X-Git-Url: http://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fsource%2Ffaq.sgml;h=ff2c4c5bd1d9046741403772a199ab89b5224857;hp=0a7fc3f61f8ffa6b7794ce411dffb764ce085f8f;hb=HEAD;hpb=e016de9ab346f184ecb065f93610f3d0c101005b
diff --git a/doc/source/faq.sgml b/doc/source/faq.sgml
index 0a7fc3f6..ff2c4c5b 100644
--- a/doc/source/faq.sgml
+++ b/doc/source/faq.sgml
@@ -8,10 +8,10 @@
-
-
-
-
+
+
+
+
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
Purpose : FAQ
- Copyright (C) 2001-2020 Privoxy Developers https://www.privoxy.org/
+ Copyright (C) 2001-2023 Privoxy Developers https://www.privoxy.org/
See LICENSE.
Based partially on the Internet Junkbuster FAQ originally written by and
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@
- Copyright &my-copy; 2001-2020 by
+ Copyright &my-copy; 2001-2023 by
Privoxy Developers
@@ -156,9 +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
@@ -168,9 +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.
@@ -180,13 +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),
@@ -261,7 +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.
@@ -401,12 +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.
@@ -555,16 +554,30 @@ warranty? Registration?
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 links are being used. Note that Privoxy comes with a
+ hide-referrer
+ action so Privoxy users following links to sponsor websites
+ may not necessarily send requests with a Referer header set.
+
+
+ Link targets are without path (https://www.example.org/
+ not https://www.example.org/seo/keyword/spam/).
The details may change over time but changes will only affect new sponsors
(or existing sponsors that explicitly agreed to the changes).
+
+ Thanks to Software in the Public Interest (SPI)
+ Privoxy sponsors can get a proper invoice.
+
If you want to become a sponsor, please contact
- Fabian Keil.
- New sponsors are only accepted if no developer objects.
+ Fabian Keil
+ and include the link target in the mail.
+ New sponsors are only accepted if no
+ Privoxy team
+ member objects.
@@ -653,7 +666,7 @@ 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.
@@ -788,7 +801,7 @@ 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.
@@ -830,7 +843,7 @@ way to do this?
-
+There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
the differences?
@@ -894,7 +907,7 @@ 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
@@ -907,17 +920,19 @@ the differences?
.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:
+
+# Gmail is a _fragile_ site:
#
{ fragile }
- # Gmail is ...
- mail.google.com
+# 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.
@@ -1069,7 +1084,7 @@ with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?
- listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118
+listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118
Save the file, and restart Privoxy. Configure
@@ -1082,7 +1097,7 @@ with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?
- listen-address :8118
+listen-address :8118
And then use Privoxy's
@@ -1219,7 +1234,7 @@ 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
@@ -1294,13 +1309,13 @@ 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
@@ -1321,7 +1336,7 @@ 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
@@ -1333,7 +1348,7 @@ and thus avoid individual browser configuration?
See the
- Wikipedia cookie
+ Wikipedia cookie
definition for more.
@@ -1352,8 +1367,9 @@ and thus avoid individual browser configuration?
both in and out, for example.com:
- { -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only -filter{content-cookies} }
- .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
@@ -1389,19 +1405,20 @@ and thus avoid individual browser configuration?
Here's one real easy one:
- ############################################################
- # Blacklist
- ############################################################
- { +block }
- / # Block *all* URLs
-
- ############################################################
- # Whitelist
- ############################################################
- { -block }
- kids.example.com
- toys.example.com
- games.example.com
+############################################################
+# Blacklist
+############################################################
+{ +block }
+/ # Block *all* URLs
+
+############################################################
+# Whitelist
+############################################################
+{ -block }
+kids.example.com
+toys.example.com
+games.example.com
+
This allows access to only those three sites by first blocking all URLs, and
then subsequently allowing three specific exceptions.
@@ -1445,20 +1462,22 @@ and thus avoid individual browser configuration?
following very simple rule in your user.action:
- # Unblock everybody, everywhere
- { -block }
- / # UN-Block *all* URLs
+# 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 \
+# Unblock everybody, everywhere, and turn off appropriate filtering, etc
+{ -block \
-filter{banners-by-size} \
-filter{banners-by-link} \
allow-popups \
- }
- / # UN-Block *all* URLs and allow ads
+}
+/ # UN-Block *all* URLs and allow ads
+
This last action in this compound statement,
allow-popups, is an BLOCKED page?
available as compile-time options. You should
configure the sources as follows:
-
- ./configure --disable-toggle --disable-editor --disable-force
+
+./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
@@ -1911,7 +1931,7 @@ 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
@@ -2191,11 +2211,12 @@ altered it! Yikes, what is wrong!
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
+{ +block }
+www.ad.example1.com
+ad.example2.com
+ads.galore.example.com
+etc.example.com
+
@@ -2742,7 +2763,7 @@ 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.
@@ -2875,6 +2896,11 @@ 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.
+
@@ -2977,7 +3003,7 @@ browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives?
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
+ pcrestack man page
and the documentation of your operating system.
@@ -3047,7 +3073,7 @@ C:\Privoxy>
- License
+ License
&license;
@@ -3055,7 +3081,7 @@ C:\Privoxy>
- History
+ History
&history;