<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN"[
-<!entity % dummy "INCLUDE">
+<!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
<!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
<!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
<!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
<!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
<!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
<!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
-<!entity p-version "2.9.13">
-<!entity p-status "BETA">
-<!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"> <!-- set to IGNORE for stable release -->
-<!entity % p-stable "IGNORE"> <!-- set INCLUDE for stable release -->
+<!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
+<!entity p-version "3.0.25">
+<!entity p-status "UNRELEASED">
+<!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
+<!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
<!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
<!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
<!entity % p-supp-userman "INCLUDE"> <!-- Include all from supported.sgml -->
+<!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
+<!entity % p-newstuff "INCLUDE"> <!-- exclude stuff from devel versions -->
+<!entity % seealso-extra "INCLUDE"> <!-- extra stuff from seealso.sgml -->
+<!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
]>
<!--
File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/faq.sgml,v $
Purpose : FAQ
This file belongs into
ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
-
- $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa Exp $
- Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
- Privoxy team. http://www.privoxy.org/
+ $Id: faq.sgml,v 2.117 2016/03/04 13:21:33 fabiankeil Exp $
- Based on the Internet Junkbuster originally written
- by and Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and
- Junkbusters Corporation. http://www.junkbusters.com
+ Copyright (C) 2001-2014 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
+ See LICENSE.
+
+ Based partially on the Internet Junkbuster FAQ originally written by and
+ Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters Corporation.
+ http://www.junkbusters.com/
<Qandaset defaultlabel='qanda'>
<QandAEntry>
<question>
- <para>
+ <para>
How are you?
</para>
</question>
<answer>
- <para>
+ <para>
Fine.
</para>
</answer>
</QandAEntry>
</QandASet>
-
========================================================================
- NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
- anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation. You have been warned!
- Failure to abide by this rule will result in the revocation of your license
- to live a peaceful existence!
+ NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
+ this file!
+
+ Please we keep the info in this file as version independent as possible
+ so we only have to maintain one FAQ. Where significant changes are
+ made to Privoxy configuration, please note the change in such a way that
+ it makes sense to both users of older and newer versions.
========================================================================
+
-->
<artheader>
<title>Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</title>
-<pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa Exp $</pubdate>
+<pubdate>
+ <subscript>
+<!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
+<!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
+ <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2014 by
+ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
+ </subscript>
+</pubdate>
+
+<pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.117 2016/03/04 13:21:33 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
+
+<!--
+
+Note: this should generate a separate page, and a live link to it.
+But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave commented
+unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the copyright
+statement will be in copyright.smgl.
+Hal.
+
+<legalnotice id="legalnotice">
+ <para>
+ text goes here ........
+ </para>
+</legalnotice>
+
+-->
+
+<!--
<authorgroup>
<author>
<affiliation>
</affiliation>
</author>
</authorgroup>
-
+-->
<abstract>
<![%dummy;[
<para>
</para>
]]>
<para>
- This FAQ gives users and developers alike answers to frequently asked
- questions about <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org">Privoxy</ulink>
- <![%p-stable;[ v.&p-version]]>.
+ This FAQ gives quick answers to frequently asked questions about
+ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
+ It is not a substitute for the
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
+<!--
+ This works, at least in some situtations:
+ Test: <ulink url="privoxy-user-manual.pdf"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
+-->
</para>
<!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
- &p-intro;
+ <para>What is Privoxy?</para> &p-intro;
<!-- end boilerplate -->
<para>
+ Please note that this document is a work in progress. This copy represents
+ the state at the release of version &p-version;.
You can find the latest version of the document at <ulink
url="http://www.privoxy.org/faq/">http://www.privoxy.org/faq/</ulink>.
- Please see the Contact section if you want to contact the developers.
+ Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> if you want to
+ contact the developers.
</para>
<!-- <para> -->
</abstract>
</artheader>
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect1 id="intro" label=""><title></title>
-<!-- dummy section to force TOC on page by itself -->
-<!-- DO NOT REMOVE! please ;) -->
-<para> </para>
-</sect1>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect1 label="1" id="general"><title>General Information</title>
+<sect1 id="general"><title>General Information</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="who-uses"><title>Who should give &my-app; a try?</title>
+ <para>
+ Anyone who is interested in security, privacy, or in
+ finer-grained control over their web and Internet experience.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="bestchoice"><title>Is Privoxy the best choice for
+me?</title>
+ <para>
+ &my-app; is certainly a good choice, especially for those who want more
+ control and security. Those with the willingness to read the documentation
+ and the ability to fine-tune their installation will benefit the most.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ One of <application>Privoxy's</application>
+ strengths is that it is highly configurable giving you the ability to
+ completely personalize your installation. Being familiar with, or at least
+ having an interest in learning about <ulink
+ url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Http">HTTP</ulink> and other networking
+ protocols, <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html">HTML</ulink>, and
+ <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
+ Expressions</quote></ulink>
+ will be a big plus and will help you get the most out of &my-app;.
+ A new installation just includes a very basic configuration. The user
+ should take this as a starting point only, and enhance it as he or she
+ sees fit. In fact, the user is encouraged, and expected to, fine-tune the
+ configuration.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Much of <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration can be done
+ with a <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser">Web browser</ulink>.
+ But there are areas where configuration is done using a
+ <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_editors">text editor</ulink>
+ to edit configuration files. Also note that the web-based action editor
+ doesn't use authentication and should only be enabled in environments
+ where all clients with access to &my-app; listening port can be trusted.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newjb"><title>What is this new version of <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="proxymoron"><title>What is a <quote>proxy</quote>? How does
+Privoxy work? </title>
<para>
- The original <application><trademark>Internet
- Junkbuster</trademark></application> (tm) is a copyrighted product of <ulink
- url="http://www.junkbusters.com">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>.
- Development of this effort stopped some time ago as of version 2.0.2. Stefan
- Waldherr started the ijbswa project on <ulink
- url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Sourceforge</ulink> to
- rekindle development. Other developers subsequently joined with Stefan, and
- have since added many new features, refinements and enhancements. The result
- of this effort is <application>Privoxy</application>.
+ A <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">web proxy</ulink>
+ is a service, based on a software such as &my-app;, that clients
+ (i.e. browsers) can use instead of connecting to web servers directly.
+ The clients then ask the proxy to request objects (web pages, images, movies etc)
+ on their behalf and to forward the data to the clients.
+ It is a <quote>go-between</quote>. For details, see
+ <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">Wikipedia's proxy definition</ulink>.
</para>
<para>
- <application>Privoxy</application> has evolved from the
- <application>Junkbuster 2.0.2</application> code base, and has advanced
- significantly at this point.
+ There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security (firewalling),
+ efficiency (caching) and others, and there are any number of proxies
+ to accommodate those needs.
</para>
- <para>
- Please see the History section for more
- information on the history of <application>Junkbuster</application> and
- <application>Privoxy</application>.
+ <para>
+ &my-app; is a proxy that is primarily focused on
+ privacy enhancement, ad and junk elimination and freeing the user from
+ restrictions placed on his activities. Sitting between your browser(s) and the Internet,
+ it is in a perfect position to filter outbound personal information that your
+ browser is leaking, as well as inbound junk. It uses a variety of techniques to do
+ this, all of which are under your complete control via the various configuration
+ files and options. Being a proxy also makes it easier to share
+ configurations among multiple browsers and/or users.
</para>
+</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherstuff">
+<title>Does Privoxy do anything more than ad blocking?</title>
+ <para>
+ Yes, ad blocking is but one possible use. There are many, many ways &my-app;
+ can be used to sanitize and customize web browsing.
+</para>
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newjb"><title>What is this new version of
+<quote><citetitle>Junkbuster</citetitle></quote>?</title>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="whyprivoxy">Why <quote>Privoxy</quote>? Why a name change at all?</title>
+<!-- Include history.sgml -->
+ &history;
+<!-- end -->
+
+</sect2>
+
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whyprivoxy">
+<title>Why <quote>Privoxy</quote>? Why change the name from
+Junkbuster at all?</title>
<para>
- <application>Privoxy</application> is the
- <quote><emphasis>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</emphasis></quote>.
+ Though outdated, Junkbusters Corporation continued to offer their original
+ version of the <application>Internet Junkbuster</application> for a while,
+ so publishing our <application> Junkbuster</application>-derived software
+ under the same name would have led to confusion.
</para>
<para>
- There are potential legal complications from the continued use of the
- <application>Junkbuster</application> name, which is a trademark of
- <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>.
- (There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
- <application>Privoxy</application> project itself, and they, in fact, still
- share our ideals and goals.)
+ There were also potential legal reasons not to use the
+ <application>Junkbuster</application> name, as it was (and maybe still is)
+ a registered trademark of Junkbusters Corporation.
+ There were, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
+ <application>Privoxy</application> project itself, and they, in fact,
+ shared our ideals and goals.
</para>
-
<para>
- The developers also believed that there are so many changes from the original
- code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
- a name in their own right<![%p-not-stable;[, especially now with the pending
- release of version 3.0]]>.
+ The Privoxy developers also believed that there were so many improvements
+ over the original code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past
+ and make a name in their own right.
</para>
-</sect2>
-
-
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="differs"><title>How does <application>Privoxy</application> differ
-from the old <application>Junkbuster?</application></title>
<para>
- <application>Privoxy</application> picks up where
- <application>Junkbuster</application> left off. All the old features remain.
- The new <application>Privoxy</application> still blocks ads and banners,
- still manages cookies, and still helps protect your privacy. But, these are
- all enhanced, and many new features have been added, all in the same vein.
- </para>
- <para>
- The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
- users will notice right off the bat if you are upgrading from
- <application>Junkbuster</application> 2.0.x. The <quote>blocklist</quote>
- file does not exist any more. This is replaced by <quote>actions</quote>
- files, such as <filename>default.actions</filename>. This is where most of
- the per site configuration is now.
- </para>
-</sect2>
-
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="features"><title>What are some of the new features?</title>
-<!--
- Include newfeatures.sgml
--->
-&newfeatures;
-
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is the
+ <quote><emphasis>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</emphasis></quote>. Also, its content
+ modification and junk suppression gives <emphasis>you</emphasis>, the user, more
+ control, more freedom, and allows you to browse your personal and
+ <quote><emphasis>private</emphasis> edition</quote> of the web.
+</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="proxymoron"><title>What is a <quote>proxy</quote>? How does
-<application>Privoxy</application> work? </title>
- <para>
- When you connect to a web site with <application>Privoxy</application>,
- you are really connecting to your locally running version of
- <application>Privoxy</application>. <application>Privoxy</application>
- intercepts your requests for the web page, and relays that to the
- <quote>real</quote> web site. The web site sends the HTTP data stream
- back to <application>Privoxy</application>, where
- <application>Privoxy</application> can work its magic before it
- relays this data back to your web browser.
- </para>
-
- <para>
- Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between you and the
- WWW, it is in a position to intercept and completely manage all web traffic and
- HTTP content before it gets to your browser.
- <application>Privoxy</application> uses various programming methods to do
- this, all of which is under your control via the various configuration
- files and options.
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="differs"><title>How does Privoxy differ
+from the old Junkbuster?</title>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> picks up where
+ <application>Junkbuster</application> left off.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> still blocks ads and banners,
+ still manages <ulink
+ url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>, and still
+ helps protect your privacy. But, most of these features have been enhanced,
+ and many new ones have been added, all in the same vein.
</para>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application>'s new features include:
+</para>
- <para>
- There are many kinds of proxies. <application>Privoxy</application> best
- fits the <quote>filtering proxy</quote> category.
- </para>
+<!-- Include newfeatures.sgml: -->
+ &newfeatures;
+<!-- end include -->
</sect2>
-
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="knows">How does <application>Privoxy</application> know what is
-an ad, and what is not?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whatsanad">
+<title>How does Privoxy know what is an ad, and what is not?</title>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application>'s approach to blocking ads is twofold:
+</para>
+<para>
+ First, there are certain patterns in the <emphasis>locations</emphasis> (URLs)
+ of banner images. This applies to both the path (you wouldn't guess how many
+ web sites serve their banners from a directory called <quote>banners</quote>!)
+ and the host (blocking the big banner hosting services like doublecklick.net
+ already helps a lot). <application>Privoxy</application> takes advantage of this
+ fact by using <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL
+ patterns</ulink> to sort out and block the requests for things that sound
+ like they would be ads or banners.
+</para>
<para>
- <application>Privoxy</application> processes all the raw content of every
- web page. So it reads everything on each page. It then compares this to the
- rules as set up in the configuration files, and looks for any matches to
- these rules. <application>Privoxy</application> makes heavy use of
- <quote>regular expressions</quote>. (If you are not familiar with regular
- expressions, it is explained briefly in <ulink
- url="../user-manual/appendix.html">the user manual</ulink>.) Regular
- expressions facilitate matching of one text string against another, using
- wildcards to build complex patterns. So <application>Privoxy</application>
- will typically look for URLs and other content that match certain key words
- and expressions as defined in the configuration files. For instance a URL
- that contains <quote>/banners</quote>, has a high probability of containing
- ad banners, and thus would be a prime candidate to have a matching rule.
+ Second, banners tend to come in certain <emphasis>sizes</emphasis>. But you
+ can't tell the size of an image by its URL without downloading it, and if you
+ do, it's too late to save bandwidth. Therefore, <application>Privoxy</application>
+ also inspects the HTML sources of web pages while they are loaded, and replaces
+ references to images with standard banner sizes by dummy references, so that
+ your browser doesn't request them anymore in the first place.
</para>
<para>
- So <application>Privoxy</application> will look for these kinds of obvious
- looking culprits. And also, will use lists of known organizations that
- specialize in ads. Again, using complex patterns to match as many potential
- combinations as possible since there tend to be many, many variations used by
- advertisers, and new ones are being introduced all the time.
+ Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
+ and readily configurable.
</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="mistakes">Can <application>Privoxy</application> make mistakes?
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="mistakes">
+<title>Can Privoxy make mistakes?
This does not sound very scientific.</title>
<para>
- Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad rule
- accidentally block something by mistake. There is a good chance you may run
- into such a situation at some point. It is tricky writing rules to cover
- every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
+ Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
+ rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. You will almost surely
+ run into such situations at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
+ cover every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
</para>
<para>
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configornot">
+<title>Will I have to configure Privoxy
+ before I can use it?</title>
+<para>
+ That depends on your expectations.
+ The default installation should give you a good starting
+ point, and block <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads and unwanted content,
+ but many of the more advanced features are off by default, and require
+ you to activate them.
+</para>
+<para>
+ You do have to set up your browser to use
+ <application>Privoxy</application> (see the <link
+ linkend="firststep">Installation section below</link>).
+</para>
+<para>
+ And you will certainly run into situations where there are false positives,
+ or ads not being blocked that you may not want to see. In these cases, you
+ would certainly benefit by customizing <application>Privoxy's</application>
+ configuration to more closely match your individual situation. And we
+ encourage you to do this. This is where the real power of
+ <application>Privoxy</application> lies!
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="lan">
+<title>Can Privoxy run as a server on a network?</title>
+ <para>
+ Yes, &my-app; runs as a server already, and can easily be configured to
+ <quote>serve</quote> more than one client. See <link linkend="lanconfig">
+ How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN</link> below.
+</para>
+</sect2>
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
-<application>Privoxy</application>. Why should I use
-<application>Privoxy</application> at all?</title>
+Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy at all?</title>
<para>
Modern browsers do indeed have <emphasis>some</emphasis> of the same
functionality as <application>Privoxy</application>. Maybe this is
- adequate for you. But <application>Privoxy</application> is much more
- versatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
+ adequate for you. But <application>Privoxy</application> is very
+ versatile and powerful, and can probably do a number of things
+ your browser just can't.
</para>
<para>
- In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
- have a LAN with multiple computers. This way all the configuration
- is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar configuration
- for possibly many browsers.
-
+ In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
+ have a LAN with multiple computers since &my-app; can run as a server
+ application. This way all the configuration is in one place, and you don't
+ have to maintain a similar configuration for possibly many browsers or
+ users.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Note, however, that it's recommended to leverage both your browser's
+ and <application>Privoxy's</application> privacy enhancing features
+ at the same time. While your browser probably lacks some features
+ &my-app; offers, it should also be able to do some things more
+ reliably, for example restricting and suppressing JavaScript.
</para>
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whytrust"><title>Why should I trust Privoxy?</title>
+ <para>
+ The most important reason is because you have access to
+ <emphasis>everything</emphasis>, and you can control everything. You can
+ check every line of every configuration file yourself. You can check every
+ last bit of source code should you desire. And even if you can't read code,
+ there should be some comfort in knowing that <!-- thousands of -->other people can,
+ and do read it. You can build the software from scratch, if you want,
+ so that you know the executable is clean, and that it is
+ <emphasis>yours</emphasis>. In fact, we encourage this level of scrutiny. It
+ is one reason we use &my-app; ourselves.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
-
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
warranty? Registration?</title>
<para>
- <application>Privoxy</application> is licensed under the GNU General Public
- License (GPL). It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish
- under the terms of this license. Please see the Copyright section for more
- information on the license and copyright.
-
- </para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is free software and licensed under the <ulink
+ url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html">GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2</ulink>.
+ It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this
+ license. Please see the <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> section for more
+ information on the license and copyright. Or the <filename>LICENSE</filename> file
+ that should be included.
+ </para>
<para>
- There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise. That is
- something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
- <application>Privoxy</application> really is <emphasis>free</emphasis>
- in every respect!
-
+ There is <emphasis>no warranty</emphasis> of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
+ That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what do I do?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="spyware">
+<title>Can Privoxy remove spyware? Adware? Viruses?</title>
+<para>
+ No, at least not reliably enough to trust it. &my-app; is not designed to be
+ a malware removal tool and the default configuration doesn't even try to
+ filter out any malware.
+</para>
+<para>
+ &my-app; could help prevent contact from (known) sites that use such
+ tactics with appropriate configuration rules, and thus could conceivably
+ prevent contamination from such sites. However, keeping such a configuration
+ up to date would require a lot of time and effort that would be better spend
+ on keeping your software itself up to date so it doesn't have known
+ vulnerabilities.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherads">
+<title>Can I use Privoxy with other ad-blocking software?</title>
+<para>
+ &my-app; should work fine with other proxies and other software in general.
+</para>
+<para>
+ But it is probably not necessary to use &my-app; in conjunction with other
+ ad-blocking products, and this could conceivably cause undesirable results.
+ It might be better to choose one software or the other and work a little to
+ tweak its configuration to your liking.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Note that this is an advice specific to ad blocking.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="help-the-developers"><title>I would like to help you, what can I do?</title>
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-money"><title>Money Money Money</title>
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="participate"><title>Would you like to participate?</title>
<para>
- We, of course, welcome donations and use the money for domain registering,
- regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). Anyway, we'll soon describe the
- process how to donate money to the team.
+ Well, we <emphasis>always</emphasis> need help. There is something for
+ everybody who wants to help us. We welcome new developers, packagers,
+ testers, documentation writers or really anyone with a desire to help in
+ any way. You <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> need to be a
+ <quote>programmer</quote>. There are many other tasks available. In fact,
+ the programmers often can't spend as much time programming because of some
+ of the other, more mundane things that need to be done, like checking the
+ Tracker feedback sections or responding to user questions on the mailing
+ lists.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ So first thing, subscribe to the <ulink
+ url="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-users">Privoxy Users</ulink>
+ or the <ulink url="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-developers">Privoxy
+ Developers</ulink> mailing list, join the discussion, help out other users, provide general
+ feedback or report problems you noticed.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If you intend to help out with the trackers, you also might want to <ulink
+ url="https://sourceforge.net/user/registration">get an account on SourceForge.net</ulink>
+ so we don't confuse you with the other name-less users.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ We also have a <ulink
+ url="../developer-manual/index.html">Developer's Manual</ulink>.
+ While it is partly out of date, it's still worth reading.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Our <ulink url="http://ijbswa.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ijbswa/current/TODO?view=markup">TODO list</ulink>
+ may be of interest to you as well.
+ Please let us know if you want to work on one of the items listed.
</para>
</sect3>
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-work"><title>You want to work with us?</title>
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="donate"><title>Would you like to donate?</title>
+<para>
+ Donations are welcome. Our
+ <ulink url="http://ijbswa.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ijbswa/current/TODO">TODO list</ulink>
+ is rather long and being able to pay one (or more) developers to work on Privoxy
+ would make a huge difference, even if it was only for a couple of weeks. Donations may
+ also be used for Privoxy-related travel expenses (for example to attend conferences),
+ for hardware used for Privoxy development and for hosting expenses etc.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is an associated
+ project of <ulink url="http://www.spi-inc.org/">Software
+ in the Public Interest (SPI)</ulink>, which allows us to receive
+ tax-deductible donations in the United States. If you want to donate through
+ SPI, please use <ulink url="http://www.spi-inc.org/donations">SPI's donation page</ulink>
+ to see what the options are.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ You can also donate to Privoxy using a bank account or a "Paypal" address:
+</para>
+<literallayout>
+ Name on account: <ulink url="https://www.zwiebelfreunde.de/">Zwiebelfreunde e.V.</ulink>
+ IBAN: DE95430609671126825604
+ BIC: GENODEM1GLS
+ Bank: GLS Bank
+</literallayout>
+<literallayout>
+ "Paypal" address: privoxy@zwiebelfreunde.de
+</literallayout>
<para>
- Well, helping the team is always a good idea. We welcome new developers,
- RPM gurus or documentation makers. Simply get an account on sourceforge.net
- and mail your id to the developer mailing list. Then read the
- section Quickstart in the <ulink url="../developer-manual/quickstart.html">
- Developer's Manual</ulink>.
+ Donations made through Zwiebelfreunde e.V. are tax-deductible in Germany
+ and other countries that recognize German charitable clubs. Feel free to
+ use the Subject field to provide a name to be credited and a list of TODO
+ list items you are interested in the most. For example: Max Mustermann: #16, #1, #14.
</para>
+
<para>
- Once we have added you to the team, you'll have write access to the CVS
- repository, and together we'll find a suitable task for you.
+ Note that donations made through Zwiebelfreunde e.V. currently can't be checked
+ automatically so you may not get credited right away. The credits currently
+ reflect donations received before 2016-01-14.
</para>
+
+<para>
+ If you have any questions regarding donations please mail to either the
+ public user mailing list or, if it's a private matter, to
+ <ulink url="mailto:fk@fabiankeil.de">Fabian Keil</ulink> (Privoxy's SPI liason)
+ directly.
</sect3>
</sect2>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect1 label="2" id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
+<sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichbrowsers">
-<title>Which browsers are supported by <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
-<para>
- Any browser that can be configured to use a <quote>proxy</quote>, which
- should be virtually all browsers. Direct browser support is not necessary
- since <application>Privoxy</application> runs as a separate application and
- just exchanges standard HTML data with your browser, just like a web server
+<title>Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?</title>
+<para>
+ Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
+ should be virtually all browsers, including
+ <application>Firefox</application>, <application>Internet
+ Explorer</application>, <application>Opera</application>, and
+ <application>Safari</application> among others.
+ Direct browser support is not an absolute requirement since
+ <application>Privoxy</application> runs as a separate application and talks
+ to the browser in the standardized HTTP protocol, just like a web server
does.
</para>
</sect2>
&supported;
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
- <application>Privoxy</application> over <application>Junkbuster</application>?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="email-client">
+<title>Can I use Privoxy with my email client?</title>
+<para>
+ As long as there is some way to set a HTTP proxy for the client, then yes,
+ any application can be used, whether it is strictly speaking a
+ <quote>browser</quote> or not. Though this may not be the best approach for
+ dealing with some of the common abuses of HTML in email. See <link
+ linkend="outlook">How can I configure <application>Privoxy</application>
+ with <application>Outlook</application>?</link> below for more on
+ this.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Be aware that HTML email presents a number of unique security and privacy
+ related issues, that can require advanced skills to overcome. The developers
+ recommend using email clients that can be configured to convert HTML to plain
+ text for these reasons.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<!-- Nobody is going to still be doing this!
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
+ Privoxy over Junkbuster?</title>
<para>
- We recommend you uninstall <application>Junkbuster</application>
- first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
+ We recommend you un
-install <application>Junkbuster</application>
+ first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
- is substantially changed.
- </para>
- <para>
- See the <ulink
- url="../user-manual/index.html">user-manual</ulink> for
- platform specific installation instructions.
+ files and syntax have substantially changed, so you will need to manually
+ port your old patterns. See the <ulink url="../user-manual/upgradersnote.html">note
+ to upgraders</ulink> and <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">installation
+ chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink>
+ for details.
</para>
<para>
- Note: Some installers may automatically uninstall
+ Note: Some installers may automatically un-install
<application>Junkbuster</application>, if present!
</para>
</sect2>
+-->
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="firststep">I just installed <application>Privoxy</application>. Is there anything
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="firststep">
+<title>I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything
special I have to do now?</title>
<para>
- All browsers must be told to use <application>Privoxy</application>
- as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
- in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. See below.
- Also, you should flush your browser's memory and disk cache to get rid of any
- cached items.
+ All browsers should be told to use <application>Privoxy</application>
+ as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
+ in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. It's possible
+ to combine &my-app; with a packet filter to intercept HTTP requests
+ even if the client isn't explicitly configured to use &my-app;,
+ but where possible, configuring the client is recommended. See
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">the User Manual for more
+ details</ulink>. You should also flush your browser's memory and disk
+ cache to get rid of any cached junk items, and remove any stored
+ <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>.
</para>
</sect2>
-
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of Privoxy?</title>
<para>
If you set up the <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
- networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <quote>localhost</quote>
- (which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
- to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have <application>Privoxy</application> to run on a different port with the
- <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> config option).
+ networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>
+ (sometimes referred to as <quote>localhost</quote>,
+ which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
+ to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you used the <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink>
+ config option to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
+ a different port).
</para>
<para>
When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
- the word <quote>localhost</quote> in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote>
- and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and then the number <quote>8118</quote>
- for <quote>port</quote>. This tells your browser to send all web
- requests to <application>Privoxy</application> instead of directly to the
- Internet.
+ the word <quote>localhost</quote> or the IP address <quote>127.0.0.1</quote>
+ in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote> and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and
+ then the number <quote>8118</quote> for <quote>port</quote>.
+ This tells your browser to send all web requests to <application>Privoxy</application>
+ instead of directly to the Internet.
</para>
<para>
- <application>Privoxy</application> can also be used to proxy for
- a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
- address of the LAN host where <application>Privoxy</application>
- is running, or the equivalent hostname. Port assignment would be
- same as above.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> can also be used to proxy for
+ a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
+ address of the LAN host where <application>Privoxy</application>
+ is running, or the equivalent hostname, e.g. <literal>192.168.1.1</literal>.
+ Port assignment would be same as above. Note that
+ <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't listen on any LAN interfaces by
+ default.
</para>
<para>
<application>Privoxy</application> does not currently handle
- protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, or other Internet
- protocols.
+ any other protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, etc.
</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="nothing">I just installed <application>Privoxy</application>, and nothing is happening.
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nothing">
+<title>I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening.
All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
<para>
- Did you configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
+ Did you configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
- the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
- that <application>Privoxy</application> is running, and your browser
- is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
- <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. This should give you
- a banner that says <quote>This is Privoxy</quote> and
- access to <application>Privoxy's</application> internal configuration.
- If you see this, then you are good to go. If not, the browser or
- <application>Privoxy</application> are not set up correctly.
+ the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
+ that <application>Privoxy</application> is running, and your browser
+ is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
+ <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>.
+ <!-- Use http://p.p/ instead of http://config.privoxy.org/ here because
+ of potential redirect caching problem (see next Q). -->
+ This should take you to a page titled <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote> with
+ access to <application>Privoxy's</application> internal configuration.
+ If you see this, then you are good to go. If you receive a page saying
+ <quote>Privoxy is not running</quote>, then the browser is not set up to use
+ your <application>Privoxy</application> installation.
+ If you receive anything else (probably nothing at all), it could either
+ be that the browser is not set up correctly, or that
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is not running at all. Check the <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#LOGFILE">log file</ulink>. For instructions
+ on starting <application>Privoxy</application> and browser configuration,
+ see the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
+ on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
+ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="notused">
+<title>I get a <quote>Privoxy is not being used</quote> dummy page although
+Privoxy is running and being used.</title>
+<para>
+ First, make sure that Privoxy is <emphasis>really</emphasis> running and
+ being used by visiting <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. You
+ should see the <application>Privoxy</application> main page. If not, see
+ the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
+ on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
+ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Now if <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> works for you, but
+ other parts of <application>Privoxy</application>'s web interface show
+ the dummy page, your browser has cached a redirection it encountered before
+ <application>Privoxy</application> was being used. You need to clear your
+ browser's cache. Note that shift-reloading the dummy page won't help, since
+ that'll only refresh the dummy page, not the redirection that lead you there.
</para>
+<para>
+ The procedure for clearing the cache varies from browser to browser. For
+ example, <application>Mozilla/Netscape</application> users would click
+ <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -->
+ <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
+ then click both <quote><guibutton>Clear Memory Cache</guibutton></quote>
+ and <quote><guibutton>Clear Disk Cache</guibutton></quote>.
+ In some <application>Firefox</application> versions it's
+ <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -->
+ <guibutton>Privacy</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
+ then click <quote><guibutton>Clear Cache Now</guibutton></quote>.
+ <!-- In my Firefox versions it's the Netscape way. fk 2007-11-19-->
+</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect1 label="3" id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
-
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
- <para>
- There are major changes to <application>Junkbuster</application>/
- <application>Privoxy</application> configuration from version 2.0.x to
- 2.9.x and later. Most of the older files will not work at all. This is
- especially true of <filename>blocklist</filename>. If this is the case, you
- will need to re-enter your old data into the new configuration structure.
- This is probably also a good recommendation even if upgrading from 2.9.x to
- 3.x since there were many minor changes along the way.
- </para>
-</sect2>
-
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="actionsfile">What is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
+<sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionsfile">
+<title>What exactly is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
<para>
- <quote>actions</quote> files are where various actions that
- <application>Privoxy</application> might take, are configured.
- Typically, you would define a set of default actions that apply
- to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- Actions can be defined on a per site basis, or for groups of sites. Actions
- can also be grouped together and then applied to one or more sites. There
- are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
- if we are blocking cookies as one of our default
- <application>actions</application>, but need to accept cookies from a given
- site, we would define this in our <quote>actions</quote> file.
-
+ &my-app; utilizes the concept of <quote>
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink></quote>
+ that are used to manipulate and control web page data.
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">Actions files</ulink>
+ are where these <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink>
+ that <application>Privoxy</application> could take while processing a certain
+ request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
+ that apply globally to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
+ There is a wide array of actions available that give the user a high degree
+ of control and flexibility on how to process each and every web page.
</para>
<para>
- <application>Privoxy</application> comes with several default
- <application>actions</application> files, with varying degrees
- of filtering and blocking, as starting points for your own
- configuration (see below).
+ Actions can be defined on a <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</ulink> basis, i.e.
+ for single URLs, whole web sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be
+ grouped together and then applied to requests matching one or more patterns.
+ There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
+ if you are blocking <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
+ as one of your default actions, but need to accept cookies from a given site,
+ you would need to define an exception for this site in one of your actions
+ files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionss">
-<title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
+<title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
<para>
- These are all explained in the
- <ulink url="../user-manual/configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE">user-manual</ulink>.
- Please refer to that.
+ For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer
+ to the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions file
+ chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User
+ Manual</ulink>. It includes a <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">list of all actions</ulink>
+ and an <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions
+ file tutorial</ulink> to get you started.
</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
-way to do this?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actconfig">
+<title>How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
+way to do this?</title>
<para>
- The easiest way to do this, is to access <application>Privoxy</application>
- with your web browser at <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>,
- and then select
- "<ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org">Edit the actions list</ulink>"
- from the selection list. You can also do this by editing the appropriate
- file with a text editor.
+ Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
+ with a text editor. But probably the easiest way is to access
+ <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface with your web browser
+ at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
+ (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and then select
+ <quote><ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View &
+ change the current configuration</ulink></quote> from the menu. Note
+ that this feature must be explicitly enabled in the main config file
+ (see <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>).
</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3">
+<title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
+the differences?</title>
<para>
- Please see the
- <ulink
- url="../user-manual/configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE">user-manual</ulink> for a
- detailed explanation of these and other configuration files, and their
- various options and syntax.
+ Please have a look at the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">the actions chapter</ulink>
+ in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> for a detailed explanation.
</para>
-</sect2>
+</sect2>
-<!--
-FIXME: Commenting these out until we have some data there. HB 03/17/02.
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
+ <para>
+ Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updates of
+ <filename>default.action</filename> will be
+ made available from time to time on the <ulink
+ url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files section</ulink> of
+ our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project page</ulink>.
+ </para>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo account work?</title>
<para>
- Fillme.
+ If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
+ <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
+ url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
+ to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
</para>
+
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="hotmail"> <title>How can I make my Hotmail account work?</title>
- <para>
- Fillme.
- </para>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
+ <para>
+ The syntax and purpose of configuration files has remained roughly the
+ same throughout the 3.x series, but backwards compatibility is not guaranteed.
+ Also each release contains updated, <quote>improved</quote> versions and it is
+ therefore strongly recommended to install the newer configuration files
+ and merge back your modifications.
+ </para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="gmx"> <title>How can I make my GMX account work?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="difficult">
+<title>Why is the configuration so complicated?</title>
+ <para>
+ <quote>Complicated</quote> is in the eye of the beholder.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Privoxy is currently mainly written by and for people who are already
+ familiar with the underlying concepts like regular expressions, HTTP and HTML,
+ or are willing to become familiar with them to be able to get the most
+ out of a powerful and flexible tool such as Privoxy.
+ </para>
<para>
- Fillme.
+ While everybody is expected to be able to get a Privoxy default installation
+ up and running, fine-tuning requires a certain amount of background
+ information and Privoxy's documentation mainly concentrates on the
+ Privoxy-specific parts while only providing references to the rest.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If you or anyone you know has the skills, time and energy to
+ reduce the barrier of entry, please <link linkend="participate">get involved</link>.
</para>
</sect2>
--->
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What are the differences between
-intermediate.action, basic.action, etc.?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account work?</title>
<para>
-Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not easy. To help you get
-started, we provide you with three different default configurations. The
-following table shows you, which features are enabled in each configuration.
+ The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services.
+ It may, however, make all <ulink
+ url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
+ temporary, so that your browser will forget your
+ login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would like not to have to log
+ in manually each time you access those websites, simply turn off all cookie handling
+ for them in the <filename>user.action</filename> file. An example for yahoo might
+ look like:
</para>
<para>
-<table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
-<tgroup cols=5 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
-<colspec colname=c1>
-<colspec colname=c2>
-<colspec colname=c3>
-<colspec colname=c4>
-<colspec colname=c5>
-<thead>
-<row>
- <entry>Feature</entry>
- <entry>default.action</entry>
- <entry>basic.action</entry>
- <entry>intermediate.action</entry>
- <entry>advanced.action</entry>
-</row>
-</thead>
-
-<!-- <tfoot> -->
-<!-- <row> -->
-<!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
-<!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
-<!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
-<!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
-<!-- <entry>f5</entry> -->
-<!-- </row> -->
-<!-- </tfoot> -->
-
-<tbody>
-<!-- new row -->
-<row>
- <entry>ad-filtering</entry>
- <entry>?</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
-</row>
-<!-- new row -->
-<row>
- <entry>blank image</entry>
- <entry>?</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
-</row>
-<!-- new row -->
-<row>
- <entry>de-animate GIFs</entry>
- <entry>?</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
-</row>
-<!-- new row -->
-<row>
- <entry>referer forging</entry>
- <entry>?</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
-</row>
-<!-- new row -->
-<row>
- <entry>jon's +no-cookies-keep (i.e. session cookies only)</entry>
- <entry>?</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
-</row>
-<!-- new row -->
-<row>
- <entry>no-popup windows</entry>
- <entry>?</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
-</row>
-<!-- new row -->
-<row>
- <entry>fast redirects</entry>
- <entry>?</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
-</row>
-<!-- new row -->
-<row>
- <entry>hide-referrer</entry>
- <entry>?</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
-</row>
-<!-- new row -->
-<row>
- <entry>hide-useragent</entry>
- <entry>?</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
-</row>
-<!-- new row -->
-<row>
- <entry>content-modification</entry>
- <entry>?</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry>x</entry>
-</row>
-<!-- new row -->
-<row>
- <entry>feature-x</entry>
- <entry>?</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry></entry>
-</row>
-<!-- new row -->
-<row>
- <entry>feature-y</entry>
- <entry>?</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry></entry>
-</row>
-<!-- new row -->
-<row>
- <entry>feature-z</entry>
- <entry>?</entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry></entry>
- <entry></entry>
-</row>
-<!-- finish -->
-</tbody>
-</tgroup>
-</table>
-</para>
-</sect2>
-
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration with a
-browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
+ <screen># Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
+#
+{ -<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> }
+.login.yahoo.com</screen>
+ </para>
<para>
-What I don't understand, is how I can browser edit the config file as a
-regular user, while the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
-belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
+ These kinds of sites are often quite complex and heavy with
+ <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> and
+ thus <quote>fragile</quote>. So if <emphasis>still</emphasis> a problem,
+ we have an <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> just for such
+ sticky situations:
</para>
<para>
-When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
-itself is writing to the config files. Because
-<application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, it can
-update the config files.
+ <screen># Gmail is a _fragile_ site:
+#
+{ <literal>fragile</literal> }
+ # Gmail is ...
+ mail.google.com</screen>
</para>
<para>
-If you don't like this, setting <quote>enable-edit-actions 0</quote> in the
-config file will disable the browser-based editor. If you're that paranoid,
-you should also consider setting <quote>enable-remote-toggle 0</quote> to prevent
-browser-based enabling/disabling of <application>Privoxy</application>.
+ Be sure to flush your browser's caches whenever making these kinds of
+ changes, just to make sure the changes <quote>take</quote>.
</para>
<para>
-Note that normally only local users can connect to
-<application>Privoxy</application>, so this is not (normally) a security
-problem.
+ Make sure the domain, host and path are appropriate as well. Your browser can
+ tell you where you are specifically and you should use that information for
+ your configuration settings. Note that above it is not referenced as
+ <literal>gmail.com</literal>, which is a valid domain name.
</para>
+
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
+<quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Advanced</quote> defaults?</title>
+ <para>
+ Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To
+ help you get started, we provide you with three different default action
+ <quote>profiles</quote> in the web based actions file editor at <ulink
+ url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
+ See the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html"><citetitle>User
+ Manual</citetitle></ulink> for a list of actions, and how the default
+ profiles are set.
+ </para>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="filterfile">What is <quote>default.filter</quote>?</title>
<para>
- The <quote>default.filter</quote> file is used to <quote>filter</quote> any
- web page content. By <quote>filtering</quote> we mean it can modify, remove,
- or change <emphasis>anything</emphasis> on the page, including HTML tags, and
- JavaScript. Regular expressions are used to accomplish this, and operate
- on a line by line basis. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
- requires some expertise.
+ Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
+ known popular <quote>problem</quote> sites are included, but in
+ general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more exceptions
+ you will have to make later. New users are best to start off in
+ <quote>Cautious</quote> setting. This is safest and will have the fewest
+ problems. See the <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>
+ for a more detailed discussion.
</para>
<para>
- If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
- the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and see
- some of things it can be used for.
+ It should be noted that the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile (formerly known
+ as the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> profile) is more
+ aggressive, and will make use of some of
+ <application>Privoxy's</application> advanced features. Use at your own risk!
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration
+with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
+ <para>
+ It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files with their
+ browsers, although the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
+ belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
+ itself is writing to the config files. Because
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>,
+ it can update its own config files.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If you run <application>Privoxy</application> for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in
+ a LAN) or aren't entirely in control of your own browser, you will probably want
+ to make sure that the web-based editor and remote toggle features are
+ <quote>off</quote> by setting <quote><literal><ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>
+ 0</literal></quote> and <quote><literal><ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">enable-remote-toggle</ulink>
+ 0</literal></quote> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ As of &my-app; 3.0.7 these options are disabled by default.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
+
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="filterfile">
+<title>What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file? What is a <quote>filter</quote>?</title>
+<para>
+ The <ulink url="../user-manual/filter-file.html"><filename>default.filter</filename></ulink>
+ file is where <emphasis>filters</emphasis> as supplied by the developers are defined.
+ Filters are a special subset of actions that can be used to modify or
+ remove web page content or headers on the fly. Content filters can
+ be applied to <emphasis>anything</emphasis> in the page source,
+ header filters can be applied to either server or client headers.
+ Regular expressions are used to accomplish this.
+</para>
+<para>
+ There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common annoyances. The
+ filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you need to use the
+ <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"><literal>filter</literal>
+ action</ulink> in one of the actions files. Content filtering is automatically
+ disabled for inappropriate MIME types, but if you know better than Privoxy
+ what should or should not be filtered you can filter any content you like.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Filters should
+ <emphasis>not</emphasis> be confused with <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK"><literal>blocks</literal></ulink>, which
+ is a completely different action, and is more typically used to block ads and
+ unwanted sites.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
+ the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and define
+ your own filters. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
+ requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
+ <![%p-newstuff;[ You should
+ place any modifications to the default filters, or any new ones you create
+ in a separate file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>, so they won't
+ be overwritten during upgrades.
+ The ability to define multiple filter files
+ in <filename>config</filename> is a new feature as of v. 3.0.5.]]>
</para>
<para>
- Presently, there is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
- but you can disable/enable various sections of the included default
- file with the <quote>Actions List Editor</quote> from your browser.
+ There is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
+ but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included
+ <filename>default.filter</filename> file with the <ulink
+ url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
+ Note that the custom actions editor must be explicitly enabled in
+ the main config file (see <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>).
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ If you intend to develop your own filters, you might want to have a look at
+ <ulink
+ url="http://www.fabiankeil.de/sourcecode/pft/">Privoxy-Filter-Test</ulink>.
</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="lanconfig">How can I set up <application>Privoxy</application> to act as a proxy for my
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="lanconfig">
+<title>How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my
LAN?</title>
<para>
- By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
- from localhost. To have it act as a server for a network, this needs to be
- changed in the main config file where the <application>Privoxy</application>
- configuration is located. In that file is a <quote>listen-address</quote>
- option. It may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
- it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
- and port number to use:
+ By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
+ from <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> (localhost). To have it act as a server for
+ a network, this needs to be changed in the <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>. Look for
+ the <literal><ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink></literal>
+ option, which may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
+ it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
+ and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you
+ wish to run <application>Privoxy</application> on port 8118, this line
+ should look like:
</para>
<para>
<screen>
- listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118
- </screen>
+ listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118</screen>
</para>
<para>
- Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
+ Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
</para>
-</sect2>
+<para>
+ Alternately, you can have <application>Privoxy</application> listen on
+ all available interfaces:
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+ listen-address :8118</screen>
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ And then use <application>Privoxy's</application>
+ <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#PERMIT-ACCESS">permit-access</ulink>
+ feature to limit connections. A firewall in this situation is recommended
+ as well.
+</para>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
<para>
- This is a configuration option for images that
- <application>Privoxy</application> is stopping. You have the choice <!-- of
- the --> <!-- <application>Privoxy</application> logo, --> of a checkerboard
- pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a custom
- URL of your choice. Note that to fit this category, the URL must match both
- the <quote>+image</quote> and <quote>+block</quote> actions.
+ The above steps should be the same for any TCP network, regardless of
+ operating system.
</para>
<para>
- If you want to see nothing, then change the <quote>+image-blocker</quote>
- action to <quote>+image-blocker{blank}</quote>. This can be done from the
- <quote>Edit Actions List</quote> selection at <ulink
- url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. Or by hand editing the appropriate
- actions file. This will only effect what is defined as <quote>images</quote>
- though. Also, some URLs that generate the bright red <quote>Blocked</quote>
- banner, can be moved to the <quote>+image-blocker</quote> section for the
- same reason, but there are some limits and risks to this (see below).
+ If you run <application>Privoxy</application> on a LAN with untrusted users,
+ we recommend that you double-check the <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security</ulink>
+ options!
</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="noseeum">
+<title>Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
+<para>
+ The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
+ action</ulink>. You have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
+ image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a redirect to a custom image of your choice.
+ Note that this choice only has effect for images which are blocked as images, i.e.
+ whose URLs match both a <literal><ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink></literal>
+ <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> action.
+</para>
<para>
- This can be helpful for troubleshooting problems. It might also be good
- for anyone new to <application>Privoxy</application> so that they can
- see if their favorite pages are displaying correctly, and
- <application>Privoxy</application> is not inadvertently removing something
- important.
+ If you want to see nothing, then change the <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
+ action</ulink> to <quote>blank</quote>. This can be done by editing the
+ <filename>user.action</filename> file, or through the <ulink
+ url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="blockedisugly">I see large red banners on some pages that say
-<quote>Blocked</quote>. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whyseeum">
+<title>Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
<para>
- These are URLs that match something in one of
- <application>Privoxy's</application> block actions (+block). It is meant
- to be a warning so that you know something has been blocked and an easy way
- for you to see why. These are handled differently than what has been defined
- explicitly as <quote>images</quote> (e.g. ad banners). Depending on the
- URL itself, it is sometimes hard for <application>Privoxy</application> to
- really know whether there is indeed an ad image there or not. And there are
- limitations as to what <application>Privoxy</application> can do to
- <quote>fool</quote> the browser.
+ Remember that <link linkend="whatsanad">telling which image is an ad and which
+ isn't</link>, is an educated guess. While we hope that the standard configuration
+ is rather smart, it will make occasional mistakes. The checkerboard image is visually
+ decent, and it shows you where images have been blocked, which can be very
+ helpful in case some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was
+ erroneously blocked. It is recommended for new users so they can
+ <quote>see</quote> what is happening. Some people might also enjoy seeing how
+ many banners they <emphasis>don't</emphasis> have to see.
</para>
-<para>
- For instance, if the ad is in a frame, then it is embedded in the separate
- HTML page used for the frame. In this case, you cannot just substitute an
- aribitray image (like we would for a <quote>blank</quote> image), for an HTML
- page. The browser is expecting an HTML page, and that is what it must have
- for frames. So this situation can be a little trickier to deal with, and
- <application>Privoxy</application> will use the <quote>Blocked</quote> page.
-</para>
+</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blockedbytext">
+<title>I see some images being replaced with text
+instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
<para>
- If you want these to be treated as if they were images, so that they can be
- made invisible, you can try moving the offending URL from the
- <quote>+block</quote> section to the <quote>+imageblock</quote> section of
- your actions file. Just be forewarned, if any URL is made
- <quote>invisible</quote>, you may not have any inkling that something has
- been removed from that page, or why. If this approach does not work, then you are
- probably dealing with a frame (or <quote>ilayer</quote>), and the only thing
- that can go there is an HTML page of some sort.
+ This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of the
+ page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded into (i)frames
+ or (i)layers, and these external HTML documents are blocked. Being non-images
+ they get replaced by a substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image,
+ which wouldn't work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts
+ only HTML when it has requested an HTML document.
</para>
<para>
- To deal with this situation, you could modify the
- <quote><filename>block</filename></quote> HTML template that is used by
- <application>Privoxy</application> to display this, and make it something
- more to your liking. Currently, there is no configuration option for this.
- You will have to modify, or create your own page, and use this to replace
- <filename>templates/blocked</filename>, which is what
- <application>Privoxy</application> uses to display the <quote>Blocked</quote>
- page.
+ The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself as a
+ miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown with a
+ large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
</para>
<para>
- Another way to deal with this is find why and where
- <application>Privoxy</application> is blocking the frame, and
- diable this. Then let the <quote>+image-blocker</quote> action
- handle the ad that is embedded in the frame's HTML page.
+ If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to it that
+ the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked. Clicking
+ the <quote>See why</quote> link offered in the substitute page will show
+ you which rule blocked the page. After changing the rule and un-blocking
+ the HTML documents, the browser will try to load the actual banner images
+ and the usual image blocking will (hopefully!) kick in.
</para>
-
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="alliseeisred">
-<title>I cannot see all of the <quote>Blocked</quote> page banner. All I
-see is a bright red square.</title>
-<para>
- There is not enough space to fit the entire page. Try right clicking on the
- visible, red portion, and select <quote>Show Frame</quote>, or equivalent.
- This will usually allow you to see the entire Privoxy <quote>Blocked</quote>
- page, and from there you can see just what is being blocked, and why.
-</para>
-</sect2>
-<sect2 id="srvany">
-<title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> run as a service
-on Win2K/NT?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="srvany">
+<title>Can Privoxy run as a service
+on Win2K/NT/XP?</title>
<para>
- Yes, it can run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
- The only catch is that this will effectively disable the
- <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the taskbar. You can have
- one or the other, but not both at this time :(
+<![%p-newstuff;[
+ Yes. Version 3.0.5 introduces full <application>Windows</application> service
+ functionality. See <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html#installation-pack-win">
+ the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink> for details on how to install and configure
+ <application>Privoxy</application> as a service.
</para>
<para>
- There is a pending feature request for this functionality. See
- 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>,
+ Earlier ]]>3.x versions could run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
+
See the discussion at <ulink
+ 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>,
for details, and a sample configuration.
-
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherproxy">
-<title>How can I make <application>Privoxy</application> work with other
-proxies like <application>Squid</application>?</title>
-<para>
- This can be done. See the <ulink
- url="../user-manual/configuration.html#FORWARDING">user manual</ulink>,
- which describes how to do this.
-
+<title>How can I make Privoxy work with other proxies?</title>
+<para>
+ This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
+ <application>Privoxy</application> with those of a another proxy,
+ for example to cache content.
+ See the <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
+ in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> which
+ describes how to do this. If you intend to use Privoxy with Tor,
+ please also have a look at
+ <link linkend="TOR">How do I use Privoxy together with Tor</link>.
</para>
-
</sect2>
-</sect1>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="port-80">
+<title>Can I just set Privoxy to use port 80
+and thus avoid individual browser configuration?</title>
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<para>
+ No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special kinds
+ of proxies known as <quote>intercepting</quote> proxies
+ (<link linkend="INTERCEPTING">see below</link>).
+</para>
-<sect1 label="4"id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
+</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="slowsme">How much does <application>Privoxy</application> slow my browsing down? This
-has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
+<title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>transparent
+</quote> proxy?</title>
<para>
- It should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
- speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not being displayed.
- The actual processing time required by <application>Privoxy</application>
- itself for each page, is relatively small in the overall scheme of things,
- and happens very quickly. This is typically more than offset by time saved
- not downloading and rendering ad images.
+ The whole idea of Privoxy is to modify client requests
+ and server responses in all sorts of ways and therefore
+ it's not a transparent proxy as described in
+ <ulink url="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616">RFC 2616</ulink>.
</para>
-
<para>
- <quote>Filtering</quote> via the <filename>filterfile</filename>
- mechanism may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire page is buffered
- before displaying. See below.
+ However, some people say <quote>transparent proxy</quote> when they
+ mean <quote>intercepting proxy</quote>. If you are one of them,
+ please read the <link linkend="INTERCEPTING">next entry</link>.
</para>
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="intercepting">
+<title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>intercepting</quote> proxy?</title>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> can't intercept traffic itself,
+ but it can handle requests that where intercepted and redirected
+ with a packet filter (like <application>PF</application> or
+ <application>iptables</application>), as long as the <literal>Host</literal>
+ header is present.
+ </para>
+<para>
+ As the <literal>Host</literal> header is required by HTTP/1.1 and as most
+ web sites rely on it anyway, this limitation shouldn't be a problem.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Please refer to your packet filter's documentation to learn how to
+ intercept and redirect traffic into <application>Privoxy</application>.
+ Afterward you just have to configure <application>Privoxy</application> to
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCEPT-INTERCEPTED-REQUESTS">accept
+ intercepted requests</ulink>.
+</para>
+</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I noticed considerable
-delays in page requests compared to the old Junkbuster. What's wrong?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook">
+<title>How can I configure Privoxy for use with Outlook?</title>
<para>
-Using the default filtering configuration, I noticed considerable delays in
-page requests compared to the old Junkbuster. Loading pages with large contents
-seemed to take forever, then suddenly delivering all the content at once.
- </para>
+ Versions of <application>Outlook</application> prior to Office 2007, use
+ <application>Internet Explorer</application> components to both render HTML,
+ and fetch any HTTP requests that may be embedded in an HTML email. So however
+ you have <application>Privoxy</application> configured to work with IE, this
+ configuration should automatically be shared, at least with older version of
+ Internet Explorer.
+</para>
<para>
-The whole content must be loaded in order to filter, and nothing is is
-sent to the browser during this time. The loading time does not really
-change in real numbers, but the feeling is different, because most
-browsers are able to start rendering incomplete content, giving the
-user a feeling of "it works".
- </para>
+ Starting with Office 2007, Microsoft is instead using the MS-Word rendering
+ engine with Outlook. It is unknown whether this can be configured to use a
+ proxy.
+ <!-- FIXME HB 2009-02-15 -->
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook-more">
+<title>How can I have separate rules just for HTML mail?</title>
+<para>
+ The short answer is, you can't. <application>Privoxy</application> has no way
+ of knowing which particular application makes a request, so there is no way to
+ distinguish between web pages and HTML mail.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> just blindly proxies all requests. In the
+ case of <application>Outlook Express</application> (see above), OE uses
+ IE anyway, and there is no way for <application>Privoxy</application> to ever
+ be able to distinguish between them (nor could any other proxy type application for
+ that matter).
+</para>
<para>
-To modify the content of a page (i.e. make frames resizeable again, etc.) and
-not just replace ads, <application>Privoxy</application> needs to download the
-entire page first, do its content magic and then send the page to the browser.
+ For a good discussion of some of the issues involved (including privacy and
+ security issues), see
+ <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>.
</para>
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="sneaky-cookies">
+<title>I sometimes notice cookies sneaking through. How?</title>
+<para>
+ <ulink
+ url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Cookies</ulink> can be
+ set in several ways. The classic method is via the
+ <literal>Set-Cookie</literal> HTTP header. This is straightforward, and an
+ easy one to manipulate, such as the &my-app; concept of
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</ulink>.
+ There is also the possibility of using
+ <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> to
+ set cookies (&my-app; calls these <literal>content-cookies</literal>). This
+ is trickier because the syntax can vary widely, and thus requires a certain
+ amount of guesswork. It is not realistic to catch all of these short of
+ disabling Javascript, which would break many sites. And lastly, if the
+ cookies are embedded in a HTTPS/SSL secure session via Javascript, they are beyond
+ <application>Privoxy's</application> reach.
+</para>
+<para>
+ All in all, &my-app; can help manage cookies in general, can help minimize
+ the loss of privacy posed by cookies, but can't realistically stop all
+ cookies.
+</para>
+</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What is the "http://p.p/"?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="evil-cookies">
+<title>Are all cookies bad? Why?</title>
+<para>
+ No, in fact there are many beneficial uses of
+ <ulink
+ url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>. Cookies are just a
+ method that browsers can use to store data between pages, or between browser
+ sessions. Sometimes there is a good reason for this, and the user's life is a
+ bit easier as a result. But there is a long history of some websites taking
+ advantage of this layer of trust, and using the data they glean from you and
+ your browsing habits for their own purposes, and maybe to your potential
+ detriment. Such sites are using you and storing their data on your system.
+ That is why the privacy conscious watch from whom those cookies come, and why
+ they really <emphasis>need</emphasis> to be there.
+</para>
<para>
-Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can be
-programmed to handle certain pages specially.
+ See the
+ <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Wikipedia cookie
+ definition</ulink> for more.
</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allow-cookies">
+<title>How can I allow permanent cookies for my trusted sites?</title>
<para>
-With recent versions of <application>Privoxy</application> (version 2.9.x), you can get some
-information about <application>Privoxy</application> and change some settings by going to
-<ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> or, equivalently, <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
-(Note that p.p is far easier to type but may not work in some
-configurations. With the name change to <application>Privoxy</application>,
-this is changed from the previous http://i.j.b/ or earlier 2.9.x versions).
+ There are several actions that relate to cookies. The default behavior is to
+ allow only <quote>session cookies</quote>, which means the cookies only last
+ for the current browser session. This eliminates most kinds of abuse related
+ to cookies. But there may be cases where you want cookies to last.
</para>
+<para>
+ To disable all cookie actions, so that cookies are allowed unrestricted,
+ both in and out, for <literal>example.com</literal>:
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+ { -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only -filter{content-cookies} }
+ .example.com</screen>
+</para>
+<para>
+ Place the above in <filename>user.action</filename>. Note that some of these may
+ be off by default anyway, so this might be redundant, but there is no harm
+ being explicit in what you want to happen. <filename>user.action</filename>
+ includes an alias for this situation, called
+ <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal>.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="multiples">
+<title>Can I have separate configurations for different users?</title>
<para>
-These pages are <emphasis>not</emphasis> forwarded to a server on the Internet
-- instead they are handled by a special web server which is built in to
-<application>Privoxy</application>.
+ Each instance of <application>Privoxy</application> has its own
+ configuration, including such attributes as the TCP port that it listens on.
+ What you can do is run multiple instances of <application>Privoxy</application>, each with
+ a unique
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink>
+ configuration setting, and configuration path, and then
+ each of these can have their own configurations. Think of it as per-port
+ configuration.
</para>
+<para>
+ Simple enough for a few users, but for large installations, consider having
+ groups of users that might share like configurations.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whitelists">
+<title>Can I set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of
+<quote>good</quote> sites?</title>
<para>
-If you are not running <application>Privoxy</application>, then <ulink
-url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> will fail, and <ulink
-url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> will
-return a web page telling you you're not running
-<application>Privoxy</application>.
+ Sure. There are a couple of things you can do for simple white-listing.
+ Here's one real easy one:
</para>
+ <screen>
+ ############################################################
+ # Blacklist
+ ############################################################
+ { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
+ / # Block *all* URLs
+ ############################################################
+ # Whitelist
+ ############################################################
+ { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
+ kids.example.com
+ toys.example.com
+ games.example.com</screen>
+<para>
+ This allows access to only those three sites by first blocking all URLs, and
+ then subsequently allowing three specific exceptions.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Another approach is <application>Privoxy's</application>
+ <literal>trustfile</literal> concept, which incorporates the notion of
+ <quote>trusted referrers</quote>. See the <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#TRUSTFILE">Trust documentation</ulink>
+ for details.
+</para>
<para>
-If you have version 2.0.2, then the equivalent is
-http://example.com/show-proxy-args (but you get far less information, and you
-should really consider upgrading to &p-version;).
+ These are fairly simple approaches and are not completely foolproof. There
+ are various other configuration options that should be disabled (described
+ elsewhere here and in <ulink url="../user-manual/">the User Manual</ulink>)
+ so that users can't modify their own configuration and easily circumvent the
+ whitelist.
</para>
</sect2>
-<!--
-FIXME: commented out until we have data. HB 03/18/02.
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="no-adblock">
+<title>How can I turn off ad-blocking?</title>
+<para>
+ Ad blocking is achieved through a complex application of various &my-app;
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions</ulink>. These
+ actions are deployed against simple images, banners, flash animations,
+ text pages, JavaScript, pop-ups and pop-unders, etc., so its not as simple as
+ just turning one or two actions off. The various actions that make up
+ &my-app; ad blocking are hard-coded into the default configuration files. It
+ has been assumed that everyone using &my-app; is interested in this
+ particular feature.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If you want to do without this, there are several approaches you can take:
+ You can manually undo the many block rules in
+ <filename>default.action</filename>. Or even easier, just create your own
+ <filename>default.action</filename> file from scratch without the many ad
+ blocking rules, and corresponding exceptions. Or lastly, if you are not
+ concerned about the additional blocks that are done for privacy reasons, you
+ can very easily over-ride <emphasis>all</emphasis> blocking with the
+ following very simple rule in your <filename>user.action</filename>:
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <screen>
+ # Unblock everybody, everywhere
+ { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
+ / # UN-Block *all* URLs</screen>
+</para>
+<para>
+ Or even a more comprehensive reversing of various ad related actions:
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+ # Unblock everybody, everywhere, and turn off appropriate filtering, etc
+ { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> \
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">-filter{banners-by-size}</ulink> \
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">-filter{banners-by-link}</ulink> \
+ <literal>allow-popups</literal> \
+ }
+ / # UN-Block *all* URLs and allow ads</screen>
+</para>
+<para>
+ This last <quote>action</quote> in this compound statement,
+ <literal>allow-popups</literal>, is an <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> that disables
+ various pop-up blocking features.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="templates">
+<title>How can I have custom template pages, like the
+<emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
+<para>
+ &my-app; <quote>templates</quote> are specialized text files utilized by
+ &my-app; for various purposes and can easily be modified using any text
+ editor. All the template pages are installed in a sub-directory appropriately
+ named: <filename>templates</filename>. Knowing something about HTML syntax
+ will of course be helpful.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Be forewarned that the default templates are subject to being overwritten
+ during upgrades. You can, however, create completely new templates,
+ place them in another directory and specify the alternate path in the main
+ <filename>config</filename>. For details, have a look at the <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#templdir">templdir</ulink> option.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blockall">
+<title>How can I remove the <quote>Go There Anyway</quote> link from
+the <emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
+<para>
+ There is more than one way to do it (although Perl is not involved).
+</para>
+<para>
+ Editing the BLOCKED template page (see above) may dissuade some users, but
+ this method is easily circumvented. Where you need this level of control, you
+ might want to build &my-app; from source, and disable various features that are
+ available as compile-time options. You should
+ <command>configure</command> the sources as follows:
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+ ./configure --disable-toggle --disable-editor --disable-force</screen>
+</para>
+<para>
+ This will create an executable with hard-coded security features so that
+ &my-app; does not allow easy bypassing of blocked sites, or changing the
+ current configuration via any connected user's web browser.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Finally, all of these features can also be toggled on/off via options in
+ <application>Privoxy's</application> main <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">config</ulink> file which
+ means you don't have to recompile anything.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+</sect1>
+
+<!-- ~ End section ~ -->
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+
+<sect1 id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="slowsme">
+<title>How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This
+has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
+<para>
+ How much of an impact depends on many things, including the CPU of the host
+ system, how aggressive the configuration is, which specific actions are being triggered,
+ the size of the page, the bandwidth of the connection, etc.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Overall, it should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
+ speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not typically being
+ retrieved and displayed. The actual processing time required by
+ <application>Privoxy</application> itself for each page, is relatively small
+ in the overall scheme of things, and happens very quickly. This is typically
+ more than offset by time saved not downloading and rendering ad images and
+ other junk content (if ad blocking is being used).
+</para>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="badfiledesc"><title>I get the message 'Bad File Descriptor', why?</title>
<para>
- Fillme.
+ <quote>Filtering</quote> content via the <literal><ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> or
+ <literal><ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
+ actions may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document
+ needs to be buffered before displaying. And on very large documents,
+ filtering may have some measurable impact. How much depends on the page size,
+ the actual definition of the filter(s), etc. See below. Most other actions
+ have little to no impact on speed.
</para>
+<para>
+ Also, when filtering is enabled but zlib support isn't available, compression
+ is often disabled (see <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>).
+ This can have an impact on speed as well, although it's probably smaller than
+ you might think. Again, the page size, etc. will determine how much of an impact.
+</para>
+
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="proxy-chaining"><title>How do I chain <application>Privoxy</application> with other proxies
-(e.g. squid)?</title>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I notice considerable
+delays in page requests. What's wrong?</title>
+<para>
+ If you use any <literal><ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> action,
+ such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <literal><ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
+ action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
+ mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time.
+</para>
+<para>
+ The loading time typically does not really change much in real numbers, but
+ the feeling is different, because most browsers are able to start rendering
+ incomplete content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is
+ more noticeable on slower dialup connections. Extremely large documents
+ may have some impact on the time to load the page where there is filtering
+ being done. But overall, the difference should be very minimal. If there is a
+ big impact, then probably some other situation is contributing (like
+ anti-virus software).
+ </para>
<para>
- Fillme.
+ Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types. But note
+ that if the web server mis-reports the MIME type, then content that should
+ not be filtered, could be. <application>Privoxy</application> only knows how
+ to differentiate filterable content because of the MIME type as reported by
+ the server, or because of some configuration setting that enables/disables
+ filtering.
</para>
</sect2>
--->
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
+"http://p.p/"?</title>
+<para>
+ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> is the
+ address of <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in user interface, and
+ <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> is a shortcut for it.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet,
+ it can simply intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in
+ <quote>web server</quote>.
+</para>
+<para>
+ This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
+ URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
+ takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy ...</quote>, everything is OK.
+ If you get a page saying <quote>Privoxy is not working</quote> instead, then
+ your browser didn't use <application>Privoxy</application> for the request,
+ hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <emphasis>real</emphasis>
+ web site at config.privoxy.org.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Note that config.privoxy.org resolves to a public IP address.
+ If you use config.privoxy.org as ping or traceroute target you will
+ reach the system on the Internet (Privoxy can't intercept ICMP requests).
+ If you want to ping the system Privoxy runs on,
+ you should use its IP address or local DNS name (if it has got one).
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
+<!--
+ out of date 09/02/06 HB
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
+ <para>
+ No. The patterns for blocking now reside (among other things) in the <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>, which are
+ actively maintained instead. See next question ...
+</para>
+</sect2>
+-->
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads, or report
+problems?</title>
<para>
- No. The format of the blocklists has changed significantly in versions
- 2.9.x and later. <![%p-not-stable;[Once we have released the new stable
- version, v3.0, there will again be blocklists that you can update
- automatically.]]>
+Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> for
+various ways to interact with the developers.
</para>
+
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads2"><title>If I do submit missed ads, will
+they be included in future updates?</title>
<para>
- As of now, please discontinue to submit new ad blocking infos. Once we
- have released the new version, there will again be a form on the website,
- which you can use to contribute new ads.
+ Whether such submissions are eventually included in the
+ <filename>default.action</filename> configuration file depends on how
+ significant the issue is. We of course want to address any potential
+ problem with major, high-profile sites such as <citetitle>Google</citetitle>,
+ <citetitle>Yahoo</citetitle>, etc. Any site with global or regional reach,
+ has a good chance of being a candidate. But at the other end of the spectrum
+ are any number of smaller, low-profile sites such as for local clubs or
+ schools. Since their reach and impact are much less, they are best handled by
+ inclusion in the user's <filename>user.action</filename>, and thus would be
+ unlikely to be included.
</para>
+
</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="noonecares"><title>Why doesn't anyone answer my support
+request?</title>
+<para>
+Rest assured that it has been read and considered. Why it is not answered,
+could be for various reasons, including no one has a good answer for it, no
+one has had time to yet investigate it thoroughly, it has been reported
+numerous times already, or because not enough information was provided to help
+us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
+
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
<para>
- You cannot hide your IP address with <application>Privoxy</application> or any other software, since
-the server needs to know your IP address to send the answer to you.
+ If you run both the browser and &my-app; locally, you cannot hide your IP
+ address with <application>Privoxy</application> or ultimately any other
+ software alone. The server needs to know your IP address so that it knows
+ where to send the responses back.
</para>
<para>
-Fortunately there are many publicly usable anonymous proxies out there, which
-solve the problem by providing a further level of indirection between you and
-the web server, shared by many people and thus letting your requests "drown"
-in white noise of unrelated requests as far as user tracking is concerned.
+ There are many publicly usable "anonymous" proxies out there, which
+ provide a further level of indirection between you and the web server.
</para>
<para>
-Most of them will, however, log your IP address and make it available to the
-authorities in case you abuse that anonymity for criminal purposes. In fact
-you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
-on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
+ However, these proxies are called "anonymous" because you don't need
+ to authenticate, not because they would offer any real anonymity.
+ Most of them will log your IP address and make it available to the
+ authorities in case 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 *collect* information
+ on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
</para>
<para>
-You can find a list of anonymous public proxies at <ulink
-url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">multiproxy.org</ulink> and many
-more through Google.
+ If you want to hide your IP address from most adversaries,
+ you should consider chaining <application>Privoxy</application>
+ with <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</ulink>.
+ The configuration details can be found in
+ <ulink url="#TOR">How do I use <application>Privoxy</application> together
+ with <application>Tor</application> section</ulink>
+ just below.
</para>
</sect2>
-<!-- <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="image"><title>What is the imagefile (simage.ini, etc.) for?</title> -->
-<!-- <para> -->
-<!-- Anytime <application>Privoxy</application> determines (with the help of the blocklist) that a URL -->
-<!-- contains an advertisement, it has to decide whether this advertisement is an -->
-<!-- image or not. <application>Privoxy</application> uses the imagefile for that purpose. -->
-<!-- </para> -->
-<!-- </sect2> -->
-
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="anonforsure">Can <application>Privoxy</application> guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="anonforsure">
+<title>Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
<para>
- No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
- are an expert on Internet security it would be safest to assume that
- everything you do on the Web can be traced back to you.
+ No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are improved, but unless you
+ <ulink url="#TOR">chain <application>Privoxy</application> with <application>Tor</application></ulink>
+ or a similar proxy and know what you're doing when it comes to configuring
+ the rest of your system, you should assume that everything you do
+ on the Web can be traced back to you.
</para>
<para>
<application>Privoxy</application> can remove various information about you,
- and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
- you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it's still possible
- that web sites can find out who you are. Here's one way this can happen.
+ and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
+ you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it neither
+ hides your IP address, nor can it guarantee that the rest of the system
+ behaves correctly. There are several possibilities how a web sites can find
+ out who you are, even if you are using a strict <application>Privoxy</application>
+ configuration and chained it with <application>Tor</application>.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Most of <application>Privoxy's</application> privacy-enhancing features can be easily subverted
+ by an insecure browser configuration, therefore you should use a browser that can
+ be configured to only execute code from trusted sites, and be careful which sites you trust.
+ For example there is no point in having <application>Privoxy</application>
+ modify the User-Agent header, if websites can get all the information they want
+ through JavaScript, ActiveX, Flash, Java etc.
</para>
<para>
A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information is
-being altered?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="proxytest">
+<title>A test site says I am not using a Proxy.</title>
+<para>
+ Good! Actually, they are probably testing for some other kinds of proxies.
+ Hiding yourself completely would require additional steps.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="tor"><title>How do I use Privoxy
+ together with Tor?</title>
+<para>
+ Before you configure <application>Privoxy</application> to use
+ <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</ulink>,
+ please follow the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> chapters
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">2. Installation</ulink> and
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">5. Startup</ulink> to make sure
+ <application>Privoxy</application> itself is setup correctly.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If it is, refer to <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/documentation.html">Tor's
+ extensive documentation</ulink> to learn how to install <application>Tor</application>,
+ and make sure <application>Tor</application>'s logfile says that
+ <quote>Tor has successfully opened a circuit</quote> and it
+ <quote>looks like client functionality is working</quote>.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If either <application>Tor</application> or <application>Privoxy</application>
+ isn't working, their combination most likely will neither. Testing them on their
+ own will also help you to direct problem reports to the right audience.
+ If <application>Privoxy</application> isn't working, don't bother the
+ <application>Tor</application> developers. If <application>Tor</application>
+ isn't working, don't send bug reports to the <application>Privoxy</application> Team.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If you verified that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>Tor</application>
+ are working, it is time to connect them. As far as <application>Privoxy</application>
+ is concerned, <application>Tor</application> is just another proxy that can be reached
+ by socks4, socks4a and socks5. Most likely you are interested in <application>Tor</application>
+ to increase your anonymity level, therefore you should use socks5, to make sure DNS
+ requests are done through <application>Tor</application> and thus invisible to your
+ local network. Using socks4a would work too, but with socks5 you get more precise error
+ messages.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy's</application>
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>
+ is already prepared for <application>Tor</application>, if you are using a
+ default <application>Tor</application> configuration and run it on the same
+ system as &my-app;, you just have to edit the
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding section</ulink>
+ and uncomment the line:
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+# forward-socks5t / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
+ </screen>
+</para>
+<para>
+ Note that if you got Tor through one of the bundles, you may
+ have to change the port from 9050 to 9150 (or even another one).
+ For details, please check the documentation on the
+ <ulink url="https://torproject.org/">Tor website</ulink>.
+</para>
<para>
- Definitely. More and more sites use HTTP header content to decide what to
- display and how to display it. There is many ways that this can be handled,
+ This is enough to reach the Internet, but additionally you might want to
+ uncomment the following forward rules, to make sure your local network is still
+ reachable through Privoxy:
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+# forward 192.168.*.*/ .
+# forward 10.*.*.*/ .
+# forward 127.*.*.*/ .
+ </screen>
+</para>
+<para>
+ Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will
+ be as (un)secure as the local network is, but the alternative is
+ that your browser can't reach the network at all. Then again,
+ that may actually be desired and if you don't know for sure
+ that your browser has to be able to reach the local network,
+ there's no reason to allow it.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If you want your browser to be able to reach servers in your local
+ network by using their names, you will need additional exceptions
+ that look like this:
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+# forward localhost/ .
+ </screen>
+</para>
+<para>
+ Save the modified configuration file and open
+ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
+ in your browser, confirm that <application>Privoxy</application> has reloaded its configuration
+ and that there are no other forward lines, unless you know that you need them. If everything looks good,
+ refer to
+ <ulink url="https://wiki.torproject.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ#IsMyConnectionPrivate">Tor
+ Faq 4.2</ulink> to learn how to verify that you are really using <application>Tor</application>.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Afterward, please take the time to at least skim through the rest
+ of <application>Tor's</application> documentation. Make sure you understand
+ what <application>Tor</application> does, why it is no replacement for
+ application level security, and why you probably don't want to
+ use it for unencrypted logins.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="sitebreak">
+<title>Might some things break because header information or
+content is being altered?</title>
+
+<para>
+ Definitely. It is common for sites to use browser type, browser version,
+ HTTP header content, and various other techniques in order to dynamically
+ decide what to display and how to display it. What you see, and what I see,
+ might be very different. There are many, many ways that this can be handled,
so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
</para>
<para>
- <quote>USER AGENT</quote> in particular is often used in this way to identify
- the browser, and adjust content accordingly. Changing this now is not
- recommended, since so many sites do look for this. You may get undesirable
- results by changing this.
+ The <quote>User-Agent</quote> is sometimes used in this way to identify
+ the browser, and adjust content accordingly.
</para>
<para>
- For instance, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
+ Also, different browsers use different encodings of non-English
characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
- <quote>REFERER</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
+ <quote>Referer</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
- <quote>REFERER</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. There are
- many, many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server.
+ <quote>Referer</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
+ can forge both headers without giving information away). There are
+ many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server. The
+ results of which could inadvertently cause pages to load incorrectly,
+ partially, or even not at all. And there may be no obvious clues as to just
+ what went wrong, or why. Nowhere will there be a message that says
+ <quote><emphasis>Turn off <literal>fast-redirects</literal> or else!</emphasis>
+ </quote>
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree,
+ HTML elements.
</para>
<para>
- If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
- accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
+ If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
+ accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
be required, but by no means the only one.
</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="caching">Can <application>Privoxy</application> act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="caching">
+<title>Can Privoxy act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
speed up web browsing?</title>
<para>
- No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
- <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> for this. And, yes,
- before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
+ No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
+ <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> or
+ <ulink url="http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/polipo/">Polipo</ulink> for this.
+ And, yes, before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
+ See the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding
+ chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
+ manual</ulink> for details.
</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can <application>Privoxy</application> protect me?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="firewall">
+<title>What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?</title>
<para>
- Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can, or a proxy that
- has this specific capability. <application>Privoxy</application> can help
- protect your privacy, but not really protect you from intrusion attempts.
+ Not in the way you mean, or in the way some firewall vendors claim they can.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> can help protect your privacy, but can't
+ protect your system from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
+ to use <emphasis>both</emphasis>.
</para>
</sect2>
-
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="logo">The <application>Privoxy</application> logo that replaces ads is very blocky
-and ugly looking. Can't a better font be used?</title>
-
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="wasted">
+<title>I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
+ads used to be. Why?</title>
+<para>
+ It is technically possible to eliminate banners and ads in a way that frees
+ their allocated page space. This could easily be done by blocking with
+ <application>Privoxy's</application> filters,
+ and eliminating the <emphasis>entire</emphasis> image references from the
+ HTML page source.
+</para>
<para>
- This is not a font problem. The logo is an image that is created by
- <application>Privoxy</application> on the fly. So as to not waste
- memory, the image is rather small. The blockiness comes when the
- image is scaled to fill a largish area. There is not much to be done
- about this, other than to use one of the other
- <quote>imageblock</quote> directives: <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>,
- <emphasis>blank</emphasis>, or a URL of your choosing.
+ But, this would consume considerably more CPU resources (IOW, slow things
+ down), would likely destroy the layout of some web pages which rely on the
+ banners utilizing a certain amount of page space, and might fail in other
+ cases, where the screen space is reserved (e.g. by HTML tables for instance).
+ Also, making ads and banners disappear without any trace complicates
+ troubleshooting, and would sooner or later be problematic.
</para>
<para>
-Given the above problem, we have decided to remove the logo option entirely
-[as of v2.9.13].
+ The better alternative is to instead let them stay, and block the resulting
+ requests for the banners themselves as is now the case. This leaves either
+ empty space, or the familiar checkerboard pattern.
+</para>
+<para>
+ So the developers won't support this in the default configuration, but you
+ can of course define appropriate filters yourself to achieve this.
</para>
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ssl">
+<title>How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
+<para>
+ Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
+ and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably <emphasis>secure</emphasis>,
+ there is little that <application>Privoxy</application> can do but hand the raw
+ gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed.
+</para>
+<para>
+ The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs
+ to tell <application>Privoxy</application> the name of the remote server,
+ so that <application>Privoxy</application> can establish the connection.
+ If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.
+</para>
+<para>
+ As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
+ seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often
+ the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless
+ for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
+ <application>Privoxy</application>'s ad blocking.
+</para>
+<para>
+ <quote>Content cookies</quote> (those that are embedded in the actual HTML or
+ JS page content, see <literal><ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</ulink></literal>),
+ in an SSL transaction will be impossible to block under these conditions.
+ Fortunately, this does not seem to be a very common scenario since most
+ cookies come by traditional means.
+</para>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be.
-Why?</title>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="secure">
+<title>Privoxy runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
+secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
<para>
- It would be easy enough to just eliminate this space altogether, rather than
- fill it with blank space. But, this would create problems with many pages
- that use the overall size of the ad to help organize the page layout and
- position the various components of the page where they were intended to be.
- It is best left this way.
+ On Unix-like systems, <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
+ user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
+ <application>Privoxy</application> listens to requests from <quote>localhost</quote>
+ only.
+</para>
+<para>
+ The server aspect of <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly
+ exposed to the Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
+ <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
+ be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
+ you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
+ <application>Privoxy</application> configuration file and check all <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security
+ options</ulink>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address
+ in the browser proxy configuration, but <application>Privoxy</application>
+ will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in addition,
+ and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="ssl">How can <application>Privoxy</application> filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
+<title>Can I temporarily disable Privoxy?</title>
+<para>
+ &my-app; doesn't have a transparent proxy mode,
+ but you can toggle off blocking and content filtering.
+</para>
+<para>
+ The easiest way to do that is to point your browser
+ to the remote toggle URL: <ulink
+ url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>.
+</para>
+<para>
+ See the <ulink url="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS">Bookmarklets section</ulink>
+ of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> for an easy way to access this
+ feature. Note that this is a feature that may need to be enabled in the main
+ <filename>config</filename> file.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="reallyoff">
+<title>When <quote>disabled</quote> is Privoxy totally
+out of the picture?</title>
<para>
- This is a limitation since HTTPS transactions are encrypted SSL sessions
- between your browser and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably
- <emphasis>secure</emphasis> and private. This means that all cookies and HTTP
- header information are also encrypted from the time they leave your browser,
- to the site, and vice versa. <application>Privoxy</application> does not
- try to unencrypt this information, so it just passes through as is.
- <application>Privoxy</application> can still catch images and ads that
- are embedded in the SSL stream though.
+ No, this just means all optional filtering and actions are disabled.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is still acting as a proxy, but just
+ doing less of the things that <application>Privoxy</application> would
+ normally be expected to do. It is still a <quote>middle-man</quote> in
+ the interaction between your browser and web sites. See below to bypass
+ the proxy.
</para>
+</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff2">
+<title>How can I tell Privoxy to totally ignore certain sites?</title>
+<para>
+ Bypassing a proxy, or proxying based on arbitrary criteria, is purely a browser
+ configuration issue, not a &my-app; issue. Modern browsers typically do have
+ settings for not proxying certain sites. Check your browser's help files.
+</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="secure"><application>Privoxy</application> runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
-secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="crunch">
+<title>My logs show Privoxy <quote>crunches</quote>
+ads, but also its own internal CGI pages. What is a <quote>crunch</quote>?</title>
<para>
- There are no known exploits that might effect
- <application>Privoxy</application>. On Unix-like systems,
- <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
- user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
- <application>Privoxy</application> only listens to requests
- from <quote>localhost</quote>. The server aspect of
- <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly exposed to the
- Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
- <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
- be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
- you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
- <application>Privoxy</application> config file. All LAN hosts can then use
- this as their proxy address in the browser proxy configuration. In this way,
- <application>Privoxy</application> will not listen on any external ports.
- Of course, a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
+ A <quote>crunch</quote> simply means <application>Privoxy</application> intercepted
+ <emphasis>something</emphasis>, nothing more. Often this is indeed ads or
+ banners, but <application>Privoxy</application> uses the same mechanism for
+ trapping requests for its own internal pages. For instance, a request for
+ <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration page at: <ulink
+ url="http://config.privoxy.org">http://config.privoxy.org</ulink>, is
+ intercepted (i.e. it does not go out to the 'net), and the familiar CGI
+ configuration is returned to the browser, and the log consequently will show
+ a <quote>crunch</quote>.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Since version 3.0.7, Privoxy will also log the crunch reason.
+ If you are using an older version you might want to upgrade.
</para>
+</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads">
+<title>Can Privoxy affect files that I download
+from a webserver? FTP server?</title>
+<para>
+ From the webserver's perspective, there is no difference between
+ viewing a document (i.e. a page), and downloading a file. The same is true of
+ <application>Privoxy</application>. If there is a match for a <literal><ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> pattern,
+ it will still be blocked, and of course this is obvious.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Filtering is potentially more of a concern since the results are not always
+ so obvious, and the effects of filtering are there whether the file is simply
+ viewed, or downloaded. And potentially whether the content is some obnoxious
+ advertisement, or Mr. Jimmy's latest/greatest source code jewel. Of course,
+ one of these presumably is <quote>bad</quote> content that we don't want, and
+ the other is <quote>good</quote> content that we do want.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is blind to the differences, and can only
+ distinguish <quote>good from bad</quote> by the configuration parameters
+ <emphasis>we</emphasis> give it.
+</para>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> knows the differences in files according
+ to the <quote>Content Type</quote> as reported by the webserver. If this is
+ reported accurately (e.g. <quote>application/zip</quote> for a zip archive),
+ then <application>Privoxy</application> knows to ignore these where
+ appropriate. <application>Privoxy</application> potentially can filter HTML
+ as well as plain text documents, subject to configuration parameters of
+ course. Also, documents that are of an unknown type (generally assumed to be
+ <quote>text/plain</quote>) can be filtered, as will those that might be
+ incorrectly reported by the webserver. If such a file is a downloaded file
+ that is intended to be saved to disk, then any content that might have been
+ altered by filtering, will be saved too, for these (probably rare) cases.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Note that versions later than 3.0.2 do NOT filter document types reported as
+ <quote>text/plain</quote>. Prior to this, <application>Privoxy</application>
+ did filter this document type.
+</para>
+<para>
+ In short, filtering is <quote>ON</quote> if a) the content type as reported
+ by the webserver is appropriate <emphasis>and</emphasis> b) the configuration
+ allows it (or at least does not disallow it). That's it. There is no magic
+ cookie anywhere to say this is <quote>good</quote> and this is
+ <quote>bad</quote>. It's the configuration that lets it all happen or not.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If you download text files, you probably do not want these to be filtered,
+ particularly if the content is source code, or other critical content. Source
+ code sometimes might be mistaken for Javascript (i.e. the kind that might
+ open a pop-up window). It is recommended to turn off filtering for download
+ sites (particularly if the content may be plain text files and you are using
+ version 3.0.2 or earlier) in your <filename>user.action</filename> file. And
+ also, for any site or page where making <emphasis>any</emphasis> changes at
+ all to the content is to be avoided.
+</para>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> does not do FTP at all, only HTTP
+ and HTTPS (SSL) protocols.
+</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
-<title>How can I temporarily disable <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads2">
+<title>I just downloaded a Perl script, and Privoxy
+altered it! Yikes, what is wrong!</title>
<para>
- The easiest way is to access <application>Privoxy</application> with your
- browser by using the special URL: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>
- and select "Toggle Privoxy on or off" from that page.
+ Please read above.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="hostsfile">
+<title>Should I continue to use a <quote>HOSTS</quote> file for ad-blocking?</title>
+<para>
+ One time-tested technique to defeat common ads is to trick the local DNS
+ system by giving a phony IP address for the ad generator in the local
+ <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, typically using <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>, aka
+ <literal>localhost</literal>. This effectively blocks the ad.
+</para>
+<para>
+ There is no reason to use this technique in conjunction with
+ <application>Privoxy</application>. <application>Privoxy</application>
+ does essentially the same thing, much more elegantly and with much more
+ flexibility. A large <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, in fact, not only
+ duplicates effort, but may get in the way and seriously slow down your system.
+ It is recommended to remove such entries from your <filename>HOSTS</filename> file. If you think
+ your hosts list is neglected by <application>Privoxy's </application>
+ configuration, consider adding your list to your <filename>user.action</filename> file:
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+ { +block }
+ www.ad.example1.com
+ ad.example2.com
+ ads.galore.example.com
+ etc.example.com</screen>
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
-<title>Where can I find more information about <application>Privoxy</application>
+<title>Where can I find more information about Privoxy
and related issues?</title>
<!-- Include seealso.sgml boilerplate: -->
&seealso;
<!--
<para>
- Please see the
- <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
+ Please see the
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
others references.
</para>
-->
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="microsuck">
+<title>I've noticed that Privoxy changes <quote>Microsoft</quote> to
+<quote>MicroSuck</quote>! Why are you manipulating my browsing?</title>
+
+<para>
+ We're not. The text substitutions that you are seeing are disabled
+ in the default configuration as shipped. You have either manually
+ activated the <quote><literal>fun</literal></quote> filter which
+ is clearly labeled <quote>Text replacements for subversive browsing
+ fun!</quote> or you are using an older Privoxy version and have implicitly
+ activated it by choosing the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile in the
+ web-based editor. Please upgrade.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="valid">
+<title>Does Privoxy produce <quote>valid</quote> HTML (or XHTML)?</title>
+
+<para>
+ Privoxy generates HTML in both its own <quote>templates</quote>, and possibly
+ whenever there are text substitutions via a &my-app; filter. While this
+ should always conform to the HTML 4.01 specifications, it has not been
+ validated against this or any other standard.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="surprise-privoxy">
+<title>How did you manage to get Privoxy on my computer without my consent?</title>
+
+<para>
+ We didn't. We make Privoxy available for download, but we don't go
+ around installing it on other people's systems behind their back.
+ If you discover Privoxy running on your system and are sure you didn't
+ install it yourself, somebody else did. You may not even be running
+ the real Privoxy, but maybe something else that only pretends to be
+ Privoxy, or maybe something that is based on the real Privoxy,
+ but has been modified.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Lately there have been reports of problems with some kind of
+ "parental control" software based on Privoxy that came preinstalled on
+ certain <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/p/ijbswa/bugs/813/">ASUS Netbooks</ulink>.
+ The problems described are inconsistent with the behaviour of official
+ Privoxy versions, which suggests that the preinstalled software may
+ contain vendor modifications that we don't know about and thus can't debug.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Privoxy's <link linkend="copyright">license</link> allows vendor
+ modifications, but the vendor has to comply with the license,
+ which involves informing the user about the changes and to make
+ the changes available under the same license as Privoxy itself.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If you are having trouble with a modified Privoxy version,
+ please try to talk to whoever made the modifications before
+ reporting the problem to us. Please also try to convince
+ whoever made the modifications to talk to us. If you think
+ somebody gave you a modified Privoxy version without complying
+ to the license, please let us know.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+
</sect1>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect1 label="5" id="trouble">
+<sect1 id="trouble">
<title>Troubleshooting</title>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="refused">I just upgraded and am getting <quote>connection refused</quote>
-with every web page?</title>
-<para>
- Either <application>Privoxy</application> is not running, or your
- browser is configured for a different port than what
- <application>Privoxy</application> is using.
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="refused">
+<title>I cannot connect to any websites. Or, I am getting
+<quote>connection refused</quote> message with every web page. Why?</title>
+<para>
+ There are several possibilities:
+</para>
+<para>
+<itemizedlist>
+<listitem><para>
+<application>Privoxy</application> is not running. Solution: verify
+ that &my-app; is installed correctly, has not crashed, and is indeed running.
+ Turn on <application>Privoxy's</application> logging, and look at the logs to see what they say.
+</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Or your browser is configured for a different port than what
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is using. Solution: verify that &my-app;
+ and your browser are set to the same port (<literal>listen-address</literal>).
+</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>Or if using a forwarding rule, you have a configuration problem or a
+ problem with a host in the forwarding chain. Solution: temporarily alter your
+ configuration and take the forwarders out of the equation.
+</para></listitem>
+ <listitem><para>
+ Or you have a firewall that is interfering and blocking you. Solution:
+ try disabling or removing the firewall as a simple test.
+ </para></listitem>
+</itemizedlist>
</para>
-<para>
- The old <application>Privoxy</application> (and also
- <application>Junkbuster</application>) used port 8000 by
- default. This has been changed to port 8118 now, due to a conflict
- with NAS (Network Audio Service), which uses port 8000. If you haven't,
- you need to change your browser to the new port number, or alternately
- change <application>Privoxy's</application> <quote>listen-address</quote>
- setting in the <filename>config</filename> file used to start
- <application>Privoxy</application>.
-</para>
+</sect2>
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="error503">
+<title>Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</title>
+ <para>
+ More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has
+ been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running! The solution is
+ to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
+ something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products
+ may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
+ </para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="flushit">
+<title>I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
still getting through. How?</title>
<para>
If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
the need for any request to the server, and <application>Privoxy</application>
- will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flushing the browser's
- caches. And then try again.
+ will not be involved. Flush the browser's caches, and then try again.
</para>
<para>
If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
- and see if any actions match your new rule.
+ and see if it really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking
+ spam: a lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game. And
+ remember you need to block the URL of the ad in question, which may be
+ entirely different from the site URL itself. Most ads are hosted on different
+ servers than the main site itself. If you right-click on the ad, you should
+ be able to get all the relevant information you need. Alternately, you can
+ find the correct URL by looking at <application>Privoxy's</application> logs
+ (you may need to enable logging in the main config file if its disabled).
+</para>
+<para>
+ Below is a slightly modified real-life log snippet that originates with one
+ requested URL: <literal>www.example.com</literal> (name of site was changed
+ for this example, the number of requests is real). You can see in this the
+ complexity of what goes into making up this one <quote>page</quote>. There
+ are eight different domains involved here, with thirty two separate URLs
+ requested in all, making up all manner of images, Shockwave Flash,
+ JavaScript, CSS stylesheets, scripts, and other related content. Some of this
+ content is obviously <quote>good</quote> or <quote>bad</quote>, but not all.
+ Many of the more questionable looking requests, are going to outside domains
+ that seem to be identifying themselves with suspicious looking names, making
+ our job a little easier. &my-app; has <quote>crunched</quote> (meaning caught
+ and BLOCKED) quite a few items in this example, but perhaps missed a few as well.
+</para>
+<para>
+<screen>
+<![CDATA[
+Request: www.example.com/
+Request: www.example.com/favicon.ico
+Request: img.example.com/main.css
+Request: img.example.com/sr.js
+Request: example.betamarker.com/example.html
+Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/bestsellers/skyscraper.php?likref=BSellers
+Request: img.example.com/pb.png
+Request: www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js crunch! (Blocked)
+Request: www.advertising-department.com/ats/switch.ps.php?26856 crunch! (Blocked)
+Request: img.example.com/p.gif
+Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example&mode=behind crunch! (Blocked)
+Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=5c3cf&tmpl=PBa.tmpl crunch! (Blocked)
+Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example crunch! (Blocked)
+Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/best_sellers.css
+Request: www.adtrak.net/adx.js crunch! (Blocked)
+Request: img.example.com/hbg.gif
+Request: img.example.com/example.jpg
+Request: img.example.com/mt.png
+Request: img.example.com/mm.png
+Request: img.example.com/mb.png
+Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=a71b91fa5&tmpl=Ua.tmp crunch! (Blocked)
+Request: www.example.com/tracker.js
+Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/lsi_head.gif
+Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=020548130&what=zone:61 crunch! (Blocked)
+Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=463594413&what=zone:58&source=Ua crunch! (Blocked)
+Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/bottomani.swf
+Request: mmm.elitemediagroup.net/install.php?allowpop=no&popupmincook=0&allowsp2=1 crunch! (Blocked)
+Request: www.example.com/tracker.js?screen=1400x1050&win=962x693
+Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=61 crunch! (Blocked)
+Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=5c3cf599a9efd0320d26&si
+Request: 66.70.21.80/img/pixel.gif
+Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=58&source=Ua&block=86400 crunch! (Blocked)
+Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=a71b9f6504b0c5681fa5&si=Ua
+]]>
+</screen>
+</para>
+<para>
+ Despite 12 out of 32 requests being blocked, the page looked, and seemed to
+ behave perfectly <quote>normal</quote> (minus some ads, of course).
</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="badsite">One of my favorite sites does not work with <application>Privoxy</application>.
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="badsite">
+<title>One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy.
What can I do?</title>
<para>
- First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
- by disabling <application>Privoxy</application> filtering and blocking.
- Go to <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> and click on
- <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote>, then disable it. Now try that
- page again. It's probably a good idea to flush the browser cache as well.
+ First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
+ by toggling off <application>Privoxy</application> through <ulink
+ url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
+ (the toggle feature may need to be enabled in the main
+ <filename>config</filename>),
+ and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
+ while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
+ caches).
</para>
<para>
- If still a problem, go to <quote>Show which actions apply to a URL and
- why</quote> from <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> and paste
- the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions are
- being applied to the URL. Now, armed with this information, go to <quote>Edit
- the actions list</quote>. Here you should see various sections that have
- various <application>Privoxy</application> features disabled for specific
- sites. Most disabled <quote>actions</quote> will have a <quote>-</quote> (minus
- sign) in front of them. Some aliases are used just to disable other actions,
- e.g. <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote>, and won't necessarily
- use a <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign. Add your problem page
- URL to one of these sections that looks like it is disabling the feature that
- is causing the problem. Rember to flush your browser's caches when making
- such changes! As a last resort, try <quote>fragile</quote> which
- disables most actions. Now re-try the page. There might be some trial and
- error involved. This is discussed in a little more detail in the <ulink
- url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">user-manual appendix</ulink>.
+ If the problem went away, we know we have a configuration related problem.
+ Now go to <ulink
+ url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
+ and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which
+ actions are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions
+ files are responsible for that. It might be helpful also to look at your logs
+ for this site too, to see what else might be happening (note: logging may need
+ to be enabled in the main config file). Many sites are
+ complex and require a number of related pages to help present their content.
+ Look at what else might be used by the page in question, and what of that
+ might be <emphasis>required</emphasis>.
+ Now, armed with this information, go to
+ <ulink
+ url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
+ and select the appropriate actions files for editing. </para>
+<para>
+ You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
+ you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
+ or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
+ way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
+ if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
+ identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
+ on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
+</para>
+<para>
+ Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
+ the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
+ way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
+ site to a <literal>{ fragile }</literal> section in <filename>user.action</filename>,
+ which is an alias that turns off most <quote>dangerous</quote>
+ actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
+ your privacy and protection more than necessary,
+</para>
+<para>
+ Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">User Manual appendix,
+ Troubleshooting: the Anatomy of an Action</ulink>.
+ There is also an <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions tutorial</ulink>
+ with general configuration information and examples.
+</para>
+<para>
+ As a last resort, you can always see if your browser has a setting that will
+ bypass the proxy setting for selective sites. Modern browsers can do this.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 id="dun" renderas="sect3">
+<title>After installing Privoxy, I have to log in
+every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
+
+<para>
+ This is a quirk that affects the installation of
+ <application>Privoxy</application>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
+ Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
+ appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.
</para>
<para>
- Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
- the same thing by editing the appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file.
+ When setting up an NT based Windows system with
+ <application>Privoxy</application> you may find that things do not seem to be
+ doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
+ up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
+ logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
+ connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
+ system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
+ configured for the kids.
</para>
+<para>
+ When setting up <application>Privoxy</application> in this environment you
+ will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
+ specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
+ <application>Privoxy</application>. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
+ becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
+ change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
+ However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
+ connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
+ you have to store the password under each different user!
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
+ set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
+ each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
+ rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
+ re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
+ the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+[Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 id="ftp" renderas="sect3">
+<title>I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy
+ is blocking me.</title>
+ <para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
+ so do not configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
+ as an FTP proxy. The same is true for <emphasis>any protocol other than HTTP
+ or HTTPS (SSL)</emphasis>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
+ a URL like <literal>ftp://ftp.example.com</literal>, your browser is making
+ an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
+ speak FTP, <application>Privoxy</application> does not, and cannot proxy
+ such traffic.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <quote>proxy</quote>
+ setting, which will enable various protocols, including
+ <emphasis>both</emphasis> HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is possible to
+ accidentally enable FTP proxying in these cases. And of course, if this
+ happens, <application>Privoxy</application> will indeed cause problems since
+ it does not know FTP. <![%p-newstuff;[Newer version will give a sane error
+ message if a FTP connection is attempted.]]> Just disable the FTP setting
+ and all will be well again.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Will <application>Privoxy</application> ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely.
+ There just is not much reason, and the work to make this happen is more than
+ it may seem.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 id="macosxie" renderas="sect3">
+<title>In Mac OS X, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
+ Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.</title>
+ <para>
+ Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
+ network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
+ Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
+ comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
+ is checked and enter <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> in the entry field.
+ Enter <literal>8118</literal> in the Port field. The next time you start
+ IE, it should reflect these values.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosxuninstall">
+<title>In Mac OS X, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
+ uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
+ empty the trash.</title>
+ <para>
+ Note: This ONLY applies to privoxy 3.0.6 and earlier.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Just dragging the <application>Privoxy</application> folder to the trash is
+ not enough to delete it. <application>Privoxy</application> supplies an
+ <application>uninstall.command</application> file that takes care of
+ these details. Open the trash, drag the <application>uninstall.command</application>
+ file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
+ confirmation and the administration password.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
+ from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosximages">
+<title>In Mac OS X Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
+ experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
+ <literal>localhost</literal> as my browser's proxy setting.</title>
+ <para>
+ We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in Mac OS X, but don't fully
+ understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
+ <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> instead of <literal>localhost</literal>
+ works around the problem.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosxaccountdeletion">
+<title>I just upgraded to Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and now &my-app; has stopped
+ working.</title>
+ <para>
+ The upgrade process to Mac OS X Mavericks (10.9) from an earlier version of OS
+ X deletes all user accounts that are either not part of OS X itself or are
+ not interactive user accounts (ones you log in with). Since, for the sake of
+ security, &my-app; runs as a non-privileged user that is created by its
+ installer (_privoxy), it can no longer start up once that account gets deleted.
+ The solution is to perform a complete uninstall using the supplied
+ <application>uninstall.command</application> script (either back up your
+ configuration files or select to not have the uninstaller remove them when it
+ prompts you) and then reinstall &my-app; using the installer package and merge
+ in your configuration.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<!-- XXX: Is this still relevant now that we have gzip support? -->
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blankpage">
+<title>I get a completely blank page at one site. <quote>View Source</quote>
+ shows only: <markup><![CDATA[<html><body></body></html>]]></markup>. Without
+ Privoxy the page loads fine.</title>
+ <para>
+ Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
+ <ulink url="http://www.php.net/"><application>PHP</application></ulink>,
+ which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
+ an uncompressed page, like <application>Privoxy</application> does.
+ This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
+ the site to a <literal>-prevent-compression</literal> section in
+ <filename>user.action</filename>:
+ </para>
+ <screen>
+ # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
+ #
+ {-prevent-compression}
+ .example.com</screen>
+ <para>
+ If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
+ site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
+ instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
+ or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
+ </para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="bugs">
-<title>Where can I get help? Report bugs? Feature Requests? Etc?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nohostname">
+<title>My logs show many <quote>Unable to get my own hostname</quote> lines.
+Why?</title>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> tries to get the hostname of the system
+ its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to
+ (from the <filename>config</filename> file
+ <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> setting). If the system cannot supply
+ this information, <application>Privoxy</application> logs this condition.
+</para>
<para>
- Feedback is encouraged, whether good, bad or ugly. Please see the contact
- page in the <ulink url="../user-manual/contact.html">user-manual</ulink> for
- details.
+ Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration error. It is
+ not a fatal error to <application>Privoxy</application> however, but may
+ result in a much slower response from <application>Privoxy</application> on
+ some platforms due to DNS timeouts.
+</para>
+<para>
+ This can be caused by a problem with the local <filename>hosts</filename>
+ file. If this file has been changed from the original, try reverting it to
+ see if that helps. Make sure whatever name(s) are used for the local system,
+ that they resolve both ways.
+</para>
+<para>
+ You should also be able to work around the problem with the
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#HOSTNAME">hostname option</ulink>.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="inuse">
+<title>When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an
+error message <quote>port 8118 is already in use</quote> (or similar wording).
+Why?</title>
+<para>
+ Port 8118 is <application>Privoxy's</application> default TCP
+ <quote>listening</quote> port. Typically this message would mean that there
+ is already one instance of <application>Privoxy</application> running, and
+ your system is actually trying to start a second
+ <application>Privoxy</application> on the same port, which will not work.
+ (You can have multiple instances but they must be assigned different ports.)
+ How and why this might happen varies from platform to platform, but you need
+ to check your installation and start-up procedures.
</para>
+</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer">
+<title>
+ Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.
+</title>
+<para>
+ This may be the result of an overly aggressive filter. The filters that
+ are enabled in the default configuration aren't expected to cause problems
+ like this. If you enabled the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter, please
+ try temporarily disabling it.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If that doesn't help, temporarily disable all filters to see if another
+ filter could be the culprit. If the problem disappears, enable the filters
+ one by one, until the problem reappears and the offending filter is found.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Once the problem-causing filter is known, it can be fixed or disabled.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Upgrading <application>Privoxy</application>, or going to the most recent
+ <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
+ url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>
+ might be worth a try, too.
+</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="time">What time is it?</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer2">
+<title>
+ Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy
+ is used?
+</title>
<para>
- Time for you to go!
+ This may also be caused by an (<link linkend="DEMORONIZER">overly aggressive
+ filter</link> in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting the content
+ type. By default binary files are exempted from
+ <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering
+ (unless the web server by mistake says the file is something else).
</para>
</sect2>
-</sect1>
-<!--
-</sect1>
--->
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer3">
+<title>
+ What is the <quote>demoronizer</quote> and why is it there?
+</title>
+<para>
+ The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
+ were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
+ to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages
+ that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a
+ standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
+ displayed correctly. <application>Privoxy</application> borrowed from this
+ script, introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
+ correct these errors on the fly.
+</para>
+<para>
+ But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in some
+ other situations.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
+ pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will
+ cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <emphasis>should not be on</emphasis>.
+</para>
+<para>
+ On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
+ notice weird characters on pages, you might want to try it.
+</para>
+</sect2>
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<!--
-FIXME: Commented out until we have something to put here. HB 03/18/02.
-<sect1 id="knownissues"><title>Known Issues</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="windowopen">
+<title>
+ Why do I keep seeing <quote>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</quote> in raw source code?
+</title>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is attempting to disable malicious
+ <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink>
+ in this case, with the <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal>
+ filter. <application>Privoxy</application> cannot tell very well
+ <quote>good</quote> code snippets from <quote>bad</quote> code snippets.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
+ this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this
+ where it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file,
+ then you should set an exception for this site or page such that the
+ integrity of the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="dnserrors">
+<title>
+ I am getting too many DNS errors like <quote>404 No Such Domain</quote>. Why
+ can't Privoxy do this better?
+</title>
+<para>
+ There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS resolution
+ is done by the underlying operating system -- not
+ <application>Privoxy</application> itself. <application>Privoxy</application>
+ merely initiates the process and hands it off, and then later reports
+ whatever the outcome was and tries to give a coherent message if there seems
+ to be a problem. In some cases, this might otherwise be mitigated by the
+ browser itself which might try some work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g
+ adding <quote>www.</quote> to the URL).
+</para>
+<para>
+ In other cases, if <application>Privoxy</application> is being chained
+ with another proxy, this could complicate the issue, and cause undue
+ delays and timeouts. In the case of a <quote>socks4a</quote> proxy, the socks
+ server handles all the DNS. <application>Privoxy</application> would just be
+ the <quote>messenger</quote> which is reporting whatever problem occurred
+ downstream, and not the root cause of the error.
+</para>
+<![%p-newstuff;[
+<para>
+ In any case, versions newer than 3.0.3 include various improvements to help
+ <application>Privoxy</application> better handle these cases.
+</para>]]>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allcpu">
+<title>
+ At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking
+ all CPU. Why is this?
+</title>
+<para>
+ This is probably a manifestation of the <quote>100% cpu</quote> problem that
+ occurs on pages containing many (thousands upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines
+ are in the raw HTML source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the
+ pattern matching in <application>Privoxy's</application> page filtering
+ mechanism is trying to match against absurdly long strings and this becomes
+ very CPU-intensive, taking a long, long time to complete.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Until a better solution comes along, disable filtering on these pages,
+ particularly the <literal>js-annoyances</literal> and
+ <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal> filters. If you run into this problem
+ with a recent &my-app; version, please send a problem report.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="slowcrawl">
+<title>I just installed Privoxy, and all my
+browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? </title>
+<para>
+ This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users world-wide,
+ it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent interaction of software
+ components such as anti-virus software, spyware protectors, personal
+ firewalls or similar components. Try disabling (or uninstalling) these one
+ at a time and see if that helps. Either way, if you are using a
+ recent &my-app; version, please report the problem.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="preventcomp">
+<title>Why do my filters work on some sites but not on others? </title>
+<para>
+ It's probably due to compression. It is a common practice for web servers to
+ send their content <quote>compressed</quote> in order to speed things up, and
+ then let the browser <quote>uncompress</quote> them. When compiled with zlib support
+ &my-app; can decompress content before filtering, otherwise you may want to enable
+<ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>.
+</para>
+<para>
+ As of &my-app; 3.0.9, zlib support is enabled in the default builds.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ssl-warnings">
+<title>On some HTTPS sites my browser warns me about unauthenticated content,
+ the URL bar doesn't get highlighted and the lock symbol appears to be broken.
+ What's going on?</title>
+<para>
+ Probably the browser is requesting ads through HTTPS and &my-app;
+ is blocking the requests. Privoxy's error messages are delivered
+ unencrypted and while it's obvious for the browser that the HTTPS
+ request is already blocked by the proxy, some warn about unauthenticated
+ content anyway.
+</para>
+<para>
+ To work around the problem you can redirect those requests to an invalid
+ local address instead of blocking them. While the redirects aren't
+ encrypted either, many browsers don't care. They simply follow the
+ redirect, fail to reach a server and display an error message instead
+ of the ad.
+</para>
+<para>
+ To do that, enable logging to figure out which requests get blocked by
+ &my-app; and add the hosts (no path patterns) to a section like this:
+</para>
+<para>
+<screen>
+<![CDATA[
+{+redirect{http://127.0.0.1:0/} -block -limit-connect}
+.ivwbox.de:443/
+]]>
+</screen>
+</para>
<para>
- Fillme.
+ Additionally you have to configure your browser to contact
+ <quote>127.0.0.1:0</quote> directly (instead of through &my-app;).
</para>
+<para>
+ To add a proxy exception in <application>Mozilla Firefox</application>
+ open the <quote>Preferences</quote>, click the <quote>Settings</quote>
+ button located on the <quote>Network</quote> tab in the <quote>Advanced</quote>
+ section, and add <quote>127.0.0.1:0</quote> in the <quote>No Proxy for:</quote>
+ field.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="se-linux">
+<title>I get selinux error messages. How can I fix this?</title>
+<para>
+ Please report the problem to the creator of your selinux policies.
+</para>
+<para>
+ The problem is that some selinux policy writers aren't familiar
+ with the application they are trying to <quote>secure</quote> and
+ thus create policies that make no sense.
+</para>
+<para>
+ In <application>Privoxy's</application> case the problem usually
+ is that the policy only allows outgoing connections for certain
+ destination ports (e.g. 80 and 443). While this may cover the
+ standard ports, websites occasionally use other ports as well.
+ This isn't a security problem and therefore <application>Privoxy's</application>
+ default configuration doesn't block these requests.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If you really want to block these ports (and don't be able
+ to load websites that don't use standard ports), you should
+ configure Privoxy to block these ports as well, so it doesn't
+ trigger the selinux warnings.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="gentoo-ricers">
+<title>I compiled &my-app; with Gentoo's portage and it appears to be very slow. Why?</title>
+<para>
+ Probably you unintentionally compiled &my-app; without threading support
+ in which case requests have to be serialized and only one can be served
+ at the same time.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Check your <quote>USE</quote> flags and make sure they include
+ <quote>threads</quote>. If they don't, add the flag and rebuild &my-app;.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If you compiled &my-app; with threading support (on POSIX-based systems),
+ the <quote>Conditional #defines</quote> section on <ulink
+ url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
+ will list <quote>FEATURE_PTHREAD</quote> as <quote>enabled</quote>.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="tainted-sockets">
+<title>What are tainted sockets and how do I prevent them?</title>
+<para>
+ &my-app; marks sockets as tainted when it can't use them to
+ serve additional requests.
+ This does not necessarily mean that something went wrong and
+ information about tainted sockets is only logged if connection
+ debugging is enabled (debug 2).
+</para>
+<para>
+ For example server sockets that were used for CONNECT requests
+ (which are used to tunnel https:// requests) are considered tainted
+ once the client closed its connection to &my-app;.
+ Technically &my-app; could keep the connection to the server open,
+ but the server would not accept requests that do not belong to the
+ previous TLS/SSL session (and the client may even have terminated
+ the session).
+</para>
+<para>
+ Server sockets are also marked tainted when a client requests a
+ resource, but closes the connection before &my-app; has completely
+ received (and forwarded) the resource to the client.
+ In this case the server would (probably) accept additional requests,
+ but &my-app; could not get the response without completely reading
+ the leftovers from the previous response.
+</para>
+<para>
+ These are just two examples, there are currently a bit more than
+ 25 scenarios in which a socket is considered tainted.
+</para>
+<para>
+ While sockets can also be marked tainted as a result of a technical
+ problem that may be worth fixing, the problem will be explicitly
+ logged as error.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
</sect1>
--->
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
&contacting;
<!-- end contacting -->
</sect1>
-
- <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
- <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Copyright and History</title>
-<sect2><title>Copyright</title>
-<!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
- ©right;
-<!-- end -->
-</sect2>
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
+
+ <!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
+ ©right;
+ <!-- end -->
+
+
+ <para>
+ Portions of this document are <quote>borrowed</quote> from the original
+ <application>Junkbuster</application> (tm) FAQ, and modified as
+ appropriate for <application>Privoxy</application>.
+ </para>
+
+ <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+ <sect2><title>License</title>
+ <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
+ &license;
+ <!-- end copyright -->
+ </sect2>
+ <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
+
+ <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+ <sect2><title>History</title>
+ <!-- Include history.sgml -->
+ &history;
+ <!-- end -->
+ </sect2>
+
+ </sect1>
+ <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
-<sect2><title>History</title>
-<!-- Include history.sgml -->
- &history;
-<!-- end -->
-</sect2>
- </sect1>
-
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<!--
<sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
</sect1>
-->
-<!-- hhmts end -->
<!--
- Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
-
- Last modified: Mon Sep 10 19:22:09 CEST 2001
-
- This program is free software; you can redistribute it
+ This program is free software; you can redistribute it
and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
The GNU General Public License should be included with
this file. If not, you can view it at
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
- or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
- Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
-
-$Log: faq.sgml,v $
-Revision 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
-consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
-
-Revision 1.41 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
-Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
-based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
-definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
-eventually be set by Makefile.
-More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
-
-Revision 1.40 2002/04/03 04:22:03 hal9
-Fixed several typos.
-
-Revision 1.39 2002/04/03 03:53:03 hal9
-Revert some changes, and then make some news, to layout, and appearance.
-
-Revision 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9
-Major changes to doc structure and layout. Sections are not automatically
-numbered now. TOC is on page by itself.
-
-Revision 1.37 2002/04/01 16:24:07 hal9
--Rework of supported Q/A.
--Set up entities to include boilerplate text.
-
-Revision 1.36 2002/03/31 23:18:47 hal9
-More on dealing with BLOCKED.
-
-Revision 1.35 2002/03/30 04:14:19 hal9
-Fix privoxy.org/config links.
-
-Revision 1.34 2002/03/29 04:35:56 hal9
-Touch ups.
-
-Revision 1.33 2002/03/29 01:31:48 hal9
-Several new Q/A's and other touch ups.
-
-Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
-Touch ups for name change.
-
-Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
-we have a new homepage!
-
-Revision 1.30 2002/03/25 16:39:22 hal9
-A few new sections. Made all links relative to user-manual.
-
-Revision 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9
-Moved section, and touch ups.
-
-Revision 1.28 2002/03/25 04:27:33 hal9
-New section related to name change.
-
-Revision 1.25 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
-we are too lazy to make a block-built
-privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
-
-Revision 1.24 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
-name change related issue.
-
-Revision 1.23 2002/03/24 12:33:01 swa
-more additions.
-
-Revision 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
-name change. changed filenames.
-
-Revision 1.21 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
-name change
-
-Revision 1.20 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
-renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
-fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
-"the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
-comments and remarks to history untouched.
-
-Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
-Some touch ups.
-
-Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
-More additions.
-
-Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
-Some new additions.
-
-Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
-A few more additions.
-
-Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
-Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
-
-Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
-A little more added ...
-
-Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
-Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
-
-Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
-typo
-
-Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
-new section
-
-Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
-correct feedback channels
-
-Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
-more info on not hiding ip address
-
-Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
-added default config section
-
-Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
-looks better
-
-Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
-Committing changes by Stefan
-
-Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
-2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
-
-Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
-Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
-will work - no other changes are needed.
-
-Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
-upload process established. run make webserver and
-the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
-are now linked correctly.
-
-Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
-merged standards into developer manual
-
-Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
-source files for junkbuster documentation
-
-Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
-first proposal of a structure.
-
-Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
-docs should have an author.
-
-Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
-first import of project's documentation for the webserver.
-
+ or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
+ 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
-->
</article>
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff