-
Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions
- By: Privoxy Developers
-
- $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa Exp $
+By: Privoxy Developers
+
+$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa Exp $
+
+This FAQ gives users and developers alike answers to frequently asked questions
+about Privoxy .
+
+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.
+
+Privoxy is based on Internet Junkbuster (tm).
+
+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.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Table of Contents
+
+1. General Information
+
+ 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?
+
+5. Troubleshooting
+
+ 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?
- The FAQ document gives users and developers alike answers to
- frequently asked questions about Privoxy. 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.
+7. Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
- You can find the latest version of the document at
- [1]http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/. Please see the Contact section
- in the [2]user-manual if you want to contact the developers.
- _________________________________________________________________
+ 7.1. Get Support
+ 7.2. Report bugs
+ 7.3. Request new features
+ 7.4. Report ads or other filter problems
+ 7.5. Other
- Table of Contents
- 1. [3]Frequently Asked Questions
-
- 1.1. [4]General Information
-
- 1.1.1. [5]What is this new version of Privoxy?
- 1.1.2. [6]How does it differ from the old Junkbuster?
- 1.1.3. [7]What are some of the new features?
- 1.1.4. [8]What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
- 1.1.5. [9]My browser does the same things as Privoxy. Why
- should I use Privoxy at all?
-
- 1.1.6. [10]Is there is a license or fee? What about a
- warranty? Registration?
-
- 1.1.7. [11]I would like to help you, what do I do?
-
- 1.2. [12]Installation
-
- 1.2.1. [13]Can I install the new Privoxy over the old one?
- 1.2.2. [14]I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything
- special I have to do now?
-
- 1.2.3. [15]What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
- 1.2.4. [16]I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is
- happening. All the ads are there. What's wrong?
-
- 1.3. [17]Configuration
-
- 1.3.1. [18]Can I use my old config files?
- 1.3.2. [19]What is an "actions" file?
- 1.3.3. [20]The "actions"concept confuses me. Please list
- some of these "actions".
-
- 1.3.4. [21]How are actions files configured? What is the
- easiest way to do this?
-
- 1.3.5. [22]What are the differences between
- intermediate.action, basic.action, etc.?
-
- 1.3.6. [23]Why can I change the configuration with a
- browser? Does that not raise security issues?
-
- 1.3.7. [24]How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for
- my LAN?
-
- 1.3.8. [25]Instead of ads, now I get a Privoxy logo [or
- checkerboard]. I don't want to see anything.
-
- 1.3.9. [26]Why would anybody want to see the logo or
- checkerboard?
-
- 1.3.10. [27]I see large red banners on some pages that say
- "Blocked". How do I get rid of this?
-
- 1.4. [28]Misc
-
- 1.4.1. [29]How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down?
- This has to add extra time to browsing.
-
- 1.4.2. [30]I noticed considerable delays in page requests
- compared to the old Junkbuster. What's wrong?
-
- 1.4.3. [31]What is the "http://i.j.b/"?
- 1.4.4. [32]Do you still maintain the blocklists?
- 1.4.5. [33]How can I submit new ads?
- 1.4.6. [34]How can I hide my IP address?
- 1.4.7. [35]Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?
- 1.4.8. [36]Might some things break because header
- information is being altered?
-
- 1.4.9. [37]Can Privoxy act as a "caching" proxy to speed up
- web browsing?
-
- 1.4.10. [38]What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect
- me?
-
- 1.4.11. [39]The Privoxy logo that replaces ads is very
- blocky and ugly looking. Can't a better font be
- used?
-
- 1.4.12. [40]I have large empty spaces now where ads used to
- be. Why does Privoxy leave these large gaps?
-
- 1.4.13. [41]How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?
- 1.4.14. [42]Privoxy runs as a "server". How secure is it?
- Do I need to take any special precautions?
-
- 1.4.15. [43]What is a "default.filter"?
-
- 1.5. [44]Troubleshooting
-
- 1.5.1. [45]I just upgraded and am getting "connection
- refused" with every web page?
-
- 1.5.2. [46]I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
- still getting through. How?
-
- 1.5.3. [47]One of my favorite sites does not work with
- Privoxy. What can I do?
-
- 1.5.4. [48]What time is it?
-
- 2. [49]Contact the developers
- 3. [50]Copyright and History
- 4. [51]See also
-
-1. Frequently Asked Questions
-
-1.1. General Information
-
-1.1.1. What is this new version of Privoxy?
-
- The original Internet Junkbuster (tm) is a coyrighted product of
- [52]Junkbusters Corporation. Development of this effort stopped some
- time ago as of version 2.0.2. Stefan Waldherr started the ijbswa
- project on [53]Sourceforge to rekindle development. Other developers
- subsequently joined with Stefan, and have since added many new
- features, refinements and enhancements.
+8. Copyright and History
- The new Privoxy started with the same code base, but has changed
- significantly at this point.
- _________________________________________________________________
+ 8.1. Copyright
+ 8.2. History
-1.1.2. How does it differ from the old Junkbuster?
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 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. 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.1.3. What are some of the new features?
-
- * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility
- ([54]http://i.j.b). Browser-based tracing of rule and filter
- effects.
- * Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
- * HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 1.1 features are supported).
- * Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the
- configuration files, and generally a more sophisticated and
- flexible configuration syntax over previous versions.
- * GIF de-animation.
- * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size,
- invisible "web-bugs", JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse, etc.)
- * Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
- * Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
- * 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).
- * 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.
- * In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile
- over-all.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.1.4. What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
+1. General Information
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.1.5. My browser does the same things as Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy
-at all?
+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.
- Modern browsers do indeed have some of the same functionality as
- Privoxy. Maybe this is adequate for you. But Privoxy is much more
- verstatile 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.1.6. Is there is a license or fee? What about a warranty? Registration?
+Privoxy has evolved from the Junkbuster 2.0.2 code base, and has advanced
+significantly at this point.
- 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. See [55]http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html for
- specifics.
-
- 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!
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.1.7. I would like to help you, what do I do?
+Please see the History section for more information on the history of
+Junkbuster and Privoxy.
-1.1.7.1. 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.1.7.2. You want to work with us?
+1.2. Why "Privoxy"? Why a name change at all?
- 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.
-
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.2. Installation
+Privoxy is the "Privacy Enhancing Proxy".
-1.2.1. Can I install the new Privoxy over the old one?
+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.)
- We recommend you uninstall the old 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 [56]user-manual for platform specific installation
- instructions. [FIXME: This is meant for after the name change for
- 3.0!]
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.2.2. I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything special I have to do now?
+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.
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.2.3. 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 Interenet.
-
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.2.4. 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: [57]http://i.j.b/. 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3. Configuration
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1.3.1. Can I use my old config files?
+1.3. How does Privoxy differ from the old Junkbuster?
- There are major changes to Junkbuster 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3.2. What is an "actions" file?
+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.
- "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.
-
- 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.
-
- Privoxy comes with several default actions files, with varying degrees
- of filtering and blocking, as starting points for your own
- configuration (see below).
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3.3. The "actions"concept confuses me. Please list some of these
-"actions".
+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.
- These are all explained in the [58]user-manual. Please refer to that.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.3.4. How are actions files configured? What is the easiest way to do this?
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+1.4. What are some of the new features?
- The easiest way to do this, is to access Privoxy with your web browser
- at [59]http://i.j.b/, and then select "[60]Edit the actions list" from
- the selection list. You can also do this by editing the appropriate
- file with a text editor.
+ * FIXME: complete the list of features. change the order: most important
+ features to the top of the list. prefix new features with "NEW".
- Please see the [61]user-manual for a detailed explanation of these and
- other configuration files, and their various options and syntax.
- _________________________________________________________________
+ * 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.
-1.3.5. What are the differences between intermediate.action, basic.action,
-etc.?
-
- Configuring Privoxy 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.
+ * Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
- Table 1. Default Configurations
- Feature default.action basic.action intermediate.action
- advanced.action
- ad-filtering ? x x x
- blank image ? x x x
- de-animate GIFs ? x x x
- referer forging ? x x x
- jon's +no-cookies-keep (i.e. session cookies only) ? x x x
- no-popup windows ? x x
- fast redirects ? x x
- hide-referrer ? x x
- hide-useragent ? x x
- content-modification ? x
- feature-x ?
- feature-y ?
- feature-z ?
- _________________________________________________________________
+ * HTTP/1.1 compliant (but not all optional 1.1 features are supported).
-1.3.6. 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 perms.
+ * Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files,
+ and generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
+ previous versions.
- 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.
+ * GIF de-animation.
- 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.
+ * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size, invisible
+ "web-bugs", JavaScript and HTML annoyances, pop-ups, etc.)
- Note that normally only local users can connect to Privoxy, so this is
- not (normally) a security problem.
- _________________________________________________________________
+ * Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
-1.3.7. 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:
+ * Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
+ * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
-1.3.8. Instead of ads, now I get a Privoxy logo [or checkerboard]. I don't
-want to see anything.
-
- This is a configuration option for images that Privoxy is stopping.
- You have the choice of the Privoxy logo, a checkerboard pattern (this
- scales better), a transparent 1x1 GIF image, or a custom URL or your
- choice.
+ * User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
- If you want to see nothing, then change the "+image-blocker" action to
- "+image-blocker{blank}". This can be done from the "Edit Actions List"
- selection at [62]http://i.j.b/. Or by hand editing the appropriate
- actions file. This will only effect what is defined as "images"
- though.
- _________________________________________________________________
+ * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
-1.3.9. Why would anybody want to see the logo or checkerboard?
-
- 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 inadvertantly
- removing something important.
- _________________________________________________________________
+ * Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
-1.3.10. I see large red banners on some pages that say "Blocked". 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 as "images" (e.g. ad banners).
- If you want them to be treated as if they were images, so that they
- can be invisible, then move the offending URL from the "+block"
- section to the "+imageblock" section of your actions file.
- Alternately, you could modify the "block" HTML template that is used
- by Privoxy to display this, and make it something more to your liking.
- _________________________________________________________________
+ * Every feature now controllable on a per-site or per-location basis,
+ configuration more powerful and versatile over-all.
-1.4. Misc
+ * Many smaller new features added, limitations and bugs removed, and security
+ holes fixed.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1.4.1. How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This has to add extra
-time to browsing.
+1.5. What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.2. I noticed considerable delays in page requests compared to the old
+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?
- Using the default filtering configuration, I noticed considerable
- delays in page requests compared to the old Junkbuster. Loading pages
- with large contents seemed to take forever, then suddenly delivering
- all the content at once.
-
- 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".
-
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.3. What is the "http://i.j.b/"?
+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".
- 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), you can get some
- information about Privoxy 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 Privoxy.
-
- If you are not running Privoxy, then http://i.j.b/ will fail, and
- http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/ 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.x).
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.4. Do you still maintain the blocklists?
+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.
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.5. 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.6. How can I hide my IP address?
+4.3. What is the "http://p.p/"?
- You cannot hide your IP address with Privoxy or any other software,
- since the server needs to know your IP address to send the answer 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 [63]multiproxy.org
- and many more through Google.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.7. Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?
+Since Privoxy sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can be
+programmed to handle certain pages specially.
- 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. 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!
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.8. Might some things break because header information is being altered?
+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).
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.9. Can Privoxy act as a "caching" proxy to speed up web browsing?
+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.
- No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
- [64]Squid for this. And, yes, before you ask, Privoxy can co-exist
- with other kinds of proxies like "Squid".
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.10. What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?
+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.
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.11. 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
- chosing.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.12. I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be. Why does Privoxy
-leave these large gaps?
-
- 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.13. 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.14. Privoxy runs as a "server". How secure is it? Do I need to take any
+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". It 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.4.15. What is a "default.filter"?
+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.
- The "default.filter" is used to "filter" any 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. 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.5. Troubleshooting
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1.5.1. I just upgraded and am getting "connection refused" with every web
-page?
+4.15. How can I temporarily disable Privoxy?
- Either Privoxy is not running, or your browser is configured for a
- different port than what Privoxy is using.
-
- The old Privoxy 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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.5.2. 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 flusing 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
- [65]http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info and see if any
- actions match your new rule.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.5.3. One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy. What can I do?
+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.
- First verify that it is indeed a Privoxy problem, by disabling Privoxy
- filtering and blocking. Go to [66]http://i.j.b/ and click on "Toggle
- Privoxy On or Off", then disable it. Now try that page again.
-
- If still a problem, go to "Show which actions apply to a URL and why"
- from [67]http://i.j.b/ 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 "Edit the actions list". Here you
- should see various sections that have various Privoxy features
- disabled for specific sites. Disabled "actions" will have a "-" (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
- [68]user-manual appendix.
-
- Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can
- accomplish the same thing by editing the appropriate "actions" file.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-1.5.4. What time is it?
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Time for you to go!
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-2. Contact the developers
+4.16. Where can I find more information about Privoxy and related issues?
- Please see the user manual for information on how to contact the
- developers.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-3. Copyright and History
+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.
- _________________________________________________________________
-
-4. See also
-
- Please see the user manual for information on references.
-
-References
-
- 1. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/
- 2. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/contact.html
- 3. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#QUESTIONS
- 4. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#GENERAL
- 5. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#NEWJB
- 6. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#DIFFERS
- 7. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#FEATURES
- 8. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#PROXYMORON
- 9. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#BROWSERS2
- 10. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#LICENSE
- 11. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#JOINTEAM
- 12. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#INSTALLATION
- 13. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#NEWINSTALL
- 14. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN124
- 15. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#LOCALHOST
- 16. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN149
- 17. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#CONFIGURATION
- 18. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#NEWCONFIG
- 19. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN165
- 20. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#ACTIONSS
- 21. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN183
- 22. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#CONFIGFILES
- 23. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#BROWSECONFIG
- 24. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN300
- 25. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN312
- 26. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN323
- 27. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN328
- 28. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#MISC
- 29. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN341
- 30. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#LOADINGTIMES
- 31. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#CONFIGURL
- 32. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#BLOCKLIST
- 33. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#NEWADS
- 34. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#IP
- 35. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN382
- 36. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN393
- 37. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN403
- 38. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN411
- 39. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN416
- 40. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN424
- 41. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN428
- 42. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN435
- 43. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN447
- 44. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN458
- 45. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN460
- 46. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN472
- 47. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN478
- 48. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN496
- 49. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#CONTACT
- 50. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#COPYRIGHT
- 51. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current-org/doc/source/tmp.html#SEEALSO
- 52. http://www.junkbusters.com/
- 53. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/
- 54. http://i.j.b/
- 55. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
- 56. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/
- 57. http://i.j.b/
- 58. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE
- 59. http://i.j.b/
- 60. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/edit-actions
- 61. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE
- 62. http://i.j.b/
- 63. http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm
- 64. http://www.squid-cache.org/
- 65. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info
- 66. http://i.j.b/
- 67. http://i.j.b/
- 68. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/appenix.html#ACTIONSANAT
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff