+Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions
-Junkbuster Frequently Asked Questions
-
- By: Junkbuster Developers
-
- $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa Exp $
-
- 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.
-
- You can find the latest version of the document at
- [1]http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/. Please see the Contact section
- in the user-manual if you want to contact the developers.
-
- Feel free to send a note to the developers at
- <[2]ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net>.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
- Table of Contents
- 1. [3]Introduction
- 2. [4]Frequently Asked Questions
-
- 2.1. [5]Installation
- 2.2. [6]Configuration
-
- 2.2.1. [7]How can I make my Yahoo account work?
- 2.2.2. [8]How can I make my Hotmail account work?
- 2.2.3. [9]How can I make my GMX account work?
- 2.2.4. [10]Why can I change the configuration with a
- browser? Does that not raise security issues?
-
- 2.3. [11]Misc
-
- 2.3.1. [12]I noticed considerable delays in page requests
- compared to the old IJB. What's wrong?
-
- 2.3.2. [13]What is the "http://i.j.b/"?
- 2.3.3. [14]I get the message 'Bad File Descriptor', why?
- 2.3.4. [15]How do I chain Junkbuster with other proxies
- (e.g. squid)?
-
- 2.3.5. [16]I would like to help you, what do I do?
- 2.3.6. [17]Do you still maintain the blocklists?
- 2.3.7. [18]How can I submit new ads?
- 2.3.8. [19]How can I hide my IP address?
- 2.3.9. [20]What is the imagefile (simage.ini, etc.) for?
-
- 3. [21]Contact the developers
- 4. [22]Copyright and History
- 5. [23]See also
-
-1. Introduction
+By: Privoxy Developers
- Fillme.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-2. Frequently Asked Questions
+$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa Exp $
-2.1. Installation
+This FAQ gives users and developers alike answers to frequently asked questions
+about Privoxy .
- Fillme.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-2.2. Configuration
+Privoxy 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. Privoxy has a
+very flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and
+tastes. Privoxy has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user
+networks.
-2.2.1. How can I make my Yahoo account work?
+Privoxy is based on Internet Junkbuster (tm).
- Fillme.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-2.2.2. How can I make my Hotmail account work?
+You can find the latest version of the document at http://www.privoxy.org/faq/.
+Please see the Contact section if you want to contact the developers.
- Fillme.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-2.2.3. How can I make my GMX account work?
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Fillme.
- _________________________________________________________________
+Table of Contents
+
+1. General Information
-2.2.4. Why can I change the configuration with a browser? Does that not
-raise security issues?
-
- 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.
+ 1.1. What is this new version of Privoxy?
+ 1.2. Why "Privoxy"? Why a name change at all?
+ 1.3. How does Privoxy differ from the old Junkbuster?
+ 1.4. What are some of the new features?
+ 1.5. What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
+ 1.6. How does Privoxy know what is an ad, and what is not?
+ 1.7. Can Privoxy make mistakes? This does not sound very scientific.
+ 1.8. My browser does the same things as Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy
+ at all?
+ 1.9. Is there is a license or fee? What about a warranty? Registration?
+ 1.10. I would like to help you, what do I do?
+
+ 1.10.1. Money Money Money
+ 1.10.2. You want to work with us?
+
+2. Installation
+
+ 2.1. Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?
+ 2.2. Which operating systems are supported?
+ 2.3. Can I install Privoxy over Junkbuster?
+ 2.4. I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything special I have to do now?
+ 2.5. What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
+ 2.6. I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening. All the ads are
+ there. What's wrong?
+
+3. Configuration
+
+ 3.1. Can I use my old config files?
+ 3.2. What is an "actions" file?
+ 3.3. The "actions" concept confuses me. Please list some of these
+ "actions".
+ 3.4. How are actions files configured? What is the easiest way to do this?
+ 3.5. There are several different "actions" files. What are the differences?
+ 3.6. Why can I change the configuration with a browser? Does that not raise
+ security issues?
+ 3.7. What is "default.filter"?
+ 3.8. How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN?
+ 3.9. Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see
+ anything.
+ 3.10. Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?
+ 3.11. I see large red banners on some pages that say "Blocked". Why and how
+ do I get rid of this?
+ 3.12. I cannot see all of the "Blocked" page banner. Help.
+ 3.13. Can Privoxy run as a service on Win2K/NT?
+ 3.14. How can I make Privoxy work with other proxies like Squid?
+
+4. Miscellaneous
+
+ 4.1. How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This has to add extra
+ time to browsing.
+ 4.2. I noticed considerable delays in page requests compared to the old
+ Junkbuster. What's wrong?
+ 4.3. What is the "http://p.p/"?
+ 4.4. Do you still maintain the blocklists?
+ 4.5. How can I submit new ads?
+ 4.6. How can I hide my IP address?
+ 4.7. Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?
+ 4.8. Might some things break because header information is being altered?
+ 4.9. Can Privoxy act as a "caching" proxy to speed up web browsing?
+ 4.10. What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?
+ 4.11. The Privoxy logo that replaces ads is very blocky and ugly looking.
+ Can't a better font be used?
+ 4.12. I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be. Why?
+ 4.13. How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?
+ 4.14. Privoxy runs as a "server". How secure is it? Do I need to take any
+ special precautions?
+ 4.15. How can I temporarily disable Privoxy?
+ 4.16. Where can I find more information about Privoxy and related issues?
- 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 update the config files.
+5. Troubleshooting
- 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.
+ 5.1. I just upgraded and am getting "connection refused" with every web
+ page?
+ 5.2. I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is still getting through.
+ How?
+ 5.3. One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy. What can I do?
- Note that normally only local users can connect to JunkBuster, so this
- is not (normally) a security problem.
- _________________________________________________________________
+7. Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
-2.3. Misc
+ 7.1. Get Support
+ 7.2. Report bugs
+ 7.3. Request new features
+ 7.4. Report ads or other filter problems
+ 7.5. Other
+
+8. Copyright and History
+
+ 8.1. Copyright
+ 8.2. History
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1. General Information
+
+1.1. What is this new version of Privoxy?
+
+The original Internet JunkbusterTM (tm) is a copyrighted product of Junkbusters
+Corporation. Development of this effort stopped some time ago as of version
+2.0.2. Stefan Waldherr started the ijbswa project on Sourceforge to rekindle
+development. Other developers subsequently joined with Stefan, and have since
+added many new features, refinements and enhancements. The result of this
+effort is Privoxy.
+
+Privoxy has evolved from the Junkbuster 2.0.2 code base, and has advanced
+significantly at this point.
+
+Please see the History section for more information on the history of
+Junkbuster and Privoxy.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-2.3.1. I noticed considerable delays in page requests compared to the old
-IJB. What's wrong?
+1.2. Why "Privoxy"? Why a name change at all?
- Using the default filtering configuration, I noticed considerable
- delays in page requests compared to the old IJB. Loading pages with
- large contents seemed to take forever, then suddenly delivering all
- the content at once.
+Privoxy is the "Privacy Enhancing Proxy".
+
+There are potential legal complications from the continued use of the
+Junkbuster name, which is a registered trademark of Junkbusters Corporation.
+And thus they "own" the rights to the name. (There are, however, no objections
+from Junkbusters Corporation to the Privoxy project itself, and they, in fact,
+still share our ideals and goals.)
+
+The developers also believed that there are so many changes from the original
+code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make a name in
+their own right, especially now with the pending release of version 3.0.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.3. How does Privoxy differ from the old Junkbuster?
+
+Privoxy picks up where Junkbuster left off. All the old features remain. The
+new Privoxy 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.
+
+The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
+users will notice right off the bat if you are upgrading from Junkbuster 2.0.x.
+The "blocklist" file does not exist any more. This is replaced by "actions"
+files, such as default.actions. This is where most of the per site
+configuration is now.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.4. What are some of the new features?
+
+ * FIXME: complete the list of features. change the order: most important
+ features to the top of the list. prefix new features with "NEW".
- 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".
+ * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility at http://
+ config.privoxy.org/ (shortcut: http://p.p/). Browser-based tracing of rule
+ and filter effects. Remote toggling.
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-2.3.2. What is the "http://i.j.b/"?
-
- Since JunkBuster sits between your web browser and the Internet, it
- can be programmed to handle certain pages specially.
-
- 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
- configurations).
-
- 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.
+ * Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
- If you are not running JunkBuster, 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.
+ * HTTP/1.1 compliant (but not all optional 1.1 features are supported).
- 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).
- _________________________________________________________________
+ * Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files,
+ and generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
+ previous versions.
-2.3.3. I get the message 'Bad File Descriptor', why?
-
- Fillme.
- _________________________________________________________________
+ * GIF de-animation.
-2.3.4. How do I chain Junkbuster with other proxies (e.g. squid)?
-
- Fillme.
- _________________________________________________________________
+ * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size, invisible
+ "web-bugs", JavaScript and HTML annoyances, pop-ups, etc.)
-2.3.5. I would like to help you, what do I do?
-
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
+ * Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
-2.3.6. Do you still maintain the blocklists?
-
- No. The format of the blocklists has changed significantly in the
- versions 2.9.x. Once we have released the new version, there will
- again be blocklists that you can update automatically.
- _________________________________________________________________
+ * Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
-2.3.7. How can I submit new ads?
-
- As of now, please discontinue to submit new ad blocking infos. Once we
- have released the new version, there will again be a form on the
- website, which you can use to contribute new ads.
- _________________________________________________________________
+ * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
+
+ * User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
+
+ * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
+
+ * Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
-2.3.8. How can I hide my IP address?
-
- You cannot hide your IP address with Junkbuster.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-2.3.9. What is the imagefile (simage.ini, etc.) for?
+ * Every feature now controllable on a per-site or per-location basis,
+ configuration more powerful and versatile over-all.
+
+ * Many smaller new features added, limitations and bugs removed, and security
+ holes fixed.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-3. Contact the developers
+1.5. What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
- Please see the user manual for information on how to contact the
- developers.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-4. Copyright and History
+When you connect to a web site with Privoxy, you are really connecting to your
+locally running version of Privoxy. Privoxy intercepts your requests for the
+web page, and relays that to the "real" web site. The web site sends the HTTP
+data stream back to Privoxy, where Privoxy can work its magic before it relays
+this data back to your web browser.
+
+Since Privoxy 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. Privoxy uses various programming methods to do this, all of which is
+under your control via the various configuration files and options.
+
+There are many kinds of proxies. Privoxy best fits the "filtering proxy"
+category.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.6. How does Privoxy know what is an ad, and what is not?
+
+Privoxy processes all the raw content of every web page. So it reads everything
+on each page. It then compares this to the rules as set up in the configuration
+files, and looks for any matches to these rules. Privoxy makes heavy use of
+"regular expressions". (If you are not familiar with regular expressions, it is
+explained briefly in the user manual.) Regular expressions facilitate matching
+of one text string against another, using wildcards to build complex patterns.
+So Privoxy will typically look for URLs and other content that match certain
+key words and expressions as defined in the configuration files. For instance a
+URL that contains "/banners", has a high probability of containing ad banners,
+and thus would be a prime candidate to have a matching rule.
+
+So Privoxy will look for these kinds of obvious looking culprits. And also,
+will use lists of known organizations that specialize in ads. Again, using
+complex patterns to match as many potential combinations as possible since
+there tend to be many, many variations used by advertisers, and new ones are
+being introduced all the time.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.7. Can Privoxy make mistakes? This does not sound very scientific.
+
+Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
+rule accidentally block something by mistake. There is a good chance you may
+run into such a situation at some point. It is tricky writing rules to cover
+every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
+
+But this should not be a big concern since the Privoxy configuration is very
+flexible, and includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they
+can be addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation. (See
+the Troubleshooting section below.)
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.8. My browser does the same things as Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy at
+all?
+
+Modern browsers do indeed have some of the same functionality as Privoxy. Maybe
+this is adequate for you. But Privoxy is much more versatile and powerful, and
+can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.9. Is there is a license or fee? What about a warranty? Registration?
+
+Privoxy is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It is free to
+use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this license.
+Please see the Copyright section for more information on the license and
+copyright.
+
+There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise. That is
+something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
+Privoxy really is free in every respect!
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.10. I would like to help you, what do I do?
+
+1.10.1. Money Money Money
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.10.2. You want to work with us?
+
+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 Developer's Manual.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2. Installation
+
+2.1. Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?
+
+Any browser that can be configured to use a "proxy", which should be virtually
+all browsers. Direct browser support is not necessary since Privoxy runs as a
+separate application and just exchanges standard HTML data with your browser,
+just like a web server does.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2.2. Which operating systems are supported?
+
+At present, Privoxy is known to run on Windows(95, 98, ME, 2000, XP), Linux
+(RedHat, Suse, Debian), Mac OSX, OS/2, AmigaOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, BeOS, and many
+more flavors of Unix.
+
+But any operating system that runs TCP/IP, can conceivably take advantage of
+Privoxy in a networked situation where Privoxy would run as a server on a LAN
+gateway. Then only the "gateway" needs to be running one of the above operating
+systems.
+
+Source code is freely available, so porting to other operating systems, is
+always a possibility.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2.3. Can I install Privoxy over Junkbuster?
+
+We recommend you uninstall Junkbuster first to minimize conflicts and
+confusion. You may want to save your old configuration files for future
+reference. The configuration is substantially changed.
+
+See the user-manual for platform specific installation instructions.
+
+Note: Some installers may automatically uninstall Junkbuster, if present!
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2.4. I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything special I have to do now?
+
+All browsers must be told to use Privoxy as a proxy by specifying the correct
+proxy address and port number in the appropriate configuration area for the
+browser. See below. Also, you should flush your browser's memory and disk cache
+to get rid of any cached items.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2.5. What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
+
+If you set up the Privoxy 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
+"localhost" (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 Privoxy to run
+on a different port with the listen-address config option).
+
+When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter the word
+"localhost" in the boxes next to "HTTP" and "Secure" (HTTPS) and then the
+number "8118" for "port". This tells your browser to send all web requests to
+Privoxy instead of directly to the Internet.
+
+Privoxy 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 Privoxy is running, or
+the equivalent hostname. Port assignment would be same as above.
+
+Privoxy does not currently handle protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, or
+other Internet protocols.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2.6. I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening. All the ads are there.
+What's wrong?
+
+Did you configure your browser to use Privoxy 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 Privoxy is running, and your
+browser is correctly configured by entering the special URL: http://p.p/. This
+should give you a banner that says "This is Privoxy" and access to Privoxy's
+internal configuration. If you see this, then you are good to go. If not, the
+browser or Privoxy are not set up correctly.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3. Configuration
+
+3.1. Can I use my old config files?
+
+There are major changes to Junkbuster/ Privoxy configuration from version 2.0.x
+to 2.9.x and later. Most of the older files will not work at all. This is
+especially true of blocklist. 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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.2. What is an "actions" file?
+
+"actions" files are where various actions that Privoxy might take, are
+configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions that apply to
+all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
+
+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 actions, but need to accept cookies from
+a given site, we would define this in our "actions" file.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.3. The "actions" concept confuses me. Please list some of these "actions".
+
+These are all explained in the user-manual. Please refer to that.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.4. How are actions files configured? What is the easiest way to do this?
+
+The easiest way to do this, is to access Privoxy with your web browser at http:
+//p.p/, and then select "View & change the current configuration" from the
+selection list. You can also do this by editing the appropriate file with a
+text editor.
+
+Please see the user-manual for a detailed explanation of these and other
+configuration files, and their various options and syntax.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.5. There are several different "actions" files. What are the differences?
+
+As of Privoxy v2.9.15, three actions files are being included, to be used for
+different purposes. These are default.action, standard.action, and user.action.
+Please see the User Manual for an explanation of each.
+
+Earlier versions included three different versions default.action files. The
+new scheme allows for greater flexibility of local configuration, and for
+browser based configuration.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.6. Why can I change the configuration with a browser? Does that not raise
+security issues?
+
+What I don't understand, is how I can browser edit the config file as a regular
+user, while the whole /etc/privoxy hierarchy belongs to the user "privoxy",
+with only 644 permissions.
+
+When you use the browser-based editor, Privoxy itself is writing to the config
+files. Because Privoxy is running as the user "privoxy", it can update the
+config files.
+
+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 Privoxy.
+
+Note that normally only local users can connect to Privoxy, so this is not
+(normally) a security problem.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.7. What is "default.filter"?
+
+The "default.filter" file is where "filters" are defined, which are used to
+"filter" any web page content. By "filtering" we mean it can modify, remove, or
+change anything 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.
+
+If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at the
+provided default.filter with a text editor and see some of things it can be
+used for.
+
+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 "View & change the current configuration" from your browser.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.8. How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN?
+
+By default, Privoxy 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 Privoxy configuration is located. In that file is a "listen-address"
+option. It may be commented out with a "#" symbol. Make sure it is uncommented,
+and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface, and port number to use:
+
+ listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118
+
+Save the file, and restart Privoxy. Configure all browsers on the network then
+to use this address and port number.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.9. Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see
+anything.
+
+This is a configuration option for images that Privoxy is stopping. You have
+the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF image (aka
+"blank"), or a custom URL of your choice. Note that to fit this category, the
+URL must match both the "+handle-as-image" and "+block" actions.
+
+If you want to see nothing, then change the "+set-image-blocker" action to
+"+image-blocker{blank}". This can be done from the "View & change the current
+configuration" selection at http://p.p/. Or by hand editing the appropriate
+actions file. This will only effect what is defined as "images" though. Also,
+some URLs that generate the bright red "Blocked" banner, can be moved to the
+"+set-image-blocker" section for the same reason, but there are some limits and
+risks to this (see below).
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.10. Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?
+
+This can be helpful for troubleshooting problems. It might also be good for
+anyone new to Privoxy so that they can see if their favorite pages are
+displaying correctly, and Privoxy is not inadvertently removing something
+important.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.11. I see large red banners on some pages that say "Blocked". Why and how do
+I get rid of this?
+
+These are URLs that match something in one of Privoxy's block actions ("+block"
+). It is meant to be a warning so that you know something has been blocked and
+an easy way for you to see why. These are handled differently than what has
+been defined explicitly as "images" (e.g. ads that are GIF image files).
+Depending on the URL itself, it is sometimes hard for Privoxy to really know
+whether there is indeed an ad image there or not. And there are limitations as
+to what Privoxy can do to "fool" the browser.
+
+For instance, if the ad is in a frame, then it is embedded in the separate HTML
+page used for the frame. In this case, you cannot just substitute an aribitrary
+image (like we would for a "blank" image), for an HTML page. The browser is
+expecting an HTML page, and that is what it must have for frames. Such
+situations can be a little trickier to deal with, and Privoxy may show the
+"Blocked" page, despite your best efforts.
+
+If you want these to be treated as if they were images, so that they can be
+made invisible, you can try moving the offending URL from the "+block" section
+to the "+imageblock" section of your actions file. Just be forewarned, if any
+URL is made "invisible", you may not have any inkling that something has been
+removed from that page, or why. If this approach does not work, then you are
+probably dealing with a frame (or "ilayer"), and the only thing that can go
+there is an HTML page of some sort.
+
+To deal with this situation, you could modify the "block" HTML template that is
+used by Privoxy to display this, and make it something more to your liking.
+Currently, there is no configuration option for this. You will have to modify,
+or create your own page, and use this to replace templates/blocked, which is
+what Privoxy uses to display the "Blocked" page.
+
+Another way to deal with this is find why and where Privoxy is blocking the
+frame, and diable this. Then let the "+set-image-blocker" action handle the ad
+that is embedded in the frame's HTML page.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.12. I cannot see all of the "Blocked" page banner. Help.
+
+There is not enough available space to fit the entire Blocked page. Try right
+clicking on the visible portion, and select "Show Frame", or equivalent. This
+will usually allow you to see the entire Privoxy "Blocked" page, and from there
+you can see just what is being blocked, and why.
+
+As of Privoxy 2.9.14, the Blocked banner page is re-sizeable, and tries to
+adjust to the allotted space. There may be occassions where there just isn't
+enough room to display much of anything useful though.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.13. Can Privoxy run as a service on Win2K/NT?
+
+Yes, it can run as a system service using srvany.exe. The only catch is that
+this will effectively disable the Privoxy icon in the taskbar. You can have one
+or the other, but not both at this time :(
+
+There is a pending feature request for this functionality. See thread: http://
+sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=361118&aid=485617&group_id=11118, for
+details, and a sample configuration.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+3.14. How can I make Privoxy work with other proxies like Squid?
+
+This can be done. See the user manual, which describes how to do this.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4. Miscellaneous
+
+4.1. How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This has to add extra time to
+browsing.
+
+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 Privoxy 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.
+
+"Filtering" via the filterfile mechanism may cause a perceived slowdown, since
+the entire page is buffered before displaying. See below.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.2. I noticed considerable delays in page requests compared to the old
+Junkbuster. What's wrong?
+
+The entire page content must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
+mechanism to work, and nothing 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".
+
+To modify the content of a page (i.e. make frames resizeable again, etc.) and
+not just replace ads, Privoxy needs to download the entire page first, do its
+content magic and then send the page to the browser.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.3. What is the "http://p.p/"?
+
+Since Privoxy sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can be
+programmed to handle certain pages specially.
+
+With recent versions of Privoxy (version 2.9.x and greater), you can get some
+information about Privoxy and change some settings by going to http://p.p/ or,
+equivalently, http://config.privoxy.org/ (Note that p.p is far easier to type
+but may not work in some configurations. With the name change to Privoxy, this
+is changed from the previous http://i.j.b/ and earlier 2.9.x versions).
+
+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 Privoxy.
+
+If you are not running Privoxy, then http://p.p/ will fail, and http://
+config.privoxy.org/ will return a web page telling you you're not running
+Privoxy.
+
+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 2.9.14).
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.4. Do you still maintain the blocklists?
+
+No, not by this name. The format of the blocklists has changed significantly in
+versions 2.9.x and later. This functionality is done by the "actions" file now.
+See next question ...
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.5. How can I submit new ads?
+
+Please see the Contact section.
+
+This process does not work with earlier versions of Privoxy or Junkbuster.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.6. How can I hide my IP address?
+
+You cannot hide your IP address with Privoxy or any other software, since the
+server needs to know your IP address to send the answers back to you.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+You can find a list of anonymous public proxies at multiproxy.org and many more
+through Google.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.7. Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?
+
+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.
+
+Privoxy can remove various information about you, and allows you more freedom
+to decide which sites you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But
+it's still possible that web sites can find out who you are. Here's one way
+this can happen.
+
+A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such as
+when transferring a file by FTP. Privoxy 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 NSClean.
+
+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!
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.8. Might some things break because header information is being altered?
+
+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.
+
+"USER AGENT" 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.
+
+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 "User Agent" 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 "REFERER" header; they may fail or break
+if unavailable. The weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their
+server when no "REFERER" or cookie is provided, is another example. There are
+many, many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server.
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.9. Can Privoxy act as a "caching" proxy to speed up web browsing?
+
+No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like Squid for
+this. And, yes, before you ask, Privoxy can co-exist with other kinds of
+proxies like Squid.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.10. What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?
+
+Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can, or a proxy that has
+this specific capability. Privoxy can help protect your privacy, but not really
+protect you from intrusion attempts.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.11. The Privoxy logo that replaces ads is very blocky and ugly looking. Can't
+a better font be used?
+
+This is not a font problem. The logo is an image that is created by Privoxy 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 "imageblock" directives:
+pattern, blank, or a URL of your choosing.
+
+Given the above problem, we have decided to remove the logo option entirely [as
+of v2.9.13].
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.12. I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be. Why?
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.13. How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?
+
+This is a limitation since HTTPS transactions are encrypted SSL sessions
+between your browser and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably secure
+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.
+Privoxy does not try to unencrypt this information, so it just passes through
+as is. Privoxy can still catch images and ads that are embedded in the SSL
+stream though.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.14. Privoxy runs as a "server". How secure is it? Do I need to take any
+special precautions?
+
+There are no known exploits that might effect Privoxy. On Unix-like systems,
+Privoxy can run as a non-privileged user, which is how we recommend it be run.
+Also, by default Privoxy only listens to requests from "localhost". The server
+aspect of Privoxy is not itself directly exposed to the Internet in this
+configuration. If you want to have Privoxy 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 Privoxy
+config file. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address in the
+browser proxy configuration. In this way, Privoxy will not listen on any
+external ports. Of course, a firewall is always good too. Better safe than
+sorry.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.15. How can I temporarily disable Privoxy?
+
+The easiest way is to access Privoxy with your browser by using the special
+URL: http://p.p/ and select "Toggle Privoxy on or off" from that page.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+4.16. Where can I find more information about Privoxy and related issues?
+
+Other references and sites of interest to Privoxy users:
+
+http://www.privoxy.org/, The Privoxy Home page.
+
+http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa, the Project Page for Privoxy on
+Sourceforge.
+
+http://p.p/, access Privoxy from your browser. Alternately, http://
+config.privoxy.org may work in some situations where the first does not.
+
+http://p.p/, and select "Privoxy - Submit Filter Feedback" to submit "misses"
+to the developers.
+
+http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html
+
+http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/
+
+http://privacy.net/analyze/
+
+http://www.squid-cache.org/
+
+
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5. Troubleshooting
+
+5.1. I just upgraded and am getting "connection refused" with every web page?
+
+Either Privoxy is not running, or your browser is configured for a different
+port than what Privoxy is using.
+
+The old Privoxy (and also Junkbuster) 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 Privoxy's "listen-address" setting in
+the config file used to start Privoxy.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.2. I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is still getting through.
+How?
+
+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 Privoxy will not be in the picture. The best
+thing to do is try flushing the browser's caches. And then try again.
+
+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 http://config.privoxy.org/
+show-url-info and see if any actions match your new rule.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.3. One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy. What can I do?
+
+First verify that it is indeed a Privoxy problem, by disabling Privoxy
+filtering and blocking. Go to http://p.p/ and click on "Toggle Privoxy On or
+Off", then disable it. Now try that page again. It's probably a good idea to
+flush the browser cache as well with Shift+Reload to flush caches.
+
+If still a problem, go to "Show which actions apply to a URL and why" from
+http://p.p/ 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 "View & change the current configuration". Here you should see various
+sections that have various Privoxy features disabled for specific sites. Most
+disabled "actions" will have a "-" (minus sign) in front of them. Some aliases
+are used just to disable other actions, e.g. "shop" and "fragile", and won't
+necessarily use a "+" or "-" sign. Add your problem page URL to one of these
+sections that looks like it is disabling the feature that is causing the
+problem. Rember to flush your browser's caches when making such changes! As a
+last resort, try "fragile" which disables most actions. Now re-try the page.
+There might be some trial and error involved. This is discussed in more detail
+in the user-manual appendix.
+
+Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish the
+same thing by editing the appropriate "actions" file.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7. Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
+
+We value your feedback. However, to provide you with the best support, please
+note the following sections.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.1. Get Support
+
+To get support, use the Sourceforge Support Forum:
+
+ http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=211118
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.2. Report bugs
+
+To submit bugs, use the Sourceforge Bug Forum:
+
+ http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=111118.
+
+Make sure that the bug has not already been submitted. Please try to verify
+that it is a Privoxy bug, and not a browser or site bug first. If you are using
+your own custom configuration, please try the stock configs to see if the
+problem is a configuration related bug. And if not using the latest development
+snapshot, please try the latest one. Or even better, CVS sources. Please be
+sure to include the Privoxy version, platform, browser, any pertinent log data,
+any other relevant details (please be specific) and, if possible, some way to
+reproduce the bug.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.3. Request new features
+
+To submit ideas on new features, use the Sourceforge feature request forum:
+
+ http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=361118&group_id=11118&func=browse.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.4. Report ads or other filter problems
+
+You can also send feedback on websites that Privoxy has problems with. Please
+bookmark the following link: "Privoxy - Submit Filter Feedback". Once you surf
+to a page with problems, use the bookmark to send us feedback. We will look
+into the issue as soon as possible.
+
+New, improved default.action files will occasionally be made available based on
+your feedback. These will be announced on the ijbswa-announce list.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.5. Other
+
+For any other issues, feel free to use the mailing lists:
+
+ http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=11118.
+
+Anyone interested in actively participating in development and related
+discussions can also join the appropriate mailing list. Archives are available,
+too. See the page on Sourceforge.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8. Copyright and History
+
+8.1. Copyright
+
+Privoxy is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
+terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
+Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
+version.
+
+This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
+WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details, which
+is available from the Free Software Foundation, Inc, 59 Temple Place - Suite
+330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
+
+You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
+this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple
+Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.2. History
+
+Privoxy is evolved, and derived from, the Internet Junkbuster, with many
+improvments and enhancements over the original.
+
+Junkbuster was originally written by Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters
+Corporation, and was released as free open-source software under the GNU GPL.
+Stefan Waldherr made many improvements, and started the SourceForge project
+Privoxy to rekindle development. There are now several active developers
+contributing. The last stable release of Junkbuster was v2.0.2, which has now
+grown whiskers ;-).
- Please see the user manual for information on Copyright and History.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-5. See also
-
- Please see the user manual for information on references.
-
-References
-
- 1. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/
- 2. mailto:ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net
- 3. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#INTRODUCTION
- 4. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#QUESTIONS
- 5. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#INSTALLATION
- 6. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#CONFIGURATION
- 7. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#YAHOO
- 8. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#HOTMAIL
- 9. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#GMX
- 10. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#BROWSECONFIG
- 11. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#MISC
- 12. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#LOADINGTIMES
- 13. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#CONFIGURL
- 14. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#BADFILEDESC
- 15. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#PROXY-CHAINING
- 16. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#JOINTEAM
- 17. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#BLOCKLIST
- 18. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#NEWADS
- 19. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#IP
- 20. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#IMAGE
- 21. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#CONTACT
- 22. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#COPYRIGHT
- 23. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#SEEALSO
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff