This file belongs into
ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
- $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa Exp $
+ $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9 Exp $
Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
Privoxy team. http://www.privoxy.org/
<artheader>
<title>Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</title>
-<pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa Exp $</pubdate>
+<pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
<authorgroup>
<author>
copyrighted product of <ulink url="http://www.junkbusters.com">Junkbusters
Corporation</ulink>. Development of this effort stopped some time ago as of
version 2.0.2. Stefan Waldherr started the ijbswa project on <ulink
- url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net">Sourceforge</ulink> to rekindle
+ url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Sourceforge</ulink> to rekindle
development. Other developers subsequently joined with Stefan, and have
- since added many new features, refinements and enhancements.
+ since added many new features, refinements and enhancements. The result
+ of this effort is <application>Privoxy</application>.
</para>
<para>
-
The new <application>Privoxy</application> started with the same
- <application>Junkbuster</application> code base, but has changed
+ <application>Privoxy</application> started with the same
+ <application>Junkbuster 2.0.2</application> code base, but has advanced
significantly at this point.
</para>
<sect3>
<title id="whyprivoxy">Why <quote>Privoxy</quote>? Why a name change at all?</title>
<para>
- <application>Privoxy</application> is for <quote>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</quote>.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is the
+ <quote><emphasis>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</emphasis></quote>.
+</para>
+<para>
There are possible legal complications from the continued use of the
<application>Junkbuster</application> name, which is a trademark of
<ulink url="http://junkbusters.com">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>.
- (There are no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
- <application>Privoxy</application> project itself though, and they
- in fact still share our ideals and goals.)
+ (There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
+ <application>Privoxy</application> project itself, and they, in fact, still
+ share our ideals and goals.)
</para>
<para>
</sect3>
-<sect3 id="differs"><title>How does it differ from the old <application>Junkbuster?</application></title>
- <para>
- All the old features remain. The new <application>Privoxy</application>
- 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.
+<sect3 id="differs"><title>How does <application>Privoxy</application> differ
+from the old <application>Junkbuster?</application></title>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> picks up where
+ <application>Junkbuster</application> left off. All the old features remain.
+ The new <application>Privoxy</application> 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.
</para>
<para>
The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
</sect3>
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="knows">How does <application>Privoxy</application> know what is
+an ad, and what is not?</title>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> 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. <application>Privoxy</application> makes heavy use of
+ <quote>regular expressions</quote>. (If you are not familiar with regular
+ expressions, it is explained briefly in <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/appendix.html">the user manual</ulink>.) Regular
+ expressions facilitate matching of one text string against another, using
+ wildcards to build complex patterns. So <application>Privoxy</application>
+ 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 <quote>/banners</quote>, has a high probability of containing
+ ad banners, and thus would be a prime candidate to have a matching rule.
+</para>
+<para>
+ So <application>Privoxy</application> 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.
+</para>
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3>
+<title id="mistakes">Can <application>Privoxy</application> make mistakes?
+This does not sound very scientific.</title>
+<para>
+ 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.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ But this should not be a big concern since the
+ <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is very flexible, and
+ includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
+ addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
+ (<link linkend="badsite">See the appendix below</link>.)
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
+
<sect3 id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
<application>Privoxy</application>. Why should I use
<application>Privoxy</application> at all?</title>
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 developers manual.
+ section Quickstart in the <ulink url="http://privoxy.org/developer-manual/quickstart.html">
+ Developer's Manual</ulink>.
</para>
<para>
-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.
</para>
</sect4>
<title>Which browsers are supported by <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
<para>
Any browser that can be configured to use a <quote>proxy</quote>, which
- is probably almost all browsers. Direct browser support is not necessary
+ should be virtually all browsers. Direct browser support is not necessary
since <application>Privoxy</application> runs as a separate application and
just exchanges standard HTML data with your browser.
</para>
</para>
<para>
See the <ulink
- url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">user-manual</ulink> for
+ url="../user-manual/index.html">user-manual</ulink> for
platform specific installation instructions. [FIXME: This is meant for after
the name change for 3.0!]
</para>
+ <para>
+ Note: Some installers may automatically uninstall
+ <application>Junkbuster</application>, if present!
+ </para>
</sect3>
All browsers must be told to use <application>Privoxy</application>
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.
</para>
<sect3>
-<title id="filterfile">What is a <quote>default.filter</quote>?</title>
+<title id="filterfile">What is <quote>default.filter</quote>?</title>
<para>
The <quote>default.filter</quote> file is used to <quote>filter</quote> any
web page content. By <quote>filtering</quote> we mean it can modify, remove,
<para>
This is a configuration option for images that
<application>Privoxy</application> is stopping. You have the choice <!-- of
- the --> <!-- <application>Privoxy</application> logo, --> a checkerboard
+ the --> <!-- <application>Privoxy</application> logo, --> of a checkerboard
pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a custom
- URL or your choice.
+ URL of your choice. Note that to fit this category, the URL must match both
+ the <quote>+image</quote> and <quote>+block</quote> actions.
</para>
<para>
<quote>Edit Actions List</quote> selection at <ulink
url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. Or by hand editing the appropriate
actions file. This will only effect what is defined as <quote>images</quote>
- though.
+ though. Also, any URLs that generate the bright red <quote>Blocked</quote>
+ banner, can be moved to the <quote>+image-blocker</quote> section for the
+ same reason.
</para>
<sect3>
<title id="blockedisugly">I see large red banners on some pages that say
-<quote>Blocked</quote>. How do I get rid of this?</title>
+<quote>Blocked</quote>. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
<para>
These are URLs that match something in one of
<application>Privoxy's</application> block actions (+block). It is meant
to be a warning so that you know something has been blocked and an easy way
for you to see why. These are handled differently than what has been defined
- as <quote>images</quote> (e.g. ad banners). If you want them to be treated
- as if they were images, so that they can be made invisible, then move the
- offending URL from the <quote>+block</quote> section to the
- <quote>+imageblock</quote> section of your actions file. Alternately, you
- could modify the <quote><filename>block</filename></quote> HTML template that
- is used by <application>Privoxy</application> to display this, and make it
- something more to your liking.
+ explicitly as <quote>images</quote> (e.g. ad banners). Depending on the
+ URL itself, it is sometimes hard for <application>Privoxy</application> to
+ really know whether it is indeed an ad image or not.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ If you want them to be treated as if they were images, so that they can be
+ made invisible, then move the offending URL from the <quote>+block</quote>
+ section to the <quote>+imageblock</quote> section of your actions file. Just
+ be forewarned, if make any URL is made <quote>invisible</quote>, you may not
+ have any inkling that something has been removed from that page.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Alternately, you could modify the <quote><filename>block</filename></quote>
+ HTML template that is used by <application>Privoxy</application> to display
+ this, and make it something more to your liking.
</para>
</sect3>
+<sect3 id="alliseeisred">
+<title>I cannot see all of the <quote>Blocked</quote> page banner. All I
+see is a bright red square.</title>
+<para>
+ There is not enough space to fit the entire page. Try right clicking on the
+ visible, red portion, and select <quote>Show Frame</quote>, or equivalent.
+ This will usually allow you to see the entire Privoxy <quote>Blocked</quote>
+ page, and from there you can see just what is being blocked, and why.
+</para>
+</sect3>
+
<sect3 id="otherproxy">
<title>How can I make <application>Privoxy</application> work with other
proxies like <application>Squid</application>?</title>
No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
<ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> for this. And, yes,
before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
- with other kinds of proxies like <quote>Squid</quote>.
+ with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be.
-Why does <application>Privoxy</application> leave these large gaps?</title>
+Why?</title>
<para>
It would be easy enough to just eliminate this space altogether, rather than
fill it with blank space. But, this would create problems with many pages
<application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
<application>Privoxy</application> only listens to requests
- from <quote>localhost</quote>. It is not itself directly exposed to the
+ from <quote>localhost</quote>. The server aspect of
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly exposed to the
Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
<application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
- you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1 in the main
+ you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
<application>Privoxy</application> config file. All LAN hosts can then use
this as their proxy address in the browser proxy configuration. In this way,
<application>Privoxy</application> will not listen on any external ports.
sign) in front of them. Add your problem page URL to one of these sections
that looks like it is disabling the feature that is causing the
problem. Re-try the page. There might be some trial and error involved. This
- is discussed in a little more detail in the <ulink
- url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">user-manual
+ is discussed in a little more detail in the
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">user-manual
appendix</ulink>.
</para>
</sect3>
+<sect3 id="bugs">
+<title>Where and how do I submit bug reports? Feature Requests? Etc?</title>
+<para>
+ Feedback is encouraged, whether good, bad or ugly. Please see the contact
+ page in the <ulink url="../user-manual/contact.html">user-manual</ulink> for
+ details.
+
+</para>
+
+</sect3>
+
<sect3>
<title id="time">What time is it?</title>
<para>
-->
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect1 id="copyright"><title>Copyright and History</title>
-<para>Please see the user manual for information on Copyright and History.
+<para>
+ Please see the
+<ulink url="../user-manual/copyright.html#HISTORY">user-manual</ulink> for
+ information on Copyright and History.
</para>
</sect1>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
-<para>Please see the user manual for information on references.
+<para>
+ Please see the
+ <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
+ others references.
</para>
</sect1>
Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
$Log: faq.sgml,v $
+Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
+Touch ups for name change.
+
Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
we have a new homepage!
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