>General Information</TITLE
><META
NAME="GENERATOR"
-CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.64
+CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.76b+
"><LINK
REL="HOME"
TITLE="Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions"
><DIV
CLASS="NAVHEADER"
><TABLE
+SUMMARY="Header navigation table"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="index.html"
+ACCESSKEY="P"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="installation.html"
+ACCESSKEY="N"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
><H1
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
-NAME="GENERAL"
->1. General Information</A
-></H1
+NAME="GENERAL">1. General Information</H1
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="NEWJB"
->1.1. What is this new version of <SPAN
+NAME="NEWJB">1.1. What is this new version of <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
->?</A
-></H3
+>?</H3
><P
-> The original <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
+> In the beginning, there was the
+ <A
+HREF="http://www.junkbusters.com/ijb.html"
+TARGET="_top"
><SPAN
-CLASS="TRADEMARK"
+CLASS="APPLICATION"
+>Internet Junkbuster</SPAN
+></A
+>,
+ by Anonymous Coders and <A
+HREF="http://www.junkbusters.com/"
+TARGET="_top"
+>Junkbusters
+ Corporation</A
+>. It saved many users a lot of pain in the early days of
+ web advertising and user tracking.</P
+><P
+> But the web, its protocols and standards, and with it, the techniques for
+ forcing users to consume ads, give up autonomy over their browsing, and
+ for spying on them, kept evolving. Unfortunately, the <SPAN
+CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Internet
- Junkbuster</SPAN
->™</SPAN
-> (tm) is a copyrighted product of <A
+ Junkbuster</SPAN
+> did not. Version 2.0.2, published in 1998, was
+ (and is) the last official
+ <A
+HREF="http://www.junkbusters.com/ijbdist.html#release"
+TARGET="_top"
+>release</A
+>
+ available from <A
HREF="http://www.junkbusters.com"
TARGET="_top"
>Junkbusters Corporation</A
>.
- Development of this effort stopped some time ago as of version 2.0.2. Stefan
-
Waldherr started the ijbswa project on <A
-HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/"
+ Fortunately, it had been released under the GNU
+ <A
+HREF="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html"
TARGET="_top"
->Sourceforge</A
-> 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 <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->Privoxy</SPAN
->.
- </P
+> GPL</A
+>, which allowed further
+ development by others.</P
><P
-> <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->Privoxy</SPAN
-> has evolved from the
- <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->Junkbuster 2.0.2</SPAN
-> code base, and has advanced
- significantly at this point.
- </P
+> So Stefan Waldherr started maintaining an
+ <A
+HREF="http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/"
+TARGET="_top"
+>improved version of the
+ software</A
+>, to which eventually a number of people contributed patches.
+ It could already replace banners with a transparent image, and had a first
+ version of pop-up killing, but it was still very closely based on the
+ original, with all its limitations, such as the lack of HTTP/1.1 support,
+ flexible per-site configuration, or content modification. The last release
+ from this effort was version 2.0.2-10, published in 2000.</P
+><P
+> Then, some
+ <A
+HREF="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/copyright.html#AUTHORS"
+TARGET="_top"
+>developers</A
+>
+ picked up the thread, and started turning the software inside out, upside down,
+ and then reassembled it, adding many
+ <A
+HREF="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/introduction.html#FEATURES"
+TARGET="_top"
+>new
+ features</A
+> along the way.</P
><P
->
- Please see the <A
-HREF="copyright.html"
->History section</A
-> for more
- information on the history of <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->Junkbuster</SPAN
-> and
- <SPAN
+> The result of this is <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
->.
+>, whose first
+ stable release, 3.0, was released August, 2002.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN39"
->1.2. Why <SPAN
+NAME="AEN45">1.2. Why <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Privoxy"</SPAN
->? Why a name change at all?</A
-></H3
+>? Why a name change at all?</H3
><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
> is the
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
->"<I
+>"<SPAN
+CLASS="emphasis"
+><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</I
+></SPAN
>"</SPAN
->.</P
+>. Also, its content
+ modification and junk suppression allow you to browse your
+ <SPAN
+CLASS="QUOTE"
+>"<SPAN
+CLASS="emphasis"
+><I
+CLASS="EMPHASIS"
+>private</I
+></SPAN
+> edition"</SPAN
+> of the web.</P
><P
-> There are potential legal complications from the continued use of the
+> <A
+HREF="http://junkbusters.com/"
+TARGET="_top"
+>Junkbusters Corporation</A
+>
+ continues to offer their original version of the <SPAN
+CLASS="APPLICATION"
+>Internet
+ Junkbuster</SPAN
+>, so publishing our
+ <SPAN
+CLASS="APPLICATION"
+> Junkbuster</SPAN
+>-derived software under the same name
+ led to confusion.</P
+><P
+> There are also potential legal complications from the continued use of the
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Junkbuster</SPAN
> name, which is a registered trademark of
<A
-HREF="http://junkbusters.com"
+HREF="http://junkbusters.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Junkbusters Corporation</A
>.
- And thus they <SPAN
-CLASS="QUOTE"
->"own"</SPAN
-> the rights to the name.
- (There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
+ There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> project itself, and they, in fact, still
- share our ideals and goals.)</P
+ share our ideals and goals.</P
><P
> 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
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="DIFFERS"
->1.3. How does <SPAN
+NAME="DIFFERS">1.3. How does <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> differ
from the old <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Junkbuster?</SPAN
-></A
></H3
><P
-> <SPAN
+> <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> picks up where
- <SPAN
+ <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Junkbuster</SPAN
> left off. All the old features remain.
- The new <SPAN
+ The new <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> 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.
+ 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.
</P
><P
-> The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
- users will notice right off the bat if you are upgrading from
- <SPAN
+> The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
+ users will notice right off the bat if upgrading from
+ <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Junkbuster</SPAN
> 2.0.x. The <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"blocklist"</SPAN
>
- file does not exist any more. This is replaced by <SPAN
+ <SPAN
+CLASS="QUOTE"
+>"cookielist"</SPAN
+>, <SPAN
+CLASS="QUOTE"
+>"imagelist"</SPAN
+> and much more has been
+ combined into the <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"actions"</SPAN
->
- files, such as <TT
-CLASS="FILENAME"
->default.actions</TT
->. This is where most of
- the per site configuration is now.
- </P
-></DIV
-><DIV
-CLASS="SECT2"
-><H3
-CLASS="SECT2"
-><A
-NAME="FEATURES"
->1.4. What are some of the new features?</A
-></H3
+> files, with a completely different
+ syntax. See the <A
+HREF="../user-manual/upgradersnote.html"
+TARGET="_top"
+>note to
+ upgraders</A
+> for details.</P
+><P
+> <SPAN
+CLASS="APPLICATION"
+>Privoxy</SPAN
+>'s new features include:</P
><P
> <P
></P
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="PROXYMORON"
->1.5. What is a <SPAN
+NAME="PROXYMORON">1.4. What is a <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"proxy"</SPAN
>? How does
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
-> work?</A
-></H3
+> work?</H3
><P
-> When you connect to a web site with <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->Privoxy</SPAN
->,
- you are really connecting to your locally running version of
- <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->Privoxy</SPAN
->. <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->Privoxy</SPAN
->
- intercepts your requests for the web page, and relays that to the
- <SPAN
-CLASS="QUOTE"
->"real"</SPAN
-> web site. The web site sends the HTTP data stream
- back to <SPAN
+> A web proxy is a service, based on a software such as <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
->, where
- <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->Privoxy</SPAN
-> can work its magic before it
- relays this data back to your web browser.
+>,
+ that clients (i.e. browsers) can use instead of connecting directly to the web
+ servers on the Internet. The clients then ask the proxy to fetch the objects
+ they need (web pages, images, movies etc) on their behalf, and when the proxy
+ has done so, it hands the results back to the client.
</P
><P
-> Since <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->Privoxy</SPAN
-> 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.
- <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->Privoxy</SPAN
-> uses various programming methods to do
- this, all of which is under your control via the various configuration
- files and options.
+> There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security (firewalling),
+ efficiency (caching) and others, and there are just as many different proxies
+ to accommodate those needs.
</P
><P
-> There are many kinds of proxies. <SPAN
+> <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
-> best
- fits the <SPAN
-CLASS="QUOTE"
->"filtering proxy"</SPAN
-> category.
+> is a proxy that is solely focused on privacy
+ protection and junk elimination. Sitting between your browser(s) and the Internet,
+ it is in a perfect position to filter outbound personal information that your
+ browser is leaking, as well as inbound junk. It uses a variety of techniques to do
+ this, all of which are under your control via the various configuration
+ files and options.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN117"
->1.6. How does <SPAN
+NAME="WHATSANAD">1.5. How does <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> know what is
-an ad, and what is not?</A
-></H3
+an ad, and what is not?</H3
><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
-> 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. <SPAN
+>'s approach to blocking ads is twofold:</P
+><P
+> First, there are certain patterns in the <SPAN
+CLASS="emphasis"
+><I
+CLASS="EMPHASIS"
+>locations</I
+></SPAN
+> (URLs)
+ of banner images. This applies to both the path (you wouldn't guess how many
+ web sites serve their banners from a directory called <SPAN
+CLASS="QUOTE"
+>"banners"</SPAN
+>!)
+ and the host (blocking the big banner hosting services like doublecklick.net
+ already helps a lot). <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
-> makes heavy use of
- <SPAN
-CLASS="QUOTE"
->"regular expressions"</SPAN
->. (If you are not familiar with regular
- expressions, it is explained briefly in <A
-HREF="../user-manual/appendix.html"
+> takes advantage of this
+ fact by using <A
+HREF="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS"
TARGET="_top"
->the user manual</A
->.) Regular
- expressions facilitate matching of one text string against another, using
- wildcards to build complex patterns. So <SPAN
+>URL
+ patterns</A
+> to sort out and block the requests for banners.</P
+><P
+> Second, banners tend to come in certain <SPAN
+CLASS="emphasis"
+><I
+CLASS="EMPHASIS"
+>sizes</I
+></SPAN
+>. But you
+ can't tell the size of an image by its URL without downloading it, and if you
+ do, it's too late to save bandwidth. Therefore, <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>
- 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 <SPAN
-CLASS="QUOTE"
->"/banners"</SPAN
->, has a high probability of containing
- ad banners, and thus would be a prime candidate to have a matching rule.</P
+ also inspects the HTML sources of web pages while they are loaded, and replaces
+ references to images with standard banner sizes by dummy references, so that
+ your browser doesn't request them anymore in the first place.</P
><P
-> So <SPAN
-CLASS="APPLICATION"
->Privoxy</SPAN
-> 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.</P
+> Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
+ configurable.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="AEN129"
->1.7. Can <SPAN
+NAME="AEN136">1.6. Can <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> make mistakes?
-This does not sound very scientific.</A
-></H3
+This does not sound very scientific.</H3
><P
-> 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.</P
+> Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
+ rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. There is a good chance
+ you may run into such a situation at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
+ cover every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.</P
><P
> But this should not be a big concern since the
<SPAN
includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
(<A
-HREF="trouble.html#AEN589"
+HREF="trouble.html#BADSITE"
>See the Troubleshooting section below</A
>.)</P
></DIV
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="BROWSERS2"
->1.8. My browser does the same things as
+NAME="BROWSERS2">1.7. My browser does the same things as
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
-> at all?</A
-></H3
+> at all?</H3
><P
-> Modern browsers do indeed have <I
+> Modern browsers do indeed have <SPAN
+CLASS="emphasis"
+><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>some</I
+></SPAN
> of the same
functionality as <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
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.
-
</P
></DIV
><DIV
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="LICENSE"
->1.9. Is there is a license or fee? What about a
-warranty? Registration?</A
-></H3
+NAME="LICENSE">1.8. Is there is a license or fee? What about a
+warranty? Registration?</H3
><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
-> 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 <A
+> is licensed under the <A
+HREF="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html"
+TARGET="_top"
+>GNU General Public License (GPL)</A
+>.
+ It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this
+ license. Please see the <A
HREF="copyright.html"
>Copyright</A
-> section for more information on the
- license and copyright. Or the <TT
+> section for more
+ information on the license and copyright. Or the <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>LICENSE</TT
> file
that should be included.
-
- </P
+ </P
><P
-> There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise. That is
- something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
+> There is <SPAN
+CLASS="emphasis"
+><I
+CLASS="EMPHASIS"
+>no warranty</I
+></SPAN
+> of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
+ That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
-> really is <I
+> really is <SPAN
+CLASS="emphasis"
+><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>free</I
+></SPAN
>
in every respect!
-
</P
></DIV
><DIV
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
-NAME="JOINTEAM"
->1.10. I would like to help you, what do I do?</A
-></H3
+NAME="JOINTEAM">1.9. I would like to help you, what do I do?</H3
+><DIV
+CLASS="SECT3"
+><H4
+CLASS="SECT3"
+><A
+NAME="JOINTEAM-MONEY">1.9.1. Money Money Money</H4
+><P
+> We, of course, welcome donations and could use money for domain registering,
+ buying software to test <SPAN
+CLASS="APPLICATION"
+>Privoxy</SPAN
+> with, and, of course,
+ for regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). If you enjoy the software and feel
+ like helping us with a donation, just <A
+HREF="mailto:developers@privoxy.org"
+TARGET="_top"
+>drop us a note</A
+>.</P
+></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT3"
><H4
CLASS="SECT3"
><A
-NAME="JOINTEAM-MONEY"
->1.10.1. Money Money Money</A
-></H4
+NAME="JOINTEAM-SOFTWARE">1.9.2. Software</H4
><P
-> 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.</P
+> If you are a vendor of a web-related software like a browser, web server
+ or proxy, and would like us to ensure that <SPAN
+CLASS="APPLICATION"
+>Privoxy</SPAN
+>
+ runs smoothly with your product, you might consider supplying us with a
+ copy or license. We can't, however, guarantee that we will fix all potential
+ compatibility issues as a result.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT3"
><H4
CLASS="SECT3"
><A
-NAME="JOINTEAM-WORK"
->1.10.2. You want to work with us?</A
-></H4
+NAME="JOINTEAM-WORK">1.9.3. You want to work with us?</H4
><P
> 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 <A
-HREF="../developer-manual/quickstart.html"
+ packaging gurus or documentation writers. Simply <A
+HREF="https://sourceforge.net/account/register.php"
TARGET="_top"
-> Developer's Manual</A
+>get an account on SourceForge.net</A
+>
+ and mail your id to the <A
+HREF="mailto:developers@privoxy.org"
+TARGET="_top"
+>developers
+ mailing list</A
+>. Then read the <A
+HREF="../developer-manual/index.html"
+TARGET="_top"
+>Developer's Manual</A
>.</P
><P
-> 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.</P
+> Once we have added you to the team, you'll have write access to the <A
+HREF="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118"
+TARGET="_top"
+>CVS repository</A
+>, and
+ together we'll find a suitable task for you.</P
></DIV
></DIV
></DIV
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
+SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="index.html"
+ACCESSKEY="P"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="index.html"
+ACCESSKEY="H"
>Home</A
></TD
><TD
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="installation.html"
+ACCESSKEY="N"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff