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- Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions -
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+ + Configuration + + + + + + + + +

+ + + + + + + + + +

Privoxy Frequently Asked + Questions
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3. + Configuration

3.1. What + exactly is an "actions" file?

Privoxy 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.

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.

3.2. The + "actions" concept confuses me. Please list + some of these "actions".

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.

3.3. How are + actions files configured? What is the easiest way to do this?

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).

3.4. There are several + different "actions" files. What are the + differences?

Please have a look at the the actions chapter in the User Manual for a + detailed explanation.

- 3. Configuration -

- 3.1. What exactly is an "actions" file? -

- Privoxy 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. -

- 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. -

- 3.2. The "actions" - concept confuses me. Please list some of these "actions". -

- 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. -

- 3.3. How are actions files configured? What is - the easiest way to do this? -

- 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). -

- 3.4. There are several different "actions" files. What are the differences? -

- Please have a look at the the actions - chapter in the User Manual for a detailed explanation. -

- 3.5. 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. -

- If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release - updates of Privoxy or the actions - file, subscribe to our announce mailing list, - privoxy-announce@lists.privoxy.org. -

- 3.6. Can I use my old config files? -

- The syntax and purpose of configuration files has remained roughly - the same throughout the 3.x series, but backwards compatibility is - not guaranteed. Also each release contains updated, "improved" versions and it is therefore strongly - recommended to install the newer configuration files and merge back - your modifications. -

- 3.7. Why is the configuration so - complicated? -

- "Complicated" is in the eye of the - beholder. -

- Privoxy is currently mainly written by and for people who are - already familiar with the underlying concepts like regular - expressions, HTTP and HTML, or are willing to become familiar with - them to be able to get the most out of a powerful and flexible tool - such as Privoxy. -

- While everybody is expected to be able to get a Privoxy default - installation up and running, fine-tuning requires a certain amount - of background information and Privoxy's documentation mainly - concentrates on the Privoxy-specific parts while only providing - references to the rest. -

- If you or anyone you know has the skills, time and energy to reduce - the barrier of entry, please get - involved. -

- 3.8. How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account - work? -

- 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: -

- - -

-# Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
+    
+      3.5. 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.
+      If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release
+      updates of Privoxy or the actions
+      file, subscribe to our announce mailing list,
+      privoxy-announce@lists.privoxy.org.
+    
+    
+      3.6. Can I use my
+      old config files?
+      The syntax and purpose of configuration files has remained roughly
+      the same throughout the 3.x series, but backwards compatibility is not
+      guaranteed. Also each release contains updated, "improved" versions and it is therefore strongly
+      recommended to install the newer configuration files and merge back
+      your modifications.
+    
+    
+      3.7. Why is the
+      configuration so complicated?
+      "Complicated" is in the eye of the
+      beholder.
+      Privoxy is currently mainly written by and for people who are
+      already familiar with the underlying concepts like regular expressions,
+      HTTP and HTML, or are willing to become familiar with them to be able
+      to get the most out of a powerful and flexible tool such as
+      Privoxy.
+      While everybody is expected to be able to get a Privoxy default
+      installation up and running, fine-tuning requires a certain amount of
+      background information and Privoxy's documentation mainly concentrates
+      on the Privoxy-specific parts while only providing references to the
+      rest.
+      If you or anyone you know has the skills, time and energy to reduce
+      the barrier of entry, please get
+      involved.
+    
+    
+      3.8. How can I make my
+      Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account work?
+      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:
+      
+        
+          
-          
-        
+            # Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
 #
 { -crunch-incoming-cookies -
 "_top">crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only }
-.login.yahoo.com
-
-            
-
-        
-          These kinds of sites are often quite complex and heavy with Javascript and thus "fragile". So if still a problem, we have an alias
-          just for such sticky situations:
-        
-        
-        
-        
-          
-            
+        
+      
--# Gmail is a _fragile_ site:
+.login.yahoo.com
+          
+      These kinds of sites are often quite complex and heavy with 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".
-        
-        
-          Make sure the domain, host and path are appropriate as well. Your
-          browser can tell you where you are specifically and you should use
-          that information for your configuration settings. Note that above
-          it is not referenced as gmail.com, which
-          is a valid domain name.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.9. What's the difference between the "Cautious", "Medium" and "Advanced"
-          defaults?
-        
-        
-          Configuring Privoxy is not
-          entirely trivial. To help you get started, we provide you with
-          three different default action "profiles" in the web based actions file editor at
-          http://config.privoxy.org/show-status. See the User Manual for a list of actions, and how the
-          default profiles are set.
-        
-        
-          Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
-          known popular "problem" sites are
-          included, but in general, the more aggressive your default settings
-          are, the more exceptions you will have to make later. New users are
-          best to start off in "Cautious" setting.
-          This is safest and will have the fewest problems. See the User
-          Manual for a more detailed discussion.
-        
-        
-          It should be noted that the "Advanced"
-          profile (formerly known as the "Adventuresome" profile) is more aggressive, and
-          will make use of some of Privoxy's
-          advanced features. Use at your own risk!
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.10. Why can I change the configuration
-          with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?
-        
-        
-          It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files
-          with their browsers, although the whole /etc/privoxy hierarchy belongs to the user "privoxy", with only 644 permissions.
-        
-        
-          When you use the browser-based editor, Privoxy itself is writing to the config files.
-          Because Privoxy is running as the
-          user "privoxy", it can update its own
-          config files.
-        
-        
-          If you run Privoxy for multiple
-          untrusted users (e.g. in a LAN) or aren't entirely in control of
-          your own browser, you will probably want to make sure that the
-          web-based editor and remote toggle features are "off" by setting "enable-edit-actions 0" and "enable-remote-toggle 0" in the main configuration
-          file.
-        
-        
-          As of Privoxy 3.0.7 these options
-          are disabled by default.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.11. What is the default.filter file? What is a "filter"?
-        
-        
-          The default.filter file is where filters as supplied by
-          the developers are defined. Filters are a special subset of actions
-          that can be used to modify or remove web page content or headers on
-          the fly. Content filters can be applied to anything in the page
-          source, header filters can be applied to either server or client
-          headers. Regular expressions are used to accomplish this.
-        
-        
-          There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common
-          annoyances. The filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you
-          need to use the filter action in one of
-          the actions files. Content filtering is automatically disabled for
-          inappropriate MIME types, but if you know better than Privoxy what
-          should or should not be filtered you can filter any content you
-          like.
-        
-        
-          Filters should not be confused with blocks, which is a completely different action,
-          and is more typically used to block ads and unwanted sites.
-        
-        
-          If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can
-          look at the provided default.filter with
-          a text editor and define your own filters. This is potentially a
-          very powerful feature, but requires some expertise in both regular
-          expressions and HTML/HTTP. You should place any modifications to
-          the default filters, or any new ones you create in a separate file,
-          such as user.filter, so they won't be
-          overwritten during upgrades. The ability to define multiple filter
-          files in config is a new feature as of v.
-          3.0.5.
-        
-        
-          There is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
-          but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the
-          included default.filter file with the web-based actions file editor. Note that the custom
-          actions editor must be explicitly enabled in the main config file
-          (see enable-edit-actions).
-        
-        
-          If you intend to develop your own filters, you might want to have a
-          look at Privoxy-Filter-Test.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.12. How can I set up Privoxy to act as a
-          proxy for my LAN?
-        
-        
-          By default, Privoxy only responds
-          to requests from 127.0.0.1 (localhost). To
-          have it act as a server for a network, this needs to be changed in
-          the main
-          configuration file. Look for the listen-address option, which may be commented out
-          with a "#" symbol. Make sure it is
-          uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway
-          interface, and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address is
-          192.168.1.1 and you wish to run Privoxy on port 8118, this line should look
-          like:
-        
-        
-        
-        
-          
-            
-          
-        
--  listen-address  192.168.1.1:8118
-
-            
-
-        
-          Save the file, and restart Privoxy. Configure all browsers on the network
-          then to use this address and port number.
-        
-        
-          Alternately, you can have Privoxy
-          listen on all available interfaces:
-        
-        
-        
-        
-          
-            
-          
-        
--  listen-address    :8118
-
-            
-
-        
-          And then use Privoxy's permit-access feature to limit connections. A firewall
-          in this situation is recommended as well.
-        
-        
-          The above steps should be the same for any TCP network, regardless
-          of operating system.
-        
-        
-          If you run Privoxy on a LAN with
-          untrusted users, we recommend that you double-check the access
-          control and security options!
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.13. Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard
-          pattern. I don't want to see anything.
-        
-        
-          The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the set-image-blocker action. You
-          have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
-          image (aka "blank"), or a redirect to a
-          custom image of your choice. Note that this choice only has effect
-          for images which are blocked as images, i.e. whose URLs match both
-          a handle-as-image and block action.
-        
-        
-          If you want to see nothing, then change the set-image-blocker action to
-          "blank". This can be done by editing the
-          user.action file, or through the web-based
-          actions file editor.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.14. Why would anybody want to see a
-          checkerboard pattern?
-        
-        
-          Remember that telling which image
-          is an ad and which isn't, is an educated guess. While we hope
-          that the standard configuration is rather smart, it will make
-          occasional mistakes. The checkerboard image is visually decent, and
-          it shows you where images have been blocked, which can be very
-          helpful in case some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was
-          erroneously blocked. It is recommended for new users so they can
-          "see" what is happening. Some people
-          might also enjoy seeing how many banners they don't have to see.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.15. I see some images being replaced with
-          text instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of
-          this?
-        
-        
-          This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of
-          the page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are
-          loaded into (i)frames or (i)layers, and these external HTML
-          documents are blocked. Being non-images they get replaced by a
-          substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image, which wouldn't
-          work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts only
-          HTML when it has requested an HTML document.
-        
-        
-          The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself
-          as a miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown
-          with a large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
-        
-        
-          If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to
-          it that the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not
-          blocked. Clicking the "See why" link
-          offered in the substitute page will show you which rule blocked the
-          page. After changing the rule and un-blocking the HTML documents,
-          the browser will try to load the actual banner images and the usual
-          image blocking will (hopefully!) kick in.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.16. Can Privoxy run as a service on
-          Win2K/NT/XP?
-        
-        
-          Yes. Version 3.0.5 introduces full Windows service functionality. 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.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.17. How can I make Privoxy work with other
-          proxies?
-        
-        
-          This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
-          Privoxy with those of a another
-          proxy, for example to cache content. See the forwarding
-          chapter in the User Manual which describes how to do this. If you
-          intend to use Privoxy with Tor, please also have a look at How do I use Privoxy together with Tor.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.18. Can I just set Privoxy to use port 80 and
-          thus avoid individual browser configuration?
-        
-        
-          No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special
-          kinds of proxies known as "intercepting"
-          proxies (see below).
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.19. Can Privoxy run as a "transparent" proxy?
-        
-        
-          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.
-        
-        
-          However, some people say "transparent
-          proxy" when they mean "intercepting
-          proxy". If you are one of them, please read the next entry.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.20. Can Privoxy run as a "intercepting" proxy?
-        
-        
-          Privoxy can't intercept traffic
-          itself, but it can handle requests that where intercepted and
-          redirected with a packet filter (like PF or iptables), as long as the Host header is present.
-        
-        
-          As the Host header is required by HTTP/1.1
-          and as most web sites rely on it anyway, this limitation shouldn't
-          be a problem.
-        
-        
-          Please refer to your packet filter's documentation to learn how to
-          intercept and redirect traffic into Privoxy. Afterward you just have to configure
-          Privoxy to accept intercepted requests.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.21. How can I configure Privoxy for use with
-          Outlook?
-        
-        
-          Versions of Outlook prior to
-          Office 2007, use Internet Explorer
-          components to both render HTML, and fetch any HTTP requests that
-          may be embedded in an HTML email. So however you have Privoxy configured to work with IE, this
-          configuration should automatically be shared, at least with older
-          version of Internet Explorer.
-        
-        
-          Starting with Office 2007, Microsoft is instead using the MS-Word
-          rendering engine with Outlook. It is unknown whether this can be
-          configured to use a proxy.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.22. How can I have separate rules just for
-          HTML mail?
-        
-        
-          The short answer is, you can't. Privoxy has no way of knowing which particular
-          application makes a request, so there is no way to distinguish
-          between web pages and HTML mail. Privoxy just blindly proxies all requests. In
-          the case of Outlook Express (see
-          above), OE uses IE anyway, and there is no way for Privoxy to ever be able to distinguish between
-          them (nor could any other proxy type application for that matter).
-        
-        
-          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.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.23. I sometimes notice cookies sneaking
-          through. How?
-        
-        
-          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 Privoxy concept of session-cookies-only. There is also the possibility of
-          using Javascript to set cookies (Privoxy 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.
-        
-        
-          All in all, Privoxy can help
-          manage cookies in general, can help minimize the loss of privacy
-          posed by cookies, but can't realistically stop all cookies.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.24. Are all cookies bad? Why?
-        
-        
-          No, in fact there are many beneficial uses of 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 advantage of this layer of trust, and using the data they
-          glean from you and your browsing habits for their own purposes, and
-          maybe to your potential detriment. Such sites are using you and
-          storing their data on your system. That is why the privacy
-          conscious watch from whom those cookies come, and why they really
-          need to be
-          there.
-        
-        
-          See the Wikipedia cookie definition for more.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.25. How can I allow permanent cookies for
-          my trusted sites?
-        
-        
-          There are several actions that relate to cookies. The default
-          behavior is to allow only "session
-          cookies", which means the cookies only last for the current
-          browser session. This eliminates most kinds of abuse related to
-          cookies. But there may be cases where you want cookies to last.
-        
-        
-          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 being explicit in what you want to
-          happen. user.action includes an alias for
-          this situation, called allow-all-cookies.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.26. Can I have separate configurations for
-          different users?
-        
-        
-          Each instance of Privoxy has its
-          own configuration, including such attributes as the TCP port that
-          it listens on. What you can do is run multiple instances of Privoxy, each with a unique listen-address configuration setting, and configuration
-          path, and then each of these can have their own configurations.
-          Think of it as per-port configuration.
-        
-        
-          Simple enough for a few users, but for large installations,
-          consider having groups of users that might share like
-          configurations.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.27. Can I set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of
-          "good" sites?
-        
-        
-          Sure. There are a couple of things you can do for simple
-          white-listing. Here's one real easy one:
-        
-        
-          
-            
+        
+      
-- ############################################################
+ mail.google.com
+          
+      Be sure to flush your browser's caches whenever making these kinds
+      of changes, just to make sure the changes "take".
+      Make sure the domain, host and path are appropriate as well. Your
+      browser can tell you where you are specifically and you should use that
+      information for your configuration settings. Note that above it is not
+      referenced as gmail.com, which is a valid
+      domain name.
+    
+    
+      3.9. What's
+      the difference between the "Cautious",
+      "Medium" and "Advanced" defaults?
+      Configuring Privoxy is not entirely
+      trivial. To help you get started, we provide you with three different
+      default action "profiles" in the web based
+      actions file editor at http://config.privoxy.org/show-status. See the
+      User Manual for a list of actions, and how the
+      default profiles are set.
+      Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
+      known popular "problem" sites are included,
+      but in general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more
+      exceptions you will have to make later. New users are best to start off
+      in "Cautious" setting. This is safest and
+      will have the fewest problems. See the User
+      Manual for a more detailed discussion.
+      It should be noted that the "Advanced"
+      profile (formerly known as the "Adventuresome" profile) is more aggressive, and will
+      make use of some of Privoxy's advanced
+      features. Use at your own risk!
+    
+    
+      3.10. Why
+      can I change the configuration with a browser? Does that not raise
+      security issues?
+      It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files
+      with their browsers, although the whole /etc/privoxy hierarchy belongs to the user "privoxy", with only 644 permissions.
+      When you use the browser-based editor, Privoxy itself is writing to the config files.
+      Because Privoxy is running as the user
+      "privoxy", it can update its own config
+      files.
+      If you run Privoxy for multiple
+      untrusted users (e.g. in a LAN) or aren't entirely in control of your
+      own browser, you will probably want to make sure that the web-based
+      editor and remote toggle features are "off"
+      by setting "enable-edit-actions 0" and "enable-remote-toggle 0" in the main configuration
+      file.
+      As of Privoxy 3.0.7 these options
+      are disabled by default.
+    
+    
+      3.11. What is
+      the default.filter file? What is a
+      "filter"?
+      The default.filter file is where
+      filters as
+      supplied by the developers are defined. Filters are a special subset of
+      actions that can be used to modify or remove web page content or
+      headers on the fly. Content filters can be applied to anything in the page source,
+      header filters can be applied to either server or client headers.
+      Regular expressions are used to accomplish this.
+      There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common
+      annoyances. The filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you need
+      to use the filter action in one of the actions
+      files. Content filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate
+      MIME types, but if you know better than Privoxy what should or should
+      not be filtered you can filter any content you like.
+      Filters should not be confused with blocks, which is a completely different action, and
+      is more typically used to block ads and unwanted sites.
+      If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look
+      at the provided default.filter with a text
+      editor and define your own filters. This is potentially a very powerful
+      feature, but requires some expertise in both regular expressions and
+      HTML/HTTP. You should place any modifications to the default filters,
+      or any new ones you create in a separate file, such as user.filter, so they won't be overwritten during
+      upgrades. The ability to define multiple filter files in config is a new feature as of v. 3.0.5.
+      There is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
+      but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the
+      included default.filter file with the
+      web-based
+      actions file editor. Note that the custom actions editor must be
+      explicitly enabled in the main config file (see enable-edit-actions).
+      If you intend to develop your own filters, you might want to have a
+      look at Privoxy-Filter-Test.
+    
+    
+      3.12. How can I
+      set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN?
+      By default, Privoxy only responds
+      to requests from 127.0.0.1 (localhost). To
+      have it act as a server for a network, this needs to be changed in the
+      main configuration
+      file. Look for the listen-address option, which may be commented out with
+      a "#" symbol. Make sure it is uncommented,
+      and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface, and port number
+      to use. Assuming your LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you wish to run
+      Privoxy on port 8118, this line should
+      look like:
+      
+        
+          
+        
+      
+              listen-address  192.168.1.1:8118
+          
+      Save the file, and restart Privoxy.
+      Configure all browsers on the network then to use this address and port
+      number.
+      Alternately, you can have Privoxy
+      listen on all available interfaces:
+      
+        
+          
+        
+      
+              listen-address    :8118
+          
+      And then use Privoxy's permit-access feature to limit connections. A firewall in
+      this situation is recommended as well.
+      The above steps should be the same for any TCP network, regardless
+      of operating system.
+      If you run Privoxy on a LAN with
+      untrusted users, we recommend that you double-check the access
+      control and security options!
+    
+    
+      3.13. Instead of ads,
+      now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see
+      anything.
+      The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the
+      set-image-blocker action. You have
+      the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF image (aka
+      "blank"), or a redirect to a custom image of
+      your choice. Note that this choice only has effect for images which are
+      blocked as images, i.e. whose URLs match both a handle-as-image and block
+      action.
+      If you want to see nothing, then change the set-image-blocker action to
+      "blank". This can be done by editing the
+      user.action file, or through the web-based actions
+      file editor.
+    
+    
+      3.14. Why would
+      anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?
+      Remember that telling which image
+      is an ad and which isn't, is an educated guess. While we hope that
+      the standard configuration is rather smart, it will make occasional
+      mistakes. The checkerboard image is visually decent, and it shows you
+      where images have been blocked, which can be very helpful in case some
+      navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was erroneously blocked. It
+      is recommended for new users so they can "see" what is happening. Some people might also enjoy
+      seeing how many banners they don't have to see.
+    
+    
+      3.15. I
+      see some images being replaced with text instead of the checkerboard
+      image. Why and how do I get rid of this?
+      This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of
+      the page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded
+      into (i)frames or (i)layers, and these external HTML documents are
+      blocked. Being non-images they get replaced by a substitute HTML page
+      rather than a substitute image, which wouldn't work out technically,
+      since the browser expects and accepts only HTML when it has requested
+      an HTML document.
+      The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself
+      as a miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown
+      with a large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
+      If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to
+      it that the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked.
+      Clicking the "See why" link offered in the
+      substitute page will show you which rule blocked the page. After
+      changing the rule and un-blocking the HTML documents, the browser will
+      try to load the actual banner images and the usual image blocking will
+      (hopefully!) kick in.
+    
+    
+      3.16. Can Privoxy run as
+      a service on Win2K/NT/XP?
+      Yes. Version 3.0.5 introduces full Windows service functionality. 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.
+    
+    
+      3.17. How can I
+      make Privoxy work with other proxies?
+      This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
+      Privoxy with those of a another proxy,
+      for example to cache content. See the forwarding
+      chapter in the User Manual which describes how to do this. If you intend to
+      use Privoxy with Tor, please also have a look at How do I use Privoxy together with Tor.
+    
+    
+      3.18. Can I just set
+      Privoxy to use port 80 and thus avoid individual browser
+      configuration?
+      No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special
+      kinds of proxies known as "intercepting"
+      proxies (see below).
+    
+    
+      3.19. Can
+      Privoxy run as a "transparent"
+      proxy?
+      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.
+      However, some people say "transparent
+      proxy" when they mean "intercepting
+      proxy". If you are one of them, please read the next entry.
+    
+    
+      3.20. Can
+      Privoxy run as a "intercepting"
+      proxy?
+      Privoxy can't intercept traffic
+      itself, but it can handle requests that where intercepted and
+      redirected with a packet filter (like PF or iptables),
+      as long as the Host header is present.
+      As the Host header is required by HTTP/1.1
+      and as most web sites rely on it anyway, this limitation shouldn't be a
+      problem.
+      Please refer to your packet filter's documentation to learn how to
+      intercept and redirect traffic into Privoxy. Afterward you just have to configure
+      Privoxy to accept intercepted requests.
+    
+    
+      3.21. How can I
+      configure Privoxy for use with Outlook?
+      Versions of Outlook prior to Office
+      2007, use Internet Explorer components
+      to both render HTML, and fetch any HTTP requests that may be embedded
+      in an HTML email. So however you have Privoxy configured to work with IE, this
+      configuration should automatically be shared, at least with older
+      version of Internet Explorer.
+      Starting with Office 2007, Microsoft is instead using the MS-Word
+      rendering engine with Outlook. It is unknown whether this can be
+      configured to use a proxy.
+    
+    
+      3.22. How
+      can I have separate rules just for HTML mail?
+      The short answer is, you can't. Privoxy has no way of knowing which particular
+      application makes a request, so there is no way to distinguish between
+      web pages and HTML mail. Privoxy just
+      blindly proxies all requests. In the case of Outlook Express (see above), OE uses IE anyway,
+      and there is no way for Privoxy to
+      ever be able to distinguish between them (nor could any other proxy
+      type application for that matter).
+      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.
+    
+    
+      3.23. I
+      sometimes notice cookies sneaking through. How?
+      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
+      Privoxy concept of session-cookies-only. There is also the possibility of using
+      Javascript to set cookies (Privoxy 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.
+      All in all, Privoxy can help manage
+      cookies in general, can help minimize the loss of privacy posed by
+      cookies, but can't realistically stop all cookies.
+    
+    
+      3.24. Are
+      all cookies bad? Why?
+      No, in fact there are many beneficial uses of 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 advantage
+      of this layer of trust, and using the data they glean from you and your
+      browsing habits for their own purposes, and maybe to your potential
+      detriment. Such sites are using you and storing their data on your
+      system. That is why the privacy conscious watch from whom those cookies
+      come, and why they really need to be there.
+      See the Wikipedia cookie definition for more.
+    
+    
+      3.25. How
+      can I allow permanent cookies for my trusted sites?
+      There are several actions that relate to cookies. The default
+      behavior is to allow only "session cookies",
+      which means the cookies only last for the current browser session. This
+      eliminates most kinds of abuse related to cookies. But there may be
+      cases where you want cookies to last.
+      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 being explicit in what you want to happen.
+      user.action includes an alias for this
+      situation, called allow-all-cookies.
+    
+    
+      3.26. Can I have
+      separate configurations for different users?
+      Each instance of Privoxy has its
+      own configuration, including such attributes as the TCP port that it
+      listens on. What you can do is run multiple instances of Privoxy, each with a unique listen-address configuration setting, and configuration
+      path, and then each of these can have their own configurations. Think
+      of it as per-port configuration.
+      Simple enough for a few users, but for large installations, consider
+      having groups of users that might share like configurations.
+    
+    
+      3.27. Can I
+      set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of "good"
+      sites?
+      Sure. There are a couple of things you can do for simple
+      white-listing. Here's one real easy one:
+      
+        
+          
-          
-        
+            +            ############################################################
  # Blacklist
  ############################################################
  { 
 "_top">-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.
-        
-        
-          Another approach is Privoxy's trustfile concept, which incorporates the
-          notion of "trusted referrers". See the
-          Trust
-          documentation for details.
-        
-        
-          These are fairly simple approaches and are not completely
-          foolproof. There are various other configuration options that
-          should be disabled (described elsewhere here and in the User Manual) so that users
-          can't modify their own configuration and easily circumvent the
-          whitelist.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.28. How can I turn off ad-blocking?
-        
-        
-          Ad blocking is achieved through a complex application of various
-          Privoxy actions. These
-          actions are deployed against simple images, banners, flash
-          animations, text pages, JavaScript, pop-ups and pop-unders, etc.,
-          so its not as simple as just turning one or two actions off. The
-          various actions that make up Privoxy ad blocking are hard-coded into the
-          default configuration files. It has been assumed that everyone
-          using Privoxy is interested in
-          this particular feature.
-        
-        
-          If you want to do without this, there are several approaches you
-          can take: You can manually undo the many block rules in default.action. Or even easier, just create your
-          own default.action file from scratch
-          without the many ad blocking rules, and corresponding exceptions.
-          Or lastly, if you are not concerned about the additional blocks
-          that are done for privacy reasons, you can very easily over-ride
-          all blocking
-          with the following very simple rule in your user.action:
-        
-        
-        
-        
-          
-            
+        
+      
-- # Unblock everybody, everywhere
+  games.example.com
+          
+      This allows access to only those three sites by first blocking all
+      URLs, and then subsequently allowing three specific exceptions.
+      Another approach is Privoxy's
+      trustfile concept, which incorporates the
+      notion of "trusted referrers". See the
+      Trust
+      documentation for details.
+      These are fairly simple approaches and are not completely foolproof.
+      There are various other configuration options that should be disabled
+      (described elsewhere here and in the User Manual) so that users can't modify their own
+      configuration and easily circumvent the whitelist.
+    
+    
+      3.28. How can I
+      turn off ad-blocking?
+      Ad blocking is achieved through a complex application of various
+      Privoxy actions. These
+      actions are deployed against simple images, banners, flash animations,
+      text pages, JavaScript, pop-ups and pop-unders, etc., so its not as
+      simple as just turning one or two actions off. The various actions that
+      make up Privoxy ad blocking are
+      hard-coded into the default configuration files. It has been assumed
+      that everyone using Privoxy is
+      interested in this particular feature.
+      If you want to do without this, there are several approaches you can
+      take: You can manually undo the many block rules in default.action. Or even easier, just create your own
+      default.action file from scratch without the
+      many ad blocking rules, and corresponding exceptions. Or lastly, if you
+      are not concerned about the additional blocks that are done for privacy
+      reasons, you 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
+ / # 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 \
   
 "_top">-filter{banners-by-link} \
   allow-popups \
  }
- / # UN-Block *all* URLs and allow ads
-
-            
-
-        
-          This last "action" in this compound
-          statement, allow-popups, is an alias
-          that disables various pop-up blocking features.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.29. How can I have custom template pages,
-          like the BLOCKED page?
-        
-        
-          Privoxy "templates" are specialized text files utilized by
-          Privoxy for various purposes and
-          can easily be modified using any text editor. All the template
-          pages are installed in a sub-directory appropriately named: templates. Knowing something about HTML
-          syntax will of course be helpful.
-        
-        
-          Be forewarned that the default templates are subject to being
-          overwritten 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.
-        
-      
-      
-        
-          3.30. How can I remove the "Go There Anyway" link from the BLOCKED page?
-        
-        
-          There is more than one way to do it (although Perl is not
-          involved).
-        
-        
-          Editing the BLOCKED template page (see above) may dissuade some
-          users, but this method is easily circumvented. Where you need this
-          level of control, you might want to build Privoxy from source, and disable various
-          features that are 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 Privoxy does not allow easy
-          bypassing of blocked sites, or changing the current configuration
-          via any connected user's web browser.
-        
-        
-          Finally, all of these features can also be toggled on/off via
-          options in Privoxy's main config file which means you don't have to recompile
-          anything.
-        
-      
-    
-    
-      
-      
-        
-          
-          
-          
+      
-            Prev
-          
-            Home
-          
-            Next
+ / # UN-Block *all* URLs and allow ads
           
         
+      This last "action" in this compound
+      statement, allow-popups, is an alias that
+      disables various pop-up blocking features.
+    
+    
+      3.29. How can I
+      have custom template pages, like the BLOCKED page?
+      Privoxy "templates" are specialized text files utilized by
+      Privoxy for various purposes and can
+      easily be modified using any text editor. All the template pages are
+      installed in a sub-directory appropriately named: templates. Knowing something about HTML syntax will of
+      course be helpful.
+      Be forewarned that the default templates are subject to being
+      overwritten 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.
+    
+    
+      3.30. How can I
+      remove the "Go There Anyway" link from the
+      BLOCKED
+      page?
+      There is more than one way to do it (although Perl is not
+      involved).
+      Editing the BLOCKED template page (see above) may dissuade some
+      users, but this method is easily circumvented. Where you need this
+      level of control, you might want to build Privoxy from source, and disable various features
+      that are available as compile-time options. You should configure the sources as follows:
+      
-          
-          
-          
         
-            Installation
-          
-             
-          
-            Miscellaneous
+          
+            +            ./configure  --disable-toggle  --disable-editor  --disable-force
           
         
       
+      This will create an executable with hard-coded security features so
+      that Privoxy does not allow easy
+      bypassing of blocked sites, or changing the current configuration via
+      any connected user's web browser.
+      Finally, all of these features can also be toggled on/off via
+      options in Privoxy's main config
+      file which means you don't have to recompile anything.
     
-  
+  
+  
+    
+    
+      
+        
+        
+        
+      
+      
+        
+        
+        
+      
+    Prev Home Next
Installation   Miscellaneous
+  
+
 
-

- 3. Configuration -

- 3.1. What exactly is an "actions" file? -

- 3.2. The "actions" - concept confuses me. Please list some of these "actions". -

- 3.3. How are actions files configured? What is - the easiest way to do this? -

- 3.4. There are several different "actions" files. What are the differences? -

- 3.5. Where can I get updated Actions - Files? -

- 3.6. Can I use my old config files? -

- 3.7. Why is the configuration so - complicated? -

- 3.8. How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account - work? -

- 3.9. What's the difference between the "Cautious", "Medium" and "Advanced" - defaults? -

- 3.10. Why can I change the configuration - with a browser? Does that not raise security issues? -

- 3.11. What is the default.filter file? What is a "filter"? -

- 3.12. How can I set up Privoxy to act as a - proxy for my LAN? -

- 3.13. Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard - pattern. I don't want to see anything. -

- 3.14. Why would anybody want to see a - checkerboard pattern? -

- 3.15. I see some images being replaced with - text instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of - this? -

- 3.16. Can Privoxy run as a service on - Win2K/NT/XP? -

- 3.17. How can I make Privoxy work with other - proxies? -

- 3.18. Can I just set Privoxy to use port 80 and - thus avoid individual browser configuration? -

- 3.19. Can Privoxy run as a "transparent" proxy? -

- 3.20. Can Privoxy run as a "intercepting" proxy? -

- 3.21. How can I configure Privoxy for use with - Outlook? -

- 3.22. How can I have separate rules just for - HTML mail? -

- 3.23. I sometimes notice cookies sneaking - through. How? -

- 3.24. Are all cookies bad? Why? -

- 3.25. How can I allow permanent cookies for - my trusted sites? -

- 3.26. Can I have separate configurations for - different users? -

- 3.27. Can I set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of - "good" sites? -

- 3.28. How can I turn off ad-blocking? -

- 3.29. How can I have custom template pages, - like the BLOCKED page? -

- 3.30. How can I remove the "Go There Anyway" link from the BLOCKED page? -

- 3.11. What is the `default.filter` file? What is a "filter"? -