4 >Troubleshooting</TITLE
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40 >Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</TH
78 >5. Troubleshooting</H1
86 >5.1. I am getting <SPAN
88 >"connection refused"</SPAN
90 with every web page?</H3
95 > is not running, or your
96 browser is configured for a different port than what
100 > is using, or, if using a forwarding
101 rule, you have a configuration problem or a problem with a host in the
105 > You should verify that <SPAN
108 > is indeed running and that the correct port is set,
109 and matches what your browser is set to. See <A
110 HREF="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS"
121 HREF="../user-manual/config.html"
123 >main configuration file</A
125 any forwarding rules, disable those to make sure the problem is not with
135 >5.2. I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
136 still getting through. How?</H3
138 > If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
139 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
140 the need for any request to the server, and <SPAN
144 will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flushing the browser's
145 caches. And then try again.</P
147 > If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
148 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <A
149 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info"
151 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</A
153 and see if it really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking
154 spam: a lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game.</P
163 >5.3. One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy.
166 > First verify that it is indeed a <SPAN
170 by toggling off <SPAN
174 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle"
176 >http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</A
178 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
179 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
182 > If still a problem, go to <A
183 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info"
185 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</A
187 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions
188 are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions files are
189 responsible for that. Now, armed with this information, go to <A
190 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status"
192 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</A
194 and select the appropriate actions files for editing.</P
196 > You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
197 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
198 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
199 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
200 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
201 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
202 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!</P
204 > Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
205 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
206 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
214 which is an alias that turns off most <SPAN
218 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
219 your privacy and protection more than necessary, </P
221 > Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <A
222 HREF="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT"
224 >User Manual appendix,
225 Troubleshooting: the Anatomy of an Action</A
228 HREF="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES"
232 with general configuration information and examples.</P
241 >5.4. After installing Privoxy, I have to log in
242 every time I start IE. What gives?</H3
244 > This is a quirk that effects the installation of
248 >, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
249 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
250 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.</P
252 > When setting up an NT based Windows system with
256 > you may find that things do not seem to be
257 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
258 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
259 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
260 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
261 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
262 configured for the kids.</P
264 > When setting up <SPAN
267 > in this environment you
268 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
269 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
273 >. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
274 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
275 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
276 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
277 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
278 you have to store the password under each different user!</P
280 > The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
281 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
282 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
283 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
284 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
285 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.</P
287 >[Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]</P
296 >5.5. I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy
302 > cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
303 so do not configure your browser to use <SPAN
307 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for <SPAN
311 >any protocol other than HTTP
317 > Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
320 >ftp://ftp.example.com</TT
321 >, your browser is making
322 an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
326 > does not, and cannot proxy
330 > To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <SPAN
334 setting, which will silently enable various protocols, including
341 > HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is possible to
342 accidentally enable FTP proxying in these cases. And of course, if this
346 > will indeed cause problems since
347 it does not know FTP. Newer version will give a sane error
348 message if a FTP connection is attempted. Just disable the FTP setting
349 and all will be well again.
355 > ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely.
356 There just is not much reason, and the work to make this happen is more than
367 >5.6. In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
368 Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.</H3
370 > Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
371 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
372 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
373 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
374 is checked and enter <TT
377 > in the entry field.
381 > in the Port field. The next time you start
382 IE, it should reflect these values.
392 >5.7. In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
393 uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
396 > Just dragging the <SPAN
399 > folder to the trash is
400 not enough to delete it. <SPAN
406 >uninstall.command</SPAN
407 > file that takes care of
408 these details. Open the trash, drag the <SPAN
410 >uninstall.command</SPAN
412 file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
413 confirmation and the administration password.
416 > The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
417 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
427 >5.8. In Mac OSX Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
428 experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
432 > as my browser's proxy setting.</H3
434 > We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in OSX, but don't fully
435 understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
443 works around the problem.
453 >5.9. I get a completely blank page at one site. <SPAN
459 ><html><body></body></html></SPAN
461 Privoxy the page loads fine.</H3
463 > Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
465 HREF="http://www.php.net/"
472 which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
473 an uncompressed page, like <SPAN
477 This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
480 > To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
483 >-prevent-compression</TT
498 > # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
500 {-prevent-compression}
506 > If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
507 site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
508 instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
509 or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
519 >5.10. Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</H3
521 > More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has
522 been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running. The solution is
523 to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
524 something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products
525 may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
535 >5.11. My logs show many <SPAN
537 >"Unable to get my own hostname"</SPAN
544 > tries to get the hostname of the system
545 its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to
556 > setting). If the system cannot supply
557 this information, <SPAN
560 > logs this condition. </P
562 > Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration error. It is
563 not a fatal error to <SPAN
567 result in a much slower response from <SPAN
571 some platforms due to DNS timeouts.</P
573 > This can be caused by a problem with the local <TT
577 file. If this file has been changed from the original, try reverting it to
578 see if that helps.</P
587 >5.12. When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an
590 >"port 8118 is already in use"</SPAN
591 > (or similar wording).
601 > port. Typically this message would mean that there
602 is already one instance of <SPAN
606 you are actually trying to start a second <SPAN
610 on the same port, which will not work. (You can have multiple instances but
611 they must be assigned different ports.) How and why this might happen varies
612 from platform to platform, but you need to check your installation and
613 start-up procedures.</P
622 >5.13. Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.</H3
624 > This is caused by the <SPAN
627 > filter. You should either
631 >, or at least upgrade to the most
635 > file available from <A
636 HREF="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118"
640 Or you can simply disable the demoronizer filter.</P
649 >5.14. Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy
652 > This may also be caused by the <SPAN
656 in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting a file type. Binary
657 files are exempted from <SPAN
661 (unless the web server by mistake says the file is something else). Either
665 >, or go to the most recent
669 > file available from <A
670 HREF="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118"
682 >5.15. What is the <SPAN
685 > and why is it there?</H3
687 > The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
688 were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
689 to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages
690 that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a
691 standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
692 displayed correctly. <SPAN
696 script, introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
697 correct these errors on the fly. </P
699 > But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in some
702 > If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
703 pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will
704 cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <SPAN
712 > On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
713 notice wierd characters on pages, you might want to try it.</P
722 >5.16. Why do I keep seeing <SPAN
724 >"PrivoxyWindowOpen()"</SPAN
725 > in raw source code?</H3
730 > is attempting to disable malicious
732 HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript"
736 in this case, with the <TT
738 >unsolicited-popups</TT
743 > cannot tell very well
747 > code snippets from <SPAN
752 > If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
753 this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this
754 where it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file,
755 then you should set an exception for this site or page such that the
756 integrity of the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.</P
765 >5.17. I am getting too many DNS errors like <SPAN
767 >"404 No Such Domain"</SPAN
769 can't Privoxy do this better?</H3
771 > There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS resolution
772 is done by the underlying operating system -- not
780 merely initiates the process and hands it off, and then later reports
781 whatever the outcome was. And tries to give a coherent message if there seems
782 to be a problem. In some cases, this might otherwise be mitigated by the
783 browser itself which might try some work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g
787 > to the URL). In other cases, if
791 > is being chained with another proxy, this
792 could complicate the issue, and cause undue
793 delays and timeouts. In the case of a <SPAN
797 server handles all the DNS. <SPAN
804 > which is reporting whatever problem occurred
805 downstream, and not the root cause of the error.</P
807 > In any case, v. 3.0.5 includes various improvements to help
811 > better handle these cases.</P
820 >5.18. At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking
821 all CPU. Why is this?</H3
823 > This is probably a manifestation of the <SPAN
827 occurs on pages containing many (thousands upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines
828 are in the raw HTML source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the
829 pattern matching in <SPAN
833 mechanism is trying to match against absurdly long strings and this becomes
834 very CPU-intensive, taking a long, long time to complete. Until a better
835 solution comes along, disable filtering on these pages, particularly the
841 >unsolicited-popups</TT
852 >5.19. I just installed Privoxy, and all my
853 browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives?</H3
855 > This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users world-wide,
856 it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent interaction of software
857 components such as anti-virus software, spyware protectors, personal
858 firewalls or similar components. Try disabling (or uninstalling) these one
859 at a time and see if that helps.</P
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