This file belongs into
ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
- $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa Exp $
+ $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9 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 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa Exp $</pubdate>
+<pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9 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
+ 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://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
+ <application>Junkbuster</application> code base, but has changed
+ significantly at this point.
+ </para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="whyprivoxy">Why <quote>Privoxy</quote>? Why a name change at all?</title>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is for <quote>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</quote>.
+ There are possible 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 no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
+ <application>Privoxy</application> project itself though, and they
+ in fact still share our ideals and goals.)
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ The developers also believed that there 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, especially now with the pending release of
+ version 3.0.
+
+</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>
+<!--
+ This 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://p.p">http://p.p</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
+ versatile 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="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
+ is probably almost 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.
+</para>
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3 id="whichos">
+<title>Which operating systems are supported?</title>
+<para>
+ Right now Win32, Mac OSX, OS/2, AmigaOS, Linux, and many
+ flavors of Unix.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Source code is available, so porting to other operating systems,
+ is always a possibility.
+
+</para>
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3 id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
+ <application>Privoxy</application> over <application>Junkbuster</application>?</title>
<para>
- Fillme.
+ We recommend you uninstall <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
+ 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.
+ </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://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.
+
+</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="../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://p.p/">http://p.p/</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="../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
+intermediate.action, basic.action, etc.?</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.
+ </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>
+</sect3>
<sect3 id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration with a
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.
-
-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
+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, <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.
-
-Note that normally only local users can connect to JunkBuster, so this is not
+enabling/disabling of <application>Privoxy</application>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+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="filterfile">What is a <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.
+</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,
+ but you can disable/enable various sections of the included default
+ file with the <quote>Actions List Editor</quote> from your browser.
+</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 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, --> a checkerboard
+ pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), 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://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.
+
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</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 inadvertently 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 made 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>
+
+<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.
+
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
</sect2>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect2 id="misc"><title>Misc</title>
+<sect2 id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</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>
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>
+<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>
+<sect3 id="configurl"><title>What is the "http://p.p/"?</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>
-With recent versions of JunkBuster (version 2.9.x), you can get some
-information about JunkBuster 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
+<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
+http://p.p/ or, equivalently, http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/
+(Note that p.p 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.
+<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 <application>Privoxy</application>.
+</para>
-If you are not running JunkBuster, then http://i.j.b/ will fail, and
+<para>
+If you are not running <application>Privoxy</application>, then http://p.p/ 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>
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 2.9.x).
</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 we'll find a
- suitable task for you together.
-</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.
+ 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>
+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.
+</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.
+</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.
+</para>
+</sect3>
+
+<!-- <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> -->
+<!-- </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 id="image"><title>What is the imagefile (simage.ini, etc.) for?</title>
+<sect3>
+<title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can <application>Privoxy</application> protect me?</title>
<para>
- Anytime the Junkbuster 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.
+ 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 choosing.
+</para>
+<para>
+Given the above problem, we have decided to remove the logo option entirely
+[as of v2.9.13].
+</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 id="turnoff">
+<title>How can I temporarily disable <application>Privoxy</application>?</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.
+
</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> (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>
+
+</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 flushing 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://p.p/">http://p.p/</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://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. 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="../user-manual/appendix.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 ~~~~~ -->
+<!--
+
+This is referenced in the doc header already. HB 03/25/02
+
<sect1 id="contact"><title>Contact the developers</title>
<para>Please see the user manual for information on how to contact the developers.
</para>
</sect1>
-
+-->
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect1 id="copyright"><title>Copyright and History</title>
<para>Please see the user manual for information on Copyright and History.
Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
$Log: faq.sgml,v $
+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.
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff