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- <th colspan="3" align="center">Privoxy Frequently Asked
- Questions</th>
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- accesskey="P">Prev</a></td>
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- accesskey="N">Next</a></td>
- </tr>
- </table>
- <hr align="left" width="100%">
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT1">
- <h1 class="SECT1"><a name="TROUBLE" id="TROUBLE">5.
- Troubleshooting</a></h1>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="REFUSED" id="REFUSED">5.1. I cannot connect
- to any websites. Or, I am getting <span class="QUOTE">"connection
- refused"</span> message with every web page. Why?</a></h3>
-
- <p>There are several possibilities:</p>
-
- <ul>
- <li>
- <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is not running.
- Solution: verify that <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is
- installed correctly, has not crashed, and is indeed running. Turn
- on <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> logging, and look at
- the logs to see what they say.</p>
- </li>
-
- <li>
- <p>Or your browser is configured for a different port than what
- <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is using. Solution: verify
- that <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> and your browser are
- set to the same port (<tt class="LITERAL">listen-address</tt>).</p>
- </li>
-
- <li>
- <p>Or if using a forwarding rule, you have a configuration problem
- or a problem with a host in the forwarding chain. Solution:
- temporarily alter your configuration and take the forwarders out of
- the equation.</p>
- </li>
-
- <li>
- <p>Or you have a firewall that is interfering and blocking you.
- Solution: try disabling or removing the firewall as a simple
- test.</p>
- </li>
- </ul>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="ERROR503" id="ERROR503">5.2. Why am I
- getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</a></h3>
-
- <p>More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking.
- ZoneAlarm has been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not
- running! The solution is to either fight the ZA configuration, or
- uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find something better behaved in its
- place. Other personal firewall type products may cause similar type
- problems if not configured correctly.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="FLUSHIT" id="FLUSHIT">5.3. I just added a
- new rule, but the steenkin ad is still getting through. How?</a></h3>
-
- <p>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
- <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will not be involved. Flush
- the browser's caches, and then try again.</p>
-
- <p>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 <a href=
- "http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info" target=
- "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</a> and see if it really
- matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking spam: a lot of
- tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game. And remember you need
- to block the URL of the ad in question, which may be entirely different
- from the site URL itself. Most ads are hosted on different servers than
- the main site itself. If you right-click on the ad, you should be able
- to get all the relevant information you need. Alternately, you can find
- the correct URL by looking at <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> logs (you may need to enable logging in
- the main config file if its disabled).</p>
-
- <p>Below is a slightly modified real-life log snippet that originates
- with one requested URL: <tt class="LITERAL">www.example.com</tt> (name
- of site was changed for this example, the number of requests is real).
- You can see in this the complexity of what goes into making up this one
- <span class="QUOTE">"page"</span>. There are eight different domains
- involved here, with thirty two separate URLs requested in all, making
- up all manner of images, Shockwave Flash, JavaScript, CSS stylesheets,
- scripts, and other related content. Some of this content is obviously
- <span class="QUOTE">"good"</span> or <span class="QUOTE">"bad"</span>,
- but not all. Many of the more questionable looking requests, are going
- to outside domains that seem to be identifying themselves with
- suspicious looking names, making our job a little easier. <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> has <span class="QUOTE">"crunched"</span>
- (meaning caught and BLOCKED) quite a few items in this example, but
- perhaps missed a few as well.</p>
-
- <table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
+ <head>
+ <title>
+ Troubleshooting
+ </title>
+ <meta name="GENERATOR" content=
+ "Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79">
+ <link rel="HOME" title="Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions" href=
+ "index.html">
+ <link rel="PREVIOUS" title="Miscellaneous" href="misc.html">
+ <link rel="NEXT" title=
+ "Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests" href=
+ "contact.html">
+ <link rel="STYLESHEET" type="text/css" href="../p_doc.css">
+ <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
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+ "#840084" alink="#0000FF">
+ <div class="NAVHEADER">
+ <table summary="Header navigation table" width="100%" border="0"
+ cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
- <td>
- <pre class="SCREEN">
+ <th colspan="3" align="center">
+ Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions
+ </th>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td width="10%" align="left" valign="bottom">
+ <a href="misc.html" accesskey="P">Prev</a>
+ </td>
+ <td width="80%" align="center" valign="bottom">
+ </td>
+ <td width="10%" align="right" valign="bottom">
+ <a href="contact.html" accesskey="N">Next</a>
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+ <hr align="LEFT" width="100%">
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT1">
+ <h1 class="SECT1">
+ <a name="TROUBLE">5. Troubleshooting</a>
+ </h1>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="REFUSED">5.1. I cannot connect to any websites. Or, I am
+ getting <span class="QUOTE">"connection refused"</span> message
+ with every web page. Why?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ There are several possibilities:
+ </p>
+ <ul>
+ <li>
+ <p>
+ <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is not running.
+ Solution: verify that <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
+ is installed correctly, has not crashed, and is indeed running.
+ Turn on <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> logging, and
+ look at the logs to see what they say.
+ </p>
+ </li>
+ <li>
+ <p>
+ Or your browser is configured for a different port than what
+ <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is using. Solution:
+ verify that <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> and your
+ browser are set to the same port (<tt class=
+ "LITERAL">listen-address</tt>).
+ </p>
+ </li>
+ <li>
+ <p>
+ Or if using a forwarding rule, you have a configuration problem
+ or a problem with a host in the forwarding chain. Solution:
+ temporarily alter your configuration and take the forwarders
+ out of the equation.
+ </p>
+ </li>
+ <li>
+ <p>
+ Or you have a firewall that is interfering and blocking you.
+ Solution: try disabling or removing the firewall as a simple
+ test.
+ </p>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="ERROR503">5.2. Why am I getting a 503 Error
+ (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking.
+ ZoneAlarm has been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not
+ running! The solution is to either fight the ZA configuration, or
+ uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find something better behaved in its
+ place. Other personal firewall type products may cause similar type
+ problems if not configured correctly.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="FLUSHIT">5.3. I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad
+ is still getting through. How?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ 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
+ <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will not be involved.
+ Flush the browser's caches, and then try again.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ 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 <a href=
+ "http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info" target=
+ "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</a> and see if it
+ really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking spam: a
+ lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game. And
+ remember you need to block the URL of the ad in question, which may
+ be entirely different from the site URL itself. Most ads are hosted
+ on different servers than the main site itself. If you right-click
+ on the ad, you should be able to get all the relevant information
+ you need. Alternately, you can find the correct URL by looking at
+ <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> logs (you may need to
+ enable logging in the main config file if its disabled).
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Below is a slightly modified real-life log snippet that originates
+ with one requested URL: <tt class="LITERAL">www.example.com</tt>
+ (name of site was changed for this example, the number of requests
+ is real). You can see in this the complexity of what goes into
+ making up this one <span class="QUOTE">"page"</span>. There are
+ eight different domains involved here, with thirty two separate
+ URLs requested in all, making up all manner of images, Shockwave
+ Flash, JavaScript, CSS stylesheets, scripts, and other related
+ content. Some of this content is obviously <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"good"</span> or <span class="QUOTE">"bad"</span>, but not
+ all. Many of the more questionable looking requests, are going to
+ outside domains that seem to be identifying themselves with
+ suspicious looking names, making our job a little easier. <span
+ class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> has <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"crunched"</span> (meaning caught and BLOCKED) quite a few
+ items in this example, but perhaps missed a few as well.
+ </p>
+ <table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
+ <tr>
+ <td>
+<pre class="SCREEN">
Request: www.example.com/
Request: www.example.com/favicon.ico
Request: img.example.com/main.css
Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=58&source=Ua&block=86400 crunch! (Blocked)
Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=a71b9f6504b0c5681fa5&si=Ua
</pre>
- </td>
- </tr>
- </table>
-
- <p>Despite 12 out of 32 requests being blocked, the page looked, and
- seemed to behave perfectly <span class="QUOTE">"normal"</span> (minus
- some ads, of course).</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="BADSITE" id="BADSITE">5.4. One of my
- favorite sites does not work with Privoxy. What can I do?</a></h3>
-
- <p>First verify that it is indeed a <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> problem, by toggling off <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> through <a href=
- "http://config.privoxy.org/toggle" target=
- "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</a> (the toggle feature may
- need to be enabled in the main <tt class="FILENAME">config</tt>), and
- then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
- while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and
- memory caches).</p>
-
- <p>If the problem went away, we know we have a configuration related
- problem. Now go to <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info"
- target="_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</a> and paste the
- full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions are
- being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions files are
- responsible for that. It might be helpful also to look at your logs for
- this site too, to see what else might be happening (note: logging may
- need to be enabled in the main config file). Many sites are complex and
- require a number of related pages to help present their content. Look
- at what else might be used by the page in question, and what of that
- might be <span class="emphasis"><i class=
- "EMPHASIS">required</i></span>. Now, armed with this information, go to
- <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status" target=
- "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</a> and select the
- appropriate actions files for editing.</p>
-
- <p>You can now either look for a section which disables the actions
- that you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site
- there, or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case,
- the recommended way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the
- problem page, and only if the problem persists, disable more and more
- actions until you have identified the culprit. You may or may not want
- to turn the other actions on again. Remember to flush your browser's
- caches in between any such changes!</p>
-
- <p>Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can
- accomplish the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file.
- Probably the easiest way to deal with such problems when editing by
- hand is to add your site to a <tt class="LITERAL">{ fragile }</tt>
- section in <tt class="FILENAME">user.action</tt>, which is an alias
- that turns off most <span class="QUOTE">"dangerous"</span> actions, but
- is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
- your privacy and protection more than necessary,</p>
-
- <p>Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <a href=
- "../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT" target="_top">User Manual
- appendix, Troubleshooting: the Anatomy of an Action</a>. There is also
- an <a href="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES" target=
- "_top">actions tutorial</a> with general configuration information and
- examples.</p>
-
- <p>As a last resort, you can always see if your browser has a setting
- that will bypass the proxy setting for selective sites. Modern browsers
- can do this.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="DUN" id="DUN">5.5. After installing Privoxy,
- I have to log in every time I start IE. What gives?</a></h3>
-
- <p>This is a quirk that affects the installation of <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
- Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The
- symptoms may appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or
- passwords.</p>
-
- <p>When setting up an NT based Windows system with <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> you may find that things do not seem to be
- doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably
- have set up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking
- (DUN) when logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably
- have made this DUN connection available to other accounts that you may
- have set-up on your system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and
- makes accounts suitably configured for the kids.</p>
-
- <p>When setting up <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> in this
- environment you will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet
- Explorer (IE) for the specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
- <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>. When you do this the ICS DUN
- set-up becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no
- difference if you change the DUN connection under the account used to
- set-up the connection. However when you do this from another user you
- will notice that the DUN connection changes to make available to "Me
- only". You will also find that you have to store the password under
- each different user!</p>
-
- <p>The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user
- specific. Each set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE
- store the settings for each user individually. As such this enforces
- individual configurations rather than common ones. Hence the first time
- you use a DUN connection after re-booting your system it may not
- perform as you expect, and prompt you for the password. Just set and
- save the password again and all should be OK.</p>
-
- <p>[Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="FTP" id="FTP">5.6. I cannot connect to any
- FTP sites. Privoxy is blocking me.</a></h3>
-
- <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> cannot act as a proxy for
- FTP traffic, so do not configure your browser to use <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> as an FTP proxy. The same is true for
- <span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">any protocol other than HTTP
- or HTTPS (SSL)</i></span>.</p>
-
- <p>Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a
- site, with a URL like <tt class="LITERAL">ftp://ftp.example.com</tt>,
- your browser is making an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So
- while your browser may speak FTP, <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> does not, and cannot proxy such
- traffic.</p>
-
- <p>To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <span class=
- "QUOTE">"proxy"</span> setting, which will enable various protocols,
- including <span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">both</i></span>
- HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is possible to accidentally enable FTP
- proxying in these cases. And of course, if this happens, <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will indeed cause problems since it does
- not know FTP. Newer version will give a sane error message if a FTP
- connection is attempted. Just disable the FTP setting and all will be
- well again.</p>
-
- <p>Will <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> ever proxy FTP
- traffic? Unlikely. There just is not much reason, and the work to make
- this happen is more than it may seem.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="MACOSXIE" id="MACOSXIE">5.7. In Mac OS X, I
- can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use Privoxy as the HTTP
- proxy.</a></h3>
-
- <p>Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects
- system-wide network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open
- System Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane
- that comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)"
- checkbox is checked and enter <tt class="LITERAL">127.0.0.1</tt> in the
- entry field. Enter <tt class="LITERAL">8118</tt> in the Port field. The
- next time you start IE, it should reflect these values.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="MACOSXUNINSTALL" id="MACOSXUNINSTALL">5.8.
- In Mac OS X, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
- uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient
- privileges to empty the trash.</a></h3>
-
- <p>Note: This ONLY applies to privoxy 3.0.6 and earlier.</p>
-
- <p>Just dragging the <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> folder to
- the trash is not enough to delete it. <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> supplies an <span class=
- "APPLICATION">uninstall.command</span> file that takes care of these
- details. Open the trash, drag the <span class=
- "APPLICATION">uninstall.command</span> file out of the trash and
- double-click on it. You will be prompted for confirmation and the
- administration password.</p>
-
- <p>The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the
- trash from the desktop should make it appear empty again.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="MACOSXIMAGES" id="MACOSXIMAGES">5.9. In Mac
- OS X Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I experience
- random delays in page loading. I'm using <tt class=
- "LITERAL">localhost</tt> as my browser's proxy setting.</a></h3>
-
- <p>We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in Mac OS X, but don't
- fully understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting
- to <tt class="LITERAL">127.0.0.1</tt> instead of <tt class=
- "LITERAL">localhost</tt> works around the problem.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="MACOSXACCOUNTDELETION" id=
- "MACOSXACCOUNTDELETION">5.10. I just upgraded to Mac OS X 10.9
- (Mavericks) and now <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> has
- stopped working.</a></h3>
-
- <p>The upgrade process to Mac OS X Mavericks (10.9) from an earlier
- version of OS X deletes all user accounts that are either not part of
- OS X itself or are not interactive user accounts (ones you log in
- with). Since, for the sake of security, <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> runs as a non-privileged user that is
- created by its installer (_privoxy), it can no longer start up once
- that account gets deleted. The solution is to perform a complete
- uninstall using the supplied <span class=
- "APPLICATION">uninstall.command</span> script (either back up your
- configuration files or select to not have the uninstaller remove them
- when it prompts you) and then reinstall <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> using the installer package and merge in
- your configuration.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="NOHOSTNAME" id="NOHOSTNAME">5.11. My logs
- show many <span class="QUOTE">"Unable to get my own hostname"</span>
- lines. Why?</a></h3>
-
- <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> tries to get the hostname
- of the system its running on from the IP address of the system
- interface it is bound to (from the <tt class="FILENAME">config</tt>
- file <span class="emphasis"><i class=
- "EMPHASIS">listen-address</i></span> setting). If the system cannot
- supply this information, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> logs
- this condition.</p>
-
- <p>Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration
- error. It is not a fatal error to <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> however, but may result in a much slower
- response from <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> on some
- platforms due to DNS timeouts.</p>
-
- <p>This can be caused by a problem with the local <tt class=
- "FILENAME">hosts</tt> file. If this file has been changed from the
- original, try reverting it to see if that helps. Make sure whatever
- name(s) are used for the local system, that they resolve both ways.</p>
-
- <p>You should also be able to work around the problem with the <a href=
- "../user-manual/config.html#HOSTNAME" target="_top">hostname
- option</a>.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="INUSE" id="INUSE">5.12. When I try to launch
- Privoxy, I get an error message <span class="QUOTE">"port 8118 is
- already in use"</span> (or similar wording). Why?</a></h3>
-
- <p>Port 8118 is <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> default TCP
- <span class="QUOTE">"listening"</span> port. Typically this message
- would mean that there is already one instance of <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> running, and your system is actually
- trying to start a second <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> on
- the same port, which will not work. (You can have multiple instances
- but they must be assigned different ports.) How and why this might
- happen varies from platform to platform, but you need to check your
- installation and start-up procedures.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="DEMORONIZER" id="DEMORONIZER">5.13. Pages
- with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.</a></h3>
-
- <p>This may be the result of an overly aggressive filter. The filters
- that are enabled in the default configuration aren't expected to cause
- problems like this. If you enabled the <span class=
- "QUOTE">"demoronizer"</span> filter, please try temporarily disabling
- it.</p>
-
- <p>If that doesn't help, temporarily disable all filters to see if
- another filter could be the culprit. If the problem disappears, enable
- the filters one by one, until the problem reappears and the offending
- filter is found.</p>
-
- <p>Once the problem-causing filter is known, it can be fixed or
- disabled.</p>
-
- <p>Upgrading <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>, or going to the
- most recent <tt class="FILENAME">default.action</tt> file available
- from <a href=
- "https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118" target=
- "_top">SourceForge</a> might be worth a try, too.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="DEMORONIZER2" id="DEMORONIZER2">5.14. Why
- are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy is
- used?</a></h3>
-
- <p>This may also be caused by an (<a href=
- "trouble.html#DEMORONIZER">overly aggressive filter</a> in conjunction
- with a web server that is misreporting the content type. By default
- binary files are exempted from <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> filtering (unless the web server by
- mistake says the file is something else).</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="DEMORONIZER3" id="DEMORONIZER3">5.15. What
- is the <span class="QUOTE">"demoronizer"</span> and why is it
- there?</a></h3>
-
- <p>The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML
- pages which were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used
- proprietary extensions to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1),
- which has caused problems for pages that are viewed with non-Microsoft
- products (and are expecting to see a standard set of fonts). The
- demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages displayed correctly.
- <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> borrowed from this script,
- introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn
- could correct these errors on the fly.</p>
-
- <p>But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious
- problems in some other situations.</p>
-
- <p>If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need
- to view pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then
- it will cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <span class=
- "emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">should not be on</i></span>.</p>
-
- <p>On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you
- occasionally notice weird characters on pages, you might want to try
- it.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="WINDOWOPEN" id="WINDOWOPEN">5.16. Why do I
- keep seeing <span class="QUOTE">"PrivoxyWindowOpen()"</span> in raw
- source code?</a></h3>
-
- <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is attempting to disable
- malicious <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript" target=
- "_top">Javascript</a> in this case, with the <tt class=
- "LITERAL">unsolicited-popups</tt> filter. <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> cannot tell very well <span class=
- "QUOTE">"good"</span> code snippets from <span class=
- "QUOTE">"bad"</span> code snippets.</p>
-
- <p>If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without
- problems, then this is good, and likely some pop-up window was
- disabled. If you see this where it is causing a problem, such as a
- downloaded program source code file, then you should set an exception
- for this site or page such that the integrity of the page stays in tact
- by disabling all filtering.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="DNSERRORS" id="DNSERRORS">5.17. I am getting
- too many DNS errors like <span class="QUOTE">"404 No Such
- Domain"</span>. Why can't Privoxy do this better?</a></h3>
-
- <p>There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS
- resolution is done by the underlying operating system -- not
- <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> itself. <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> merely initiates the process and hands it
- off, and then later reports whatever the outcome was and tries to give
- a coherent message if there seems to be a problem. In some cases, this
- might otherwise be mitigated by the browser itself which might try some
- work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g adding <span class=
- "QUOTE">"www."</span> to the URL).</p>
-
- <p>In other cases, if <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is being
- chained with another proxy, this could complicate the issue, and cause
- undue delays and timeouts. In the case of a <span class=
- "QUOTE">"socks4a"</span> proxy, the socks server handles all the DNS.
- <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> would just be the <span class=
- "QUOTE">"messenger"</span> which is reporting whatever problem occurred
- downstream, and not the root cause of the error.</p>
-
- <p>In any case, versions newer than 3.0.3 include various improvements
- to help <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> better handle these
- cases.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="ALLCPU" id="ALLCPU">5.18. At one site
- Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking all CPU. Why is this?</a></h3>
-
- <p>This is probably a manifestation of the <span class="QUOTE">"100%
- cpu"</span> problem that occurs on pages containing many (thousands
- upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines are in the raw HTML
- source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the pattern
- matching in <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> page filtering
- mechanism is trying to match against absurdly long strings and this
- becomes very CPU-intensive, taking a long, long time to complete.</p>
-
- <p>Until a better solution comes along, disable filtering on these
- pages, particularly the <tt class="LITERAL">js-annoyances</tt> and
- <tt class="LITERAL">unsolicited-popups</tt> filters. If you run into
- this problem with a recent <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
- version, please send a problem report.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="SLOWCRAWL" id="SLOWCRAWL">5.19. I just
- installed Privoxy, and all my browsing has slowed to a crawl. What
- gives?</a></h3>
-
- <p>This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users
- world-wide, it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent
- interaction of software components such as anti-virus software, spyware
- protectors, personal firewalls or similar components. Try disabling (or
- uninstalling) these one at a time and see if that helps. Either way, if
- you are using a recent <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
- version, please report the problem.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="PREVENTCOMP" id="PREVENTCOMP">5.20. Why do
- my filters work on some sites but not on others?</a></h3>
-
- <p>It's probably due to compression. It is a common practice for web
- servers to send their content <span class="QUOTE">"compressed"</span>
- in order to speed things up, and then let the browser <span class=
- "QUOTE">"uncompress"</span> them. When compiled with zlib support
- <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can decompress content before
- filtering, otherwise you may want to enable <a href=
- "../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION" target=
- "_top">prevent-compression</a>.</p>
-
- <p>As of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> 3.0.9, zlib support
- is enabled in the default builds.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="SSL-WARNINGS" id="SSL-WARNINGS">5.21. On
- some HTTPS sites my browser warns me about unauthenticated content, the
- URL bar doesn't get highlighted and the lock symbol appears to be
- broken. What's going on?</a></h3>
-
- <p>Probably the browser is requesting ads through HTTPS and
- <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is blocking the requests.
- Privoxy's error messages are delivered unencrypted and while it's
- obvious for the browser that the HTTPS request is already blocked by
- the proxy, some warn about unauthenticated content anyway.</p>
-
- <p>To work around the problem you can redirect those requests to an
- invalid local address instead of blocking them. While the redirects
- aren't encrypted either, many browsers don't care. They simply follow
- the redirect, fail to reach a server and display an error message
- instead of the ad.</p>
-
- <p>To do that, enable logging to figure out which requests get blocked
- by <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> and add the hosts (no path
- patterns) to a section like this:</p>
-
- <table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
- <tr>
- <td>
- <pre class="SCREEN">
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+
+ <p>
+ Despite 12 out of 32 requests being blocked, the page looked, and
+ seemed to behave perfectly <span class="QUOTE">"normal"</span>
+ (minus some ads, of course).
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="BADSITE">5.4. One of my favorite sites does not work with
+ Privoxy. What can I do?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ First verify that it is indeed a <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> problem, by toggling off <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> through <a href=
+ "http://config.privoxy.org/toggle" target=
+ "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</a> (the toggle feature may
+ need to be enabled in the main <tt class="FILENAME">config</tt>),
+ and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the
+ shift key while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your
+ browser's disk and memory caches).
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ If the problem went away, we know we have a configuration related
+ problem. Now go to <a href=
+ "http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info" target=
+ "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</a> and paste the
+ full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions
+ are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions
+ files are responsible for that. It might be helpful also to look at
+ your logs for this site too, to see what else might be happening
+ (note: logging may need to be enabled in the main config file).
+ Many sites are complex and require a number of related pages to
+ help present their content. Look at what else might be used by the
+ page in question, and what of that might be <span class=
+ "emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">required</i></span>. Now, armed with
+ this information, go to <a href=
+ "http://config.privoxy.org/show-status" target=
+ "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</a> and select the
+ appropriate actions files for editing.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ You can now either look for a section which disables the actions
+ that you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your
+ site there, or make up a completely new section for your site. In
+ any case, the recommended way is to disable only the prime suspect,
+ reload the problem page, and only if the problem persists, disable
+ more and more actions until you have identified the culprit. You
+ may or may not want to turn the other actions on again. Remember to
+ flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can
+ accomplish the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file.
+ Probably the easiest way to deal with such problems when editing by
+ hand is to add your site to a <tt class="LITERAL">{ fragile }</tt>
+ section in <tt class="FILENAME">user.action</tt>, which is an alias
+ that turns off most <span class="QUOTE">"dangerous"</span> actions,
+ but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus
+ lower your privacy and protection more than necessary,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <a href=
+ "../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT" target="_top">User
+ Manual appendix, Troubleshooting: the Anatomy of an Action</a>.
+ There is also an <a href=
+ "../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES" target=
+ "_top">actions tutorial</a> with general configuration information
+ and examples.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ As a last resort, you can always see if your browser has a setting
+ that will bypass the proxy setting for selective sites. Modern
+ browsers can do this.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="DUN">5.5. After installing Privoxy, I have to log in every
+ time I start IE. What gives?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ This is a quirk that affects the installation of <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer
+ and Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The
+ symptoms may appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or
+ passwords.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When setting up an NT based Windows system with <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> you may find that things do not seem
+ to be doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will
+ probably have set up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up
+ Networking (DUN) when logged in with administrator privileges. You
+ will probably have made this DUN connection available to other
+ accounts that you may have set-up on your system. E.g. Mum or Dad
+ sets up the system and makes accounts suitably configured for the
+ kids.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When setting up <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> in this
+ environment you will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet
+ Explorer (IE) for the specific DUN connection on which you wish to
+ use <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>. When you do this the
+ ICS DUN set-up becomes user specific. In this instance you will see
+ no difference if you change the DUN connection under the account
+ used to set-up the connection. However when you do this from
+ another user you will notice that the DUN connection changes to
+ make available to "Me only". You will also find that you have to
+ store the password under each different user!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user
+ specific. Each set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE
+ store the settings for each user individually. As such this
+ enforces individual configurations rather than common ones. Hence
+ the first time you use a DUN connection after re-booting your
+ system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for the
+ password. Just set and save the password again and all should be
+ OK.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ [Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="FTP">5.6. I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy is
+ blocking me.</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> cannot act as a proxy for
+ FTP traffic, so do not configure your browser to use <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> as an FTP proxy. The same is true for
+ <span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">any protocol other than
+ HTTP or HTTPS (SSL)</i></span>.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a
+ site, with a URL like <tt class=
+ "LITERAL">ftp://ftp.example.com</tt>, your browser is making an FTP
+ connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
+ speak FTP, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> does not, and
+ cannot proxy such traffic.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"proxy"</span> setting, which will enable various
+ protocols, including <span class="emphasis"><i class=
+ "EMPHASIS">both</i></span> HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is possible
+ to accidentally enable FTP proxying in these cases. And of course,
+ if this happens, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will
+ indeed cause problems since it does not know FTP. Newer version
+ will give a sane error message if a FTP connection is attempted.
+ Just disable the FTP setting and all will be well again.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Will <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> ever proxy FTP
+ traffic? Unlikely. There just is not much reason, and the work to
+ make this happen is more than it may seem.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="MACOSXIE">5.7. In Mac OS X, I can't configure Microsoft
+ Internet Explorer to use Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects
+ system-wide network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy,
+ open System Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the
+ settings pane that comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the
+ "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox is checked and enter <tt class=
+ "LITERAL">127.0.0.1</tt> in the entry field. Enter <tt class=
+ "LITERAL">8118</tt> in the Port field. The next time you start IE,
+ it should reflect these values.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="MACOSXUNINSTALL">5.8. In Mac OS X, I dragged the Privoxy
+ folder to the trash in order to uninstall it. Now the finder tells
+ me I don't have sufficient privileges to empty the trash.</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ Note: This ONLY applies to privoxy 3.0.6 and earlier.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Just dragging the <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> folder
+ to the trash is not enough to delete it. <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> supplies an <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">uninstall.command</span> file that takes care of
+ these details. Open the trash, drag the <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">uninstall.command</span> file out of the trash and
+ double-click on it. You will be prompted for confirmation and the
+ administration password.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the
+ trash from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="MACOSXIMAGES">5.9. In Mac OS X Panther (10.3), images
+ often fail to load and/or I experience random delays in page
+ loading. I'm using <tt class="LITERAL">localhost</tt> as my
+ browser's proxy setting.</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in Mac OS X, but
+ don't fully understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the
+ proxy setting to <tt class="LITERAL">127.0.0.1</tt> instead of <tt
+ class="LITERAL">localhost</tt> works around the problem.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="MACOSXACCOUNTDELETION">5.10. I just upgraded to Mac OS X
+ 10.9 (Mavericks) and now <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
+ has stopped working.</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ The upgrade process to Mac OS X Mavericks (10.9) from an earlier
+ version of OS X deletes all user accounts that are either not part
+ of OS X itself or are not interactive user accounts (ones you log
+ in with). Since, for the sake of security, <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> runs as a non-privileged user that is
+ created by its installer (_privoxy), it can no longer start up once
+ that account gets deleted. The solution is to perform a complete
+ uninstall using the supplied <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">uninstall.command</span> script (either back up your
+ configuration files or select to not have the uninstaller remove
+ them when it prompts you) and then reinstall <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> using the installer package and merge
+ in your configuration.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="NOHOSTNAME">5.11. My logs show many <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"Unable to get my own hostname"</span> lines. Why?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> tries to get the hostname
+ of the system its running on from the IP address of the system
+ interface it is bound to (from the <tt class="FILENAME">config</tt>
+ file <span class="emphasis"><i class=
+ "EMPHASIS">listen-address</i></span> setting). If the system cannot
+ supply this information, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
+ logs this condition.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration
+ error. It is not a fatal error to <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> however, but may result in a much
+ slower response from <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> on
+ some platforms due to DNS timeouts.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ This can be caused by a problem with the local <tt class=
+ "FILENAME">hosts</tt> file. If this file has been changed from the
+ original, try reverting it to see if that helps. Make sure whatever
+ name(s) are used for the local system, that they resolve both ways.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ You should also be able to work around the problem with the <a
+ href="../user-manual/config.html#HOSTNAME" target="_top">hostname
+ option</a>.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="INUSE">5.12. When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an error
+ message <span class="QUOTE">"port 8118 is already in use"</span>
+ (or similar wording). Why?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ Port 8118 is <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> default TCP
+ <span class="QUOTE">"listening"</span> port. Typically this message
+ would mean that there is already one instance of <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> running, and your system is actually
+ trying to start a second <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
+ on the same port, which will not work. (You can have multiple
+ instances but they must be assigned different ports.) How and why
+ this might happen varies from platform to platform, but you need to
+ check your installation and start-up procedures.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="DEMORONIZER">5.13. Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ This may be the result of an overly aggressive filter. The filters
+ that are enabled in the default configuration aren't expected to
+ cause problems like this. If you enabled the <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"demoronizer"</span> filter, please try temporarily
+ disabling it.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ If that doesn't help, temporarily disable all filters to see if
+ another filter could be the culprit. If the problem disappears,
+ enable the filters one by one, until the problem reappears and the
+ offending filter is found.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Once the problem-causing filter is known, it can be fixed or
+ disabled.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Upgrading <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>, or going to the
+ most recent <tt class="FILENAME">default.action</tt> file available
+ from <a href=
+ "https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118"
+ target="_top">SourceForge</a> might be worth a try, too.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="DEMORONIZER2">5.14. Why are binary files (such as images)
+ corrupted when Privoxy is used?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ This may also be caused by an (<a href=
+ "trouble.html#DEMORONIZER">overly aggressive filter</a> in
+ conjunction with a web server that is misreporting the content
+ type. By default binary files are exempted from <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> filtering (unless the web server by
+ mistake says the file is something else).
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="DEMORONIZER3">5.15. What is the <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"demoronizer"</span> and why is it there?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML
+ pages which were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has
+ used proprietary extensions to standardized font encodings (ISO
+ 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages that are viewed with
+ non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a standard set of
+ fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
+ displayed correctly. <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
+ borrowed from this script, introducing a filter based on the
+ original demoronizer, which in turn could correct these errors on
+ the fly.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious
+ problems in some other situations.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you
+ need to view pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or
+ Chinese), then it will cause corruption of the fonts, and thus
+ <span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">should not be
+ on</i></span>.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you
+ occasionally notice weird characters on pages, you might want to
+ try it.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="WINDOWOPEN">5.16. Why do I keep seeing <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"PrivoxyWindowOpen()"</span> in raw source code?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is attempting to disable
+ malicious <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript" target=
+ "_top">Javascript</a> in this case, with the <tt class=
+ "LITERAL">unsolicited-popups</tt> filter. <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> cannot tell very well <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"good"</span> code snippets from <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"bad"</span> code snippets.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without
+ problems, then this is good, and likely some pop-up window was
+ disabled. If you see this where it is causing a problem, such as a
+ downloaded program source code file, then you should set an
+ exception for this site or page such that the integrity of the page
+ stays in tact by disabling all filtering.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="DNSERRORS">5.17. I am getting too many DNS errors like
+ <span class="QUOTE">"404 No Such Domain"</span>. Why can't Privoxy
+ do this better?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS
+ resolution is done by the underlying operating system -- not <span
+ class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> itself. <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> merely initiates the process and hands
+ it off, and then later reports whatever the outcome was and tries
+ to give a coherent message if there seems to be a problem. In some
+ cases, this might otherwise be mitigated by the browser itself
+ which might try some work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g
+ adding <span class="QUOTE">"www."</span> to the URL).
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In other cases, if <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is
+ being chained with another proxy, this could complicate the issue,
+ and cause undue delays and timeouts. In the case of a <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"socks4a"</span> proxy, the socks server handles all the
+ DNS. <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> would just be the
+ <span class="QUOTE">"messenger"</span> which is reporting whatever
+ problem occurred downstream, and not the root cause of the error.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In any case, versions newer than 3.0.3 include various improvements
+ to help <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> better handle
+ these cases.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="ALLCPU">5.18. At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts
+ taking all CPU. Why is this?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ This is probably a manifestation of the <span class="QUOTE">"100%
+ cpu"</span> problem that occurs on pages containing many (thousands
+ upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines are in the raw HTML
+ source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the
+ pattern matching in <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> page
+ filtering mechanism is trying to match against absurdly long
+ strings and this becomes very CPU-intensive, taking a long, long
+ time to complete.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Until a better solution comes along, disable filtering on these
+ pages, particularly the <tt class="LITERAL">js-annoyances</tt> and
+ <tt class="LITERAL">unsolicited-popups</tt> filters. If you run
+ into this problem with a recent <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> version, please send a problem report.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="SLOWCRAWL">5.19. I just installed Privoxy, and all my
+ browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users
+ world-wide, it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent
+ interaction of software components such as anti-virus software,
+ spyware protectors, personal firewalls or similar components. Try
+ disabling (or uninstalling) these one at a time and see if that
+ helps. Either way, if you are using a recent <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> version, please report the problem.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="PREVENTCOMP">5.20. Why do my filters work on some sites
+ but not on others?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ It's probably due to compression. It is a common practice for web
+ servers to send their content <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"compressed"</span> in order to speed things up, and then
+ let the browser <span class="QUOTE">"uncompress"</span> them. When
+ compiled with zlib support <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>
+ can decompress content before filtering, otherwise you may want to
+ enable <a href=
+ "../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION" target=
+ "_top">prevent-compression</a>.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ As of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> 3.0.9, zlib support
+ is enabled in the default builds.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="SSL-WARNINGS">5.21. On some HTTPS sites my browser warns
+ me about unauthenticated content, the URL bar doesn't get
+ highlighted and the lock symbol appears to be broken. What's going
+ on?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ Probably the browser is requesting ads through HTTPS and <span
+ class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is blocking the requests.
+ Privoxy's error messages are delivered unencrypted and while it's
+ obvious for the browser that the HTTPS request is already blocked
+ by the proxy, some warn about unauthenticated content anyway.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To work around the problem you can redirect those requests to an
+ invalid local address instead of blocking them. While the redirects
+ aren't encrypted either, many browsers don't care. They simply
+ follow the redirect, fail to reach a server and display an error
+ message instead of the ad.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To do that, enable logging to figure out which requests get blocked
+ by <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> and add the hosts (no
+ path patterns) to a section like this:
+ </p>
+ <table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
+ <tr>
+ <td>
+<pre class="SCREEN">
{+redirect{http://127.0.0.1:0/} -block -limit-connect}
.ivwbox.de:443/
</pre>
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+
+ <p>
+ Additionally you have to configure your browser to contact <span
+ class="QUOTE">"127.0.0.1:0"</span> directly (instead of through
+ <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>).
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To add a proxy exception in <span class="APPLICATION">Mozilla
+ Firefox</span> open the <span class="QUOTE">"Preferences"</span>,
+ click the <span class="QUOTE">"Settings"</span> button located on
+ the <span class="QUOTE">"Network"</span> tab in the <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"Advanced"</span> section, and add <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"127.0.0.1:0"</span> in the <span class="QUOTE">"No Proxy
+ for:"</span> field.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="SE-LINUX">5.22. I get selinux error messages. How can I
+ fix this?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ Please report the problem to the creator of your selinux policies.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The problem is that some selinux policy writers aren't familiar
+ with the application they are trying to <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"secure"</span> and thus create policies that make no
+ sense.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> case the problem
+ usually is that the policy only allows outgoing connections for
+ certain destination ports (e.g. 80 and 443). While this may cover
+ the standard ports, websites occasionally use other ports as well.
+ This isn't a security problem and therefore <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> default configuration doesn't block
+ these requests.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ If you really want to block these ports (and don't be able to load
+ websites that don't use standard ports), you should configure
+ Privoxy to block these ports as well, so it doesn't trigger the
+ selinux warnings.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="GENTOO-RICERS">5.23. I compiled <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> with Gentoo's portage and it appears
+ to be very slow. Why?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ Probably you unintentionally compiled <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> without threading support in which
+ case requests have to be serialized and only one can be served at
+ the same time.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Check your <span class="QUOTE">"USE"</span> flags and make sure
+ they include <span class="QUOTE">"threads"</span>. If they don't,
+ add the flag and rebuild <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ If you compiled <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> with
+ threading support (on POSIX-based systems), the <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"Conditional #defines"</span> section on <a href=
+ "http://config.privoxy.org/show-status" target=
+ "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</a> will list <span
+ class="QUOTE">"FEATURE_PTHREAD"</span> as <span class=
+ "QUOTE">"enabled"</span>.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="TAINTED-SOCKETS">5.24. What are tainted sockets and how do
+ I prevent them?</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> marks sockets as tainted
+ when it can't use them to serve additional requests. This does not
+ necessarily mean that something went wrong and information about
+ tainted sockets is only logged if connection debugging is enabled
+ (debug 2).
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ For example server sockets that were used for CONNECT requests
+ (which are used to tunnel https:// requests) are considered tainted
+ once the client closed its connection to <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>. Technically <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> could keep the connection to the
+ server open, but the server would not accept requests that do not
+ belong to the previous TLS/SSL session (and the client may even
+ have terminated the session).
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Server sockets are also marked tainted when a client requests a
+ resource, but closes the connection before <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> has completely received (and
+ forwarded) the resource to the client. In this case the server
+ would (probably) accept additional requests, but <span class=
+ "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> could not get the response without
+ completely reading the leftovers from the previous response.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ These are just two examples, there are currently a bit more than 25
+ scenarios in which a socket is considered tainted.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ While sockets can also be marked tainted as a result of a technical
+ problem that may be worth fixing, the problem will be explicitly
+ logged as error.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="SECT2">
+ <h3 class="SECT2">
+ <a name="PCRE-STACK-LIMIT">5.25. After adding my custom filters,
+ <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> crashes when visitting
+ certain websites</a>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ This can happen if your custom filters require more memory than
+ <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is allowed to use. Usually
+ the problem is that the operating system enforces a stack size
+ limit that isn't sufficient.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Unless the problem occurs with the filters available in the default
+ configuration, this is not considered a Privoxy bug.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To prevent the crashes you can rewrite your filter to use less
+ ressources, increase the relevant memory limit or recompile pcre to
+ use less stack space. For details please see the <a href=
+ "http://pcre.org/original/doc/html/pcrestack.html" target=
+ "_top">pcrestack man page</a> and the documentation of your
+ operating system.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="NAVFOOTER">
+ <hr align="LEFT" width="100%">
+ <table summary="Footer navigation table" width="100%" border="0"
+ cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
+ <tr>
+ <td width="33%" align="left" valign="top">
+ <a href="misc.html" accesskey="P">Prev</a>
+ </td>
+ <td width="34%" align="center" valign="top">
+ <a href="index.html" accesskey="H">Home</a>
+ </td>
+ <td width="33%" align="right" valign="top">
+ <a href="contact.html" accesskey="N">Next</a>
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td width="33%" align="left" valign="top">
+ Miscellaneous
+ </td>
+ <td width="34%" align="center" valign="top">
+
+ </td>
+ <td width="33%" align="right" valign="top">
+ Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
</td>
</tr>
</table>
-
- <p>Additionally you have to configure your browser to contact
- <span class="QUOTE">"127.0.0.1:0"</span> directly (instead of through
- <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>).</p>
-
- <p>To add a proxy exception in <span class="APPLICATION">Mozilla
- Firefox</span> open the <span class="QUOTE">"Preferences"</span>, click
- the <span class="QUOTE">"Settings"</span> button located on the
- <span class="QUOTE">"Network"</span> tab in the <span class=
- "QUOTE">"Advanced"</span> section, and add <span class=
- "QUOTE">"127.0.0.1:0"</span> in the <span class="QUOTE">"No Proxy
- for:"</span> field.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="SE-LINUX" id="SE-LINUX">5.22. I get selinux
- error messages. How can I fix this?</a></h3>
-
- <p>Please report the problem to the creator of your selinux
- policies.</p>
-
- <p>The problem is that some selinux policy writers aren't familiar with
- the application they are trying to <span class="QUOTE">"secure"</span>
- and thus create policies that make no sense.</p>
-
- <p>In <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> case the problem
- usually is that the policy only allows outgoing connections for certain
- destination ports (e.g. 80 and 443). While this may cover the standard
- ports, websites occasionally use other ports as well. This isn't a
- security problem and therefore <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> default configuration doesn't block
- these requests.</p>
-
- <p>If you really want to block these ports (and don't be able to load
- websites that don't use standard ports), you should configure Privoxy
- to block these ports as well, so it doesn't trigger the selinux
- warnings.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="GENTOO-RICERS" id="GENTOO-RICERS">5.23. I
- compiled <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> with Gentoo's portage
- and it appears to be very slow. Why?</a></h3>
-
- <p>Probably you unintentionally compiled <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> without threading support in which case
- requests have to be serialized and only one can be served at the same
- time.</p>
-
- <p>Check your <span class="QUOTE">"USE"</span> flags and make sure they
- include <span class="QUOTE">"threads"</span>. If they don't, add the
- flag and rebuild <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>.</p>
-
- <p>If you compiled <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> with
- threading support (on POSIX-based systems), the <span class=
- "QUOTE">"Conditional #defines"</span> section on <a href=
- "http://config.privoxy.org/show-status" target=
- "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</a> will list <span class=
- "QUOTE">"FEATURE_PTHREAD"</span> as <span class=
- "QUOTE">"enabled"</span>.</p>
</div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="TAINTED-SOCKETS" id="TAINTED-SOCKETS">5.24.
- What are tainted sockets and how do I prevent them?</a></h3>
-
- <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> marks sockets as tainted
- when it can't use them to serve additional requests. This does not
- necessarily mean that something went wrong and information about
- tainted sockets is only logged if connection debugging is enabled
- (debug 2).</p>
-
- <p>For example server sockets that were used for CONNECT requests
- (which are used to tunnel https:// requests) are considered tainted
- once the client closed its connection to <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>. Technically <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> could keep the connection to the server
- open, but the server would not accept requests that do not belong to
- the previous TLS/SSL session (and the client may even have terminated
- the session).</p>
-
- <p>Server sockets are also marked tainted when a client requests a
- resource, but closes the connection before <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> has completely received (and forwarded)
- the resource to the client. In this case the server would (probably)
- accept additional requests, but <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> could not get the response without
- completely reading the leftovers from the previous response.</p>
-
- <p>These are just two examples, there are currently a bit more than 25
- scenarios in which a socket is considered tainted.</p>
-
- <p>While sockets can also be marked tainted as a result of a technical
- problem that may be worth fixing, the problem will be explicitly logged
- as error.</p>
- </div>
-
- <div class="SECT2">
- <h3 class="SECT2"><a name="PCRE-STACK-LIMIT" id=
- "PCRE-STACK-LIMIT">5.25. After adding my custom filters, <span class=
- "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> crashes when visitting certain
- websites</a></h3>
-
- <p>This can happen if your custom filters require more memory than
- <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is allowed to use. Usually the
- problem is that the operating system enforces a stack size limit that
- isn't sufficient.</p>
-
- <p>Unless the problem occurs with the filters available in the default
- configuration, this is not considered a Privoxy bug.</p>
-
- <p>To prevent the crashes you can rewrite your filter to use less
- ressources, increase the relevant memory limit or recompile pcre to use
- less stack space. For details please see the <a href=
- "http://pcre.org/original/doc/html/pcrestack.html" target=
- "_top">pcrestack man page</a> and the documentation of your operating
- system.</p>
- </div>
- </div>
-
- <div class="NAVFOOTER">
- <hr align="left" width="100%">
-
- <table summary="Footer navigation table" width="100%" border="0"
- cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
- <tr>
- <td width="33%" align="left" valign="top"><a href="misc.html"
- accesskey="P">Prev</a></td>
-
- <td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"><a href="index.html"
- accesskey="H">Home</a></td>
-
- <td width="33%" align="right" valign="top"><a href="contact.html"
- accesskey="N">Next</a></td>
- </tr>
-
- <tr>
- <td width="33%" align="left" valign="top">Miscellaneous</td>
-
- <td width="34%" align="center" valign="top"> </td>
-
- <td width="33%" align="right" valign="top">Contacting the developers,
- Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</td>
- </tr>
- </table>
- </div>
-</body>
+ </body>
</html>
+
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff