X-Git-Url: http://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fsource%2Ffaq.sgml;h=29a8e7148d2940c52bd4fe8521dcd0687aed81e3;hp=7ec4dd7564cfda073f7d9218a3c457902bb120a6;hb=e44a50f4c135a068c5b0333ad832fdfc134587bd;hpb=93d68f8c5f788de56153d0d9e736f78cfc10045f
diff --git a/doc/source/faq.sgml b/doc/source/faq.sgml
index 7ec4dd75..29a8e714 100644
--- a/doc/source/faq.sgml
+++ b/doc/source/faq.sgml
@@ -1,9 +1,21 @@
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
]>
@@ -43,8 +63,35 @@
Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions
-$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9 Exp $
+
+
+
+
+ Copyright &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
+ Privoxy Developers
+
+
+
+$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes Exp $
+
+
+
@@ -64,21 +111,21 @@
]]>
- This FAQ gives users and developers alike answers to frequently asked
- questions about Privoxy.
+ This FAQ gives quick answers to frequently asked questions about
+ Privoxy
+ . It can't and doesn't replace the
+ User Manual.
-
+
&p-intro;
+
You can find the latest version of the document at http://www.privoxy.org/faq/.
- Please see the Contact section in the user-manual if
- you want to contact the developers.
+ Please see the Contact section if you want to
+ contact the developers.
@@ -87,40 +134,16 @@
-
-
-
-
-
-
-General Information
+General InformationWhat is this new version of Privoxy?
-
- The original Internet
- Junkbuster (tm) is a copyrighted product of Junkbusters Corporation.
- Development of this effort stopped some time ago as of version 2.0.2. Stefan
- Waldherr started the ijbswa project on Sourceforge to
- rekindle development. Other developers subsequently joined with Stefan, and
- have since added many new features, refinements and enhancements. The result
- of this effort is Privoxy.
-
-
- Privoxy has evolved from the
- Junkbuster 2.0.2 code base, and has advanced
- significantly at this point.
-
-
- Please see the user-manual for more
- information on the history of Junkbuster and
- Privoxy.
-
+
+
+ &history;
+
@@ -129,22 +152,30 @@
Why Privoxy? Why a name change at all?Privoxy is the
- Privacy Enhancing Proxy.
+ Privacy Enhancing Proxy. Also, its content
+ modification and junk suppression allow you to browse your
+ private edition of the web.
+
+
+ Junkbusters Corporation
+ continues to offer their original version of the Internet
+ Junkbuster, so publishing our
+ Junkbuster-derived software under the same name
+ led to confusion.
- There are possible legal complications from the continued use of the
- Junkbuster name, which is a trademark of
- Junkbusters Corporation.
- (There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
+ There are also potential legal complications from the continued use of the
+ Junkbuster name, which is a registered trademark of
+ Junkbusters Corporation.
+ There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
Privoxy project itself, and they, in fact, still
- share our ideals and goals.)
+ share our ideals and goals.
-
- The developers also believed that there so many changes from the original
+ The developers also believed that there are so many changes from the original
code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
- a name in their own right, especially now with the pending release of
- version 3.0.
+ a name in their own right.
@@ -152,83 +183,82 @@
How does Privoxy differ
from the old Junkbuster?
- Privoxy picks up where
- Junkbuster left off. All the old features remain.
- The new Privoxy still blocks ads and banners,
- still manages cookies, and still helps protect your privacy. But, these are
- all enhanced, and many new features have been added, all in the same vein.
+ Privoxy picks up where
+ Junkbuster left off. All the old features remain.
+ The new Privoxy still blocks ads and banners,
+ still manages cookies, and still helps protect your privacy. But, these are
+ all enhanced, and many new features have been added, all in the same vein.
- The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
- users will notice right off the bat. The blocklist file does
- not exist any more. This is replaced by actions files, such
- as default.actions. This is where most of the per site
- configuration is now.
-
-
+ The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
+ users will notice right off the bat if upgrading from
+ Junkbuster 2.0.x. The blocklist
+ cookielist, imagelist and much more has been
+ combined into the actions files, with a completely different
+ syntax. See the note to
+ upgraders for details.
+
+
+ Privoxy's new features include:
+
-What are some of the new features?
-
-&newfeatures;
+
+ &newfeatures;
+
What is a proxy? How does
Privoxy work?
- When you connect to a web site with Privoxy,
- you are really connecting to your locally running version of
- Privoxy. Privoxy
- intercepts your requests for the web page, and relays that to the
- real web site. The web site sends the HTTP data stream
- back to Privoxy, where
- Privoxy can work its magic before it
- relays this data back to your web browser.
+ A web proxy is a service, based on a software such as Privoxy,
+ 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.
-
- Since Privoxy sits between you and the
- WWW, it is in a position to intercept and completely manage all web traffic and
- HTTP content before it gets to your browser.
- Privoxy uses various programming methods to do
- this, all of which is under your control via the various configuration
- files and options.
+ There are many 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.
-
- There are many kinds of proxies. Privoxy best
- fits the filtering proxy category.
+ Privoxy 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.
-
-
+How does Privoxy know what is
an ad, and what is not?
- Privoxy processes all the raw content of every
- web page. So it reads everything on each page. It then compares this to the
- rules as set up in the configuration files, and looks for any matches to
- these rules. Privoxy makes heavy use of
- regular expressions. (If you are not familiar with regular
- expressions, it is explained briefly in the user manual.) Regular
- expressions facilitate matching of one text string against another, using
- wildcards to build complex patterns. So Privoxy
- will typically look for URLs and other content that match certain key words
- and expressions as defined in the configuration files. For instance a URL
- that contains /banners, has a high probability of containing
- ad banners, and thus would be a prime candidate to have a matching rule.
-
-
- So Privoxy will look for these kinds of obvious
- looking culprits. And also, will use lists of known organizations that
- specialize in ads. Again, using complex patterns to match as many potential
- combinations as possible since there tend to be many, many variations used by
- advertisers, and new ones are being introduced all the time.
+ Privoxy's approach to blocking ads is twofold:
+
+
+ First, there are certain patterns in the locations (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 banners!)
+ and the host (blocking the big banner hosting services like doublecklick.net
+ already helps a lot). Privoxy takes advantage of this
+ fact by using URL
+ patterns to sort out and block the requests for banners.
+
+
+ Second, banners tend to come in certain sizes. 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, Privoxy
+ 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.
+
+
+ Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
+ configurable.
@@ -236,10 +266,10 @@ an ad, and what is not?
Can Privoxy make mistakes?
This does not sound very scientific.
- Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad rule
- accidentally block something by mistake. There is a good chance you may run
- into such a situation at some point. It is tricky writing rules to cover
- every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
+ 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.
@@ -247,7 +277,7 @@ This does not sound very scientific.
Privoxy configuration is very flexible, and
includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
- (See the appendix below.)
+ (See the Troubleshooting section below.)
@@ -267,7 +297,6 @@ This does not sound very scientific.
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.
-
@@ -276,20 +305,18 @@ This does not sound very scientific.
Is there is a license or fee? What about a
warranty? Registration?
- Privoxy is licensed under the
- GNU General Public License (GPL). It is free to use, copy,
- modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this license.
- Please see the
-user-manual for
- more information on the license and copyright.
-
-
+ Privoxy is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
+ It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this
+ license. Please see the Copyright section for more
+ information on the license and copyright. Or the LICENSE file
+ that should be included.
+
- 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 no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
+ That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
Privoxy really is free
in every respect!
-
@@ -298,23 +325,37 @@ warranty? Registration?
Money Money Money
- We, of course, welcome donations and use the money for domain registering,
- regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). Anyway, we'll soon describe the
- process how to donate money to the team.
+ We, of course, welcome donations and could use money for domain registering,
+ buying software to test Privoxy 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 drop us a note.
+
+
+
+Software
+
+ If you are a vendor of a web-related software like a browser, web server
+ or proxy, and would like us to ensure that Privoxy
+ 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.
You want to work with us?
Well, helping the team is always a good idea. We welcome new developers,
- RPM gurus or documentation makers. Simply get an account on sourceforge.net
- and mail your id to the developer mailing list. Then read the
- section Quickstart in the
- Developer's Manual.
+ packaging gurus or documentation writers. Simply get an account on SourceForge.net
+ and mail your id to the developers
+ mailing list. Then read the Developer's Manual.
- Once we have added you to the team, you'll have write access to the CVS
- repository, and together we'll find a suitable task for you.
+ 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.
@@ -325,15 +366,15 @@ warranty? Registration?
-Installation
+InstallationWhich browsers are supported by Privoxy?
- Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
+ Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
should be virtually all browsers. Direct browser support is not necessary
since Privoxy runs as a separate application and
- just exchanges standard HTML data with your browser, just like a web server
+ talks to the browser in the standardized HTTP protocol, just like a web server
does.
@@ -349,19 +390,17 @@ Include supported.sgml here:
Can I install
Privoxy over Junkbuster?
- We recommend you uninstall Junkbuster
+ We recommend you un-install Junkbuster
first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
- is substantially changed.
-
-
- See the user-manual for
- platform specific installation instructions. [FIXME: This is meant for after
- the name change for 3.0!]
+ files and syntax have substantially changed, so you will need to manually
+ port your old patterns. See the note
+ to upgraders and installation
+ chapter in the user manual
+ for details.
- Note: Some installers may automatically uninstall
+ Note: Some installers may automatically un-install
Junkbuster, if present!
@@ -375,8 +414,8 @@ special I have to do now?
All browsers must be told to use Privoxy
as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. See below.
- Also, you should flush your browser's memory and disk cache to get rid of any
- cached items.
+ You should also flush your browser's memory and disk cache to get rid of any
+ cached junk items.
@@ -387,25 +426,28 @@ special I have to do now?
If you set up the Privoxy to run on
the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
- networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on localhost
- (which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
- to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have Privoxy to run on a different port with the
- listen-address config option).
+ networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on 127.0.0.1
+ (sometimes referred to as localhost,
+ which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
+ to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have Privoxy
+ to run on a different port with the listen-address config option).
When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
- the word localhost in the boxes next to HTTP
- and Secure (HTTPS) and then the number 8118
- for port. This tells your browser to send all web
- requests to Privoxy instead of directly to the
- Internet.
+ the word localhost or the IP address 127.0.0.1
+ in the boxes next to HTTP and Secure (HTTPS) and
+ then the number 8118 for port.
+ This tells your browser to send all web requests to Privoxy
+ instead of directly to the Internet.
Privoxy can also be used to proxy for
a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
address of the LAN host where Privoxy
is running, or the equivalent hostname. Port assignment would be
- same as above.
+ same as above. Note that Privoxy doesn't
+ listen on any LAN interfaces by default.
Privoxy does not currently handle
@@ -424,11 +466,17 @@ All the ads are there. What's wrong?
the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
that Privoxy is running, and your browser
is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
- http://p.p/. This should give you
- a banner that says This is Privoxy and
- access to Privoxy's internal configuration.
- If you see this, then you are good to go. If not, the browser or
- Privoxy are not set up correctly.
+ http://config.privoxy.org/.
+ This should take you to a page titled This is Privoxy.. with
+ access to Privoxy's internal configuration.
+ If you see this, then you are good to go. If you receive a page saying
+ Privoxy is not running, then the browser is not set up to use
+ your Privoxy installation.
+ If you receive anything else (probably nothing at all), it could either
+ be that the browser is not set up correctly, or that
+ Privoxy is not running at all. Check the log file.
+
@@ -439,17 +487,35 @@ All the ads are there. What's wrong?
-Configuration
+Configuration
+
+Where can I get updated Actions Files?
+
+ Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updated actions files will be
+ made available on the files section of
+ our project page.
+
+
+
+ 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.
+
+
+Can I use my old config files?
- There are major changes to Junkbuster,
- Privoxy, configuration from version 2.0.x to
- 2.9.x and later. Most of the older files will not work at all. This is
- especially true of blocklist. If this is the case, you
- will need to re-enter your old data into the new configuration structure.
- This is probably also a good recommendation even if upgrading from 2.9.x to
- 3.x since there were many minor changes along the way.
+ The syntax, number, and purpose of configuration files has substantially
+ changed from Junkbuster and earlier versions
+ of Privoxy. The old files, like blocklist
+ will not work at all. If you are upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will
+ need to port your configuration data to the new format. Note that even the
+ pattern syntax has changed! Even configuration files from the 2.9.x versions
+ will need to be adapted, as configuration syntax has been very much in flow
+ in the 2.9.x series.
@@ -457,38 +523,37 @@ All the ads are there. What's wrong?
What is an actions file?
- actions files are where various actions that
- Privoxy might take, are configured.
- Typically, you would define a set of default actions that apply
- to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults.
+ Actions files
+ are where various actions
+ that Privoxy might take while processing a certain
+ request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
+ that apply to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
- Actions can be defined on a per site basis, or for groups of sites. Actions
- can also be grouped together and then applied to one or more sites. There
- are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
- if we are blocking cookies as one of our default
- actions, but need to accept cookies from a given
- site, we would define this in our actions file.
-
-
-
-
- Privoxy comes with several default
- actions files, with varying degrees
- of filtering and blocking, as starting points for your own
- configuration (see below).
+ Actions can be defined on a URL pattern basis, i.e.
+ 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 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
-The actionsconcept confuses me. Please list
+The actions concept confuses me. Please list
some of these actions.
- These are all explained in the
- user-manual.
- Please refer to that.
+ For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer
+ to the actions file
+ chapter in the user
+ manual. It includes a list of all actions
+ and an actions
+ file tutorial to get you started.
@@ -498,240 +563,261 @@ some of these actions.
way to do this?
- The easiest way to do this, is to access Privoxy
- with your web browser at http://p.p/,
- and then select
- "Edit the actions list"
- from the selection list. You can also do this by editing the appropriate
- file with a text editor.
+ Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
+ with a text editor. The probably easiest way is to access
+ Privoxy's user interface with your web browser
+ at http://config.privoxy.org/
+ (Shortcut: http://p.p/) and then select
+ View &
+ change the current configuration from the menu.
+
+
+
+
+There are several different actions files. What are
+the differences?
- Please see the
- user-manual for a
- detailed explanation of these and other configuration files, and their
- various options and syntax.
+ As of Privoxy v2.9.15, three actions files
+ are being included, to be used for
+ different purposes: These are
+ default.action, the main actions file
+ which is actively maintained by the Privoxy
+ developers, user.action, where users are encouraged
+ to make their private customizations, and standard.action,
+ which is for internal Privoxy use only.
+ Please see the actions chapter
+ in the user manual for a more
+ detailed explanation.
-
+
+ Earlier versions included three different versions of the
+ default.action file. The new scheme allows for
+ greater flexibility of local configuration, and for browser based
+ selection of pre-defined aggressiveness levels.
+
-
-What are the differences between
-intermediate.action, basic.action, etc.?
+What's the difference between the
+Cautious, Medium and Advanced defaults?
-Configuring Privoxy is not easy. To help you get
-started, we provide you with three different default configurations. The
-following table shows you, which features are enabled in each configuration.
+ Configuring Privoxy is not entirely trivial. To help you get
+ started, we provide you with three different default action packages in
+ the web based actions file editor at http://config.privoxy.org/show-status.
+ The following table shows you, which of the most important features are enabled in each
+ configuration:
Default Configurations
-
+
-Feature
- default.action
- basic.action
- intermediate.action
- advanced.action
+ Cautious
+ Intermadiate
+ Advanced
-
-
-
-
+
- ad-filtering
- ?
- x
- x
- x
+ Ad-blocking by URL
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- blank image
- ?
- x
- x
- x
+ Ad-filtering by size
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- de-animate GIFs
- ?
- x
- x
- x
+ GIF de-animation
+ no
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- referer forging
- ?
- x
- x
- x
+ Referer forging
+ no
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- jon's +no-cookies-keep (i.e. session cookies only)
- ?
- x
- x
- x
+ Cookie handling
+ none
+ session-only
+ kill
-
+
- no-popup windows
- ?
-
- x
- x
+ Pop-up killing
+ no
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- fast redirects
- ?
-
- x
- x
+ Fast redirects
+ no
+ no
+ yes
-
+
- hide-referrer
- ?
-
- x
- x
+ HTML taming
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- hide-useragent
- ?
-
- x
- x
+ JavaScript taming
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- content-modification
- ?
-
-
- x
+ Web-bug killing
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- feature-x
- ?
-
-
-
+ Fun text replacements
+ no
+ no
+ yes
-
+
- feature-y
- ?
-
-
-
+ Image tag reordering
+ no
+ no
+ yes
-
+
- feature-z
- ?
-
-
-
+ Ad-filtering by link
+ no
+ no
+ yes
-
+
+