4 >Troubleshooting</TITLE
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40 >Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</TH
78 >5. Troubleshooting</H1
86 >5.1. I cannot connect to any websites. Or, I am getting
89 >"connection refused"</SPAN
90 > message with every web page. Why?</H3
102 > is not running. Solution: verify
106 > is installed correctly, has not died, and is running.</P
110 >Or your browser is configured for a different port than what
114 > is using. Solution: verify that <SPAN
118 and your browser are set to the same port (<TT
125 >Or if using a forwarding rule, you have a configuration problem or a
126 problem with a host in the forwarding chain. Solution: temporarily alter your
127 configuration and take the forwarders out of the equation.</P
131 > Or you have a firewall that is interfering and blocking you. Solution:
132 try disabling or removing the firewall as a test.
145 >5.2. I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
146 still getting through. How?</H3
148 > If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
149 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
150 the need for any request to the server, and <SPAN
154 will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flushing the browser's
155 caches. And then try again.</P
157 > If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
158 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <A
159 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info"
161 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</A
163 and see if it really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking
164 spam: a lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game.</P
173 >5.3. One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy.
176 > First verify that it is indeed a <SPAN
180 by toggling off <SPAN
184 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle"
186 >http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</A
188 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
189 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
192 > If still a problem, go to <A
193 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info"
195 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</A
197 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions
198 are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions files are
199 responsible for that. Now, armed with this information, go to <A
200 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status"
202 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</A
204 and select the appropriate actions files for editing.</P
206 > You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
207 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
208 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
209 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
210 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
211 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
212 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!</P
214 > Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
215 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
216 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
224 which is an alias that turns off most <SPAN
228 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
229 your privacy and protection more than necessary, </P
231 > Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <A
232 HREF="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT"
234 >User Manual appendix,
235 Troubleshooting: the Anatomy of an Action</A
238 HREF="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES"
242 with general configuration information and examples.</P
251 >5.4. After installing Privoxy, I have to log in
252 every time I start IE. What gives?</H3
254 > This is a quirk that effects the installation of
258 >, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
259 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
260 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.</P
262 > When setting up an NT based Windows system with
266 > you may find that things do not seem to be
267 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
268 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
269 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
270 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
271 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
272 configured for the kids.</P
274 > When setting up <SPAN
277 > in this environment you
278 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
279 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
283 >. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
284 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
285 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
286 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
287 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
288 you have to store the password under each different user!</P
290 > The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
291 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
292 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
293 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
294 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
295 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.</P
297 >[Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]</P
306 >5.5. I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy
312 > cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
313 so do not configure your browser to use <SPAN
317 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for <SPAN
321 >any protocol other than HTTP
327 > Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
330 >ftp://ftp.example.com</TT
331 >, your browser is making
332 an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
336 > does not, and cannot proxy
340 > To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <SPAN
344 setting, which will enable various protocols, including
351 > HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is possible to
352 accidentally enable FTP proxying in these cases. And of course, if this
356 > will indeed cause problems since
357 it does not know FTP. Newer version will give a sane error
358 message if a FTP connection is attempted. Just disable the FTP setting
359 and all will be well again.
365 > ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely.
366 There just is not much reason, and the work to make this happen is more than
377 >5.6. In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
378 Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.</H3
380 > Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
381 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
382 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
383 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
384 is checked and enter <TT
387 > in the entry field.
391 > in the Port field. The next time you start
392 IE, it should reflect these values.
402 >5.7. In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
403 uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
406 > Just dragging the <SPAN
409 > folder to the trash is
410 not enough to delete it. <SPAN
416 >uninstall.command</SPAN
417 > file that takes care of
418 these details. Open the trash, drag the <SPAN
420 >uninstall.command</SPAN
422 file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
423 confirmation and the administration password.
426 > The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
427 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
437 >5.8. In Mac OSX Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
438 experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
442 > as my browser's proxy setting.</H3
444 > We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in OSX, but don't fully
445 understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
453 works around the problem.
463 >5.9. I get a completely blank page at one site. <SPAN
469 ><html><body></body></html></SPAN
471 Privoxy the page loads fine.</H3
473 > Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
475 HREF="http://www.php.net/"
482 which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
483 an uncompressed page, like <SPAN
487 This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
490 > To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
493 >-prevent-compression</TT
508 > # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
510 {-prevent-compression}
516 > If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
517 site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
518 instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
519 or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
529 >5.10. Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</H3
531 > More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has
532 been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running. The solution is
533 to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
534 something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products
535 may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
545 >5.11. My logs show many <SPAN
547 >"Unable to get my own hostname"</SPAN
554 > tries to get the hostname of the system
555 its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to
566 > setting). If the system cannot supply
567 this information, <SPAN
570 > logs this condition. </P
572 > Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration error. It is
573 not a fatal error to <SPAN
577 result in a much slower response from <SPAN
581 some platforms due to DNS timeouts.</P
583 > This can be caused by a problem with the local <TT
587 file. If this file has been changed from the original, try reverting it to
588 see if that helps. Make sure what ever name(s) are used for the local system,
589 that they resolve both ways.</P
598 >5.12. When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an
601 >"port 8118 is already in use"</SPAN
602 > (or similar wording).
612 > port. Typically this message would mean that there
613 is already one instance of <SPAN
617 your system is actually trying to start a second
621 > on the same port, which will not work.
622 (You can have multiple instances but they must be assigned different ports.)
623 How and why this might happen varies from platform to platform, but you need
624 to check your installation and start-up procedures.</P
633 >5.13. Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.</H3
635 > This is caused by the <SPAN
638 > filter. You should either
642 >, or at least upgrade to the most
646 > file available from <A
647 HREF="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118"
651 Or you can simply disable the demoronizer filter.</P
660 >5.14. Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy
663 > This may also be caused by the <SPAN
667 in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting a file type. Binary
668 files are exempted from <SPAN
672 (unless the web server by mistake says the file is something else). Either
676 >, or go to the most recent
680 > file available from <A
681 HREF="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118"
693 >5.15. What is the <SPAN
696 > and why is it there?</H3
698 > The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
699 were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
700 to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages
701 that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a
702 standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
703 displayed correctly. <SPAN
707 script, introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
708 correct these errors on the fly. </P
710 > But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in some
713 > If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
714 pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will
715 cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <SPAN
723 > On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
724 notice wierd characters on pages, you might want to try it.</P
733 >5.16. Why do I keep seeing <SPAN
735 >"PrivoxyWindowOpen()"</SPAN
736 > in raw source code?</H3
741 > is attempting to disable malicious
743 HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript"
747 in this case, with the <TT
749 >unsolicited-popups</TT
754 > cannot tell very well
758 > code snippets from <SPAN
763 > If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
764 this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this
765 where it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file,
766 then you should set an exception for this site or page such that the
767 integrity of the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.</P
776 >5.17. I am getting too many DNS errors like <SPAN
778 >"404 No Such Domain"</SPAN
780 can't Privoxy do this better?</H3
782 > There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS resolution
783 is done by the underlying operating system -- not
791 merely initiates the process and hands it off, and then later reports
792 whatever the outcome was. And tries to give a coherent message if there seems
793 to be a problem. In some cases, this might otherwise be mitigated by the
794 browser itself which might try some work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g
798 > to the URL). In other cases, if
802 > is being chained with another proxy, this
803 could complicate the issue, and cause undue
804 delays and timeouts. In the case of a <SPAN
808 server handles all the DNS. <SPAN
815 > which is reporting whatever problem occurred
816 downstream, and not the root cause of the error.</P
818 > In any case, v. 3.0.5 includes various improvements to help
822 > better handle these cases.</P
831 >5.18. At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking
832 all CPU. Why is this?</H3
834 > This is probably a manifestation of the <SPAN
838 occurs on pages containing many (thousands upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines
839 are in the raw HTML source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the
840 pattern matching in <SPAN
844 mechanism is trying to match against absurdly long strings and this becomes
845 very CPU-intensive, taking a long, long time to complete. Until a better
846 solution comes along, disable filtering on these pages, particularly the
852 >unsolicited-popups</TT
863 >5.19. I just installed Privoxy, and all my
864 browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives?</H3
866 > This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users world-wide,
867 it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent interaction of software
868 components such as anti-virus software, spyware protectors, personal
869 firewalls or similar components. Try disabling (or uninstalling) these one
870 at a time and see if that helps.</P
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