1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN"[
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
8 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
9 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
10 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
11 <!entity p-version "3.0.4">
12 <!entity p-status "beta">
13 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
14 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
15 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
16 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
17 <!entity % p-supp-userman "INCLUDE"> <!-- Include all from supported.sgml -->
18 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
19 <!entity % p-newstuff "INCLUDE"> <!-- exclude stuff from devel versions -->
20 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
23 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/faq.sgml,v $
26 This file belongs into
27 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
29 $Id: faq.sgml,v 2.16 2006/09/10 15:30:46 hal9 Exp $
31 Copyright (C) 2001-2006 Privoxy Developers http://privoxy.org
34 Based partially on the Internet Junkbuster FAQ originally written by and
35 Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters Corporation.
36 http://www.junkbusters.com/
38 <Qandaset defaultlabel='qanda'>
53 ========================================================================
54 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
57 Please we keep the info in this file as version independent as possible
58 so we only have to maintain one FAQ. Where significant changes are
59 made to Privoxy configuration, please note the change in such a way that
60 it makes sense to both users of older and newer versions.
61 ========================================================================
67 <article id="index" class="faq">
69 <title>Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</title>
73 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
74 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
75 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2006 by
76 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
80 <pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.16 2006/09/10 15:30:46 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
84 Note: this should generate a separate page, and a live link to it.
85 But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave commented
86 unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the copyright
87 statement will be in copyright.smgl.
91 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
93 text goes here ........
103 <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
112 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
113 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
114 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
119 This FAQ gives quick answers to frequently asked questions about
120 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
121 It is not a substitute for the
122 <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
124 This works, at least in some situtations:
125 Test: <ulink url="privoxy-user-manual.pdf"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
129 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
130 <para>What is Privoxy?</para> &p-intro;
131 <!-- end boilerplate -->
134 Please note that this document is a work in progress. This copy represents
135 the state at the release of version &p-version;.
136 You can find the latest version of the document at <ulink
137 url="http://www.privoxy.org/faq/">http://www.privoxy.org/faq/</ulink>.
138 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> if you want to
139 contact the developers.
143 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
149 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
151 <sect1 id="general"><title>General Information</title>
152 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="who_uses"><title>Who should use Privoxy?</title>
154 Anyone that is interested in security, privacy, or in
155 finer-grained control over their web and Internet experience.
156 Everyone is encouraged to try &my-app;.
160 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="bestchoice"><title>Is Privoxy the best choice for
163 &my-app; is certainly a good choice, especially for those who want more
164 control and security. Those that have the ability to fine-tune their installation
165 will benefit the most. One of <application>Privoxy's</application>
166 strength's is that it is highly configurable giving you the ability to
167 completely personalize your installation. Being familiar with, or at least
168 having an interest in learning about <ulink
169 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Http">HTTP</ulink> and other networking
170 protocols, <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html">HTML</ulink>,
171 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol">IP (Internet
172 Protocol)</ulink>, and
173 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
174 Expressions</quote></ulink>
175 will be a big plus and will help you get the most out
179 Much of <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration can be done
180 with a <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser">Web browser</ulink>.
181 But there are areas where configuration is done using a
182 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_editors">text editor</ulink>
183 to edit configuration files.
187 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="proxymoron"><title>What is a <quote>proxy</quote>? How does
188 Privoxy work? </title>
190 A <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">web proxy</ulink>
191 is a service, based on a software such as
192 <application>Privoxy</application>, that clients (i.e. browsers) can use
193 instead of connecting directly to web servers on the Internet. The
194 clients then ask the proxy to fetch the objects they need (web pages,
195 images, movies etc) on their behalf, and when the proxy has done so, it
196 hands the results back to the client. It is a <quote>go-between</quote>. See
197 the <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">Wikipedia proxy
198 definition</ulink> for more.
201 There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security (firewalling),
202 efficiency (caching) and others, and there are any number of proxies
203 to accommodate those needs.
206 <application>Privoxy</application> is a proxy that is primarily focused on privacy
207 protection, ad and junk elimination and freeing the user from restrictions placed on his
208 activities. Sitting between your browser(s) and the Internet,
209 it is in a perfect position to filter outbound personal information that your
210 browser is leaking, as well as inbound junk. It uses a variety of techniques to do
211 this, all of which are under your complete control via the various configuration
216 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newjb"><title>What is this new version of
217 <quote><citetitle>Junkbuster</citetitle></quote>?</title>
219 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
226 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
227 <title id="whyprivoxy">Why <quote>Privoxy</quote>? Why change the name from
228 Junkbuster at all?</title>
230 <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>
231 continues to offer their original version of the <application>Internet
232 Junkbuster</application>, so publishing our
233 <application> Junkbuster</application>-derived software under the same name
237 There are also potential legal complications from the continued use of the
238 <application>Junkbuster</application> name, which is a registered trademark of
239 <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>.
240 There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
241 <application>Privoxy</application> project itself, and they, in fact, still
242 share our ideals and goals.
245 The developers also believed that there are so many improvements over the original
246 code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
247 a name in their own right.
250 <application>Privoxy</application> is the
251 <quote><emphasis>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</emphasis></quote>. Also, its content
252 modification and junk suppression gives <emphasis>you</emphasis>, the user, more
253 control, more freedom, and allows you to browse your personal and
254 <quote><emphasis>private</emphasis> edition</quote> of the web.
259 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="differs"><title>How does Privoxy differ
260 from the old Junkbuster?</title>
262 <application>Privoxy</application> picks up where
263 <application>Junkbuster</application> left off. All the old features remain.
264 The new <application>Privoxy</application> still blocks ads and banners,
266 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>, and still
267 helps protect your privacy. But, these are all greatly enhanced, and many,
268 many new features have been added, all in the same vein.
271 The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
272 users will notice right off the bat if upgrading from
273 <application>Junkbuster</application> 2.0.x. The <quote>blocklist</quote>
274 <quote>cookielist</quote>, <quote>imagelist</quote> and much more has been
275 combined into the <quote>actions</quote> files, with a completely different
276 syntax. <![%p-newstuff;[ See the <ulink url="../user-manual/whatsnew.html">What's New</ulink>
277 page for the latest updates.]]>
280 <application>Privoxy</application>'s new features include:
283 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml: -->
289 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whatsanad">
290 <title id="knows">How does Privoxy know what is
291 an ad, and what is not?</title>
293 <application>Privoxy</application>'s approach to blocking ads is twofold:
296 First, there are certain patterns in the <emphasis>locations</emphasis> (URLs)
297 of banner images. This applies to both the path (you wouldn't guess how many
298 web sites serve their banners from a directory called <quote>banners</quote>!)
299 and the host (blocking the big banner hosting services like doublecklick.net
300 already helps a lot). <application>Privoxy</application> takes advantage of this
301 fact by using <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL
302 patterns</ulink> to sort out and block the requests for things that sound
303 like they would be ads or banners.
306 Second, banners tend to come in certain <emphasis>sizes</emphasis>. But you
307 can't tell the size of an image by its URL without downloading it, and if you
308 do, it's too late to save bandwidth. Therefore, <application>Privoxy</application>
309 also inspects the HTML sources of web pages while they are loaded, and replaces
310 references to images with standard banner sizes by dummy references, so that
311 your browser doesn't request them anymore in the first place.
314 Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
315 and readily configurable.
319 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
320 <title id="mistakes">Can Privoxy make mistakes?
321 This does not sound very scientific.</title>
323 Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
324 rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. You will almost surely
325 run into such situations at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
326 cover every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
330 But this should not be a big concern since the
331 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is very flexible, and
332 includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
333 addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
334 (<link linkend="badsite">See the Troubleshooting section below</link>.)
340 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
341 <title id="configornot">Will I have to configure Privoxy
342 before I can use it?</title>
344 No, not really. The default installation should give you a good starting
345 point, and block <emphasis>most</emphasis> unwanted content.
348 But you will certainly run into situations where there are false positives,
349 or ads not being blocked that you may not want to see. In these cases, you
350 would certainly benefit by customizing <application>Privoxy's</application>
351 configuration to more closely match your individual situation. And we would
352 encourage you to do this. This is where the real power of
353 <application>Privoxy</application> lies!
356 You will have to tell your browser about <application>Privoxy</application>
357 (see the Installation section below).
362 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
363 Privoxy. Why should I use
364 Privoxy at all?</title>
366 Modern browsers do indeed have <emphasis>some</emphasis> of the same
367 functionality as <application>Privoxy</application>. Maybe this is
368 adequate for you. But <application>Privoxy</application> is much more
369 versatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
372 In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
373 have a LAN with multiple computers. This way all the configuration
374 is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar configuration
375 for possibly many browsers.
379 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whytrust"><title>Why should I trust Privoxy?</title>
381 The most important reason is because you have access to
382 <emphasis>everything</emphasis>, and you can control everything. You can
383 check every line of every configuration file yourself. You can check every
384 last bit of source code should you desire. And even if you can't read code,
385 there should be some comfort in knowing that thousands of other people can,
386 and do read it. You can build the software from scratch, if you want, so
387 that you know the executable is clean, and that it is
388 <emphasis>yours</emphasis>. In fact, we encourage this level of scrutiny. It
389 is one reason we use &my-app; ourselves.
393 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
394 warranty? Registration?</title>
396 <application>Privoxy</application> is licensed under the <ulink
397 url="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public License (GPL)</ulink>.
398 It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this
399 license. Please see the <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> section for more
400 information on the license and copyright. Or the <filename>LICENSE</filename> file
401 that should be included.
404 There is <emphasis>no warranty</emphasis> of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
405 That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
406 <application>Privoxy</application> really is <emphasis>free</emphasis>
412 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="spyware">
413 <title>Can Privoxy remove spyware? Adware? Viruses?</title>
415 No. &my-app; cannot remove anything. It is not a removal tool. It is a
416 preventative. &my-app; can help prevent contact from sites
417 that use such tactics, and thus could conceivably prevent contamination from
423 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherads">
424 <title>Can I use Privoxy with other ad-blocking software?</title>
426 &my-app; should work fine with other proxies and other software in general.
429 But it is probably not necessary to use &my-app; in conjunction with other
430 ad-blocking products, and this could conceivably cause undesirable results.
431 It would be better to choose one software or the other and work a little to
432 tweak its configuration to your liking.
436 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what can I do?</title>
438 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-work"><title>Would you like to participate?</title>
440 Well, we <emphasis>always</emphasis> need help. There is something for
441 everybody who wants to help us. We welcome new developers, packagers,
442 testers, documentation writers or really anyone with a desire to help in
443 any way. You <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> need to be a
444 <quote>programmer</quote>. There are many other tasks available. In fact,
445 the programmers often can't spend as much time programming because of some
446 of the other, more mundane things that need to be done, like checking the
447 Tracker feedback sections.
450 So first thing, <ulink
451 url="https://sourceforge.net/account/register.php">get an account on SourceForge.net</ulink>
452 and mail your id to the <ulink url="mailto:ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net">developers
453 mailing list</ulink>. Then, please read the <ulink
454 url="../developer-manual/index.html">Developer's Manual</ulink>, at least
455 the pertinent sections.
458 Once we have added you to the team, you'll have access to the <ulink
459 url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">CVS repository</ulink>, and
460 together we'll find a suitable task for you.
464 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-money"><title>Contribute!</title>
466 We, of course, welcome donations and could use money for domain registering,
467 buying software to test <application>Privoxy</application> with, and, of course,
468 for regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). If you enjoy the software and feel
469 like helping us with a donation, just <ulink
470 url="mailto: ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net">drop us a note</ulink>.
474 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-software"><title>Software</title>
476 If you are a vendor of a web-related software like a browser, web server
477 or proxy, and would like us to ensure that <application>Privoxy</application>
478 runs smoothly with your product, you might consider supplying us with a
479 copy or license. We can't, however, guarantee that we will fix all potential
480 compatibility issues as a result.
490 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
492 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
494 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichbrowsers">
495 <title>Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?</title>
497 Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
498 should be virtually all browsers, including
499 <application>Firefox</application>, <application>Internet
500 Explorer</application>, and <application>Opera</application> among others.
501 Direct browser support is not an absolute requirement since
502 <application>Privoxy</application> runs as a separate application and talks
503 to the browser in the standardized HTTP protocol, just like a web server
508 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichos">
509 <title>Which operating systems are supported?</title>
511 Include supported.sgml here:
516 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="email-client">
517 <title>Can I use Privoxy with my email client?</title>
519 As long as there is some way to set a HTTP proxy for the client, then yes,
520 any application can be used, whether it is strictly speaking a
521 <quote>browser</quote> or not. Though this may not be the best approach for
522 dealing with some of the common abuses of HTML in email. See <link
523 linkend="outlook">How can I configure <application>Privoxy</application>
524 with <application>Outlook Express</application>?</link> below for more on
528 Be aware that HTML email presents a number of unique security and privacy
529 related issues, that can require advanced skills to overcome. The developers
530 recommend using email clients that can be configured to convert HTML to plain
531 text for these reasons.
535 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
536 Privoxy over Junkbuster?</title>
538 We recommend you un-install <application>Junkbuster</application>
539 first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
540 save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
541 files and syntax have substantially changed, so you will need to manually
542 port your old patterns. See the <ulink url="../user-manual/upgradersnote.html">note
543 to upgraders</ulink> and <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">installation
544 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink>
548 Note: Some installers may automatically un-install
549 <application>Junkbuster</application>, if present!
554 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
555 <title id="firststep">I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything
556 special I have to do now?</title>
559 All browsers must be told to use <application>Privoxy</application>
560 as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
561 in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. See below.
562 You should also flush your browser's memory and disk cache to get rid of any
563 cached junk items, and remove any stored
564 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>.
571 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of Privoxy?</title>
573 If you set up the <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
574 the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
575 networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>
576 (sometimes referred to as <quote>localhost</quote>,
577 which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
578 to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have <application>Privoxy</application>
579 to run on a different port with the <ulink
580 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink> config option).
583 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
584 the word <quote>localhost</quote> or the IP address <quote>127.0.0.1</quote>
585 in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote> and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and
586 then the number <quote>8118</quote> for <quote>port</quote>.
587 This tells your browser to send all web requests to <application>Privoxy</application>
588 instead of directly to the Internet.
591 <application>Privoxy</application> can also be used to proxy for
592 a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
593 address of the LAN host where <application>Privoxy</application>
594 is running, or the equivalent hostname. Port assignment would be
595 same as above. Note that <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't
596 listen on any LAN interfaces by default.
599 <application>Privoxy</application> does not currently handle
600 any other protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, etc. Be sure that
601 proxying any of these other protocols is not activated.
605 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nothing">
606 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening.
607 All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
610 Did you configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
611 as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
612 the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
613 that <application>Privoxy</application> is running, and your browser
614 is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
615 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>.
616 <!-- Use http://p.p/ instead of http://config.privoxy.org/ here because
617 of potential redirect caching problem (see next Q). -->
618 This should take you to a page titled <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote> with
619 access to <application>Privoxy's</application> internal configuration.
620 If you see this, then you are good to go. If you receive a page saying
621 <quote>Privoxy is not running</quote>, then the browser is not set up to use
622 your <application>Privoxy</application> installation.
623 If you receive anything else (probably nothing at all), it could either
624 be that the browser is not set up correctly, or that
625 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running at all. Check the <ulink
626 url="../user-manual/config.html#LOGFILE">log file</ulink>. For instructions
627 on starting <application>Privoxy</application> and browser configuration,
628 see the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
629 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
630 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
635 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="notused">
636 <title>I get a <quote>Privoxy is not being used</quote> dummy page although
637 Privoxy is running and being used.</title>
640 First, make sure that Privoxy is <emphasis>really</emphasis> running and
641 being used by visiting <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. You
642 should see the <application>Privoxy</application> main page. If not, see
643 the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
644 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
645 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
649 Now if <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> works for you, but
650 other parts of <application>Privoxy</application>'s web interface show
651 the dummy page, your browser has cached a redirection it encountered before
652 <application>Privoxy</application> was being used. You need to clear your
653 browser's cache. Note that shift-reloading the dummy page won't help, since
654 that'll only refresh the dummy page, not the redirection that lead you there.
658 The procedure for clearing the cache varies from browser to browser. For
659 example, <application>Mozilla/Netscape</application> users would click
660 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -->
661 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
662 then click both <quote><guibutton>Clear Memory Cache</guibutton></quote>
663 and <quote><guibutton>Clear Disk Cache</guibutton></quote>.
664 And, <application>Firefox</application> users would click
665 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -->
666 <guibutton>Privacy</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
667 then click <quote><guibutton>Clear Cache Now</guibutton></quote>.
675 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
677 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
679 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
681 Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updates of
682 <filename>default.action</filename> will be
683 made available from time to time on the <ulink
684 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files section</ulink> of
685 our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project page</ulink>.
689 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
690 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
691 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
692 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
697 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
699 The syntax and purpose of configuration files has remained the same
700 throughout the 3.x series. Although each release contains updated,
701 <quote>improved</quote> versions and it is recommended to use the newer
705 But all configuration files have substantially
706 changed from the <application>Junkbuster</application> days, and early
707 versions of <application>Privoxy 2.x</application>. The old files, like
708 <filename>blocklist</filename> will not work at all.
710 <![%p-newstuff;[ <para>
711 Refer to the <ulink url="../user-manual/whatsnew.html">What's New</ulink>
712 page for information on configuration changes that may occur from one release to another.
716 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
717 <title id="actionsfile">What exactly is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
720 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">Actions files</ulink>
721 are where various <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink>
722 that <application>Privoxy</application> could take while processing a certain
723 request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
724 that apply to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
725 There is a wide array of actions available that give the user a high degree
726 of control and flexibility on how to process each and every web page.
730 Actions can be defined on a <ulink
731 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</ulink> basis, i.e.
732 for single URLs, whole web sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be
733 grouped together and then applied to requests matching one or more patterns.
734 There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
735 if you are blocking <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
736 as one of your default actions, but need to accept cookies from a given site,
737 you would need to define an exception for this site in one of your actions
738 files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>.
743 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionss">
744 <title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
745 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
747 For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer
748 to the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions file
749 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
750 manual</ulink>. It includes a <ulink
751 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">list of all actions</ulink>
752 and an <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions
753 file tutorial</ulink> to get you started.
758 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
759 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
760 way to do this?</title>
763 Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
764 with a text editor. But probably the easiest way is to access
765 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface with your web browser
766 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
767 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and then select
768 <quote><ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View &
769 change the current configuration</ulink></quote> from the menu.
774 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
775 <title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
776 the differences?</title>
778 As of <application>Privoxy</application> v2.9.15, three actions files
779 are being included, to be used for
780 different purposes: These are
781 <filename>default.action</filename>, the <quote>main</quote> actions file
782 which is actively maintained by the <application>Privoxy</application>
783 developers, <filename>user.action</filename>, where users are encouraged
784 to make their private customizations, and <filename>standard.action</filename>,
785 which is for internal <application>Privoxy</application> use only.
786 Please see <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">the actions chapter</ulink>
787 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> for a more
788 detailed explanation.
792 Earlier versions included three different versions of the
793 <filename>default.action</filename> file. The new scheme allows for
794 greater flexibility of local configuration, and for browser based
795 selection of pre-defined <quote>aggressiveness</quote> levels.
800 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account work?</title>
802 The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services.
803 It will, however, make all <ulink
804 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
805 temporary, so that your browser will forget your
806 login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would like not to have to log
807 in manually each time you access those websites, simply turn off all cookie handling
808 for them in the <filename>user.action</filename> file. An example for yahoo might
812 <screen># Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
814 { -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</ulink> -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</ulink> -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</ulink> }
815 .login.yahoo.com</screen>
818 These kinds of sites are often quite complex and heavy with
819 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> and
820 thus <quote>fragile</quote>. So if <emphasis>still</emphasis> a problem,
822 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> just for such
826 <screen># Gmail is a _fragile_ site:
828 { <literal>fragile</literal> }
829 mail.google.com</screen>
832 Be sure to flush your browser's caches whenever making these kinds of
833 changes, just to make sure the changes <quote>take</quote>.
836 Make sure the domain, host and path are appropriate as well. Your browser can
837 tell you where you are specifically and you should use that information for
838 your configuration settings. Note that above it is not referenced as
839 <literal>gmail.com</literal>, which is a valid domain name.
844 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
845 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Adventuresome</quote> defaults?</title>
847 Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To
848 help you get started, we provide you with three different default action
849 <quote>profiles</quote> in the web based actions file editor at <ulink
850 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
851 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html"><citetitle>User
852 Manual</citetitle></ulink> for a list of actions, and how the default
857 Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
858 known popular <quote>problem</quote> sites are included, but in
859 general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more exceptions
860 you will have to make later. See the <ulink
861 url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>
862 for a more detailed discussion.
866 It should be noted that the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> profile (formerly known
867 as the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile) is not only more
868 aggressive, but also includes fun and, extreme usage of most of
869 <application>Privoxy's</application> features. Use at your own risk!
874 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration
875 with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
877 It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files with their
878 browsers, although the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
879 belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
882 When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
883 itself is writing to the config files. Because
884 <application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>,
885 it can update the config files.
888 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in
889 a LAN), you will probably want to turn the web-based editor and remote toggle
890 features off by setting <quote><literal><ulink
891 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>
892 0</literal></quote> and <quote><literal><ulink
893 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">enable-remote-toggle</ulink>
894 0</literal></quote> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
897 Note that in the default configuration, only local users (i.e. those on
898 <quote>localhost</quote>) can connect to <application>Privoxy</application>,
899 so this is not (normally) a security problem.
904 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
905 <title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file? What is a <quote>filter</quote>?</title>
907 The <ulink url="../user-manual/filter-file.html"><filename>default.filter</filename></ulink>
908 file is where <emphasis>filters</emphasis> as supplied by the developers are defined.
909 Filters are a special subset of actions that can be used to modify or
910 remove, web page content on the fly. Filters apply to <emphasis>anything</emphasis>
911 in the page source (and optionally both client and server headers), including
912 HTML tags, and JavaScript. Regular expressions are used to accomplish this.
913 There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common annoyances. The
914 filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you need to use the
916 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"><literal>filter</literal>
917 action</ulink> in one of the actions files. Filtering is automatically
918 disabled for inappropriate MIME types.
922 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
923 the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and define
924 your own filters. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
925 requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
926 <![%p-newstuff;[ You should
927 place any modifications to the default filters, or any new ones you create
928 in a separate file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>, so they won't
929 be overwritten during upgrades.
930 The ability to define multiple filter files
931 in <filename>config</filename> is a new feature as of v. 3.0.4.]]>
935 There is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
936 but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included
937 <filename>default.filter</filename> file with the <ulink
938 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
943 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
944 <title id="lanconfig">How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my
947 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
948 from <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> (localhost). To have it act as a server for
949 a network, this needs to be changed in the <ulink
950 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>. Look for
952 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink></literal>
953 option, which may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
954 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
955 and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you
956 wish to run <application>Privoxy</application> on port 8118, this line
962 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118</screen>
966 Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
967 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
971 Alternately, you can have <application>Privoxy</application> listen on
972 all available interfaces:
977 listen-address :8118</screen>
981 And then use <application>Privoxy's</application>
983 url="../user-manual/config.html#PERMIT-ACCESS">permit-access</ulink>
984 feature to limit connections. A firewall in this situation is recommended
989 The above steps should be the same for any TCP network, regardless of
994 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> on a LAN with untrusted users,
995 we recommend that you double-check the <ulink
996 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security</ulink>
1003 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1004 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
1006 The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the <ulink
1007 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1008 action</ulink>. You have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
1009 image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a redirect to a custom image of your choice.
1010 Note that this choice only has effect for images which are blocked as images, i.e.
1011 whose URLs match both a <literal><ulink
1012 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink></literal>
1013 <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><ulink
1014 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> action.
1017 If you want to see nothing, then change the <ulink
1018 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1019 action</ulink> to <quote>blank</quote>. This can be done by editing the
1020 <filename>default.action</filename> file, or trough the <ulink
1021 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
1026 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1027 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
1029 Remember that <link linkend="whatsanad">telling which image is an ad and which
1030 isn't</link>, is mostly guesswork. While we hope that the standard configuration
1031 is rather smart, it can and will make errors. The checkerboard image is visually
1032 decent, but it shows you that and where images were blocked, which can be very
1033 helpful in case some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was
1034 erroneously blocked. Some people might also enjoy seeing how many banners
1035 they <emphasis>don't</emphasis> have to see..
1040 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1041 <title id="blockedbytext">I see some images being replaced by a text
1042 instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
1044 This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of the
1045 page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded into (i)frames
1046 or (i)layers, and these external HTML documents are blocked. Being non-images
1047 they get replaced by a substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image,
1048 which wouldn't work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts
1049 only HTML when it has requested an HTML document.
1052 The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself as a
1053 miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown with a
1054 large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
1057 If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to it that
1058 the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked. Clicking
1059 the <quote>See why</quote> link offered in the substitute page will show
1060 you which rule blocked the page. After changing the rule and un-blocking
1061 the HTML documents, the browser will try to load the actual banner images
1062 and the usual image blocking will (hopefully!) kick in.
1067 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="srvany">
1068 <title>Can Privoxy run as a service
1069 on Win2K/NT/XP?</title>
1072 Yes. Version 3.0.4 introduces full <application>Windows</application> service
1073 functionality. See <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html#installation-pack-win">
1074 the User Manual</ulink> for details on how to install and configure
1075 <application>Privoxy</application> as a service.
1078 Earlier ]]>3.x versions could run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
1079 See the discussion at <ulink
1080 url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=361118&aid=485617&group_id=11118">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=361118&aid=485617&group_id=11118</ulink>,
1081 for details, and a sample configuration.
1086 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherproxy">
1087 <title>How can I make Privoxy work with other
1088 proxies like Squid or Tor?</title>
1090 This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
1091 <application>Privoxy</application> with those of a another proxy.
1093 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1094 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> which
1095 describes how to do this, and the <link linkend="TOR">
1096 How do I use Privoxy together with
1097 Tor</link> section below.
1101 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="port-80">
1102 <title>Can I just set Privoxy to use port 80
1103 and thus avoid individual browser configuration?</title>
1106 No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special kinds
1107 of proxies known as <quote>transparent</quote> proxies (see below).
1112 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
1113 <title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>transparent
1114 </quote> proxy?</title>
1116 No, <application>Privoxy</application> currently does not have this ability,
1117 though it may be added in a future release. Transparent proxies require
1118 special handling of the request headers beyond what
1119 <application>Privoxy</application> is now capable of.
1123 Chaining <application>Privoxy</application> behind another proxy that has
1124 this ability should work though.
1126 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1127 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink>. As
1128 a transparent proxy to be used for chaining we recommend Transproxy
1129 (<ulink url="http://transproxy.sourceforge.net/">http://transproxy.sourceforge.net/</ulink>).
1134 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook">
1135 <title>How can I configure Privoxy for use with Outlook
1138 <application>Outlook Express</application> uses <application>Internet Explorer</application>
1139 components to both render HTML, and fetch any HTTP requests that may be embedded in an HTML email.
1140 So however you have <application>Privoxy</application> configured to work
1141 with IE, this configuration should automatically be shared.
1145 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook-more">
1146 <title>How can I have separate rules just for HTML mail?</title>
1148 The short answer is, you can't. <application>Privoxy</application> has no way
1149 of knowing which particular application makes a request, so there is no way to
1150 distinguish between web pages and HTML mail.
1151 <application>Privoxy</application> just blindly proxies all requests. In the
1152 case of <application>Outlook Express</application> (see above), OE uses
1153 IE anyway, and there is no way for <application>Privoxy</application> to ever
1154 be able to distinguish between them (nor could any other proxy type application for
1158 For a good discussion of some of the issues involved (including privacy and
1159 security issues), see
1160 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=211118&aid=629518&group_id=11118">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=211118&aid=629518&group_id=11118</ulink>.
1164 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="sneaky-cookies">
1165 <title>I sometimes notice cookies sneaking through. How?</title>
1168 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Cookies</ulink> can be
1169 set in several ways. The classic method is via the
1170 <literal>Set-Cookie</literal> HTTP header. This is straightforward, and an
1171 easy one to manipulate, such as the &my-app; concept of
1172 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</ulink>.
1173 There is also the possibility of using
1174 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> to
1175 set cookies (&my-app; calls these <literal>content-cookies</literal>). This
1176 is trickier because the syntax can vary widely, and thus requires a certain
1177 amount of guesswork. It is not realistic to catch all of these short of
1178 disabling Javascript, which would break many sites. And lastly, if the
1179 cookies are embedded in a HTTPS/SSL secure session via Javascript, they are beyond
1180 <application>Privoxy's</application> reach.
1183 All in all, &my-app; can help manage cookies in general, can help minimize
1184 the loss of privacy posed by cookies, but can't realistically stop all
1189 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="evil-cookies">
1190 <title>Are all cookies bad? Why?</title>
1192 No, in fact there are many beneficial uses of
1194 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>. Cookies are just a
1195 method that browsers can use to store data between pages, or between browser
1196 sessions. Sometimes there is a good reason for this, and the user's life is a
1197 bit easier as a result. But there is a long history of some websites taking
1198 advantage of this layer of trust, and using the data they glean from you and
1199 your browsing habits for their own purposes, and maybe to your potential
1200 detriment. Such sites are using you and storing their data on your system.
1201 That is why the security conscious watch from whom those cookies come, and why
1202 they really <emphasis>need</emphasis> to be there.
1206 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Wikipedia cookie
1207 definition</ulink> for more.
1211 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allow-cookies">
1212 <title>How can I allow permanent cookies for my trusted sites?</title>
1215 There are several actions that relate to cookies. The default behavior is to
1216 allow only <quote>session cookies</quote>, which means the cookies only last
1217 for the current browser session. This eliminates most kinds of abuse related
1218 to cookies. But there may be cases where we want cookies to last.
1221 To disable all cookie actions, so that cookies are allowed unrestricted,
1222 both in and out, for <literal>example.com</literal>:
1226 { -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only -filter{content-cookies} }
1227 .example.com</screen>
1230 Place the above in <filename>user.action</filename>. Note some of these may
1231 be off by default anyway, so this might be redundant, but there is no harm
1232 being explicit in what you want to happen. <filename>user.action</filename>
1233 includes an alias for this situation, called
1234 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal>.
1238 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="multiples">
1239 <title>Can I have separate configurations for different users?</title>
1241 Each instance of <application>Privoxy</application> has its own
1242 configuration, including such attributes as the TCP port that it listens on.
1243 What you can do is run multiple instances of <application>Privoxy</application>, each with
1244 a unique <literal>listen-address</literal> and configuration path, and then
1245 each of these can have their own configurations. Think of it as per-port
1249 Simple enough for a few users, but for large installations, consider having
1250 groups of users that might share like configurations.
1254 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whitelists">
1255 <title>Can I set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of
1256 <quote>good</quote> sites?</title>
1258 Sure. There are a couple of things you can do for simple whitelisting.
1259 Here's one real easy one:
1262 ############################################################
1264 ############################################################
1265 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
1266 / # Block *all* URLs
1268 ############################################################
1270 ############################################################
1271 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
1274 games.example.com</screen>
1276 This allows access to only those three sites.
1279 A more interesting approach is <application>Privoxy's</application>
1280 <literal>trustfile</literal> concept, which incorporates the notion of
1281 <quote>trusted referrers</quote>. See the <ulink
1282 url="../user-manual/config.html#TRUSTFILE">User Manual Trust</ulink>
1286 These are fairly simple approaches and are not completely foolproof. There
1287 are various other configuration options that should be disabled (described
1288 elsewhere here and in <ulink url="../user-manual/">the User Manual</ulink>)
1289 so that users can't modify their own configuration and easily circumvent the
1296 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1299 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1301 <sect1 id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
1303 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1304 <title id="slowsme">How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This
1305 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
1307 How much of an impact depends on many things, including the CPU of the host
1308 system, how aggressive the configuration is, which specific actions are being triggered,
1309 the size of the page, etc.
1312 Overall, it should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
1313 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not typically being
1314 retrieved and displayed. The actual processing time required by
1315 <application>Privoxy</application> itself for each page, is relatively small
1316 in the overall scheme of things, and happens very quickly. This is typically
1317 more than offset by time saved not downloading and rendering ad images (if ad
1318 blocking is being used).
1322 <quote>Filtering</quote> content via the <literal><ulink
1323 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> or
1325 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1326 actions will certainly cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document
1327 needs to be buffered before displaying. And on very large documents, there may be
1328 some impact. How much depends on the page size, the actual definition of the
1329 filter(s), etc. See below. Most other actions have little to no impact on
1336 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I notice considerable
1337 delays in page requests compared to the old Junkbuster. What's wrong?</title>
1339 If you use any <literal><ulink
1340 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> action,
1341 such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <literal><ulink
1342 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1343 action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
1344 mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time.
1347 The loading time typically does not really change much in real numbers, but
1348 the feeling is different, because most browsers are able to start rendering
1349 incomplete content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is
1350 more noticeable on slower dialup connections. Extremely large documents
1351 may have some impact on the time to load the page where there is filtering
1352 being done. But overall, the difference should be very minimal. If there is a
1353 big impact, then probably some other problem is contributing.
1356 Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types. But note
1357 that if the web server mis-reports the MIME type, then content that should
1358 not be filtered, could be. <application>Privoxy</application> only knows how
1359 to differentiate filterable content because of the MIME type as reported by
1360 the server, or because of some configuration setting that enables/disables
1366 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
1367 "http://p.p/"?</title>
1369 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> is the
1370 address of <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in user interface, and
1371 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> is a shortcut for it.
1374 Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet,
1375 it can simply intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in
1376 <quote>web server</quote>.
1379 This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
1380 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1381 takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy ...</quote>, everything is OK.
1382 If you get a page saying <quote>Privoxy is not working</quote> instead, then
1383 your browser didn't use <application>Privoxy</application> for the request,
1384 hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <emphasis>real</emphasis>
1385 web site at config.privoxy.org.
1388 With recent versions of <application>Privoxy</application> (version 2.9.x and
1389 later), the user interface features information on the run time status, the
1390 configuration, and even a built-in editor for the <ulink
1391 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>.
1395 Note that the built-in URLs from earlier versions of <application>Junkbuster</application>
1396 / <application>Privoxy</application>, http://example.com/show-proxy-args and http://i.j.b/,
1397 are no longer supported. If you still use such an old version, you should really consider
1398 upgrading to &p-version;.
1403 out of date 09/02/06 HB
1404 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
1406 No. The patterns for blocking now reside (among other things) in the <ulink
1407 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>, which are
1408 actively maintained instead. See next question ...
1412 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads, or report
1415 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> for
1416 various ways to interact with the developers.
1421 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="noonecares"><title>Why doesn't anyone answer my support
1424 Rest assured that it has been read and considered. Why it is not answered,
1425 could be for various reasons, including no one has a good answer for it, no
1426 one has had time to yet investigate it thoroughly, it has been reported
1427 numerous times already, or because not enough information was provided to help
1428 us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.
1434 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
1436 If you run both the browser and the proxy locally, you cannot hide your IP
1437 address with <application>Privoxy</application> or ultimately any other
1438 software. The server needs to know your IP address so that it knows where to
1439 send the responses back.
1442 There are many publicly usable "anonymous" proxies out there, which
1443 provide a further level of indirection between you and the web server.
1446 However, these proxies are called "anonymous" because you don't need
1447 a password, not because they would offer any real anonymity.
1448 Most of them will log your IP address and make it available to the
1449 authorities in case you violate the law of the country they run in. In fact
1450 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
1451 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
1454 Your best bet is to chain <application>Privoxy</application>
1455 with <ulink url="http://tor.eff.org/">Tor</ulink>,
1456 an <ulink url="http://www.eff.org/">EFF</ulink> supported onion routing system.
1457 The configuration details can be found in
1458 <ulink url="#TOR">How do I use <application>Privoxy</application> together with <application>Tor</application> section</ulink>
1463 There is, however, even in the single-machine case the possibility to make the
1464 server believe that your machine is in fact a shared proxy serving a large
1465 LAN, and we are looking into that.
1467 I assume this is about sending fake forward IP addresses?
1468 David and I looked into it and considered it a waste of time to implement.
1473 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1474 <title id="anonforsure">Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
1476 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
1477 <ulink url="#TOR">chain <application>Privoxy</application> with <application>Tor</application></ulink>
1478 or a similar system and know what you're doing when it comes to configuring
1479 the rest of your system, it would be safest to assume that everything you do
1480 on the Web can be traced back to you.
1483 <application>Privoxy</application> can remove various information about you,
1484 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
1485 you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it neither
1486 hides your ip address, nor can it guarantee that the rest of the system
1487 behaves correctly. There are several possibilities how a web sites can find
1488 out who you are, even if you are using a strict <application>Privoxy</application>
1489 configuration and chained it with <application>Tor</application>.
1492 Most of <application>Privoxy's</application> protection can be easily subverted
1493 by an insecure browser configuration, therefore you should use a browser that can
1494 be configured to only execute code from trusted sites, and be careful which sites you trust.
1495 For example there is no point in having <application>Privoxy</application>
1496 modify the User-Agent header, if websites can get all the information they want
1497 through JavaScript, ActiveX, Flash, Java etc.
1500 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
1501 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Privoxy</application>
1502 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
1503 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
1504 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
1507 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
1508 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
1509 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
1510 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
1511 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
1517 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1518 <title id="proxytest">A test site says I am not using a Proxy.</title>
1520 Good! Actually, they are probably testing for some other kinds of proxies.
1521 Hiding yourself completely would require additional steps.
1525 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="tor"><title>How do I use Privoxy
1526 together with Tor?</title>
1528 Before you configure <application>Privoxy</application> to use <application>Tor</application>
1529 (<ulink url="http://tor.eff.org/">http://tor.eff.org/</ulink>),
1530 please follow the User Manual chapters
1531 <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">2. Installation</ulink> and
1532 <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">5. Startup</ulink> to make sure
1533 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is setup correctly.
1536 If it is, refer to <ulink url="http://tor.eff.org/documentation.html.en">Tor's
1537 extensive documentation</ulink> to learn how to install <application>Tor</application>,
1538 and make sure <application>Tor</application>'s logfile says that
1539 <quote>Tor has successfully opened a circuit</quote> and it
1540 <quote>looks like client functionality is working</quote>.
1543 If either <application>Tor</application> or <application>Privoxy</application>
1544 isn't working, their combination most likely will neither. Testing them on their
1545 own will also help you to direct problem reports to the right audience.
1546 If <application>Privoxy</application> isn't working, don't bother the
1547 <application>Tor</application> developers. If <application>Tor</application>
1548 isn't working, don't send bug reports to the <application>Privoxy</application> Team.
1551 If you verified that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>Tor</application>
1552 are working, it is time to connect them. As far as <application>Privoxy</application>
1553 is concerned, <application>Tor</application> is just another proxy that can be reached
1554 by socks4 or socks4a. Most likely you are interested in <application>Tor</application>
1555 to increase your anonymity level, therefore you should use socks4a,
1556 to make sure <application>Privoxy's</application> DNS requests are
1557 done through <application>Tor</application> and thus invisible to your local network.
1562 Since <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.4, its configuration (section 5.2)
1563 is already prepared for <application>Tor</application>, if you are using a
1564 default <application>Tor</application> configuration and run it on the same
1565 system as Privoxy, you just have to uncomment the line:
1569 # forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
1573 This is enough to reach the Internet, but additionally you should
1574 uncomment the following forward rules, to make sure your local network is still
1575 reachable through Privoxy:
1579 # forward 192.168.*.*/ .
1580 # forward 10.*.*.*/ .
1581 # forward 127.*.*.*/ .
1585 Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will
1586 be as (un)secure as the local network is, but the alternative is
1587 that you can't reach the network at all.
1588 If you also want to be able to reach servers in your local
1589 network by using their names, you will need additional
1590 exceptions that look like this:
1594 # forward localhost/ .
1598 Save the modified configuration file and open
1599 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status/</ulink>
1600 in your browser, confirm that <application>Privoxy</application> has reloaded its configuration
1601 and that there are no other forward lines, unless you know that you need them. I everything looks good,
1603 <ulink url="http://wiki.noreply.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ#head-0e1cc2ac330ede8c6ad1ac0d0db0ac163b0e6143">Tor
1604 Faq 4.2</ulink> to learn how to verify that you are really using <application>Tor</application>.
1607 Afterward, please take the time to at least skim through the rest
1608 of <application>Tor's</application> documentation. Make sure you understand
1609 what <application>Tor</application> does, why it is no replacement for
1610 application level security, and why you shouldn't use it for unencrypted logins.
1614 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1615 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information or
1616 content is being altered?</title>
1619 Definitely. More and more sites use HTTP header content to decide what to
1620 display and how to display it. There is many ways that this can be handled,
1621 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
1625 <quote>User-Agent</quote> in particular is often used in this way to identify
1626 the browser, and adjust content accordingly. Changing this now (at least not
1627 further than removing the OS information) is not recommended, since so many
1628 sites do look for it. You may get undesirable results by changing this.
1632 For instance, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
1633 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
1634 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
1635 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
1636 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
1637 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
1638 <quote>Referer</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
1639 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
1640 <quote>Referer</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
1641 can forge both headers without giving information away). There are
1642 many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server.
1646 Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree,
1651 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
1652 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
1653 be required, but by no means the only one.
1659 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1660 <title id="caching">Can Privoxy act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
1661 speed up web browsing?</title>
1663 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
1664 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> for this. And, yes,
1665 before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
1666 with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
1667 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding
1668 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
1669 manual</ulink> for details.
1673 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1674 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?</title>
1676 Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can.
1677 <application>Privoxy</application> can help protect your privacy, but not
1678 protect you from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
1679 and recommended to use <emphasis>both</emphasis>.
1683 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1684 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
1685 ads used to be. Why?</title>
1687 It would be technically possible eliminate the banners in a way that frees
1688 their screen estate in many cases, by doing all banner blocking with filters,
1689 i.e. eliminating the whole image references from the HTML pages instead
1690 of letting them stay in, and blocking the resulting requests for the
1694 But this would consume considerable CPU resources, would likely destroy
1695 the layout of many web pages which rely on the banners consuming a certain
1696 amount of screen space, and would fail in other cases, where the screen space
1697 is reserved e.g. by tables anyway. Also, making the banners disappear without
1698 a visual trace complicates troubleshooting.
1701 So we won't support this in the default configuration, but you can of course
1702 define appropriate filters yourself.
1706 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1707 <title id="ssl">How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1709 Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
1710 and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably <emphasis>secure</emphasis>,
1711 there is little that <application>Privoxy</application> can do but hand the raw
1712 gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed.
1715 The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs
1716 to tell <application>Privoxy</application> the name of the remote server,
1717 so that <application>Privoxy</application> can establish the connection.
1718 If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.
1721 As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
1722 seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often
1723 the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless
1724 for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
1725 <application>Privoxy</application>'s ad blocking.
1728 <quote>Content cookies</quote> (those that are embedded in the actual HTML or
1729 JS page content, see <literal><ulink
1730 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</ulink></literal>),
1731 in an SSL transaction will be impossible to block under these conditions.
1732 Fortunately, this does not seem to be a very common scenario since most
1733 cookies come by traditional means.
1738 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1739 <title id="secure">Privoxy runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1740 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1742 There are no known exploits that might affect
1743 <application>Privoxy</application>. On Unix-like systems,
1744 <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
1745 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1746 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens to requests
1747 from <quote>localhost</quote> only. The server aspect of
1748 <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly exposed to the
1749 Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1750 <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1751 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1752 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
1753 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration file and check all <ulink
1754 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security
1755 options</ulink>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address
1756 in the browser proxy configuration, but <application>Privoxy</application>
1757 will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in addition,
1758 and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
1763 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
1764 <title>How can I temporarily disable Privoxy?</title>
1766 The easiest way is to access <application>Privoxy</application> with your
1767 browser by using the remote toggle URL: <ulink
1768 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>.
1769 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS">Bookmarklets section</ulink>
1770 of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> for an easy way to access this
1775 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="reallyoff">
1776 <title>When <quote>disabled</quote> is Privoxy totally
1777 out of the picture?</title>
1779 No, this just means all filtering and actions are disabled.
1780 <application>Privoxy</application> is still acting as a proxy, but just not
1781 doing any of the things that <application>Privoxy</application> would
1782 normally be expected to do. It is still a <quote>middle-man</quote> in
1783 the interaction between your browser and web sites.
1787 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="crunch">
1788 <title>My logs show Privoxy <quote>crunches</quote>
1789 ads, but also its own internal CGI pages. What is a <quote>crunch</quote>?</title>
1791 A <quote>crunch</quote> simply means <application>Privoxy</application> intercepted
1792 <emphasis>something</emphasis>, nothing more. Often this is indeed ads or
1793 banners, but <application>Privoxy</application> uses the same mechanism for
1794 trapping requests for its own internal pages. For instance, a request for
1795 <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration page at: <ulink
1796 url="http://config.privoxy.org">http://config.privoxy.org</ulink>, is
1797 intercepted (i.e. it does not go out to the 'net), and the familiar CGI
1798 configuration is returned to the browser, and the log consequently will show
1799 a <quote>crunch</quote>.
1803 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads">
1804 <title>Can Privoxy effect files that I download
1805 from a webserver? FTP server?</title>
1807 From the webserver's perspective, there is no difference between
1808 viewing a document (i.e. a page), and downloading a file. The same is true of
1809 <application>Privoxy</application>. If there is a match for a <literal><ulink
1810 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> pattern,
1811 it will still be blocked, and of course this is obvious.
1814 Filtering is potentially more of a concern since the results are not always
1815 so obvious, and the effects of filtering are there whether the file is simply
1816 viewed, or downloaded. And potentially whether the content is some obnoxious
1817 advertisement, or Mr. Jimmy's latest/greatest source code jewel. Of course,
1818 one of these presumably is <quote>bad</quote> content that we don't want, and
1819 the other is <quote>good</quote> content that we do want.
1820 <application>Privoxy</application> is blind to the differences, and can only
1821 distinguish <quote>good from bad</quote> by the configuration parameters
1822 <emphasis>we</emphasis> give it.
1825 <application>Privoxy</application> knows the differences in files according
1826 to the <quote>Document Type</quote> as reported by the webserver. If this is
1827 reported accurately (e.g. <quote>application/zip</quote> for a zip archive),
1828 then <application>Privoxy</application> knows to ignore these where
1829 appropriate. <application>Privoxy</application> potentially can filter HTML
1830 as well as plain text documents, subject to configuration parameters of
1831 course. Also, documents that are of an unknown type (generally assumed to be
1832 <quote>text/plain</quote>) can be filtered, as will those that might be
1833 incorrectly reported by the webserver. If such a file is a downloaded file
1834 that is intended to be saved to disk, then any content that might have been
1835 altered by filtering, will be saved too, for these (probably rare) cases.
1838 Note that versions later than 3.0.2 do NOT filter document types reported as
1839 <quote>text/plain</quote>. Prior to this, <application>Privoxy</application>
1840 did filter this document type.
1843 In short, filtering is <quote>ON</quote> if a) the Document Type as reported
1844 by the webserver is appropriate <emphasis>and</emphasis> b) the configuration
1845 allows it (or at least does not disallow it). That's it. There is no magic
1846 cookie anywhere to say this is <quote>good</quote> and this is
1847 <quote>bad</quote>. It's the configuration that let's it all happen or not.
1850 If you download text files, you probably do not want these to be filtered,
1851 particularly if the content is source code, or other critical content. Source
1852 code sometimes might be mistaken for Javascript (i.e. the kind that might
1853 open a pop-up window). It is recommended to turn off filtering for download
1854 sites (particularly if the content may be plain text files and you are using
1855 version 3.0.2 or earlier) in your <filename>user.action</filename> file. And
1856 also, for any site or page where making <emphasis>any</emphasis> changes at
1857 all to the content is to be avoided.
1860 <application>Privoxy</application> does not do FTP at all, only HTTP
1861 and HTTPS (SSL) protocols, so please don't try.
1865 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads2">
1866 <title>I just downloaded a Perl script, and Privoxy
1867 altered it! Yikes, what is wrong!</title>
1873 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="hostsfile">
1874 <title>Should I continue to use a <quote>HOSTS</quote> file for ad-blocking?</title>
1876 One time-tested technique to defeat common ads is to trick the local DNS
1877 system by giving a phony IP address for the ad generator in the local
1878 <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, typically using <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>, aka
1879 <literal>localhost</literal>. This effectively blocks the ad.
1882 There is no reason to use this technique in conjunction with
1883 <application>Privoxy</application>. <application>Privoxy</application>
1884 does essentially the same thing, much more elegantly and with much more
1885 flexibility. A large <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, in fact, not only
1886 duplicates effort, but may get in the way. It is recommended to remove
1887 such entries from your <filename>HOSTS</filename> file. If you think
1888 your hosts list is neglected by <application>Privoxy's </application>
1889 configuration, consider adding your list to your <filename>user.action</filename> file:
1896 ads.galore.example.com
1897 etc.example.com</screen>
1901 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
1902 <title>Where can I find more information about Privoxy
1903 and related issues?</title>
1904 <!-- Include seealso.sgml boilerplate: -->
1906 <!-- end boilerplate -->
1911 <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
1917 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="microsuck">
1918 <title>I've noticed that Privoxy changes <quote>Microsoft</quote> to
1919 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>! Why are you manipulating my browsing?</title>
1922 We're not. The text substitutions that you are seeing are disabled
1923 in the default configuration as shipped. You have either manually
1924 activated the <quote><literal>fun</literal></quote> filter which
1925 is clearly labeled <quote>Text replacements for subversive browsing
1926 fun!</quote> or you are using an older Privoxy version and have implicitly
1927 activated it by choosing the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> profile in the
1935 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1937 <sect1 id="trouble">
1938 <title>Troubleshooting</title>
1940 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1941 <title id="refused">I am getting <quote>connection refused</quote>
1942 with every web page?</title>
1944 Either <application>Privoxy</application> is not running, or your
1945 browser is configured for a different port than what
1946 <application>Privoxy</application> is using.
1950 Early <application>Privoxy</application> 2.x versions (and also
1951 <application>Junkbuster</application>) used port 8000 by
1952 default. This has been changed to port 8118 now, due to a conflict
1953 with NAS (Network Audio Service), which uses port 8000. If you haven't,
1954 you need to change your browser to the new port number, or alternately
1956 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS"><literal>listen-address</literal>
1957 option</ulink> in <application>Privoxy's</application> <ulink
1958 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
1963 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1964 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
1965 still getting through. How?</title>
1967 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
1968 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
1969 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Privoxy</application>
1970 will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flushing the browser's
1971 caches. And then try again.
1975 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
1976 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
1977 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
1978 and see if it really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking
1979 spam: a lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game.
1984 <sect2 id="badsite" renderas="sect3">
1985 <title >One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy.
1986 What can I do?</title>
1989 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
1990 by toggling off <application>Privoxy</application> through <ulink
1991 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>,
1992 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
1993 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
1998 If still a problem, go to <ulink
1999 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
2000 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions
2001 are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions files are
2002 responsible for that. Now, armed with this information, go to <ulink
2003 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2004 and select the appropriate actions files for editing.
2007 You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
2008 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
2009 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
2010 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
2011 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
2012 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
2013 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
2016 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
2017 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
2018 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
2019 site to a <literal>{ fragile }</literal> section in <filename>user.action</filename>,
2020 which is an alias that turns off most <quote>dangerous</quote>
2021 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
2022 your privacy and protection more than necessary,
2025 Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <ulink
2026 url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">User Manual appendix</ulink>.
2027 There is also an <ulink
2028 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions tutorial</ulink>.
2034 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2035 <sect2 id="dun" renderas="sect3">
2036 <title>After installing Privoxy, I have to log in
2037 every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
2040 This is a quirk that effects the installation of
2041 <application>Privoxy</application>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
2042 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
2043 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.
2047 When setting up an NT based Windows system with
2048 <application>Privoxy</application> you may find that things do not seem to be
2049 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
2050 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
2051 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
2052 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
2053 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
2054 configured for the kids.
2058 When setting up <application>Privoxy</application> in this environment you
2059 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
2060 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
2061 <application>Privoxy</application>. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
2062 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
2063 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
2064 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
2065 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
2066 you have to store the password under each different user!
2070 The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
2071 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
2072 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
2073 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
2074 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
2075 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.
2079 [Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
2084 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2085 <sect2 id="ftp" renderas="sect3">
2086 <title>I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy
2087 is blocking me.</title>
2089 <application>Privoxy</application> cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
2090 so do not configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
2091 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for <emphasis>any protocol other than HTTP
2092 or HTTPS (SSL)</emphasis>.
2095 Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
2096 a URL like <literal>ftp://ftp.example.com</literal>, your browser is making
2097 an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
2098 speak FTP, <application>Privoxy</application> does not, and cannot proxy
2102 To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <quote>proxy</quote>
2103 setting, which will silently various protocols, including
2104 <emphasis>both</emphasis> HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is possible to
2105 accidentally enable FTP proxying in these cases. And of course, if this
2106 happens, <application>Privoxy</application> will indeed cause problems since
2107 it does not know FTP. <![%p-newstuff;[Newer version will give a sane error
2108 message if a FTP connection is attempted.]]>
2111 Will <application>Privoxy</application> ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely.
2112 There just is not much reason, and the work to make this happen is more than
2117 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2118 <sect2 id="osxie" renderas="sect3">
2119 <title>In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
2120 Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.</title>
2122 Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
2123 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
2124 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
2125 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
2126 is checked and enter <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> in the entry field.
2127 Enter <literal>8118</literal> in the Port field. The next time you start
2128 IE, it should reflect these values.
2132 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2133 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="osxuninstall">
2134 <title>In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
2135 uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
2136 empty the trash.</title>
2138 Just dragging the <application>Privoxy</application> folder to the trash is
2139 not enough to delete it. <application>Privoxy</application> supplies an
2140 <application>uninstall.command</application> file that takes care of
2141 these details. Open the trash, drag the <application>uninstall.command</application>
2142 file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
2143 confirmation and the administration password.
2146 The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
2147 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
2152 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2153 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="osximages">
2154 <title>In Mac OSX Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
2155 experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
2156 <literal>localhost</literal> as my browser's proxy setting.</title>
2158 We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in OSX, but don't fully
2159 understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
2160 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> instead of <literal>localhost</literal>
2161 works around the problem.
2165 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2166 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blankpage">
2167 <title>I get a completely blank page at one site. <quote>View Source</quote>
2168 shows only: <markup><![CDATA[<html><body></body></html>]]></markup>. Without
2169 Privoxy the page loads fine.</title>
2171 Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
2172 <ulink url="http://www.php.net/"><application>PHP</application></ulink>,
2173 which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
2174 an uncompressed page, like <application>Privoxy</application> does.
2175 This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
2178 To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
2179 the site to a <literal>-prevent-compression</literal> section in
2180 <filename>user.action</filename>:
2183 # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
2185 {-prevent-compression}
2186 .example.com</screen>
2188 If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
2189 site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
2190 instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
2191 or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
2195 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2196 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="error503">
2197 <title>Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</title>
2199 More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has
2200 been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running. The solution is
2201 to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
2202 something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products
2203 may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
2207 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nohostname">
2208 <title>My logs show many <quote>Unable to get my own hostname</quote> lines.
2211 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to get the hostname of the system
2212 its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to
2213 (from the <filename>config</filename> file
2214 <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> setting). If the system cannot supply
2215 this information, <application>Privoxy</application> logs this condition.
2218 Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration error. It is
2219 not a fatal error to <application>Privoxy</application> however, but may
2220 result in a much slower response from <application>Privoxy</application> on
2221 some platforms due to DNS timeouts.
2224 This can be caused by a problem with the local <filename>HOSTS</filename>
2225 file. If this file has been changed from the original, try reverting it to
2230 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="inuse">
2231 <title>When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an
2232 error message <quote>port 8118 is already in use</quote> (or similar wording).
2235 Port 8118 is <application>Privoxy's</application> default TCP
2236 <quote>listening</quote> port. Typically this message would mean that there
2237 is already one instance of <application>Privoxy</application> running, and
2238 you are actually trying to start a second <application>Privoxy</application>
2239 on the same port, which will not work. (You can have multiple instances but
2240 they must be assigned different ports.) How and why this might happen varies
2241 from platform to platform, but you need to check your installation and
2242 start-up procedures.
2246 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer">
2248 Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.
2251 This is caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter. You should either
2252 upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or at least upgrade to the most
2253 recent <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
2254 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
2255 Or you can simply disable the demoronizer filter.
2259 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer2">
2261 Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy
2265 This may also be caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter,
2266 in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting a file type. Binary
2267 files are exempted from <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering
2268 (unless the web server by mistake says the file is something else). Either
2269 upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or go to the most recent
2270 <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
2271 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
2275 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer3">
2277 What is the <quote>demoronizer</quote> and why is it there?
2280 The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
2281 were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
2282 to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages
2283 that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a
2284 standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
2285 displayed correctly. <application>Privoxy</application> borrowed from this
2286 script, introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
2287 correct these errors on the fly.
2290 But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in some
2294 If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
2295 pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will
2296 cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <emphasis>should not be on</emphasis>.
2299 On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
2300 notice wierd characters on pages, you might want to try it.
2304 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="windowopen">
2306 Why do I keep seeing <quote>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</quote> in raw source code?
2309 <application>Privoxy</application> is attempting to disable malicious
2310 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink>
2311 in this case, with the <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal>
2312 filter. <application>Privoxy</application> cannot tell very well
2313 <quote>good</quote> code snippets from <quote>bad</quote> code snippets.
2316 If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
2317 this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this
2318 where it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file,
2319 then you should set an exception for this site or page such that the
2320 integrity of the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.
2324 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="dnserrors">
2326 I am getting too many DNS errors like <quote>404 No Such Domain</quote>. Why
2327 can't Privoxy do this better?
2330 There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS resolution
2331 is done by the underlying operating system -- not
2332 <application>Privoxy</application> itself. <application>Privoxy</application>
2333 merely initiates the process and hands it off, and then later reports
2334 whatever the outcome was. And tries to give a coherent message if there seems
2335 to be a problem. In some cases, this might otherwise be mitigated by the
2336 browser itself which might try some work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g
2337 adding <quote>www.</quote> to the URL). In other cases, if
2338 <application>Privoxy</application> is being chained with another proxy, this
2339 could complicate the issue, and cause undue
2340 delays and timeouts. In the case of a <quote>socks4a</quote> proxy, the socks
2341 server handles all the DNS. <application>Privoxy</application> would just be
2342 the <quote>messenger</quote> which is reporting whatever problem occurred
2343 downstream, and not the root cause of the error.
2347 In any case, v. 3.0.4 includes various improvements to help
2348 <application>Privoxy</application> better handle these cases.
2352 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allcpu">
2354 At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking
2355 all CPU. Why is this?
2358 This is probably a manifestation of the <quote>100% cpu</quote> problem that
2359 occurs on pages containing many (thousands upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines
2360 are in the raw HTML source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the
2361 pattern matching in <application>Privoxy's</application> page filtering
2362 mechanism is trying to match against absurdly long strings and this becomes
2363 very CPU-intensive, taking a long, long time to complete. Until a better
2364 solution comes along, disable filtering on these pages, particularly the
2365 <literal>js-annoyances</literal> and <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal>
2370 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="slowcrawl">
2371 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and all my
2372 browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? </title>
2374 This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users world-wide,
2375 it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent interaction of software
2376 components such as anti-virus software, spyware protectors, personal
2377 firewalls or similar components. Try disabling (or uninstalling) these one
2378 at a time and see if that helps.
2385 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2386 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
2387 <!-- Include contacting.sgml -->
2389 <!-- end contacting -->
2392 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2393 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
2395 <!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
2401 Portions of this document are <quote>borrowed</quote> from the original
2402 <application>Junkbuster</application> (tm) FAQ, and modified as
2403 appropriate for <application>Privoxy</application>.
2406 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2407 <sect2><title>License</title>
2408 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
2410 <!-- end copyright -->
2412 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2414 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2415 <sect2><title>History</title>
2416 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
2422 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2425 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2427 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
2429 <!-- Include seealso.sgml -->
2440 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
2442 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
2443 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
2444 Public License as published by the Free Software
2445 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
2446 your option) any later version.
2448 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
2449 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
2450 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
2451 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
2452 License for more details.
2454 The GNU General Public License should be included with
2455 this file. If not, you can view it at
2456 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
2457 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
2458 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
2461 Revision 2.16 2006/09/10 15:30:46 hal9
2464 Revision 2.15 2006/09/08 23:05:07 hal9
2465 Fix broken links. Add faq on hosts files. Move most of new windows service
2466 feature to user manual and reference in faq. Various other small changes.
2468 Revision 2.14 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
2469 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
2471 Revision 2.13 2006/09/04 19:20:33 fabiankeil
2472 Adjusted anonymity related sections to match reality.
2473 Added a section about using Privoxy with Tor.
2475 Revision 2.12 2006/09/03 14:15:30 hal9
2476 Various updates, including 7 or 8 new FAQs, and updates/changes to various
2477 other ones to better reflect improvements, additions and changes for the
2478 upcoming release. This is close to final form for 3.0.4 IMHO.
2480 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:50 david__schmidt
2481 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
2482 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
2484 Revision 1.61.2.41 2004/04/05 13:44:05 oes
2485 Fixed allow-all-cookies alias name; closes SR #929746
2487 Revision 1.61.2.40 2004/01/30 17:00:33 oes
2488 Added OSX Panther problem
2490 Revision 1.61.2.39 2004/01/29 22:53:08 hal9
2491 Minor changes for exempting docs of text/plain. Change copyright date.
2493 Revision 1.61.2.38 2003/12/10 03:39:45 hal9
2494 Added FAQs for: demoronizer, related problems and why its included. Also,
2495 port 8118 already in use questions, and PrivoxyWindowOpen() questions. All in
2496 troubleshooting section.
2498 Revision 1.61.2.37 2003/10/17 11:01:50 oes
2499 Added Q&A for "not being used" page problem
2501 Revision 1.61.2.36 2003/06/26 23:49:20 hal9
2502 More on the filter/source code problem.
2504 Revision 1.61.2.35 2003/06/26 13:38:08 hal9
2505 Add FAQ on whether configuring Privoxy is necessary or not.
2507 Revision 1.61.2.34 2003/06/26 03:00:03 hal9
2508 Sorry, found another copyright date.
2510 Revision 1.61.2.33 2003/06/26 02:57:05 hal9
2511 Fix typo (finally!) and very minor modifications.
2513 Revision 1.61.2.32 2003/06/26 02:52:04 hal9
2516 Revision 1.61.2.31 2003/06/25 01:27:51 hal9
2517 Fix copyright, and a few nits.
2519 Revision 1.61.2.30 2003/06/25 01:13:52 hal9
2522 - FAQ on "Unable to get my own hostname"
2523 - Another one on filtering effects on text files.
2525 Revision 1.61.2.29 2003/06/15 21:32:58 hal9
2526 Add to the 4.17 (filtering effects on downloaded files).
2528 Revision 1.61.2.28 2003/03/18 19:37:21 oes
2529 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
2531 Revision 1.61.2.27 2002/12/01 06:31:58 hal9
2532 Add faq on win32 error 503 due to ZoneAlarm.
2534 Revision 1.61.2.26 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
2535 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
2538 Revision 1.61.2.25 2002/10/29 03:21:50 hal9
2539 Add 3 Q/A's relating to HTML in email. Other minor touchups.
2541 Revision 1.61.2.24 2002/10/15 12:50:22 oes
2542 s/Advanced/Radical/ (stupid me)
2544 Revision 1.61.2.23 2002/10/15 12:38:56 oes
2545 Added Microsuck faq; more detail for PHP problem
2547 Revision 1.61.2.22 2002/10/12 01:13:13 hal9
2548 Updates for demoronizer, more commentary on Radical profile, and update on
2549 the srvany.exe/icon fix.
2551 Revision 1.61.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
2552 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
2554 Revision 1.61.2.20 2002/09/26 01:22:45 hal9
2555 Small additions for LAN setup, content-cookies/SSL, and FTP non-support.
2557 Revision 1.61.2.19 2002/08/25 23:31:56 hal9
2558 Fix one grammatical error. Add brief FAQ relating to tranparent proxies (ie
2559 port 80 setting). Add FAQ on effects of Privoxy on downloaded files
2560 (especially filtering).
2562 Revision 1.61.2.18 2002/08/14 16:39:37 hal9
2563 Fix wrong tag on FAQ addition.
2565 Revision 1.61.2.17 2002/08/14 00:01:18 hal9
2568 Revision 1.61.2.16 2002/08/13 00:10:38 hal9
2569 Add faq to troubleshooting re: blank page syndrome, ie {-prevent-compression}.
2571 Revision 1.61.2.15 2002/08/10 11:34:22 oes
2572 Add disclaimer about probably being out-of-date
2574 Revision 1.61.2.14 2002/08/07 02:53:43 hal9
2575 Fix some minor markup errors, and move one OSX Q/A to troubleshooting section.
2577 Revision 1.61.2.13 2002/08/06 11:55:32 oes
2578 Added missing close tag
2580 Revision 1.61.2.12 2002/08/06 11:43:46 david__schmidt
2581 Updated OSX uninstall FAQ... we have an uninstall script now.
2583 Revision 1.61.2.11 2002/08/06 08:54:03 oes
2584 Style police: Fixed formatting details
2586 Revision 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 david__schmidt
2587 Made the OSX removal commands far less dangerous
2589 Revision 1.61.2.9 2002/08/02 13:14:45 oes
2590 Added warning about sudo rm -r for Mac OSX deinstallation; moved this item to install section
2592 Revision 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt
2593 Add FAQ item for MSIE on OSX HTTP proxy confusion
2595 Revision 1.61.2.7 2002/08/02 01:46:01 david__schmidt
2596 Added FAQ item for Mac OSX uninstall woes
2598 Revision 1.61.2.6 2002/07/30 20:04:56 hal9
2599 Fix typo: 'schould'.
2601 Revision 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes
2602 - Updated to reflect changes in standard.action
2603 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
2605 Revision 1.61.2.4 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
2606 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
2608 Revision 1.61.2.3 2002/06/09 16:36:33 hal9
2609 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
2611 Revision 1.61.2.2 2002/06/06 02:51:34 hal9
2612 Fix typo in URL http:/config.privoxy.org
2614 Revision 1.61.2.1 2002/06/05 23:10:43 hal9
2615 Add new FAQ re: DUN/IE. Change release date from May to June :)
2617 Revision 1.61 2002/05/25 12:37:25 hal9
2618 Various minor changes and edits.
2620 Revision 1.60 2002/05/22 17:17:48 oes
2621 Proofread & added more links into u-m
2623 Revision 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9
2624 Fix ulink -> link markup.
2626 Revision 1.58 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
2627 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
2628 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
2629 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
2631 Revision 1.57 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
2632 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
2634 Revision 1.56 2002/05/04 08:44:44 swa
2637 Revision 1.55 2002/05/04 00:41:56 hal9
2638 -Remove TOC/first page kludge in favor of proper handling via dsl file.
2640 Revision 1.54 2002/05/03 05:06:44 hal9
2641 Add brief Q/A on transparent proxies.
2643 Revision 1.53 2002/05/03 01:34:52 hal9
2644 Fix section numbering for new sections (due to TOC kludge).
2646 Revision 1.52 2002/04/29 03:08:43 hal9
2647 -Added new Q/A on new actions file set up (pointer to u-m)
2648 -Fixed a few broken links and converted old actions as a result of
2651 Revision 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa
2652 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
2654 Revision 1.50 2002/04/26 05:25:23 hal9
2655 Mass commit to catch a few scattered fixes.
2657 Revision 1.49 2002/04/12 10:10:18 swa
2660 Revision 1.48 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
2663 Revision 1.47 2002/04/10 04:05:32 hal9
2666 Revision 1.45 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
2667 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
2669 Revision 1.44 2002/04/07 21:24:29 hal9
2670 Touch up on name change.
2672 Revision 1.43 2002/04/04 21:59:53 hal9
2673 Added NT/W2K service/icon situation.
2675 Revision 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
2676 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
2678 Revision 1.41 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
2679 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
2680 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
2681 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
2682 eventually be set by Makefile.
2683 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
2685 Revision 1.40 2002/04/03 04:22:03 hal9
2686 Fixed several typos.
2688 Revision 1.39 2002/04/03 03:53:03 hal9
2689 Revert some changes, and then make some news, to layout, and appearance.
2691 Revision 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9
2692 Major changes to doc structure and layout. Sections are not automatically
2693 numbered now. TOC is on page by itself.
2695 Revision 1.37 2002/04/01 16:24:07 hal9
2696 -Rework of supported Q/A.
2697 -Set up entities to include boilerplate text.
2699 Revision 1.36 2002/03/31 23:18:47 hal9
2700 More on dealing with BLOCKED.
2702 Revision 1.35 2002/03/30 04:14:19 hal9
2703 Fix privoxy.org/config links.
2705 Revision 1.34 2002/03/29 04:35:56 hal9
2708 Revision 1.33 2002/03/29 01:31:48 hal9
2709 Several new Q/A's and other touch ups.
2711 Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
2712 Touch ups for name change.
2714 Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
2715 we have a new homepage!
2717 Revision 1.30 2002/03/25 16:39:22 hal9
2718 A few new sections. Made all links relative to user-manual.
2720 Revision 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9
2721 Moved section, and touch ups.
2723 Revision 1.28 2002/03/25 04:27:33 hal9
2724 New section related to name change.
2726 Revision 1.25 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
2727 we are too lazy to make a block-built
2728 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
2730 Revision 1.24 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
2731 name change related issue.
2733 Revision 1.23 2002/03/24 12:33:01 swa
2736 Revision 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
2737 name change. changed filenames.
2739 Revision 1.21 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
2742 Revision 1.20 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
2743 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
2744 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
2745 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
2746 comments and remarks to history untouched.
2748 Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
2751 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
2754 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
2757 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
2758 A few more additions.
2760 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
2761 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
2763 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
2764 A little more added ...
2766 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
2767 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
2769 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
2772 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
2775 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
2776 correct feedback channels
2778 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
2779 more info on not hiding ip address
2781 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
2782 added default config section
2784 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
2787 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
2788 Committing changes by Stefan
2790 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
2791 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
2793 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
2794 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
2795 will work - no other changes are needed.
2797 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
2798 upload process established. run make webserver and
2799 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
2800 are now linked correctly.
2802 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
2803 merged standards into developer manual
2805 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
2806 source files for junkbuster documentation
2808 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
2809 first proposal of a structure.
2811 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
2812 docs should have an author.
2814 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
2815 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.