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+++ b/doc/source/faq.sgml
@@ -1,9 +1,24 @@
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+Privoxy">
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@@ -43,8 +67,35 @@
Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions
-$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9 Exp $
+
+
+
+
+ Copyright &my-copy; 2001-2018 by
+ Privoxy Developers
+
+
+
+$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.135 2017/03/27 10:22:27 fabiankeil Exp $
+
+
+
+
@@ -64,182 +115,211 @@
]]>
- 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 is not a substitute for the
+ Privoxy User Manual.
- &p-intro;
+
+
+
+ What is Privoxy? &p-intro;
+
+ Please note that this document is a work in progress. This copy represents
+ the state at the release of version &p-version;.
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.
+ url="https://www.privoxy.org/faq/">https://www.privoxy.org/faq/.
+ Please see the Contact section if you want to
+ contact the developers.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-General Information
+General Information
+Who should give &my-app; a try?
+
+ Anyone who is interested in security, privacy, or in
+ finer-grained control over their web and Internet experience.
+
+
+
+Is Privoxy the best choice for
+me?
+
+ &my-app; is certainly a good choice, especially for those who want more
+ control and security. Those with the willingness to read the documentation
+ and the ability to fine-tune their installation will benefit the most.
+
+
+ One of Privoxy's
+ 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
+ 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
+ should take this as a starting point only, and enhance it as he or she
+ sees fit. In fact, the user is encouraged, and expected to, fine-tune the
+ configuration.
+
+
+ Much of Privoxy's configuration can be done
+ with a Web browser.
+ But there are areas where configuration is done using a
+ 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.
+
+
-What is this new version of Privoxy?
+What is a proxy? How does
+Privoxy work?
- 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.
+ 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.
- Privoxy has evolved from the
- Junkbuster 2.0.2 code base, and has advanced
- significantly at this point.
+ There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security (firewalling),
+ efficiency (caching) and others, and there are any number of proxies
+ to accommodate those needs.
-
- Please see the user-manual for more
- information on the history of Junkbuster and
- Privoxy.
+
+ &my-app; is a proxy that is primarily focused on
+ privacy enhancement, ad and junk elimination and freeing the user from
+ restrictions placed on his activities. 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 complete control via the various configuration
+ files and options. Being a proxy also makes it easier to share
+ configurations among multiple browsers and/or users.
+
+
+Does Privoxy do anything more than ad blocking?
+
+ Yes, ad blocking is but one possible use. There are many, many ways &my-app;
+ can be used to sanitize and customize web browsing.
+
+What is this new version of
+Junkbuster?
-
-Why Privoxy? Why a name change at all?
+
+ &history;
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Why Privoxy? Why change the name from
+Junkbuster at all?
- Privoxy is the
- Privacy Enhancing Proxy.
+ Though outdated, Junkbusters Corporation continued to offer their original
+ version of the Internet Junkbuster for a while,
+ so publishing our Junkbuster-derived software
+ under the same name would have 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
- Privoxy project itself, and they, in fact, still
- share our ideals and goals.)
+ There were also potential legal reasons not to use the
+ Junkbuster name, as it was (and maybe still is)
+ a registered trademark of Junkbusters Corporation.
+ There were, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
+ Privoxy project itself, and they, in fact,
+ shared our ideals and goals.
-
- The developers also believed that there 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.
+ The Privoxy developers also believed that there were so many improvements
+ over the original code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past
+ and make a name in their own right.
-
-
-
-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.
-
-
- 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.
-
-
-
-What are some of the new features?
-
-&newfeatures;
-
+ Privoxy is the
+ Privacy Enhancing Proxy. Also, its content
+ modification and junk suppression gives you, the user, more
+ control, more freedom, and allows you to browse your personal and
+ private edition of the web.
+
-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.
-
-
-
- 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.
+How does Privoxy differ
+from the old Junkbuster?
+
+ Privoxy picks up where
+ Junkbuster left off.
+ Privoxy still blocks ads and banners,
+ still manages 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.
+
+ Privoxy's new features include:
+
-
- There are many kinds of proxies. Privoxy best
- fits the filtering proxy category.
-
+
+ &newfeatures;
+
-
-
-How does Privoxy know what is
-an ad, and what is not?
+
+How does Privoxy know what is an ad, and what is not?
+
+ 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 things that sound
+ like they would be ads or banners.
+
- 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.
+ 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.
- 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.
+ Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
+ and readily configurable.
-
-Can Privoxy make mistakes?
+
+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. You will almost surely
+ run into such situations at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
+ cover every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
@@ -247,76 +327,278 @@ 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.)
+
+
+
+
+
+Will I have to configure Privoxy
+ before I can use it?
+
+ That depends on your expectations.
+ The default installation should give you a good starting
+ point, and block most ads and unwanted content,
+ but many of the more advanced features are off by default, and require
+ you to activate them.
+
+
+ You do have to set up your browser to use
+ Privoxy (see the Installation section below).
+
+
+ And you will certainly run into situations where there are false positives,
+ or ads not being blocked that you may not want to see. In these cases, you
+ would certainly benefit by customizing Privoxy's
+ configuration to more closely match your individual situation. And we
+ encourage you to do this. This is where the real power of
+ Privoxy lies!
+
+Can Privoxy run as a server on a network?
+
+ Yes, &my-app; runs as a server already, and can easily be configured to
+ serve more than one client. See
+ How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN below.
+
+My browser does the same things as
-Privoxy. Why should I use
-Privoxy at all?
+Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy at all?
Modern browsers do indeed have some of the same
functionality as Privoxy. Maybe this is
- adequate for you. But Privoxy is much more
- versatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
+ adequate for you. But Privoxy is very
+ versatile and powerful, and can probably do a number of things
+ your browser just can't.
- In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
- have a LAN with multiple computers. This way all the configuration
- is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar configuration
- for possibly many browsers.
-
+ In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
+ have a LAN with multiple computers since &my-app; can run as a server
+ application. This way all the configuration is in one place, and you don't
+ have to maintain a similar configuration for possibly many browsers or
+ users.
+
+
+ Note, however, that it's recommended to leverage both your browser's
+ and Privoxy's privacy enhancing features
+ at the same time. While your browser probably lacks some features
+ &my-app; offers, it should also be able to do some things more
+ reliably, for example restricting and suppressing JavaScript.
+Why should I trust Privoxy?
+
+ The most important reason is because you have access to
+ everything, and you can control everything. You can
+ check every line of every configuration file yourself. You can check every
+ last bit of source code should you desire. And even if you can't read code,
+ there should be some comfort in knowing that other people can,
+ and do read it. You can build the software from scratch, if you want,
+ so that you know the executable is clean, and that it is
+ yours. In fact, we encourage this level of scrutiny. It
+ is one reason we use &my-app; ourselves.
+
+
-
-Is there is a license or fee? What about a
+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 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.
+
- 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!
-
+ There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
+ That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
-I would like to help you, what do I do?
+
+Can Privoxy remove spyware? Adware? Viruses?
+
+ No, at least not reliably enough to trust it. &my-app; is not designed to be
+ a malware removal tool and the default configuration doesn't even try to
+ filter out any malware.
+
+
+ &my-app; could help prevent contact from (known) sites that use such
+ tactics with appropriate configuration rules, and thus could conceivably
+ prevent contamination from such sites. However, keeping such a configuration
+ up to date would require a lot of time and effort that would be better spend
+ on keeping your software itself up to date so it doesn't have known
+ vulnerabilities.
+
+
+
+
+
+Can I use Privoxy with other ad-blocking software?
+
+ &my-app; should work fine with other proxies and other software in general.
+
+
+ But it is probably not necessary to use &my-app; in conjunction with other
+ ad-blocking products, and this could conceivably cause undesirable results.
+ It might be better to choose one software or the other and work a little to
+ tweak its configuration to your liking.
+
+
+ Note that this is an advice specific to ad blocking.
+
+
+
+I would like to help you, what can I do?
-Money Money Money
+Would you like to participate?
+
+ Well, we always need help. There is something for
+ everybody who wants to help us. We welcome new developers, packagers,
+ testers, documentation writers or really anyone with a desire to help in
+ any way. You DO NOT need to be a
+ programmer. There are many other tasks available. In fact,
+ the programmers often can't spend as much time programming because of some
+ of the other, more mundane things that need to be done, like checking the
+ Tracker feedback sections or responding to user questions on the mailing
+ lists.
+
+
+ So first thing, subscribe to the Privoxy Users
+ or the Privoxy
+ Developers mailing list, join the discussion, help out other users, provide general
+ feedback or report problems you noticed.
+
+
+ If you intend to help out with the trackers, you also might want to get an account on SourceForge.net
+ so we don't confuse you with the other name-less users.
+
+
+ We also have a Developer's Manual.
+ While it is partly out of date, it's still worth reading.
+
- 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.
+ 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.
-You want to work with us?
+Would you like to donate?
+
+ Donations are welcome. Our
+ TODO list
+ is rather long and being able to pay one (or more) developers to work on Privoxy
+ would make a huge difference, even if it was only for a couple of weeks. Donations may
+ also be used for Privoxy-related travel expenses (for example to attend conferences),
+ for hardware used for Privoxy development and for hosting expenses etc.
+
+
+
+ Privoxy is an associated
+ project of Software
+ in the Public Interest (SPI), which allows us to receive
+ tax-deductible donations in the United States.
+ You can donate via Paypal
+ and Click & Pledge.
+ For details, please have a look at
+ SPI's general donation page.
+
+
+
+ You can also donate to Privoxy using a bank account or a "Paypal" address:
+
+
+ Name on account: Zwiebelfreunde e.V.
+ IBAN: DE95430609671126825604
+ BIC: GENODEM1GLS
+ Bank: GLS Bank
+
+
+ "Paypal" address: privoxy@zwiebelfreunde.de
+
+
+ Donations made through Zwiebelfreunde e.V. are tax-deductible in Germany
+ and other countries that recognize German charitable clubs. Feel free to
+ use the Subject field to provide a name to be credited and a list of TODO
+ list items you are interested in the most. For example: Max Mustermann: #16, #1, #14.
+
+
- 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.
+ Note that donations made through Zwiebelfreunde e.V. currently can't be checked
+ automatically so you may not get credited right away. The credits currently
+ reflect donations received before 2016-01-14.
+
- 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.
+ If you have any questions regarding donations please mail to either the
+ public user mailing list or, if it's a private matter, to
+ Fabian Keil (Privoxy's SPI liaison)
+ directly.
+
+How can I become a sponsor and get my logo or link on privoxy.org?
+
+ We are currently offering the following sponsor levels as an experiment:
+
+
+
+ Gold (10000 EUR/year)
+
+
+ Logo shown at the bottom of the
+ Privoxy homepage.
+ Logo, link and self description on the
+ sponsor page.
+
+
+
+
+ Silver (1000 EUR/year)
+
+
+ Logo shown randomly at the bottom of the
+ Privoxy homepage.
+ Logo, link and self description on the
+ sponsor page.
+
+
+
+
+ Bronze (500 EUR/year)
+
+
+ Logo and link on the sponsor page.
+
+
+
+
+
+ The logo sizes depend on the sponsor level. Logos are served from
+ our server, no requests are made to the sponsor website unless
+ the links are being used.
+
+
+ The details may change over time but changes will only affect new sponsors
+ (or existing sponsors that explicitly agreed to the changes).
+
+
+ If you want to become a sponsor, please contact
+ Fabian Keil.
+ New sponsors are only accepted if no developer objects.
+
@@ -325,15 +607,19 @@ warranty? Registration?
-Installation
+Installation
-Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?
-
- Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
- should be virtually all browsers. Direct browser support is not necessary
- since Privoxy runs as a separate application and
- just exchanges standard HTML data with your browser, just like a web server
+Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?
+
+ Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
+ should be virtually all browsers, including
+ Firefox, Internet
+ Explorer, Opera, and
+ Safari among others.
+ Direct browser support is not an absolute requirement since
+ Privoxy runs as a separate application and talks
+ to the browser in the standardized HTTP protocol, just like a web server
does.
@@ -346,92 +632,166 @@ Include supported.sgml here:
&supported;
-Can I install
- Privoxy over Junkbuster?
+
+Can I use Privoxy with my email client?
+
+ As long as there is some way to set a HTTP proxy for the client, then yes,
+ any application can be used, whether it is strictly speaking a
+ browser or not. Though this may not be the best approach for
+ dealing with some of the common abuses of HTML in email. See How can I configure Privoxy
+ with Outlook? below for more on
+ this.
+
+
+ Be aware that HTML email presents a number of unique security and privacy
+ related issues, that can require advanced skills to overcome. The developers
+ recommend using email clients that can be configured to convert HTML to plain
+ text for these reasons.
+
+
+
+
-
-I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything
+
+I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything
special I have to do now?
- All browsers must be told to use Privoxy
- as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
- in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. See below.
- Also, you should flush your browser's memory and disk cache to get rid of any
- cached items.
+ All browsers should 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. It's possible
+ to combine &my-app; with a packet filter to intercept HTTP requests
+ even if the client isn't explicitly configured to use &my-app;,
+ but where possible, configuring the client is recommended. See
+ 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.
-
-What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
+What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
If you set up the Privoxy to run on
the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
- networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on localhost
- (which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
- to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have Privoxy to run on a different port with the
- listen-address config option).
+ 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 used the listen-address
+ config option to tell Privoxy to run on
+ a different port).
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.
+ 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, e.g. 192.168.1.1.
+ Port assignment would be same as above. Note that
+ Privoxy doesn't listen on any LAN interfaces by
+ default.
Privoxy does not currently handle
- protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, or other Internet
- protocols.
+ any other protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, etc.
-
-I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening.
+
+I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening.
All the ads are there. What's wrong?
- Did you configure your browser to use Privoxy
+ Did you configure your browser to use Privoxy
as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
- the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
- that Privoxy is running, and your browser
- is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
- http://p.p/. This should give you
- a banner that says This is Privoxy and
- access to Privoxy's internal configuration.
- If you see this, then you are good to go. If not, the browser or
- Privoxy are not set up correctly.
+ 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 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. For instructions
+ on starting Privoxy and browser configuration,
+ see the chapter
+ on starting Privoxy in the
+ User Manual.
+
+
+
+
+
+I get a Privoxy is not being used dummy page although
+Privoxy is running and being used.
+
+
+ First, make sure that Privoxy is really running and
+ being used by visiting http://p.p/. You
+ should see the Privoxy main page. If not, see
+ the chapter
+ on starting Privoxy in the
+ User Manual.
+
+
+ Now if http://p.p/ works for you, but
+ other parts of Privoxy's web interface show
+ the dummy page, your browser has cached a redirection it encountered before
+ Privoxy was being used. You need to clear your
+ browser's cache. Note that shift-reloading the dummy page won't help, since
+ that'll only refresh the dummy page, not the redirection that lead you there.
+
+ The procedure for clearing the cache varies from browser to browser. For
+ example, Mozilla/Netscape users would click
+ Edit --> Preferences -->
+ Advanced --> Cache and
+ then click both Clear Memory Cache
+ and Clear Disk Cache.
+ In some Firefox versions it's
+ Tools --> Options -->
+ Privacy --> Cache and
+ then click Clear Cache Now.
+
+
@@ -439,1072 +799,2363 @@ All the ads are there. What's wrong?
-Configuration
-
-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.
-
-
-
-
-What is an actions file?
+Configuration
+
+What exactly 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 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.
-
+ &my-app; utilizes the concept of
+ actions
+ that are used to manipulate and control web page data.
+ Actions files
+ are where these actions
+ that Privoxy could take while processing a certain
+ request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
+ that apply globally to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
+ There is a wide array of actions available that give the user a high degree
+ of control and flexibility on how to process each and every web page.
- 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.
-
-How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
-way to do this?
+
+How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
+way to do this?
- The easiest way to do this, is to access Privoxy
- with your web browser at http://p.p/,
- and then select
- "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. But probably the 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. Note
+ that this feature must be explicitly enabled in the main config file
+ (see enable-edit-actions).
+
+
+
+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.
+ Please have a look at the the actions chapter
+ in the User Manual for a detailed explanation.
-
+
-
-What are the differences between
-intermediate.action, basic.action, etc.?
+How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account work?
-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.
+ The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services.
+ It may, however, make all 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:
-
Default Configurations
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Feature
- default.action
- basic.action
- intermediate.action
- advanced.action
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- ad-filtering
- ?
- x
- x
- x
-
-
-
- blank image
- ?
- x
- x
- x
-
-
-
- de-animate GIFs
- ?
- x
- x
- x
-
-
-
- referer forging
- ?
- x
- x
- x
-
-
-
- jon's +no-cookies-keep (i.e. session cookies only)
- ?
- x
- x
- x
-
-
-
- no-popup windows
- ?
-
- x
- x
-
-
-
- fast redirects
- ?
-
- x
- x
-
-
-
- hide-referrer
- ?
-
- x
- x
-
-
-
- hide-useragent
- ?
-
- x
- x
-
-
-
- content-modification
- ?
-
-
- x
-
-
-
- feature-x
- ?
-
-
-
-
-
-
- feature-y
- ?
-
-
-
-
-
-
- feature-z
- ?
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-