There are several possibilities:
Either Privoxy is not running, or your
- browser is configured for a different port than what
- is not running. Solution: verify
+ that Privoxy is using, or, if using a forwarding
- rule, you have a configuration problem or a problem with a host in the
- forwarding chain.
-
You should verify that Or your browser is configured for a different port than what + Privoxy is indeed running and that the correct port is set, - and matches what your browser is set to. See is using. Solution: verify that Privoxy + and your browser are set to the same port (listen-address - option in Privoxy's main configuration file. If using - any forwarding rules, disable those to make sure the problem is not with - a forwarder.
).Or if using a forwarding rule, you have a configuration problem or a + problem with a host in the forwarding chain. Solution: temporarily alter your + configuration and take the forwarders out of the equation.
Or you have a firewall that is interfering and blocking you. Solution: + try disabling or removing the firewall as a simple test. +
More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has + been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running! The solution is + to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find + something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products + may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly. +
If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without @@ -141,8 +171,7 @@ still getting through. How?Privoxy - will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flushing the browser's - caches. And then try again.
If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info and see if it really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking - spam: a lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game.
Privoxy's logs + (you may need to enable logging in the main config file if its disabled).Below is a slightly modified real-life log snippet that originates with one + requested URL: www.example.com (name of site was changed + for this example, the number of requests is real). You can see in this the + complexity of what goes into making up this one "page". There + are eight different domains involved here, with thirty two separate URLs + requested in all, making up all manner of images, Shockwave Flash, + JavaScript, CSS stylesheets, scripts, and other related content. Some of this + content is obviously "good" or "bad", but not all. + Many of the more questionable looking requests, are going to outside domains + that seem to be identifying themselves with suspicious looking names, making + our job a little easier. Privoxy has "crunched" (meaning caught + and BLOCKED) quite a few items in this example, but perhaps missed a few as well.
Request: www.example.com/ +Request: www.example.com/favicon.ico +Request: img.example.com/main.css +Request: img.example.com/sr.js +Request: example.betamarker.com/example.html +Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/bestsellers/skyscraper.php?likref=BSellers +Request: img.example.com/pb.png +Request: www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js crunch! +Request: www.advertising-department.com/ats/switch.ps.php?26856 crunch! +Request: img.example.com/p.gif +Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example&mode=behind crunch! +Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=5c3cf&tmpl=PBa.tmpl crunch! +Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example crunch! +Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/best_sellers.css +Request: www.adtrak.net/adx.js crunch! +Request: img.example.com/hbg.gif +Request: img.example.com/example.jpg +Request: img.example.com/mt.png +Request: img.example.com/mm.png +Request: img.example.com/mb.png +Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=a71b91fa5&tmpl=Ua.tmp crunch! +Request: www.example.com/tracker.js +Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/lsi_head.gif +Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=020548130&what=zone:61 crunch! +Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=463594413&what=zone:58&source=Ua crunch! +Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/bottomani.swf +Request: mmm.elitemediagroup.net/install.php?allowpop=no&popupmincook=0&allowsp2=1 crunch! +Request: www.example.com/tracker.js?screen=1400x1050&win=962x693 +Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=61 crunch! +Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=5c3cf599a9efd0320d26&si +Request: 66.70.21.80/img/pixel.gif +Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=58&source=Ua&block=86400 crunch! +Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=a71b9f6504b0c5681fa5&si=Ua |
Despite 12 out of 32 requests being blocked, the page looked, and seemed to + behave perfectly "normal" (minus some ads, of course).
First verify that it is indeed a http://config.privoxy.org/toggle, +> + (the toggle feature may need to be enabled in the main + config), and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory caches).
If still a problem, go to If the problem went away, we know we have a configuration related problem. + Now go to http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info - and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions - are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions files are - responsible for that. Now, armed with this information, go to required. + Now, armed with this information, go to + http://config.privoxy.org/show-status - and select the appropriate actions files for editing.
You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there, @@ -230,6 +370,9 @@ TARGET="_top" >actions tutorial with general configuration information and examples.
As a last resort, you can always see if your browser has a setting that will + bypass the proxy setting for selective sites. Modern browsers can do this.
This is a quirk that effects the installation of
5.5. I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy
- is blocking me.5.6. I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy
+ is blocking me. "proxy"
- setting, which will silently enable various protocols, including
+ setting, which will enable various protocols, including
5.6. In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
- Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.5.7. In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
+ Privoxy as the HTTP proxy. Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
@@ -388,10 +531,10 @@ CLASS="SECT2"
CLASS="SECT2"
>5.7. In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
+>5.8. In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
- empty the trash. Just dragging the 5.8. In Mac OSX Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
+>5.9. In Mac OSX Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
localhost as my browser's proxy setting. as my browser's proxy setting. We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in OSX, but don't fully
understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
@@ -449,8 +592,7 @@ CLASS="SECT2"
CLASS="SECT2"
>5.9. I get a completely blank page at one site. 5.10. I get a completely blank page at one site. "View Source"
@@ -458,7 +600,8 @@ CLASS="QUOTE"
CLASS="MARKUP"
><html><body></body></html>. Without
- Privoxy the page loads fine. Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has
- been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running. The solution is
- to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
- something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products
- may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
- 5.10. Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?
HOSTS file. If this file has been changed from the original, try reverting it to - see if that helps.
Port 8118 is Privoxy running, and - you are actually trying to start a second Privoxy - on the same port, which will not work. (You can have multiple instances but - they must be assigned different ports.) How and why this might happen varies - from platform to platform, but you need to check your installation and - start-up procedures.
on the same port, which will not work. + (You can have multiple instances but they must be assigned different ports.) + How and why this might happen varies from platform to platform, but you need + to check your installation and start-up procedures. This is caused by the 5.14. Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy
- is used? This may also be caused by the "demoronizer" filter,
- in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting a file type. Binary
+ in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting the content type. Binary
files are exempted from Privoxy's5.15. What is the "demoronizer" and why is it there? and why is it there? The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
@@ -718,11 +846,11 @@ CLASS="SECT2"
CLASS="SECT2"
>5.16. Why do I keep seeing "PrivoxyWindowOpen()" in raw source code? in raw source code? 5.17. I am getting too many DNS errors like "404 No Such Domain". Why
- can't Privoxy do this better? There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS resolution
is done by the underlying operating system -- not
@@ -804,7 +932,7 @@ CLASS="QUOTE"
> which is reporting whatever problem occurred
downstream, and not the root cause of the error. In any case, v. 3.0.5 includes various improvements to help
+> In any case, newer versions include various improvements to help
Privoxy5.18. At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking
- all CPU. Why is this? This is probably a manifestation of the 5.19. I just installed Privoxy, and all my
-browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users world-wide,
it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent interaction of software
@@ -858,6 +986,34 @@ browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives?
It's probably due to compression. It is a common practice for web servers to + send their content "compressed" in order to speed things up, and + then let the browser "uncompress" them. When compiled with zlib support + Privoxy can decompress content before filtering, otherwise you may want to enable +prevent-compression.