This file belongs into
ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
- $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa Exp $
+ $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa Exp $
Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
- IJBSWA team. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net
+ PRIVOXY team. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net
Based on the Internet Junkbuster originally written
by and Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and
<article id="index">
<artheader>
-<title>Junkbuster Frequently Asked Questions</title>
+<title>Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</title>
-<pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa Exp $</pubdate>
+<pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa Exp $</pubdate>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<affiliation>
- <orgname>By: Junkbuster Developers</orgname>
+ <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
</affiliation>
</author>
</authorgroup>
<abstract>
<para>
- The FAQ document gives users and developers alike answers to frequently
-asked questions about the Internet Junkbuster. The Internet Junkbuster is an application
-that provides privacy and security to the user of the world wide web.
+The FAQ document gives users and developers alike answers to frequently asked
+questions about
+<application>Privoxy</application>. <application>Privoxy</application> is a web
+proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting privacy, filtering
+web page content, managing cookies, controlling access, and removing ads,
+banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet
+Junk. <application>Privoxy</application> has a very flexible configuration and
+can be customized to suit individual needs and
+tastes. <application>Privoxy</application> has application for both stand-alone
+systems and multi-user networks.
</para>
<para>
You can find the latest version of the document at <ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/">http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/</ulink>.
-Please see the Contact section in the user-manual if you want to contact the developers.
+Please see the Contact section in the
+<ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/contact.html">user-manual</ulink> if you want to contact the developers.
</para>
- <para>
- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>.
- </para>
+<!-- <para> -->
+<!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
+<!-- </para> -->
</abstract>
</artheader>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+
+<!--
<sect1 id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
<para>
Fillme.
</para>
</sect1>
-
+-->
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect1 id="questions"><title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+
+<sect2 id="general"><title>General Information</title>
+
+<sect3 id="newjb"><title>What is this new version of <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
+ <para>
+ The original <application>Internet Junkbuster</application> (tm) is a
+ coyrighted 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://ijbswa.sourceforge.net">Sourceforge</ulink> to rekindle
+ development. Other developers subsequently joined with Stefan, and have
+ since added many new features, refinements and enhancements.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The new <application>Privoxy</application> started with the same
+ code base, but has changed significantly at this point.
+ </para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3 id="differs"><title>How does it differ from the old <application>Junkbuster?</application></title>
+ <para>
+ 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. 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>
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3 id="features"><title>What are some of the new features?</title>
+<!--
+ The section is in both user-manual and faq. Please keep in sync!!!
+-->
+<para>
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Integrated browser based configuration and control utility (<ulink
+ url="http://i.j.b">http://i.j.b</ulink>). Browser-based tracing of rule
+ and filter effects.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+<!--
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Modularized configuration that will allow for system wide settings, and
+ individual user settings. (not implemented yet, probably a 3.1 feature)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+-->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 1.1 features are supported).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files, and
+ generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
+ previous versions.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ GIF de-animation.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size,
+ invisible <quote>web-bugs</quote>, JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse,
+ etc.)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
+
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
+ </para>
+</listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Builds from source on most UNIX-like systems. Packages available for: Linux
+ (RedHat, SuSE, or Debian), Windows, Sun Solaris, Mac OSX, OS/2, HP-UX 11 and AmigaOS.
+
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile over-all.
+ </para>
+</listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<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.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ There are many kinds of proxies. <application>Privoxy</application> best
+ fits the <quote>filtering proxy</quote> category.
+ </para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3 id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
+<application>Privoxy</application>. Why should I use
+<application>Privoxy</application> 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
+ verstatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers 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.
+
+ </para>
+</sect3>
+
+
+
+<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.
+ See <ulink
+ url="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html</ulink>
+ for specifics.
+ </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!
+
+ </para>
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3 id="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what do I do?</title>
+
+<sect4 id="jointeam-money"><title>Money Money Money</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.
+</para>
+</sect4>
+
+<sect4 id="jointeam-work"><title>You want to work with us?</title>
+<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 developers manual.
+</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.
+</para>
+</sect4>
+
+</sect3>
+
+</sect2>
+
+
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect2 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
+
+<sect3 id="newinstall"><title>Can I install the new
+ <application>Privoxy</application> over the old one?</title>
<para>
- Fillme.
+ We recommend you uninstall the old <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="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/">user-manual</ulink> for
+ platform specific installation instructions. [FIXME: This is meant for after
+ the name change for 3.0!]
+ </para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="firststep">I just installed <application>Privoxy</application>. 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.
+
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+
+<sect3 id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of <application>Privoxy</application>?</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).
+ </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
+ Interenet.
</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.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> does not currently handle
+ protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, or other Internet
+ protocols.
+ </para>
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="nothing">I just installed <application>Privoxy</application>, and nothing is happening.
+All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
+
+<para>
+ 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://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</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.
+
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
</sect2>
+
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect2 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
+<sect3 id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
+ <para>
+ There are major changes to <application>Junkbuster</application>
+ configuration from version 2.0.x to 2.9.x and later. The older files will
+ not work at all. 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>
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="actionsfile">What 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.
+
+</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).
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3 id="actionss">
+<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="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE">user-manual</ulink>.
+ Please refer to that.
+</para>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="actconfig">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://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</ulink>,
+ and then select
+ "<ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/edit-actions">Edit the actions list</ulink>"
+ from the selection list. You can also do this by editing the appropriate
+ file with a text editor.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Please see the
+ <ulink
+ url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE">user-manual</ulink> for a
+ detailed explanation of these and other configuration files, and their
+ various options and syntax.
+</para>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<!--
+FIXME: Commenting these out until we have some data there. HB 03/17/02.
+
<sect3 id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo account work?</title>
<para>
Fillme.
Fillme.
</para>
</sect3>
+-->
<sect3 id="configfiles"> <title>What are the differences between
-ijb-intermediate.action, ijb-basci.action, etc.?</title>
+intermediate.action, basic.action, etc.?</title>
<para>
-Configuring the Internet Junkbuster 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.
+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.
</para>
<para>
<table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Feature</entry>
- <entry>ijb.action</entry>
- <entry>ijb-basic.action</entry>
- <entry>ijb-intermediate.action</entry>
- <entry>ijb-advanced.action</entry>
+ <entry>default.action</entry>
+ <entry>basic.action</entry>
+ <entry>intermediate.action</entry>
+ <entry>advanced.action</entry>
</row>
</thead>
browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
<para>
What I don't understand, is how I can browser edit the config file as a
-regular user, while the whole /etc/junkbuster hierarchy belongs to the user
-"junkbuster", with only 644 perms.
+regular user, while the whole /etc/privoxy hierarchy belongs to the user
+"privoxy", with only 644 perms.
</para>
<para>
-When you use the browser-based editor, JunkBuster itself is writing to the
-config files. Because JunkBuster is running as the user "junkbuster", it can
+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 "privoxy", it can
update the config files.
</para>
<para>
If you don't like this, setting "enable-edit-actions 0" in the config file
will disable the browser-based editor. If you're that paranoid, you should
also consider setting "enable-remote-toggle 0" to prevent browser-based
-enabling/disabling of JunkBuster.
+enabling/disabling of <application>Privoxy</application>.
</para>
<para>
-Note that normally only local users can connect to JunkBuster, so this is not
+Note that normally only local users can connect to <application>Privoxy</application>, so this is not
(normally) a security problem.
</para>
</sect3>
+<sect3>
+<title id="lanconfig">How can I set up <application>Privoxy</application> 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:
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <screen>
+ listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118
+ </screen>
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
+ all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a Privoxy logo [or
+checkerboard]. 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, a checkerboard pattern (this
+ scales better), a transparent 1x1 GIF image, or a custom URL or your choice.
+</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://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</ulink>. Or by hand editing the appropriate
+ actions file. This will only effect what is defined as <quote>images</quote>
+ though.
+
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see the logo or checkerboard?</title>
+<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 inadvertantly removing something
+ important.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="blockedisugly">I see large red banners on some pages that say
+<quote>Blocked</quote>. How do I get rid of this?</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
+ as <quote>images</quote> (e.g. ad banners). If you want them to be treated
+ as if they were images, so that they can be invisible, then move the
+ offending URL from the <quote>+block</quote> section to the
+ <quote>+imageblock</quote> section of your actions file. Alternately, 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.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
</sect2>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect2 id="misc"><title>Misc</title>
+<sect3>
+<title id="slowsme">How much does <application>Privoxy</application> slow my browsing down? This
+has to add extra time to browsing.</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.
+</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.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+
+
<sect3 id="loadingtimes"><title>I noticed considerable
-delays in page requests compared to the old IJB. What's wrong?</title>
+delays in page requests compared to the old Junkbuster. What's wrong?</title>
<para>
Using the default filtering configuration, I noticed considerable delays in
-page requests compared to the old IJB. Loading pages with large contents
+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>
<para>
</para>
<para>
To modify the content of a page (i.e. make frames resizeable again, etc.) and
-not just replace ads, the Internet Junkbuster needs to download the entire
-page first, do its content magic and then send the page to the browser.
+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.
</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="configurl"><title>What is the "http://i.j.b/"?</title>
<para>
-Since JunkBuster sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can be
+Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can be
programmed to handle certain pages specially.
</para>
<para>
-With recent versions of JunkBuster (version 2.9.x), you can get some
-information about JunkBuster and change some settings by going to
+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
http://i.j.b/ or, equivalently, http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/
(Note that i.j.b is far easier to type but may not work in some
configurations).
<para>
These pages are *not* forwarded to a server on the internet - instead they are
-handled by a special web server which is built in to JunkBuster.
+handled by a special web server which is built in to <application>Privoxy</application>.
</para>
<para>
-If you are not running JunkBuster, then http://i.j.b/ will fail, and
+If you are not running <application>Privoxy</application>, then http://i.j.b/ will fail, and
http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/ will return a web page telling you
-you're not running JunkBuster.
+you're not running <application>Privoxy</application>.
</para>
<para>
</para>
</sect3>
+<!--
+FIXME: commented out until we have data. HB 03/18/02.
<sect3 id="badfiledesc"><title>I get the message 'Bad File Descriptor', why?</title>
<para>
</para>
</sect3>
-<sect3 id="proxy-chaining"><title>How do I chain Junkbuster with other proxies
+<sect3 id="proxy-chaining"><title>How do I chain <application>Privoxy</application> with other proxies
(e.g. squid)?</title>
<para>
Fillme.
</para>
</sect3>
-
-<sect3 id="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what do I do?</title>
-<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. 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.
-</para>
-</sect3>
+-->
<sect3 id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
<para>
<sect3 id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
<para>
- You cannot hide your IP address with Junkbuster or any other software, since
+ 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.
</para>
<para>
<!-- <sect3 id="image"><title>What is the imagefile (simage.ini, etc.) for?</title> -->
<!-- <para> -->
-<!-- Anytime the Junkbuster determines (with the help of the blocklist) that a URL -->
+<!-- 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. The Junkbuster uses the imagefile for that purpose. -->
+<!-- image or not. <application>Privoxy</application> uses the imagefile for that purpose. -->
<!-- </para> -->
<!-- </sect3> -->
+<sect3>
+<title id="anonforsure">Can <application>Privoxy</application> 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.
+</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. But it's still possible that web sites can find out who you
+ are. Here's one way this can happen.
+</para>
+<para>
+ A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
+ as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Privoxy</application>
+ does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
+ mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
+ consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
+ out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
+ agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
+ that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
+ source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
+ Luke!
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information is
+being altered?</title>
+
+<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,
+ 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.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ For instance, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
+ 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
+ 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.
+</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
+ be required, but by no means the only one.
+
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="caching">Can <application>Privoxy</application> 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
+ with other kinds of proxies like <quote>Squid</quote>.
+</para>
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can <application>Privoxy</application> 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.
+</para>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<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>
+
+<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 chosing.
+</para>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be.
+Why does <application>Privoxy</application> leave these large gaps?</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.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="ssl">How can <application>Privoxy</application> filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</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.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+
+<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>
+<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>. It 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.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="filterfile">What is a <quote>default.filter</quote>?</title>
+<para>
+ The <quote>default.filter</quote> is used to <quote>filter</quote> any
+ 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. This is
+ potentially a very powerful feature, but requires some expertise.
+</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.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Presently, there is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+</sect2>
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+
+<sect2>
+<title id="trouble">Troubleshooting</title>
+
+<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.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ The old <application>Privoxy</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>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="flushit">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 flusing 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://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info">http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info</ulink>
+ and see if any actions match your new rule.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="badsite">One of my favorite sites does not work with <application>Privoxy</application>.
+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://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</ulink> and click on
+ <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote>, then disable it. Now try that
+ page again.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ If still a problem, go to <quote>Show which actions apply to a URL and
+ why</quote> from <ulink url="http://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</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. Disabled <quote>actions</quote> will have a <quote>-</quote> (minus
+ sign) in front of them. Add your problem page URL to one of these sections
+ that looks like it is disabling the feature that is causing the
+ problem. Re-try the page. There might be some trial and error involved. This
+ is discussed in a little more detail in the <ulink
+ url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/appenix.html#ACTIONSANAT">user-manual
+ appendix</ulink>.
+
+</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.
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="time">What time is it?</title>
+<para>
+ Time for you to go!
+</para>
+</sect3>
+
</sect2>
</sect1>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<!--
+FIXME: Commented out until we have something to put here. HB 03/18/02.
+<sect1 id="knownissues"><title>Known Issues</title>
+<para>
+ Fillme.
+</para>
+</sect1>
+-->
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect1 id="contact"><title>Contact the developers</title>
<para>Please see the user manual for information on how to contact the developers.
Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
$Log: faq.sgml,v $
+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
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff