X-Git-Url: http://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fsource%2Ffaq.sgml;h=715e623bec1cae5bbde242592c9359cd792ff27c;hp=5d74168202afa7d488b3ef8d8417c55947c2efbd;hb=246bf1c2f242117ff4722491dd2dd1ff57fb929d;hpb=9cbdd42a4ad5c194ecd8571d7764110e72e2d942
diff --git a/doc/source/faq.sgml b/doc/source/faq.sgml
index 5d741682..715e623b 100644
--- a/doc/source/faq.sgml
+++ b/doc/source/faq.sgml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
+
@@ -7,13 +7,15 @@
-
-
-
+
+
+
+
+
]>
@@ -60,8 +61,35 @@
Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions
-$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.43 2002/04/04 21:59:53 hal9 Exp $
+
+
+
+
+ Copyright &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
+ Privoxy Developers
+
+
+
+$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.64 2002/06/09 16:37:31 hal9 Exp $
+
+
+
+
@@ -81,9 +109,10 @@
]]>
- 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.
@@ -93,7 +122,8 @@
You can find the latest version of the document at http://www.privoxy.org/faq/.
- Please see the Contact section if you want to contact the developers.
+ Please see the Contact section if you want to
+ contact the developers.
@@ -102,39 +132,16 @@
-
-
-
-
-
-
-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 History section for more
- information on the history of Junkbuster and
- Privoxy.
-
+
+
+ &history;
+
@@ -143,18 +150,25 @@
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.
- There are potential legal complications from the continued use of the
+ 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 also potential legal complications from the continued use of the
Junkbuster name, which is a registered trademark of
- Junkbusters Corporation.
- And thus they own the rights to the name.
- (There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
+ 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 are so many changes from the original
code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
@@ -167,23 +181,25 @@
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 if you are upgrading from
- Junkbuster 2.0.x. 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;
@@ -193,57 +209,54 @@ from the old Junkbuster?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.
@@ -251,10 +264,10 @@ 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.
@@ -282,7 +295,6 @@ 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.
-
@@ -291,18 +303,18 @@ 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 Copyright section 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!
-
@@ -311,23 +323,37 @@ 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.
@@ -338,15 +364,15 @@ 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.
@@ -362,18 +388,17 @@ 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.
+ 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.
- See the user-manual for
- platform specific installation instructions.
-
-
- Note: Some installers may automatically uninstall
+ Note: Some installers may automatically un-install
Junkbuster, if present!
@@ -387,8 +412,8 @@ 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.
@@ -399,25 +424,28 @@ 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
@@ -436,11 +464,17 @@ 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.
+
@@ -451,17 +485,18 @@ All the ads are there. What's wrong?
-Configuration
+ConfigurationCan 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.
@@ -469,27 +504,22 @@ 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
@@ -498,9 +528,13 @@ All the ads are there. What's wrong?
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.
@@ -510,241 +544,247 @@ 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
-
-
-
- blank image
- ?
- x
- x
- x
-
-
+
- de-animate GIFs
- ?
- x
- x
- x
+ Ad-blocking by URL
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- referer forging
- ?
- x
- x
- x
+ Ad-filtering by size
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- jon's +no-cookies-keep (i.e. session cookies only)
- ?
- x
- x
- x
+ GIF de-animation
+ no
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- no-popup windows
- ?
-
- x
- x
+ Referer forging
+ no
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- fast redirects
- ?
-
- x
- x
+ Cookie handling
+ none
+ session-only
+ kill
-
+
- hide-referrer
- ?
-
- x
- x
+ Pop-up killing
+ no
+ no
+ yes
-
+
- hide-useragent
- ?
-
- x
- x
+ Fast redirects
+ no
+ no
+ yes
-
+
- content-modification
- ?
-
-
- x
+ HTML taming
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- feature-x
- ?
-
-
-
+ JavaScript taming
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- feature-y
- ?
-
-
-
+ Web-bug killing
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
-
+
- feature-z
- ?
-
-
-
+ Fun text replacements
+ no
+ no
+ yes
-
+