<!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
<!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
<!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
-<!entity p-version "2.9.15">
-<!entity p-status "beta">
-<!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
+<!entity p-version SYSTEM "doc_version.tmp">
+<!entity p-status SYSTEM "doc_status.tmp">
+<!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
<!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 -->
This file belongs into
ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
- $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9 Exp $
+ $Id: faq.sgml,v 2.2 2002/09/05 04:25:05 hal9 Exp $
Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
See LICENSE.
</subscript>
</pubdate>
-<pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
+<pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.2 2002/09/05 04:25:05 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
<!--
]]>
<para>
This FAQ gives quick answers to frequently asked questions about
- <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>
- <![%p-stable;[ v.&p-version]]>. It can't and doesn't replace the
- <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink>.
+ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
+ It can't and doesn't replace the
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>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: -->
<!-- end boilerplate -->
<para>
+ Please note that this document is constantly evolving. 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> -->
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 of change something by mistake. There is a good chance
+ rule accidentally block or change 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.
</para>
<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
+ 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 have <application>Privoxy</application>
to run on a different port with the <ulink
url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink> config option).
</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 <application>Privoxy</application>, and nothing is happening.
All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
<para>
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:/config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>.
+ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>.
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
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>.
-
-
</para>
</sect2>
<sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
+ <para>
+ Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updated actions files will be
+ made available 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>
+
+ <para>
+ 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="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
<para>
The syntax, number, and purpose of configuration files has substantially
<para>
Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
- with a text editor. The probably easiest way is to access
+ 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
</sect2>
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
-<quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Advenced</quote> defaults?</title>
+<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>packages</quote> in
<row>
<entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
<entry>no</entry>
- <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
<entry>yes</entry>
</row>
<entry>yes</entry>
</row>
+<row>
+ <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+</row>
+
+<row>
+ <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+</row>
+
+
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file?</title>
+<title id="filterfile">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> are defined, which can be used to modify or
- remove, web page content on the fly. This applies to <emphasis>anything</emphasis>
+ remove, web page content on the fly. Filters apply to <emphasis>anything</emphasis>
in the page source, including HTML tags, and JavaScript. Regular expressions are used
to accomplish this. 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>.
+ <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"><literal>filter</literal>
+ action</ulink> in one of the actions files. Filtering is automatically
+ disabled for inappropriate MIME types.
</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.
+ requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
</para>
<para>
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<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 schould look
- like:
+ 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>
</para>
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="port-80">
+<title>Can I just set <application>Privoxy</application> to use port 80
+and thus avoid individual browser configuration?</title>
+
+<para>
+ No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special kinds
+ of proxies known as <quote>transparent</quote> proxies (see below).
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
<title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> run as a <quote>transparent
</quote> proxy?</title>
content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is especially
noticeable on slow dialup connections.
</para>
+<para>
+ Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types.
+
+</para>
</sect2>
The easiest way is to access <application>Privoxy</application> with your
browser by using the remote toggle URL: <ulink
url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>.
+ 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.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="reallyoff">
+<title>When <quote>disabled</quote> is <application>Privoxy</application> totally
+out of the picture?</title>
+<para>
+ No, this just means all filtering and actions are disabled.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is still acting as a proxy, but just not
+ doing any 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.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="crunch">
+<title>My logs show <application>Privoxy</application> <quote>crunches</quote>
+ads, but also its own CGI pages. What is a <quote>crunch</quote>?</title>
+<para>
+ 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>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads">
+<title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> effect 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. Filtering is
+ potentially more of a concern since the results are not always so obvious.
+</para>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> knows the differences in files according
+ to the <quote>Document 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. It is possible, however, that documents that are of an unknown
+ type (generally assumed to be <quote>text/plain</quote>) will 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 very rare) cases.
+</para>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> does not do FTP at all, only HTTP
+ protocols.
</para>
</sect2>
+
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
<title>Where can I find more information about <application>Privoxy</application>
and related issues?</title>
-->
</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 have implicitly activated it by choosing the
+ <quote>Advanced</quote> profile in the web-based editor.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
</sect1>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title
id="badsite">One of my favorite sites does not work with <application>Privoxy</application>.
+<sect2 id="badsite" renderas="sect3">
+<title >One of my favorite sites does not work with <application>Privoxy</application>.
What can I do?</title>
<para>
by toggling off <application>Privoxy</application> through <ulink
url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>,
and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
- while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browsers' disk any memory
+ while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
caches).
</para>
</para>
<para>
Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
- the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. The probably easiest
+ 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>
</sect2>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 id="dun" renderas="sect3">
+<title>After installing <application>Privoxy</application>, I have to log in
+every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
+
+<para>
+ This is a quirk that effects 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>
+ 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. <application>Privoxy</application>
+ seems to be 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 any protocol other than HTTP or HTTPS.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 id="osxie" renderas="sect3">
+<title>In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
+ <application>Privoxy</application> 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="osxuninstall">
+<title>In Mac OSX, 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>
+ 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="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
+ <application>Privoxy</application> 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>
+
+
</sect1>
<!--
</sect1>
Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
$Log: faq.sgml,v $
+Revision 2.2 2002/09/05 04:25:05 hal9
+Sync with 3.0 branch. No new content.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.19 2002/08/25 23:31:56 hal9
+Fix one grammatical error. Add brief FAQ relating to tranparent proxies (ie
+port 80 setting). Add FAQ on effects of Privoxy on downloaded files
+(especially filtering).
+
+Revision 1.61.2.18 2002/08/14 16:39:37 hal9
+Fix wrong tag on FAQ addition.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.17 2002/08/14 00:01:18 hal9
+Add a crunch FAQ.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.16 2002/08/13 00:10:38 hal9
+Add faq to troubleshooting re: blank page syndrome, ie {-prevent-compression}.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.15 2002/08/10 11:34:22 oes
+Add disclaimer about probably being out-of-date
+
+Revision 1.61.2.14 2002/08/07 02:53:43 hal9
+Fix some minor markup errors, and move one OSX Q/A to troubleshooting section.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.13 2002/08/06 11:55:32 oes
+Added missing close tag
+
+Revision 1.61.2.12 2002/08/06 11:43:46 david__schmidt
+Updated OSX uninstall FAQ... we have an uninstall script now.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.11 2002/08/06 08:54:03 oes
+Style police: Fixed formatting details
+
+Revision 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 david__schmidt
+Made the OSX removal commands far less dangerous
+
+Revision 1.61.2.9 2002/08/02 13:14:45 oes
+Added warning about sudo rm -r for Mac OSX deinstallation; moved this item to install section
+
+Revision 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt
+Add FAQ item for MSIE on OSX HTTP proxy confusion
+
+Revision 1.61.2.7 2002/08/02 01:46:01 david__schmidt
+Added FAQ item for Mac OSX uninstall woes
+
+Revision 1.61.2.6 2002/07/30 20:04:56 hal9
+Fix typo: 'schould'.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes
+- Updated to reflect changes in standard.action
+- Added info on where to get updated actions files
+
+Revision 1.61.2.4 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
+Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.3 2002/06/09 16:36:33 hal9
+Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.2 2002/06/06 02:51:34 hal9
+Fix typo in URL http:/config.privoxy.org
+
+Revision 1.61.2.1 2002/06/05 23:10:43 hal9
+Add new FAQ re: DUN/IE. Change release date from May to June :)
+
+Revision 1.61 2002/05/25 12:37:25 hal9
+Various minor changes and edits.
+
+Revision 1.60 2002/05/22 17:17:48 oes
+Proofread & added more links into u-m
+
Revision 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9
Fix ulink -> link markup.
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff