X-Git-Url: http://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fsource%2Ffaq.sgml;h=098538a20a973e59fd33498525efef0e7e96a36f;hp=7d5bc7216228025179b1d6bc0dbda8b11fc66397;hb=73ee407f47ef75d85d1432f3c2665b05fa0c4926;hpb=7e1a006dd2d882628f2f8041b043ad4e049a611e diff --git a/doc/source/faq.sgml b/doc/source/faq.sgml index 7d5bc721..098538a2 100644 --- a/doc/source/faq.sgml +++ b/doc/source/faq.sgml @@ -8,10 +8,10 @@ - - - - + + + + @@ -21,15 +21,11 @@ Privoxy"> ]> - Copyright &my-copy; 2001-2014 by + Copyright &my-copy; 2001-2020 by Privoxy Developers -$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.120 2016/04/09 10:23:54 fabiankeil Exp $ - @@ -140,9 +130,6 @@ Hal. contact the developers. - - - @@ -169,9 +156,9 @@ me? strengths is that it is highly configurable giving you the ability to completely personalize your installation. Being familiar with, or at least having an interest in learning about HTTP and other networking - protocols, HTML, and - Regular + url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Http">HTTP and other networking + protocols, HTML, and + Regular Expressions will be a big plus and will help you get the most out of &my-app;. A new installation just includes a very basic configuration. The user @@ -181,9 +168,9 @@ me? Much of Privoxy's configuration can be done - with a Web browser. + with a Web browser. But there are areas where configuration is done using a - text editor + text editor to edit configuration files. Also note that the web-based action editor doesn't use authentication and should only be enabled in environments where all clients with access to &my-app; listening port can be trusted. @@ -193,13 +180,13 @@ me? What is a <quote>proxy</quote>? How does Privoxy work? - A web proxy + A web proxy is a service, based on a software such as &my-app;, that clients (i.e. browsers) can use instead of connecting to web servers directly. The clients then ask the proxy to request objects (web pages, images, movies etc) on their behalf and to forward the data to the clients. It is a go-between. For details, see - Wikipedia's proxy definition. + Wikipedia's proxy definition. There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security (firewalling), @@ -274,7 +261,7 @@ from the old Junkbuster? Junkbuster left off. Privoxy still blocks ads and banners, still manages cookies, and still + url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies, and still helps protect your privacy. But, most of these features have been enhanced, and many new ones have been added, all in the same vein. @@ -414,12 +401,11 @@ Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy at all? Is there is a license or fee? What about a warranty? Registration? - Privoxy is free software and licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2. - 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. Or the LICENSE file - that should be included. + Privoxy is free software. + It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of its + 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. @@ -478,8 +464,8 @@ warranty? Registration? So first thing, subscribe to the Privoxy Users - or the Privoxy + url="https://lists.privoxy.org/mailman/listinfo/privoxy-users">Privoxy Users + or the Privoxy Developers mailing list, join the discussion, help out other users, provide general feedback or report problems you noticed. @@ -494,7 +480,7 @@ warranty? Registration? While it is partly out of date, it's still worth reading. - Our TODO list + Our TODO list may be of interest to you as well. Please let us know if you want to work on one of the items listed. @@ -503,7 +489,7 @@ warranty? Registration? + + @@ -637,8 +657,7 @@ special I have to do now? the User Manual for more details. You should also flush your browser's memory and disk cache to get rid of any cached junk items, and remove any stored - cookies. - + cookies. @@ -773,7 +792,7 @@ Privoxy is running and being used. for single URLs, whole web sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be grouped together and then applied to requests matching one or more patterns. There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example, - if you are blocking cookies + if you are blocking cookies as one of your default actions, but need to accept cookies from a given site, you would need to define an exception for this site in one of your actions files, preferably in user.action. @@ -815,7 +834,7 @@ way to do this? - + There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are the differences? @@ -828,17 +847,16 @@ the differences? Where can I get updated Actions Files? Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updates of - default.action will be - made available from time to time on the files section of - our project page. + default.action are available from + git. If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of Privoxy or the actions file, subscribe - to our announce mailing list, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net. + url="https://lists.privoxy.org/mailman/listinfo/privoxy-announce">subscribe + to our announce mailing list, privoxy-announce@lists.privoxy.org. @@ -880,34 +898,30 @@ the differences? The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services. It may, however, make all cookies + url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies temporary, so that your browser will forget your login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would like not to have to log in manually each time you access those websites, simply turn off all cookie handling for them in the user.action file. An example for yahoo might look like: - # Allow all cookies for Yahoo login: # { -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only } .login.yahoo.com - These kinds of sites are often quite complex and heavy with - Javascript and + Javascript and thus fragile. So if still a problem, we have an alias just for such sticky situations: - # Gmail is a _fragile_ site: # { fragile } # Gmail is ... mail.google.com - Be sure to flush your browser's caches whenever making these kinds of changes, just to make sure the changes take. @@ -1058,10 +1072,8 @@ with a browser? Does that not raise security issues? should look like: - listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118 - Save the file, and restart Privoxy. Configure @@ -1073,10 +1085,8 @@ with a browser? Does that not raise security issues? all available interfaces: - listen-address :8118 - And then use Privoxy's @@ -1170,18 +1180,12 @@ instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this? Can Privoxy run as a service on Win2K/NT/XP? -Windows service - functionality. See + Yes. Full Windows service + functionality was introduced in Privoxy 3.0.5. + See the User Manual for details on how to install and configure Privoxy as a service. - - Earlier ]]>3.x versions could run as a system service using srvany.exe. - See the discussion at https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=361118&aid=485617&group_id=11118, - for details, and a sample configuration. - @@ -1219,7 +1223,7 @@ and thus avoid individual browser configuration? The whole idea of Privoxy is to modify client requests and server responses in all sorts of ways and therefore it's not a transparent proxy as described in - RFC 2616. + RFC 2616. However, some people say transparent proxy when they @@ -1285,7 +1289,8 @@ and thus avoid individual browser configuration? For a good discussion of some of the issues involved (including privacy and security issues), see - https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=211118&aid=629518&group_id=11118. + https://sourceforge.net/p/ijbswa/support-requests/107/. @@ -1293,19 +1298,20 @@ and thus avoid individual browser configuration? I sometimes notice cookies sneaking through. How? Cookies can be + url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Cookies can be set in several ways. The classic method is via the Set-Cookie HTTP header. This is straightforward, and an easy one to manipulate, such as the &my-app; concept of session-cookies-only. There is also the possibility of using - Javascript to + Javascript to set cookies (&my-app; calls these content-cookies). This is trickier because the syntax can vary widely, and thus requires a certain amount of guesswork. It is not realistic to catch all of these short of disabling Javascript, which would break many sites. And lastly, if the cookies are embedded in a HTTPS/SSL secure session via Javascript, they are beyond - Privoxy's reach. + Privoxy's reach unless you enable + https-inspection. All in all, &my-app; can help manage cookies in general, can help minimize @@ -1319,7 +1325,7 @@ and thus avoid individual browser configuration? No, in fact there are many beneficial uses of cookies. Cookies are just a + url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies. Cookies are just a method that browsers can use to store data between pages, or between browser sessions. Sometimes there is a good reason for this, and the user's life is a bit easier as a result. But there is a long history of some websites taking @@ -1331,7 +1337,7 @@ and thus avoid individual browser configuration? See the - Wikipedia cookie + Wikipedia cookie definition for more. @@ -1349,11 +1355,9 @@ and thus avoid individual browser configuration? To disable all cookie actions, so that cookies are allowed unrestricted, both in and out, for example.com: - { -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only -filter{content-cookies} } .example.com - Place the above in user.action. Note that some of these may be off by default anyway, so this might be redundant, but there is no harm @@ -1444,16 +1448,13 @@ and thus avoid individual browser configuration? can very easily over-ride all blocking with the following very simple rule in your user.action: - # Unblock everybody, everywhere { -block } / # UN-Block *all* URLs - Or even a more comprehensive reversing of various ad related actions: - # Unblock everybody, everywhere, and turn off appropriate filtering, etc { -block \ @@ -1462,7 +1463,6 @@ and thus avoid individual browser configuration? allow-popups \ } / # UN-Block *all* URLs and allow ads - This last action in this compound statement, allow-popups, is an during upgrades. You can, however, create completely new templates, place them in another directory and specify the alternate path in the main config. For details, have a look at the templdir option. + url="../user-manual/config.html#TEMPLDIR">templdir option. @@ -1503,10 +1503,8 @@ the BLOCKED page? available as compile-time options. You should configure the sources as follows: - ./configure --disable-toggle --disable-editor --disable-force - This will create an executable with hard-coded security features so that &my-app; does not allow easy bypassing of blocked sites, or changing the @@ -1807,11 +1805,9 @@ us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them. forwarding section and uncomment the line: - # forward-socks5t / 127.0.0.1:9050 . - - + Note that if you got Tor through one of the bundles, you may have to change the port from 9050 to 9150 (or even another one). @@ -1824,13 +1820,11 @@ us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them. uncomment the following forward rules, to make sure your local network is still reachable through Privoxy: - # forward 192.168.*.*/ . # forward 10.*.*.*/ . # forward 127.*.*.*/ . - - + Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will be as (un)secure as the local network is, but the alternative is @@ -1844,11 +1838,9 @@ us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them. network by using their names, you will need additional exceptions that look like this: - # forward localhost/ . - - + Save the modified configuration file and open http://config.privoxy.org/show-status @@ -1923,7 +1915,7 @@ speed up web browsing? No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like Squid or - Polipo for this. + Polipo for this. And, yes, before you ask, Privoxy can co-exist with other kinds of proxies like Squid. See the forwarding @@ -1974,9 +1966,17 @@ ads used to be. Why? How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs? - Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser - and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably secure, - there is little that Privoxy can do but hand the raw + If you enable + https-inspection + Privoxy will impersonate the destination + server and can thus filter encrypted requests and responses as well. + + + Without + https-inspection + secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your + browser and the secure site, and there is little + that Privoxy can do but hand the raw gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed. @@ -2003,6 +2003,21 @@ ads used to be. Why? + +Does Privoxy support HTTP/2? + + Privoxy currently doesn't parse HTTP/2 but applications + can tunnel HTTP/2 through Privoxy if Privoxy is configured + to allow CONNECT requests (default) which are also used + for HTTPS. + + + Adding HTTP/2 support is on the + TODO + list but currently nobody is known to work on it. + + + Privoxy runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions? @@ -2075,7 +2090,7 @@ out of the picture? My logs show Privoxy <quote>crunches</quote> ads, but also its own internal CGI pages. What is a <quote>crunch</quote>? - A crunch simply means Privoxy intercepted + A crunch means Privoxy intercepted something, nothing more. Often this is indeed ads or banners, but Privoxy uses the same mechanism for trapping requests for its own internal pages. For instance, a request for @@ -2179,14 +2194,12 @@ altered it! Yikes, what is wrong! your hosts list is neglected by Privoxy's configuration, consider adding your list to your user.action file: - { +block } www.ad.example1.com ad.example2.com ads.galore.example.com etc.example.com - @@ -2282,7 +2295,6 @@ and related issues? There are several possibilities: - Privoxy is not running. Solution: verify @@ -2302,7 +2314,6 @@ and related issues? try disabling or removing the firewall as a simple test. - @@ -2355,7 +2366,6 @@ still getting through. How? our job a little easier. &my-app; has crunched (meaning caught and BLOCKED) quite a few items in this example, but perhaps missed a few as well. - - Despite 12 out of 32 requests being blocked, the page looked, and seemed to behave perfectly normal (minus some ads, of course). @@ -2618,37 +2627,6 @@ every time I start IE. What gives? - - - -I get a completely blank page at one site. <quote>View Source</quote> - shows only: <markup><![CDATA[<html><body></body></html>]]></markup>. Without - Privoxy the page loads fine. - - Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in - PHP, - which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests - an uncompressed page, like Privoxy does. - This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3. - - - To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding - the site to a -prevent-compression section in - user.action: - - - # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites: - # - {-prevent-compression} - .example.com - - If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the - site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression - instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround) - or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix). - - - My logs show many <quote>Unable to get my own hostname</quote> lines. Why? @@ -2714,7 +2692,7 @@ Why? Upgrading Privoxy, or going to the most recent default.action file available from SourceForge + url="https://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=blob_plain;f=default.action.master;hb=HEAD">git might be worth a try, too. @@ -2768,7 +2746,7 @@ Why? Privoxy is attempting to disable malicious - Javascript + Javascript in this case, with the unsolicited-popups filter. Privoxy cannot tell very well good code snippets from bad code snippets. @@ -2884,14 +2862,12 @@ browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? To do that, enable logging to figure out which requests get blocked by &my-app; and add the hosts (no path patterns) to a section like this: - - Additionally you have to configure your browser to contact 127.0.0.1:0 directly (instead of through &my-app;). @@ -2903,6 +2879,11 @@ browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? section, and add 127.0.0.1:0 in the No Proxy for: field. + + You can also prevent the problem by enabling + https-inspection + in which case Privoxy's error messages are delivered encrypted. + @@ -2989,6 +2970,68 @@ browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? + +After adding my custom filters, &my-app; crashes when visitting certain websites + + This can happen if your custom filters require more memory than &my-app; + is allowed to use. + Usually the problem is that the operating system enforces a stack size limit + that isn't sufficient. + + + Unless the problem occurs with the filters available in the default configuration, + this is not considered a Privoxy bug. + + + To prevent the crashes you can rewrite your filter to use less resources, + increase the relevant memory limit or recompile pcre to use less stack space. + For details please see the + pcrestack man page + and the documentation of your operating system. + + + + +What to do if editing the config file of privoxy is access denied? + + Your userid probably isn't allowed to edit the file. + + On Windows you can use the windows equivalent of sudo: + + runas /user:administrator "notepad \privoxy\config.txt" + + + or fix the file permissions: + +C:\Privoxy>icacls config.txt +config.txt BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(F) + NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(F) + BUILTIN\Users:(I)(RX) + NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users:(I)(M) + +Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files + +C:\Privoxy>icacls config.txt /grant Lee:F +processed file: config.txt +Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files + +C:\Privoxy>icacls config.txt +config.txt I3668\Lee:(F) + BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(F) + NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(F) + BUILTIN\Users:(I)(RX) + NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users:(I)(M) + +Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files + +C:\Privoxy> + + + or try to point-n-click your way through adjusting the file + permissions in windows explorer. + + + @@ -3013,7 +3056,7 @@ browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? - License + License &license; @@ -3021,7 +3064,7 @@ browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? - History + History &history;