <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span>
179 and thus invisible to your local network. Using socks4a would work too, but with socks5 you get more precise
181 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> <a href="../user-manual/config.html" target="_top">main
182 configuration file</a> is already prepared for <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span>, if you are using a default
183 <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span> configuration and run it on the same system as <span class=
184 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>, you just have to edit the <a href="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING" target=
185 "_top">forwarding section</a> and uncomment the line:</p>
186 <table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
189 <pre class="SCREEN"># forward-socks5t / 127.0.0.1:9050 .</pre>
193 <p>Note that if you got Tor through one of the bundles, you may have to change the port from 9050 to 9150 (or
194 even another one). For details, please check the documentation on the <a href="https://torproject.org/" target=
195 "_top">Tor website</a>.</p>
196 <p>This is enough to reach the Internet, but additionally you might want to uncomment the following forward
197 rules, to make sure your local network is still reachable through Privoxy:</p>
198 <table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
201 <pre class="SCREEN"># forward 192.168.*.*/ .
202 # forward 10.*.*.*/ .
203 # forward 127.*.*.*/ .</pre>
207 <p>Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will be as (un)secure as the local network is, but
208 the alternative is that your browser can't reach the network at all. Then again, that may actually be desired and
209 if you don't know for sure that your browser has to be able to reach the local network, there's no reason to
211 <p>If you want your browser to be able to reach servers in your local network by using their names, you will need
212 additional exceptions that look like this:</p>
213 <table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
216 <pre class="SCREEN"># forward localhost/ .</pre>
220 <p>Save the modified configuration file and open <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status" target=
221 "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</a> in your browser, confirm that <span class=
222 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> has reloaded its configuration and that there are no other forward lines, unless you
223 know that you need them. If everything looks good, refer to <a href=
224 "https://wiki.torproject.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ#IsMyConnectionPrivate" target="_top">Tor Faq 4.2</a>
225 to learn how to verify that you are really using <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span>.</p>
226 <p>Afterward, please take the time to at least skim through the rest of <span class="APPLICATION">Tor's</span>
227 documentation. Make sure you understand what <span class="APPLICATION">Tor</span> does, why it is no replacement
228 for application level security, and why you probably don't want to use it for unencrypted logins.</p>
231 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="SITEBREAK" id="SITEBREAK">4.11. Might some things break because header information or
232 content is being altered?</a></h3>
233 <p>Definitely. It is common for sites to use browser type, browser version, HTTP header content, and various
234 other techniques in order to dynamically decide what to display and how to display it. What you see, and what I
235 see, might be very different. There are many, many ways that this can be handled, so having hard and fast rules,
237 <p>The <span class="QUOTE">"User-Agent"</span> is sometimes used in this way to identify the browser, and adjust
238 content accordingly.</p>
239 <p>Also, different browsers use different encodings of non-English characters, certain web servers convert pages
240 on-the-fly according to the User Agent header. Giving a <span class="QUOTE">"User Agent"</span> with the wrong
241 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern
242 European sites should change it to something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
243 <span class="QUOTE">"Referer"</span> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The weather maps of
244 Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no <span class="QUOTE">"Referer"</span> or cookie is provided,
245 is another example. (But you can forge both headers without giving information away). There are many other ways
246 things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server. The results of which could inadvertently cause pages to
247 load incorrectly, partially, or even not at all. And there may be no obvious clues as to just what went wrong, or
248 why. Nowhere will there be a message that says <span class="QUOTE">"<span class="emphasis"><i class=
249 "EMPHASIS">Turn off <tt class="LITERAL">fast-redirects</tt> or else!</i></span> "</span></p>
250 <p>Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree, HTML elements.</p>
251 <p>If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration accordingly. Cookies are probably
252 the most likely adjustment that may be required, but by no means the only one.</p>
255 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="CACHING" id="CACHING">4.12. Can Privoxy act as a <span class="QUOTE">"caching"</span>
256 proxy to speed up web browsing?</a></h3>
257 <p>No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like <a href="http://www.squid-cache.org/"
258 target="_top">Squid</a> or <a href="https://www.irif.fr/~jch//software/polipo/" target="_top">Polipo</a> for
259 this. And, yes, before you ask, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can co-exist with other kinds of proxies
260 like <span class="APPLICATION">Squid</span>. See the <a href="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING" target=
261 "_top">forwarding chapter</a> in the <a href="../user-manual/index.html" target="_top">user manual</a> for
265 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="FIREWALL" id="FIREWALL">4.13. What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect
267 <p>Not in the way you mean, or in the way some firewall vendors claim they can. <span class=
268 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can help protect your privacy, but can't protect your system from intrusion
269 attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible to use <span class="emphasis"><i class=
270 "EMPHASIS">both</i></span>.</p>
273 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="WASTED" id="WASTED">4.14. I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
274 ads used to be. Why?</a></h3>
275 <p>It is technically possible to eliminate banners and ads in a way that frees their allocated page space. This
276 could easily be done by blocking with <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> filters, and eliminating the
277 <span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">entire</i></span> image references from the HTML page source.</p>
278 <p>But, this would consume considerably more CPU resources (IOW, slow things down), would likely destroy the
279 layout of some web pages which rely on the banners utilizing a certain amount of page space, and might fail in
280 other cases, where the screen space is reserved (e.g. by HTML tables for instance). Also, making ads and banners
281 disappear without any trace complicates troubleshooting, and would sooner or later be problematic.</p>
282 <p>The better alternative is to instead let them stay, and block the resulting requests for the banners
283 themselves as is now the case. This leaves either empty space, or the familiar checkerboard pattern.</p>
284 <p>So the developers won't support this in the default configuration, but you can of course define appropriate
285 filters yourself to achieve this.</p>
288 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="SSL" id="SSL">4.15. How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</a></h3>
289 <p>If you enable <a href="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HTTPS-INSPECTION" target="_top">https-inspection</a>
290 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will impersonate the destination server and can thus filter encrypted
291 requests and responses as well.</p>
292 <p>Without <a href="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HTTPS-INSPECTION" target="_top">https-inspection</a> secure
293 HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser and the secure site, and there is little that
294 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can do but hand the raw gibberish data though from one end to the other
296 <p>The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs to tell <span class=
297 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> the name of the remote server, so that <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can
298 establish the connection. If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.</p>
299 <p>As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may seem, since ad sources are often
300 identifiable by the host name, and often the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted
301 nonetheless for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of <span class=
302 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>'s ad blocking.</p>
303 <p><span class="QUOTE">"Content cookies"</span> (those that are embedded in the actual HTML or JS page content,
304 see <tt class="LITERAL"><a href="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES" target=
305 "_top">filter{content-cookies}</a></tt>), in an SSL transaction will be impossible to block under these
306 conditions. Fortunately, this does not seem to be a very common scenario since most cookies come by traditional
310 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="HTTP2" id="HTTP2">4.16. Does Privoxy support HTTP/2?</a></h3>
311 <p>Privoxy currently doesn't parse HTTP/2 but applications can tunnel HTTP/2 through Privoxy if Privoxy is
312 configured to allow CONNECT requests (default) which are also used for HTTPS.</p>
313 <p>Adding HTTP/2 support is on the <a href=
314 "https://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=blob_plain;f=TODO;hb=HEAD" target="_top">TODO</a> list but
315 currently nobody is known to work on it.</p>
318 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="SECURE" id="SECURE">4.17. Privoxy runs as a <span class="QUOTE">"server"</span>. How
319 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</a></h3>
320 <p>On Unix-like systems, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can run as a non-privileged user, which is how
321 we recommend it be run. Also, by default <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> listens to requests from
322 <span class="QUOTE">"localhost"</span> only.</p>
323 <p>The server aspect of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is not itself directly exposed to the Internet
324 in this configuration. If you want to have <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> serve as a LAN proxy, this
325 will have to be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend you specify only the LAN
326 gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> configuration file and
327 check all <a href="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL" target="_top">access control and security
328 options</a>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address in the browser proxy configuration, but
329 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in
330 addition, and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.</p>
333 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="TURNOFF" id="TURNOFF">4.18. Can I temporarily disable Privoxy?</a></h3>
334 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> doesn't have a transparent proxy mode, but you can toggle off
335 blocking and content filtering.</p>
336 <p>The easiest way to do that is to point your browser to the remote toggle URL: <a href=
337 "http://config.privoxy.org/toggle" target="_top">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</a>.</p>
338 <p>See the <a href="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS" target="_top">Bookmarklets section</a> of the
339 <i class="CITETITLE">User Manual</i> for an easy way to access this feature. Note that this is a feature that may
340 need to be enabled in the main <tt class="FILENAME">config</tt> file.</p>
343 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="REALLYOFF" id="REALLYOFF">4.19. When <span class="QUOTE">"disabled"</span> is Privoxy
344 totally out of the picture?</a></h3>
345 <p>No, this just means all optional filtering and actions are disabled. <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
346 is still acting as a proxy, but just doing less of the things that <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> would
347 normally be expected to do. It is still a <span class="QUOTE">"middle-man"</span> in the interaction between your
348 browser and web sites. See below to bypass the proxy.</p>
351 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="TURNOFF2" id="TURNOFF2">4.20. How can I tell Privoxy to totally ignore certain
353 <p>Bypassing a proxy, or proxying based on arbitrary criteria, is purely a browser configuration issue, not a
354 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> issue. Modern browsers typically do have settings for not proxying
355 certain sites. Check your browser's help files.</p>
358 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="CRUNCH" id="CRUNCH">4.21. My logs show Privoxy <span class="QUOTE">"crunches"</span>
359 ads, but also its own internal CGI pages. What is a <span class="QUOTE">"crunch"</span>?</a></h3>
360 <p>A <span class="QUOTE">"crunch"</span> means <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> intercepted <span class=
361 "emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">something</i></span>, nothing more. Often this is indeed ads or banners, but
362 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> uses the same mechanism for trapping requests for its own internal
363 pages. For instance, a request for <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> configuration page at: <a href=
364 "http://config.privoxy.org" target="_top">http://config.privoxy.org</a>, is intercepted (i.e. it does not go out
365 to the 'net), and the familiar CGI configuration is returned to the browser, and the log consequently will show a
366 <span class="QUOTE">"crunch"</span>.</p>
367 <p>Since version 3.0.7, Privoxy will also log the crunch reason. If you are using an older version you might want
371 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="DOWNLOADS" id="DOWNLOADS">4.22. Can Privoxy affect files that I download from a
372 webserver? FTP server?</a></h3>
373 <p>From the webserver's perspective, there is no difference between viewing a document (i.e. a page), and
374 downloading a file. The same is true of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>. If there is a match for a
375 <tt class="LITERAL"><a href="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK" target="_top">block</a></tt> pattern, it
376 will still be blocked, and of course this is obvious.</p>
377 <p>Filtering is potentially more of a concern since the results are not always so obvious, and the effects of
378 filtering are there whether the file is simply viewed, or downloaded. And potentially whether the content is some
379 obnoxious advertisement, or Mr. Jimmy's latest/greatest source code jewel. Of course, one of these presumably is
380 <span class="QUOTE">"bad"</span> content that we don't want, and the other is <span class="QUOTE">"good"</span>
381 content that we do want. <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is blind to the differences, and can only
382 distinguish <span class="QUOTE">"good from bad"</span> by the configuration parameters <span class=
383 "emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">we</i></span> give it.</p>
384 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> knows the differences in files according to the <span class=
385 "QUOTE">"Content Type"</span> as reported by the webserver. If this is reported accurately (e.g. <span class=
386 "QUOTE">"application/zip"</span> for a zip archive), then <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> knows to
387 ignore these where appropriate. <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> potentially can filter HTML as well as
388 plain text documents, subject to configuration parameters of course. Also, documents that are of an unknown type
389 (generally assumed to be <span class="QUOTE">"text/plain"</span>) can be filtered, as will those that might be
390 incorrectly reported by the webserver. If such a file is a downloaded file that is intended to be saved to disk,
391 then any content that might have been altered by filtering, will be saved too, for these (probably rare)
393 <p>Note that versions later than 3.0.2 do NOT filter document types reported as <span class=
394 "QUOTE">"text/plain"</span>. Prior to this, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> did filter this document
396 <p>In short, filtering is <span class="QUOTE">"ON"</span> if a) the content type as reported by the webserver is
397 appropriate <span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">and</i></span> b) the configuration allows it (or at least
398 does not disallow it). That's it. There is no magic cookie anywhere to say this is <span class=
399 "QUOTE">"good"</span> and this is <span class="QUOTE">"bad"</span>. It's the configuration that lets it all
401 <p>If you download text files, you probably do not want these to be filtered, particularly if the content is
402 source code, or other critical content. Source code sometimes might be mistaken for Javascript (i.e. the kind
403 that might open a pop-up window). It is recommended to turn off filtering for download sites (particularly if the
404 content may be plain text files and you are using version 3.0.2 or earlier) in your <tt class=
405 "FILENAME">user.action</tt> file. And also, for any site or page where making <span class="emphasis"><i class=
406 "EMPHASIS">any</i></span> changes at all to the content is to be avoided.</p>
407 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> does not do FTP at all, only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) protocols.</p>
410 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="DOWNLOADS2" id="DOWNLOADS2">4.23. I just downloaded a Perl script, and Privoxy altered
411 it! Yikes, what is wrong!</a></h3>
412 <p>Please read above.</p>
415 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="HOSTSFILE" id="HOSTSFILE">4.24. Should I continue to use a <span class=
416 "QUOTE">"HOSTS"</span> file for ad-blocking?</a></h3>
417 <p>One time-tested technique to defeat common ads is to trick the local DNS system by giving a phony IP address
418 for the ad generator in the local <tt class="FILENAME">HOSTS</tt> file, typically using <tt class=
419 "LITERAL">127.0.0.1</tt>, aka <tt class="LITERAL">localhost</tt>. This effectively blocks the ad.</p>
420 <p>There is no reason to use this technique in conjunction with <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>.
421 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> does essentially the same thing, much more elegantly and with much more
422 flexibility. A large <tt class="FILENAME">HOSTS</tt> file, in fact, not only duplicates effort, but may get in
423 the way and seriously slow down your system. It is recommended to remove such entries from your <tt class=
424 "FILENAME">HOSTS</tt> file. If you think your hosts list is neglected by <span class=
425 "APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> configuration, consider adding your list to your <tt class=
426 "FILENAME">user.action</tt> file:</p>
427 <table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
430 <pre class="SCREEN"> { +block }
433 ads.galore.example.com
434 etc.example.com</pre>
440 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="SEEALSO" id="SEEALSO">4.25. Where can I find more information about Privoxy and
441 related issues?</a></h3>
442 <p>Other references and sites of interest to <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> users:</p>
446 <td><a href="https://www.privoxy.org/" target="_top">https://www.privoxy.org/</a>, the <span class=
447 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> Home page.</td>
454 <td><a href="https://www.privoxy.org/faq/" target="_top">https://www.privoxy.org/faq/</a>, the <span class=
455 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> FAQ.</td>
462 <td><a href="https://www.privoxy.org/developer-manual/" target=
463 "_top">https://www.privoxy.org/developer-manual/</a>, the <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
464 developer manual.</td>
471 <td><a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/" target=
472 "_top">https://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/</a>, the Project Page for <span class=
473 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> on <a href="https://sourceforge.net" target="_top">SourceForge</a>.</td>
480 <td><a href="http://config.privoxy.org/" target="_top">http://config.privoxy.org/</a>, the web-based user
481 interface. <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> must be running for this to work. Shortcut: <a href=
482 "http://p.p/" target="_top">http://p.p/</a></td>
489 <td><a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/ijbswa/actionsfile-feedback/" target=
490 "_top">https://sourceforge.net/p/ijbswa/actionsfile-feedback/</a>, to submit <span class=
491 "QUOTE">"misses"</span> and other configuration related suggestions to the developers.</td>
498 <td><a href="http://www.squid-cache.org/" target="_top">http://www.squid-cache.org/</a>, a popular caching
499 proxy, which is often used together with <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>.</td>
506 <td><a href="https://www.irif.fr/~jch/software/polipo/" target=
507 "_top">https://www.irif.fr/~jch/software/polipo/</a>, <span class="APPLICATION">Polipo</span> is a caching
508 proxy with advanced features like pipelining, multiplexing and caching of partial instances. In many setups
509 it can be used as <span class="APPLICATION">Squid</span> replacement.</td>
516 <td><a href="https://www.torproject.org/" target="_top">https://www.torproject.org/</a>, <span class=
517 "APPLICATION">Tor</span> can help anonymize web browsing, web publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and
518 other applications.</td>
524 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="MICROSUCK" id="MICROSUCK">4.26. I've noticed that Privoxy changes <span class=
525 "QUOTE">"Microsoft"</span> to <span class="QUOTE">"MicroSuck"</span>! Why are you manipulating my
527 <p>We're not. The text substitutions that you are seeing are disabled in the default configuration as shipped.
528 You have either manually activated the <span class="QUOTE">"<tt class="LITERAL">fun</tt>"</span> filter which is
529 clearly labeled <span class="QUOTE">"Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!"</span> or you are using an
530 older Privoxy version and have implicitly activated it by choosing the <span class="QUOTE">"Advanced"</span>
531 profile in the web-based editor. Please upgrade.</p>
534 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="VALID" id="VALID">4.27. Does Privoxy produce <span class="QUOTE">"valid"</span> HTML
536 <p>Privoxy generates HTML in both its own <span class="QUOTE">"templates"</span>, and possibly whenever there are
537 text substitutions via a <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> filter. While this should always conform to the
538 HTML 4.01 specifications, it has not been validated against this or any other standard.</p>
541 <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="SURPRISE-PRIVOXY" id="SURPRISE-PRIVOXY">4.28. How did you manage to get Privoxy on my
542 computer without my consent?</a></h3>
543 <p>We didn't. We make Privoxy available for download, but we don't go around installing it on other people's
544 systems behind their back. If you discover Privoxy running on your system and are sure you didn't install it
545 yourself, somebody else did. You may not even be running the real Privoxy, but maybe something else that only
546 pretends to be Privoxy, or maybe something that is based on the real Privoxy, but has been modified.</p>
547 <p>Lately there have been reports of problems with some kind of "parental control" software based on Privoxy that
548 came preinstalled on certain <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/ijbswa/bugs/813/" target="_top">ASUS
549 Netbooks</a>. The problems described are inconsistent with the behaviour of official Privoxy versions, which
550 suggests that the preinstalled software may contain vendor modifications that we don't know about and thus can't
552 <p>Privoxy's <a href="copyright.html">license</a> allows vendor modifications, but the vendor has to comply with
553 the license, which involves informing the user about the changes and to make the changes available under the same
554 license as Privoxy itself.</p>
555 <p>If you are having trouble with a modified Privoxy version, please try to talk to whoever made the
556 modifications before reporting the problem to us. Please also try to convince whoever made the modifications to
557 talk to us. If you think somebody gave you a modified Privoxy version without complying to the license, please
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