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 "3.0.11">
12 <!entity p-status "stable">
13 <!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
14 <!entity % p-stable "INCLUDE">
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 2.52 2009/02/14 10:27:52 fabiankeil Exp $
31 Copyright (C) 2001-2009 Privoxy Developers http://www.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; 2001-2009 by
76 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
80 <pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.52 2009/02/14 10:27:52 fabiankeil 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 give &my-app; a try?</title>
154 Anyone who is interested in security, privacy, or in
155 finer-grained control over their web and Internet experience.
159 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="bestchoice"><title>Is Privoxy the best choice for
162 &my-app; is certainly a good choice, especially for those who want more
163 control and security. Those with the willingness to read the documentation
164 and the ability to fine-tune their installation will benefit the most.
167 One of <application>Privoxy's</application>
168 strengths is that it is highly configurable giving you the ability to
169 completely personalize your installation. Being familiar with, or at least
170 having an interest in learning about <ulink
171 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Http">HTTP</ulink> and other networking
172 protocols, <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html">HTML</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 of &my-app;.
176 A new installation just includes a very basic configuration. The user
177 should take this as a starting point only, and enhance it as he or she
178 sees fit. In fact, the user is encouraged, and expected to, fine-tune the
182 Much of <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration can be done
183 with a <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser">Web browser</ulink>.
184 But there are areas where configuration is done using a
185 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_editors">text editor</ulink>
186 to edit configuration files. Also note that the web-based action editor
187 doesn't use authentication and should only be enabled in environments
188 where all clients with access to &my-app; listening port can be trusted.
192 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="proxymoron"><title>What is a <quote>proxy</quote>? How does
193 Privoxy work? </title>
195 A <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">web proxy</ulink>
196 is a service, based on a software such as &my-app;, that clients
197 (i.e. browsers) can use instead of connecting to web servers directly.
198 The clients then ask the proxy to request objects (web pages, images, movies etc)
199 on their behalf and to forward the data to the clients.
200 It is a <quote>go-between</quote>. For details, see
201 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">Wikipedia's proxy definition</ulink>.
204 There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security (firewalling),
205 efficiency (caching) and others, and there are any number of proxies
206 to accommodate those needs.
209 &my-app; is a proxy that is primarily focused on
210 privacy enhancement, ad and junk elimination and freeing the user from
211 restrictions placed on his activities. Sitting between your browser(s) and the Internet,
212 it is in a perfect position to filter outbound personal information that your
213 browser is leaking, as well as inbound junk. It uses a variety of techniques to do
214 this, all of which are under your complete control via the various configuration
215 files and options. Being a proxy also makes it easier to share
216 configurations among multiple browsers and/or users.
220 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherstuff">
221 <title>Does Privoxy do anything more than ad blocking?</title>
223 Yes, ad blocking is but one possible use. There are many, many ways &my-app;
224 can be used to sanitize and customize web browsing.
228 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newjb"><title>What is this new version of
229 <quote><citetitle>Junkbuster</citetitle></quote>?</title>
231 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
238 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
239 <title id="whyprivoxy">Why <quote>Privoxy</quote>? Why change the name from
240 Junkbuster at all?</title>
242 Though outdated, <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>
243 continues to offer their original version of the <application>Internet
244 Junkbuster</application>, so publishing our
245 <application> Junkbuster</application>-derived software under the same name
249 There are also potential legal complications from our use of the
250 <application>Junkbuster</application> name, which is a registered trademark of
251 <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>.
252 There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
253 <application>Privoxy</application> project itself, and they, in fact, still
254 share our ideals and goals.
257 The developers also believed that there are so many improvements over the original
258 code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
259 a name in their own right.
262 <application>Privoxy</application> is the
263 <quote><emphasis>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</emphasis></quote>. Also, its content
264 modification and junk suppression gives <emphasis>you</emphasis>, the user, more
265 control, more freedom, and allows you to browse your personal and
266 <quote><emphasis>private</emphasis> edition</quote> of the web.
270 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="differs"><title>How does Privoxy differ
271 from the old Junkbuster?</title>
273 <application>Privoxy</application> picks up where
274 <application>Junkbuster</application> left off.
275 The new <application>Privoxy</application> still blocks ads and banners,
277 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>, and still
278 helps protect your privacy. But, most of these features have been enhanced,
279 and many new ones have been added, all in the same vein.
282 <application>Privoxy</application>'s new features include:
285 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml: -->
291 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whatsanad">
292 <title id="knows">How does Privoxy know what is
293 an ad, and what is not?</title>
295 <application>Privoxy</application>'s approach to blocking ads is twofold:
298 First, there are certain patterns in the <emphasis>locations</emphasis> (URLs)
299 of banner images. This applies to both the path (you wouldn't guess how many
300 web sites serve their banners from a directory called <quote>banners</quote>!)
301 and the host (blocking the big banner hosting services like doublecklick.net
302 already helps a lot). <application>Privoxy</application> takes advantage of this
303 fact by using <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL
304 patterns</ulink> to sort out and block the requests for things that sound
305 like they would be ads or banners.
308 Second, banners tend to come in certain <emphasis>sizes</emphasis>. But you
309 can't tell the size of an image by its URL without downloading it, and if you
310 do, it's too late to save bandwidth. Therefore, <application>Privoxy</application>
311 also inspects the HTML sources of web pages while they are loaded, and replaces
312 references to images with standard banner sizes by dummy references, so that
313 your browser doesn't request them anymore in the first place.
316 Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
317 and readily configurable.
321 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
322 <title id="mistakes">Can Privoxy make mistakes?
323 This does not sound very scientific.</title>
325 Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
326 rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. You will almost surely
327 run into such situations at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
328 cover every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
332 But this should not be a big concern since the
333 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is very flexible, and
334 includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
335 addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
336 (<link linkend="badsite">See the Troubleshooting section below</link>.)
341 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
342 <title id="configornot">Will I have to configure Privoxy
343 before I can use it?</title>
345 That depends on your expectations.
346 The default installation should give you a good starting
347 point, and block <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads and unwanted content,
348 but many of the more advanced features are off by default, and require
349 you to activate them.
352 You do have to set up your browser to use
353 <application>Privoxy</application> (see the <link
354 linkend="firststep">Installation section below</link>).
357 And you will certainly run into situations where there are false positives,
358 or ads not being blocked that you may not want to see. In these cases, you
359 would certainly benefit by customizing <application>Privoxy's</application>
360 configuration to more closely match your individual situation. And we
361 encourage you to do this. This is where the real power of
362 <application>Privoxy</application> lies!
367 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="lan">
368 <title>Can Privoxy run as a server on a network?</title>
370 Yes, &my-app; runs as a server already, and can easily be configured to
371 <quote>serve</quote> more than one client. See <link linkend="lanconfig">
372 How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN</link> below.
376 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
377 Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy at all?</title>
379 Modern browsers do indeed have <emphasis>some</emphasis> of the same
380 functionality as <application>Privoxy</application>. Maybe this is
381 adequate for you. But <application>Privoxy</application> is very
382 versatile and powerful, and can probably do a number of things
383 your browser just can't.
386 In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
387 have a LAN with multiple computers since &my-app; can run as a server
388 application. This way all the configuration is in one place, and you don't
389 have to maintain a similar configuration for possibly many browsers or
393 Note, however, that it's recommended to leverage both your browser's
394 and <application>Privoxy's</application> privacy enhancing features
395 at the same time. While your browser probably lacks some features
396 &my-app; offers, it should also be able to do some things more
397 reliable, for example restricting and suppressing JavaScript.
401 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whytrust"><title>Why should I trust Privoxy?</title>
403 The most important reason is because you have access to
404 <emphasis>everything</emphasis>, and you can control everything. You can
405 check every line of every configuration file yourself. You can check every
406 last bit of source code should you desire. And even if you can't read code,
407 there should be some comfort in knowing that <!-- thousands of -->other people can,
408 and do read it. You can build the software from scratch, if you want,
409 so that you know the executable is clean, and that it is
410 <emphasis>yours</emphasis>. In fact, we encourage this level of scrutiny. It
411 is one reason we use &my-app; ourselves.
415 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
416 warranty? Registration?</title>
418 <application>Privoxy</application> is free software and licensed under the <ulink
419 url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html">GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2</ulink>.
420 It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this
421 license. Please see the <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> section for more
422 information on the license and copyright. Or the <filename>LICENSE</filename> file
423 that should be included.
426 There is <emphasis>no warranty</emphasis> of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
427 That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
432 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="spyware">
433 <title>Can Privoxy remove spyware? Adware? Viruses?</title>
435 No, at least not reliably enough to trust it. &my-app; is not designed to be
436 a malware removal tool and the default configuration doesn't even try to
437 filter out any malware.
440 &my-app; could help prevent contact from (known) sites that use such
441 tactics with appropriate configuration rules, and thus could conceivably
442 prevent contamination from such sites. However, keeping such a configuration
443 up to date would require a lot of time and effort that would be better spend
444 on keeping your software itself up to date so it doesn't have known
450 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherads">
451 <title>Can I use Privoxy with other ad-blocking software?</title>
453 &my-app; should work fine with other proxies and other software in general.
456 But it is probably not necessary to use &my-app; in conjunction with other
457 ad-blocking products, and this could conceivably cause undesirable results.
458 It might be better to choose one software or the other and work a little to
459 tweak its configuration to your liking.
462 Note that this is an advice specific to ad blocking.
466 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what can I do?</title>
468 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-work"><title>Would you like to participate?</title>
470 Well, we <emphasis>always</emphasis> need help. There is something for
471 everybody who wants to help us. We welcome new developers, packagers,
472 testers, documentation writers or really anyone with a desire to help in
473 any way. You <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> need to be a
474 <quote>programmer</quote>. There are many other tasks available. In fact,
475 the programmers often can't spend as much time programming because of some
476 of the other, more mundane things that need to be done, like checking the
477 Tracker feedback sections.
480 So first thing, <ulink
481 url="https://sourceforge.net/account/register.php">get an account on SourceForge.net</ulink>
482 and mail your id to the <ulink url="mailto:ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net">developers
483 mailing list</ulink>. Then, please read the <ulink
484 url="../developer-manual/index.html">Developer's Manual</ulink>, at least
485 the pertinent sections.
488 You can also start helping out without SourceForge.net account,
489 simply by showing up on the mailing list, helping out other users,
490 providing general feedback or reporting problems you noticed.
494 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-money"><title>Contribute!</title>
496 We, of course, welcome donations and could use money for domain registering,
497 buying software to test <application>Privoxy</application> with, and, of course,
498 for regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). If you enjoy the software and feel
499 like helping us with a donation, just <ulink
500 url="mailto: ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net">drop us a note</ulink>
501 and get your name on the list of contributors.
505 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-software"><title>Software</title>
507 If you are a vendor of a web-related software like a browser, web server
508 or proxy, and would like us to ensure that <application>Privoxy</application>
509 runs smoothly with your product, you might consider supplying us with a
510 copy or license. We can't, however, guarantee that we will fix all potential
511 compatibility issues as a result.
521 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
523 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
525 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichbrowsers">
526 <title>Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?</title>
528 Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
529 should be virtually all browsers, including
530 <application>Firefox</application>, <application>Internet
531 Explorer</application>, <application>Opera</application>, and
532 <application>Safari</application> among others.
533 Direct browser support is not an absolute requirement since
534 <application>Privoxy</application> runs as a separate application and talks
535 to the browser in the standardized HTTP protocol, just like a web server
540 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichos">
541 <title>Which operating systems are supported?</title>
543 Include supported.sgml here:
548 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="email-client">
549 <title>Can I use Privoxy with my email client?</title>
551 As long as there is some way to set a HTTP proxy for the client, then yes,
552 any application can be used, whether it is strictly speaking a
553 <quote>browser</quote> or not. Though this may not be the best approach for
554 dealing with some of the common abuses of HTML in email. See <link
555 linkend="outlook">How can I configure <application>Privoxy</application>
556 with <application>Outlook</application>?</link> below for more on
560 Be aware that HTML email presents a number of unique security and privacy
561 related issues, that can require advanced skills to overcome. The developers
562 recommend using email clients that can be configured to convert HTML to plain
563 text for these reasons.
567 <!-- Nobody is going to still be doing this!
568 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
569 Privoxy over Junkbuster?</title>
571 We recommend you un-install <application>Junkbuster</application>
572 first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
573 save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
574 files and syntax have substantially changed, so you will need to manually
575 port your old patterns. See the <ulink url="../user-manual/upgradersnote.html">note
576 to upgraders</ulink> and <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">installation
577 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink>
581 Note: Some installers may automatically un-install
582 <application>Junkbuster</application>, if present!
588 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="firststep">
589 <title>I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything
590 special I have to do now?</title>
593 All browsers should be told to use <application>Privoxy</application>
594 as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
595 in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. It's possible
596 to combine &my-app; with a packet filter to intercept HTTP requests
597 even if the client isn't explicitly configured to use &my-app;,
598 but where possible, configuring the client is recommended. See
599 <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">the User Manual for more
600 details</ulink>. You should also flush your browser's memory and disk
601 cache to get rid of any cached junk items, and remove any stored
602 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>.
608 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of Privoxy?</title>
610 If you set up the <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
611 the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
612 networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>
613 (sometimes referred to as <quote>localhost</quote>,
614 which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
615 to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you used the <ulink
616 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink>
617 config option to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
621 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
622 the word <quote>localhost</quote> or the IP address <quote>127.0.0.1</quote>
623 in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote> and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and
624 then the number <quote>8118</quote> for <quote>port</quote>.
625 This tells your browser to send all web requests to <application>Privoxy</application>
626 instead of directly to the Internet.
629 <application>Privoxy</application> can also be used to proxy for
630 a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
631 address of the LAN host where <application>Privoxy</application>
632 is running, or the equivalent hostname, e.g. <literal>192.168.1.1</literal>.
633 Port assignment would be same as above. Note that
634 <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't listen on any LAN interfaces by
638 <application>Privoxy</application> does not currently handle
639 any other protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, etc.
643 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nothing">
644 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening.
645 All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
648 Did you configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
649 as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
650 the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
651 that <application>Privoxy</application> is running, and your browser
652 is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
653 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>.
654 <!-- Use http://p.p/ instead of http://config.privoxy.org/ here because
655 of potential redirect caching problem (see next Q). -->
656 This should take you to a page titled <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote> with
657 access to <application>Privoxy's</application> internal configuration.
658 If you see this, then you are good to go. If you receive a page saying
659 <quote>Privoxy is not running</quote>, then the browser is not set up to use
660 your <application>Privoxy</application> installation.
661 If you receive anything else (probably nothing at all), it could either
662 be that the browser is not set up correctly, or that
663 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running at all. Check the <ulink
664 url="../user-manual/config.html#LOGFILE">log file</ulink>. For instructions
665 on starting <application>Privoxy</application> and browser configuration,
666 see the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
667 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
668 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
673 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="notused">
674 <title>I get a <quote>Privoxy is not being used</quote> dummy page although
675 Privoxy is running and being used.</title>
678 First, make sure that Privoxy is <emphasis>really</emphasis> running and
679 being used by visiting <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. You
680 should see the <application>Privoxy</application> main page. If not, see
681 the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
682 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
683 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
687 Now if <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> works for you, but
688 other parts of <application>Privoxy</application>'s web interface show
689 the dummy page, your browser has cached a redirection it encountered before
690 <application>Privoxy</application> was being used. You need to clear your
691 browser's cache. Note that shift-reloading the dummy page won't help, since
692 that'll only refresh the dummy page, not the redirection that lead you there.
696 The procedure for clearing the cache varies from browser to browser. For
697 example, <application>Mozilla/Netscape</application> users would click
698 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -->
699 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
700 then click both <quote><guibutton>Clear Memory Cache</guibutton></quote>
701 and <quote><guibutton>Clear Disk Cache</guibutton></quote>.
702 In some <application>Firefox</application> versions it's
703 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -->
704 <guibutton>Privacy</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
705 then click <quote><guibutton>Clear Cache Now</guibutton></quote>.
706 <!-- In my Firefox versions it's the Netscape way. fk 2007-11-19-->
713 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
715 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
716 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
717 <title id="actionsfile">What exactly is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
720 &my-app; utilizes the concept of <quote>
721 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink></quote>
722 that are used to manipulate and control web page data.
723 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">Actions files</ulink>
724 are where these <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink>
725 that <application>Privoxy</application> could take while processing a certain
726 request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
727 that apply globally to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
728 There is a wide array of actions available that give the user a high degree
729 of control and flexibility on how to process each and every web page.
733 Actions can be defined on a <ulink
734 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</ulink> basis, i.e.
735 for single URLs, whole web sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be
736 grouped together and then applied to requests matching one or more patterns.
737 There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
738 if you are blocking <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
739 as one of your default actions, but need to accept cookies from a given site,
740 you would need to define an exception for this site in one of your actions
741 files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>.
746 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionss">
747 <title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
748 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
750 For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer
751 to the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions file
752 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User
753 Manual</ulink>. It includes a <ulink
754 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">list of all actions</ulink>
755 and an <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions
756 file tutorial</ulink> to get you started.
761 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
762 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
763 way to do this?</title>
766 Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
767 with a text editor. But probably the easiest way is to access
768 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface with your web browser
769 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
770 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and then select
771 <quote><ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View &
772 change the current configuration</ulink></quote> from the menu. Note
773 that this feature must be explicitly enabled in the main config file
775 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>).
780 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
781 <title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
782 the differences?</title>
785 are being included by the developers, to be used for
786 different purposes: These are
787 <filename>default.action</filename>, the <quote>main</quote> actions file
788 which is actively maintained by the <application>Privoxy</application>
789 developers and typically sets the default policies, <filename>user.action</filename>,
790 where users are encouraged to make their private customizations.
791 Please see <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">the actions chapter</ulink>
792 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> for a more
793 detailed explanation.
797 Earlier versions included three different versions of the
798 <filename>default.action</filename> file. The new scheme allows for
799 greater flexibility of local configuration, and for browser based
800 selection of pre-defined <quote>aggressiveness</quote> levels.
805 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
807 Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updates of
808 <filename>default.action</filename> will be
809 made available from time to time on the <ulink
810 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files section</ulink> of
811 our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project page</ulink>.
815 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
816 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
817 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
818 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
823 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
825 The syntax and purpose of configuration files has remained roughly the
826 same throughout the 3.x series, but backwards compatibility is not guaranteed.
827 Also each release contains updated, <quote>improved</quote> versions and it is
828 therefore strongly recommended to install the newer configuration files
829 and merge back your modifications.
833 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="difficult">
834 <title>Why is the configuration so complicated?</title>
836 <quote>Complicated</quote> is in the eye of the beholder. Those that are
837 familiar with some of the underlying concepts, such as regular expression
838 syntax, take to it like a fish takes to water. Also, software that tries
839 hard to be <quote>user friendly</quote>, often lacks sophistication and
840 flexibility. There is always that trade-off there between power vs.
841 easy-of-use. Furthermore, anyone is welcome to contribute ideas and
842 implementations to enhance &my-app;.
846 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account work?</title>
848 The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services.
849 It may, however, make all <ulink
850 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
851 temporary, so that your browser will forget your
852 login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would like not to have to log
853 in manually each time you access those websites, simply turn off all cookie handling
854 for them in the <filename>user.action</filename> file. An example for yahoo might
858 <screen># Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
860 { -<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> }
861 .login.yahoo.com</screen>
864 These kinds of sites are often quite complex and heavy with
865 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> and
866 thus <quote>fragile</quote>. So if <emphasis>still</emphasis> a problem,
868 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> just for such
872 <screen># Gmail is a _fragile_ site:
874 { <literal>fragile</literal> }
876 mail.google.com</screen>
879 Be sure to flush your browser's caches whenever making these kinds of
880 changes, just to make sure the changes <quote>take</quote>.
883 Make sure the domain, host and path are appropriate as well. Your browser can
884 tell you where you are specifically and you should use that information for
885 your configuration settings. Note that above it is not referenced as
886 <literal>gmail.com</literal>, which is a valid domain name.
891 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
892 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Advanced</quote> defaults?</title>
894 Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To
895 help you get started, we provide you with three different default action
896 <quote>profiles</quote> in the web based actions file editor at <ulink
897 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
898 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html"><citetitle>User
899 Manual</citetitle></ulink> for a list of actions, and how the default
904 Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
905 known popular <quote>problem</quote> sites are included, but in
906 general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more exceptions
907 you will have to make later. New users are best to start off in
908 <quote>Cautious</quote> setting. This is safest and will have the fewest
909 problems. See the <ulink
910 url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>
911 for a more detailed discussion.
915 It should be noted that the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile (formerly known
916 as the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> profile) is more
917 aggressive, and will make use of some of
918 <application>Privoxy's</application> advanced features. Use at your own risk!
923 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration
924 with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
926 It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files with their
927 browsers, although the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
928 belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
931 When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
932 itself is writing to the config files. Because
933 <application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>,
934 it can update its own config files.
937 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in
938 a LAN) or aren't entirely in control of your own browser, you will probably want
939 to make sure that the the web-based editor and remote toggle features are
940 <quote>off</quote> by setting <quote><literal><ulink
941 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>
942 0</literal></quote> and <quote><literal><ulink
943 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">enable-remote-toggle</ulink>
944 0</literal></quote> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
947 As of &my-app; 3.0.7 these options are disabled by default.
952 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
953 <title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file? What is a <quote>filter</quote>?</title>
955 The <ulink url="../user-manual/filter-file.html"><filename>default.filter</filename></ulink>
956 file is where <emphasis>filters</emphasis> as supplied by the developers are defined.
957 Filters are a special subset of actions that can be used to modify or
958 remove web page content or headers on the fly. Content filters can
959 be applied to <emphasis>anything</emphasis> in the page source,
960 header filters can be applied to either server or client headers.
961 Regular expressions are used to accomplish this.
964 There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common annoyances. The
965 filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you need to use the
967 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"><literal>filter</literal>
968 action</ulink> in one of the actions files. Content filtering is automatically
969 disabled for inappropriate MIME types, but if you now better than Privoxy
970 what should or should not be filtered you can filter any content you like.
974 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be confused with <ulink
975 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK"><literal>blocks</literal></ulink>, which
976 is a completely different action, and is more typically used to block ads and
981 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
982 the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and define
983 your own filters. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
984 requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
985 <![%p-newstuff;[ You should
986 place any modifications to the default filters, or any new ones you create
987 in a separate file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>, so they won't
988 be overwritten during upgrades.
989 The ability to define multiple filter files
990 in <filename>config</filename> is a new feature as of v. 3.0.5.]]>
994 There is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
995 but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included
996 <filename>default.filter</filename> file with the <ulink
997 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
998 Note that the custom actions editor must be explicitly enabled in
999 the main config file (see <ulink
1000 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>).
1004 If you intend to develop your own filters, you might want to have a look at
1006 url="http://www.fabiankeil.de/sourcecode/pft/">Privoxy-Filter-Test</ulink>.
1011 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="lanconfig">
1012 <title>How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my
1015 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
1016 from <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> (localhost). To have it act as a server for
1017 a network, this needs to be changed in the <ulink
1018 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>. Look for
1020 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink></literal>
1021 option, which may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
1022 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
1023 and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you
1024 wish to run <application>Privoxy</application> on port 8118, this line
1030 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118</screen>
1034 Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
1035 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
1039 Alternately, you can have <application>Privoxy</application> listen on
1040 all available interfaces:
1045 listen-address :8118</screen>
1049 And then use <application>Privoxy's</application>
1051 url="../user-manual/config.html#PERMIT-ACCESS">permit-access</ulink>
1052 feature to limit connections. A firewall in this situation is recommended
1057 The above steps should be the same for any TCP network, regardless of
1062 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> on a LAN with untrusted users,
1063 we recommend that you double-check the <ulink
1064 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security</ulink>
1071 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1072 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
1074 The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the <ulink
1075 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1076 action</ulink>. You have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
1077 image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a redirect to a custom image of your choice.
1078 Note that this choice only has effect for images which are blocked as images, i.e.
1079 whose URLs match both a <literal><ulink
1080 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink></literal>
1081 <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><ulink
1082 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> action.
1085 If you want to see nothing, then change the <ulink
1086 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1087 action</ulink> to <quote>blank</quote>. This can be done by editing the
1088 <filename>user.action</filename> file, or through the <ulink
1089 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
1094 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1095 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
1097 Remember that <link linkend="whatsanad">telling which image is an ad and which
1098 isn't</link>, is an educated guess. While we hope that the standard configuration
1099 is rather smart, it will make occasional mistakes. The checkerboard image is visually
1100 decent, and it shows you where images have been blocked, which can be very
1101 helpful in case some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was
1102 erroneously blocked. It is recommended for new users so they can
1103 <quote>see</quote> what is happening. Some people might also enjoy seeing how
1104 many banners they <emphasis>don't</emphasis> have to see.
1109 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1110 <title id="blockedbytext">I see some images being replaced with text
1111 instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
1113 This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of the
1114 page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded into (i)frames
1115 or (i)layers, and these external HTML documents are blocked. Being non-images
1116 they get replaced by a substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image,
1117 which wouldn't work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts
1118 only HTML when it has requested an HTML document.
1121 The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself as a
1122 miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown with a
1123 large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
1126 If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to it that
1127 the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked. Clicking
1128 the <quote>See why</quote> link offered in the substitute page will show
1129 you which rule blocked the page. After changing the rule and un-blocking
1130 the HTML documents, the browser will try to load the actual banner images
1131 and the usual image blocking will (hopefully!) kick in.
1136 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="srvany">
1137 <title>Can Privoxy run as a service
1138 on Win2K/NT/XP?</title>
1141 Yes. Version 3.0.5 introduces full <application>Windows</application> service
1142 functionality. See <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html#installation-pack-win">
1143 the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink> for details on how to install and configure
1144 <application>Privoxy</application> as a service.
1147 Earlier ]]>3.x versions could run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
1148 See the discussion at <ulink
1149 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>,
1150 for details, and a sample configuration.
1155 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherproxy">
1156 <title>How can I make Privoxy work with other
1157 proxies like Squid or Tor?</title>
1159 This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
1160 <application>Privoxy</application> with those of a another proxy.
1162 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1163 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> which
1164 describes how to do this, and the <link linkend="TOR">
1165 How do I use Privoxy together with
1166 Tor</link> section below.
1170 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="port-80">
1171 <title>Can I just set Privoxy to use port 80
1172 and thus avoid individual browser configuration?</title>
1175 No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special kinds
1176 of proxies known as <quote>intercepting</quote> proxies (see below).
1181 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
1182 <title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>transparent
1183 </quote> proxy?</title>
1185 The whole idea of Privoxy is to modify client requests
1186 and server responses in all sorts of ways and therefore
1187 it's not a transparent proxy as described in
1188 <ulink url="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616">RFC 2616</ulink>.
1191 However, some people say <quote>transparent proxy</quote> when they
1192 mean <quote>intercepting proxy</quote>. If you are one of them,
1193 please read the <ulink url="#intercepting">next entry</ulink>.
1198 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="intercepting">
1199 <title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>intercepting</quote> proxy?</title>
1201 <application>Privoxy</application> can't intercept traffic itself,
1202 but it can handle requests that where intercepted and redirected
1203 with a packet filter (like <application>PF</application> or
1204 <application>iptables</application>), as long as the <literal>Host</literal>
1208 As the <literal>Host</literal> header is required by HTTP/1.1 and as most
1209 web sites rely on it anyway, this limitation shouldn't be a problem.
1212 Please refer to your packet filter's documentation to learn how to
1213 intercept and redirect traffic into <application>Privoxy</application>.
1214 Afterward you just have to configure <application>Privoxy</application> to
1215 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCEPT-INTERCEPTED-REQUESTS">accept
1216 intercepted requests</ulink>.
1221 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook">
1222 <title>How can I configure Privoxy for use with Outlook?</title>
1224 Versions of <application>Outlook</application> prior to Office 2007, use
1225 <application>Internet Explorer</application> components to both render HTML,
1226 and fetch any HTTP requests that may be embedded in an HTML email. So however
1227 you have <application>Privoxy</application> configured to work with IE, this
1228 configuration should automatically be shared, at least with older version of
1232 Starting with Office 2007, Microsoft is using the MS-Word rendering engine
1233 with Outlook. It is unknown whether this can be configured to use a proxy. d
1234 <!-- FIXME HB 2009-02-15 -->
1238 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook-more">
1239 <title>How can I have separate rules just for HTML mail?</title>
1241 The short answer is, you can't. <application>Privoxy</application> has no way
1242 of knowing which particular application makes a request, so there is no way to
1243 distinguish between web pages and HTML mail.
1244 <application>Privoxy</application> just blindly proxies all requests. In the
1245 case of <application>Outlook Express</application> (see above), OE uses
1246 IE anyway, and there is no way for <application>Privoxy</application> to ever
1247 be able to distinguish between them (nor could any other proxy type application for
1251 For a good discussion of some of the issues involved (including privacy and
1252 security issues), see
1253 <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>.
1257 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="sneaky-cookies">
1258 <title>I sometimes notice cookies sneaking through. How?</title>
1261 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Cookies</ulink> can be
1262 set in several ways. The classic method is via the
1263 <literal>Set-Cookie</literal> HTTP header. This is straightforward, and an
1264 easy one to manipulate, such as the &my-app; concept of
1265 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</ulink>.
1266 There is also the possibility of using
1267 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> to
1268 set cookies (&my-app; calls these <literal>content-cookies</literal>). This
1269 is trickier because the syntax can vary widely, and thus requires a certain
1270 amount of guesswork. It is not realistic to catch all of these short of
1271 disabling Javascript, which would break many sites. And lastly, if the
1272 cookies are embedded in a HTTPS/SSL secure session via Javascript, they are beyond
1273 <application>Privoxy's</application> reach.
1276 All in all, &my-app; can help manage cookies in general, can help minimize
1277 the loss of privacy posed by cookies, but can't realistically stop all
1282 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="evil-cookies">
1283 <title>Are all cookies bad? Why?</title>
1285 No, in fact there are many beneficial uses of
1287 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>. Cookies are just a
1288 method that browsers can use to store data between pages, or between browser
1289 sessions. Sometimes there is a good reason for this, and the user's life is a
1290 bit easier as a result. But there is a long history of some websites taking
1291 advantage of this layer of trust, and using the data they glean from you and
1292 your browsing habits for their own purposes, and maybe to your potential
1293 detriment. Such sites are using you and storing their data on your system.
1294 That is why the privacy conscious watch from whom those cookies come, and why
1295 they really <emphasis>need</emphasis> to be there.
1299 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Wikipedia cookie
1300 definition</ulink> for more.
1304 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allow-cookies">
1305 <title>How can I allow permanent cookies for my trusted sites?</title>
1308 There are several actions that relate to cookies. The default behavior is to
1309 allow only <quote>session cookies</quote>, which means the cookies only last
1310 for the current browser session. This eliminates most kinds of abuse related
1311 to cookies. But there may be cases where you want cookies to last.
1314 To disable all cookie actions, so that cookies are allowed unrestricted,
1315 both in and out, for <literal>example.com</literal>:
1319 { -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only -filter{content-cookies} }
1320 .example.com</screen>
1323 Place the above in <filename>user.action</filename>. Note that some of these may
1324 be off by default anyway, so this might be redundant, but there is no harm
1325 being explicit in what you want to happen. <filename>user.action</filename>
1326 includes an alias for this situation, called
1327 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal>.
1331 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="multiples">
1332 <title>Can I have separate configurations for different users?</title>
1334 Each instance of <application>Privoxy</application> has its own
1335 configuration, including such attributes as the TCP port that it listens on.
1336 What you can do is run multiple instances of <application>Privoxy</application>, each with
1338 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink>
1339 configuration setting, and configuration path, and then
1340 each of these can have their own configurations. Think of it as per-port
1344 Simple enough for a few users, but for large installations, consider having
1345 groups of users that might share like configurations.
1349 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whitelists">
1350 <title>Can I set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of
1351 <quote>good</quote> sites?</title>
1353 Sure. There are a couple of things you can do for simple white-listing.
1354 Here's one real easy one:
1357 ############################################################
1359 ############################################################
1360 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
1361 / # Block *all* URLs
1363 ############################################################
1365 ############################################################
1366 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
1369 games.example.com</screen>
1371 This allows access to only those three sites by first blocking all URLs, and
1372 then subsequently allowing three specific exceptions.
1375 Another approach is <application>Privoxy's</application>
1376 <literal>trustfile</literal> concept, which incorporates the notion of
1377 <quote>trusted referrers</quote>. See the <ulink
1378 url="../user-manual/config.html#TRUSTFILE">Trust documentation</ulink>
1382 These are fairly simple approaches and are not completely foolproof. There
1383 are various other configuration options that should be disabled (described
1384 elsewhere here and in <ulink url="../user-manual/">the User Manual</ulink>)
1385 so that users can't modify their own configuration and easily circumvent the
1390 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="no-adblock">
1391 <title>How can I turn off ad-blocking?</title>
1393 Ad blocking is achieved through a complex application of various &my-app;
1394 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions</ulink>. These
1395 actions are deployed against simple images, banners, flash animations,
1396 text pages, JavaScript, pop-ups and pop-unders, etc., so its not as simple as
1397 just turning one or two actions off. The various actions that make up
1398 &my-app; ad blocking are hard-coded into the default configuration files. It
1399 has been assumed that everyone using &my-app; is interested in this
1403 If you want to do without this, there are several approaches you can take:
1404 You can manually undo the many block rules in
1405 <filename>default.action</filename>. Or even easier, just create your own
1406 <filename>default.action</filename> file from scratch without the many ad
1407 blocking rules, and corresponding exceptions. Or lastly, if you are not
1408 concerned about the additional blocks that are done for privacy reasons, you
1409 can very easily over-ride <emphasis>all</emphasis> blocking with the
1410 following very simple rule in your <filename>user.action</filename>:
1414 # Unblock everybody, everywhere
1415 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
1416 / # UN-Block *all* URLs</screen>
1419 Or even a more comprehensive reversing of various ad related actions:
1423 # Unblock everybody, everywhere, and turn off appropriate filtering, etc
1424 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> \
1425 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">-filter{banners-by-size}</ulink> \
1426 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">-filter{banners-by-link}</ulink> \
1427 <literal>allow-popups</literal> \
1429 / # UN-Block *all* URLs and allow ads</screen>
1432 This last <quote>action</quote> in this compound statement,
1433 <literal>allow-popups</literal>, is an <ulink
1434 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> that disables
1435 various pop-up blocking features.
1439 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="templates">
1440 <title>How can I have custom template pages, like the
1441 <emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
1443 &my-app; <quote>templates</quote> are specialized text files utilized by
1444 &my-app; for various purposes and can easily be modified using any text
1445 editor. All the template pages are installed in a sub-directory appropriately
1446 named: <filename>templates</filename>. Knowing something about HTML syntax
1447 will of course be helpful.
1450 Be forewarned that the default templates are subject to being overwritten
1451 during upgrades. You can, however, create completely new templates,
1452 place them in another directory and specify the alternate path in the main
1453 <filename>config</filename>. For details, have a look at the <ulink
1454 url="../user-manual/config.html#templdir">templdir</ulink> option.
1458 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blockall">
1459 <title>How can I remove the <quote>Go There Anyway</quote> link from
1460 the <emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
1462 There is more than one way to do it (although Perl is not involved).
1465 Editing the BLOCKED template page (see above) may dissuade some users, but
1466 this method is easily circumvented. Where you need this level of control, you
1467 might want to build &my-app; from source, and disable various features that are
1468 available as compile-time options. You should
1469 <command>configure</command> the sources as follows:
1473 ./configure --disable-toggle --disable-editor --disable-force</screen>
1476 This will create an executable with hard-coded security features so that
1477 &my-app; does not allow easy bypassing of blocked sites, or changing the
1478 current configuration via any connected user's web browser.
1481 Finally, all of these features can also be toggled on/off via options in
1482 <application>Privoxy's</application> main <ulink
1483 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">config</ulink> file which
1484 means you don't have to recompile anything.
1490 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1493 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1495 <sect1 id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
1497 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1498 <title id="slowsme">How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This
1499 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
1501 How much of an impact depends on many things, including the CPU of the host
1502 system, how aggressive the configuration is, which specific actions are being triggered,
1503 the size of the page, the bandwidth of the connection, etc.
1506 Overall, it should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
1507 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not typically being
1508 retrieved and displayed. The actual processing time required by
1509 <application>Privoxy</application> itself for each page, is relatively small
1510 in the overall scheme of things, and happens very quickly. This is typically
1511 more than offset by time saved not downloading and rendering ad images and
1512 other junk content (if ad blocking is being used).
1516 <quote>Filtering</quote> content via the <literal><ulink
1517 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> or
1519 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1520 actions may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document
1521 needs to be buffered before displaying. And on very large documents,
1522 filtering may have some measurable impact. How much depends on the page size,
1523 the actual definition of the filter(s), etc. See below. Most other actions
1524 have little to no impact on speed.
1527 Also, when filtering is enabled but zlib support isn't available, compression
1528 is often disabled (see <ulink
1529 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>).
1530 This can have an impact on speed as well, although it's probably smaller than
1531 you might think. Again, the page size, etc. will determine how much of an impact.
1537 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I notice considerable
1538 delays in page requests. What's wrong?</title>
1540 If you use any <literal><ulink
1541 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> action,
1542 such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <literal><ulink
1543 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1544 action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
1545 mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time.
1548 The loading time typically does not really change much in real numbers, but
1549 the feeling is different, because most browsers are able to start rendering
1550 incomplete content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is
1551 more noticeable on slower dialup connections. Extremely large documents
1552 may have some impact on the time to load the page where there is filtering
1553 being done. But overall, the difference should be very minimal. If there is a
1554 big impact, then probably some other situation is contributing (like
1555 anti-virus software).
1558 Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types. But note
1559 that if the web server mis-reports the MIME type, then content that should
1560 not be filtered, could be. <application>Privoxy</application> only knows how
1561 to differentiate filterable content because of the MIME type as reported by
1562 the server, or because of some configuration setting that enables/disables
1567 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
1568 "http://p.p/"?</title>
1570 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> is the
1571 address of <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in user interface, and
1572 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> is a shortcut for it.
1575 Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet,
1576 it can simply intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in
1577 <quote>web server</quote>.
1580 This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
1581 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1582 takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy ...</quote>, everything is OK.
1583 If you get a page saying <quote>Privoxy is not working</quote> instead, then
1584 your browser didn't use <application>Privoxy</application> for the request,
1585 hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <emphasis>real</emphasis>
1586 web site at config.privoxy.org.
1592 out of date 09/02/06 HB
1593 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
1595 No. The patterns for blocking now reside (among other things) in the <ulink
1596 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>, which are
1597 actively maintained instead. See next question ...
1601 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads, or report
1604 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> for
1605 various ways to interact with the developers.
1610 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads2"><title>If I do submit missed ads, will
1611 they be included in future updates?</title>
1613 Whether such submissions are eventually included in the
1614 <filename>default.action</filename> configuration file depends on how
1615 significant the issue is. We of course want to address any potential
1616 problem with major, high-profile sites such as <citetitle>Google</citetitle>,
1617 <citetitle>Yahoo</citetitle>, etc. Any site with global or regional reach,
1618 has a good chance of being a candidate. But at the other end of the spectrum
1619 are any number of smaller, low-profile sites such as for local clubs or
1620 schools. Since their reach and impact are much less, they are best handled by
1621 inclusion in the user's <filename>user.action</filename>, and thus would be
1622 unlikely to be included.
1628 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="noonecares"><title>Why doesn't anyone answer my support
1631 Rest assured that it has been read and considered. Why it is not answered,
1632 could be for various reasons, including no one has a good answer for it, no
1633 one has had time to yet investigate it thoroughly, it has been reported
1634 numerous times already, or because not enough information was provided to help
1635 us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.
1641 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
1643 If you run both the browser and &my-app; locally, you cannot hide your IP
1644 address with <application>Privoxy</application> or ultimately any other
1645 software alone. The server needs to know your IP address so that it knows
1646 where to send the responses back.
1649 There are many publicly usable "anonymous" proxies out there, which
1650 provide a further level of indirection between you and the web server.
1653 However, these proxies are called "anonymous" because you don't need
1654 to authenticate, not because they would offer any real anonymity.
1655 Most of them will log your IP address and make it available to the
1656 authorities in case you violate the law of the country they run in. In fact
1657 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
1658 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
1661 If you want to hide your IP address from most adversaries,
1662 you should consider chaining <application>Privoxy</application>
1663 with <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</ulink>.
1664 The configuration details can be found in
1665 <ulink url="#TOR">How do I use <application>Privoxy</application> together
1666 with <application>Tor</application> section</ulink>
1671 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1672 <title id="anonforsure">Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
1674 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are improved, but unless you
1675 <ulink url="#TOR">chain <application>Privoxy</application> with <application>Tor</application></ulink>
1676 or a similar proxy and know what you're doing when it comes to configuring
1677 the rest of your system, you should assume that everything you do
1678 on the Web can be traced back to you.
1681 <application>Privoxy</application> can remove various information about you,
1682 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
1683 you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it neither
1684 hides your IP address, nor can it guarantee that the rest of the system
1685 behaves correctly. There are several possibilities how a web sites can find
1686 out who you are, even if you are using a strict <application>Privoxy</application>
1687 configuration and chained it with <application>Tor</application>.
1690 Most of <application>Privoxy's</application> privacy-enhancing features can be easily subverted
1691 by an insecure browser configuration, therefore you should use a browser that can
1692 be configured to only execute code from trusted sites, and be careful which sites you trust.
1693 For example there is no point in having <application>Privoxy</application>
1694 modify the User-Agent header, if websites can get all the information they want
1695 through JavaScript, ActiveX, Flash, Java etc.
1698 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
1699 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Privoxy</application>
1700 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
1701 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
1702 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
1705 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
1706 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
1707 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
1708 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
1709 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
1715 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1716 <title id="proxytest">A test site says I am not using a Proxy.</title>
1718 Good! Actually, they are probably testing for some other kinds of proxies.
1719 Hiding yourself completely would require additional steps.
1723 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="tor"><title>How do I use Privoxy
1724 together with Tor?</title>
1726 Before you configure <application>Privoxy</application> to use
1727 <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</ulink>,
1728 please follow the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> chapters
1729 <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">2. Installation</ulink> and
1730 <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">5. Startup</ulink> to make sure
1731 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is setup correctly.
1734 If it is, refer to <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/documentation.html">Tor's
1735 extensive documentation</ulink> to learn how to install <application>Tor</application>,
1736 and make sure <application>Tor</application>'s logfile says that
1737 <quote>Tor has successfully opened a circuit</quote> and it
1738 <quote>looks like client functionality is working</quote>.
1741 If either <application>Tor</application> or <application>Privoxy</application>
1742 isn't working, their combination most likely will neither. Testing them on their
1743 own will also help you to direct problem reports to the right audience.
1744 If <application>Privoxy</application> isn't working, don't bother the
1745 <application>Tor</application> developers. If <application>Tor</application>
1746 isn't working, don't send bug reports to the <application>Privoxy</application> Team.
1749 If you verified that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>Tor</application>
1750 are working, it is time to connect them. As far as <application>Privoxy</application>
1751 is concerned, <application>Tor</application> is just another proxy that can be reached
1752 by socks4 or socks4a. Most likely you are interested in <application>Tor</application>
1753 to increase your anonymity level, therefore you should use socks4a, to make sure DNS requests are
1754 done through <application>Tor</application> and thus invisible to your local network.
1759 Since <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.5, its
1760 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>
1761 is already prepared for <application>Tor</application>, if you are using a
1762 default <application>Tor</application> configuration and run it on the same
1763 system as &my-app;, you just have to edit the
1764 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding section</ulink>
1765 and uncomment the line:
1769 # forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
1773 This is enough to reach the Internet, but additionally you might want to
1774 uncomment the following forward rules, to make sure your local network is still
1775 reachable through Privoxy:
1779 # forward 192.168.*.*/ .
1780 # forward 10.*.*.*/ .
1781 # forward 127.*.*.*/ .
1785 Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will
1786 be as (un)secure as the local network is, but the alternative is
1787 that your browser can't reach the network at all. Then again,
1788 that may actually be desired and if you don't know for sure
1789 that your browser has to be able to reach the local network,
1790 there's no reason to allow it.
1793 If you want your browser to be able to reach servers in your local
1794 network by using their names, you will need additional exceptions
1795 that look like this:
1799 # forward localhost/ .
1803 Save the modified configuration file and open
1804 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status/</ulink>
1805 in your browser, confirm that <application>Privoxy</application> has reloaded its configuration
1806 and that there are no other forward lines, unless you know that you need them. If everything looks good,
1808 <ulink url="https://wiki.torproject.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ#IsMyConnectionPrivate">Tor
1809 Faq 4.2</ulink> to learn how to verify that you are really using <application>Tor</application>.
1812 Afterward, please take the time to at least skim through the rest
1813 of <application>Tor's</application> documentation. Make sure you understand
1814 what <application>Tor</application> does, why it is no replacement for
1815 application level security, and why you probably don't want to
1816 use it for unencrypted logins.
1820 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1821 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information or
1822 content is being altered?</title>
1825 Definitely. It is common for sites to use browser type, browser version,
1826 HTTP header content, and various other techniques in order to dynamically
1827 decide what to display and how to display it. What you see, and what I see,
1828 might be very different. There are many, many ways that this can be handled,
1829 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
1833 The <quote>User-Agent</quote> is sometimes used in this way to identify
1834 the browser, and adjust content accordingly.
1838 Also, different browsers use different encodings of non-English
1839 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
1840 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
1841 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
1842 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
1843 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
1844 <quote>Referer</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
1845 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
1846 <quote>Referer</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
1847 can forge both headers without giving information away). There are
1848 many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server. The
1849 results of which could inadvertently cause pages to load incorrectly,
1850 partially, or even not at all. And there may be no obvious clues as to just
1851 what went wrong, or why. Nowhere will there be a message that says
1852 <quote><emphasis>Turn off <literal>fast-redirects</literal> or else!</emphasis>
1857 Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree,
1862 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
1863 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
1864 be required, but by no means the only one.
1870 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1871 <title id="caching">Can Privoxy act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
1872 speed up web browsing?</title>
1874 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
1875 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> or
1876 <ulink url="http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/polipo/">Polipo</ulink> for this.
1877 And, yes, before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
1878 with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
1879 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding
1880 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
1881 manual</ulink> for details.
1885 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1886 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?</title>
1888 Not in the way you mean, or in the way some firewall vendors claim they can.
1889 <application>Privoxy</application> can help protect your privacy, but can't
1890 protect your system from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
1891 to use <emphasis>both</emphasis>.
1895 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1896 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
1897 ads used to be. Why?</title>
1899 It is technically possible to eliminate banners and ads in a way that frees
1900 their allocated page space. This could easily be done by blocking with
1901 <application>Privoxy's</application> filters,
1902 and eliminating the <emphasis>entire</emphasis> image references from the
1906 But, this would consume considerably more CPU resources (IOW, slow things
1907 down), would likely destroy the layout of some web pages which rely on the
1908 banners utilizing a certain amount of page space, and might fail in other
1909 cases, where the screen space is reserved (e.g. by HTML tables for instance).
1910 Also, making ads and banners disappear without any trace complicates
1911 troubleshooting, and would sooner or later be problematic.
1914 The better alternative is to instead let them stay, and block the resulting
1915 requests for the banners themselves as is now the case. This leaves either
1916 empty space, or the familiar checkerboard pattern.
1919 So the developers won't support this in the default configuration, but you
1920 can of course define appropriate filters yourself to achieve this.
1924 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1925 <title id="ssl">How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1927 Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
1928 and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably <emphasis>secure</emphasis>,
1929 there is little that <application>Privoxy</application> can do but hand the raw
1930 gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed.
1933 The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs
1934 to tell <application>Privoxy</application> the name of the remote server,
1935 so that <application>Privoxy</application> can establish the connection.
1936 If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.
1939 As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
1940 seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often
1941 the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless
1942 for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
1943 <application>Privoxy</application>'s ad blocking.
1946 <quote>Content cookies</quote> (those that are embedded in the actual HTML or
1947 JS page content, see <literal><ulink
1948 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</ulink></literal>),
1949 in an SSL transaction will be impossible to block under these conditions.
1950 Fortunately, this does not seem to be a very common scenario since most
1951 cookies come by traditional means.
1956 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1957 <title id="secure">Privoxy runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1958 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1960 On Unix-like systems, <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
1961 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1962 <application>Privoxy</application> listens to requests from <quote>localhost</quote>
1966 The server aspect of <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly
1967 exposed to the Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1968 <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1969 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1970 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
1971 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration file and check all <ulink
1972 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security
1973 options</ulink>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address
1974 in the browser proxy configuration, but <application>Privoxy</application>
1975 will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in addition,
1976 and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
1981 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
1982 <title>Can I temporarily disable Privoxy?</title>
1984 &my-app; doesn't have a transparent proxy mode,
1985 but you can toggle off blocking and content filtering.
1988 The easiest way to do that is to point your browser
1989 to the remote toggle URL: <ulink
1990 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>.
1993 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS">Bookmarklets section</ulink>
1994 of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> for an easy way to access this
1995 feature. Note that this is a feature that may need to be enabled in the main
1996 <filename>config</filename> file.
2001 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="reallyoff">
2002 <title>When <quote>disabled</quote> is Privoxy totally
2003 out of the picture?</title>
2005 No, this just means all optional filtering and actions are disabled.
2006 <application>Privoxy</application> is still acting as a proxy, but just
2007 doing less of the things that <application>Privoxy</application> would
2008 normally be expected to do. It is still a <quote>middle-man</quote> in
2009 the interaction between your browser and web sites. See below to bypass
2014 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff2">
2015 <title>How can I tell Privoxy to totally ignore certain sites?</title>
2017 Bypassing a proxy, or proxying based on arbitrary criteria, is purely a browser
2018 configuration issue, not a &my-app; issue. Modern browsers typically do have
2019 settings for not proxying certain sites. Check your browser's help files.
2024 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="crunch">
2025 <title>My logs show Privoxy <quote>crunches</quote>
2026 ads, but also its own internal CGI pages. What is a <quote>crunch</quote>?</title>
2028 A <quote>crunch</quote> simply means <application>Privoxy</application> intercepted
2029 <emphasis>something</emphasis>, nothing more. Often this is indeed ads or
2030 banners, but <application>Privoxy</application> uses the same mechanism for
2031 trapping requests for its own internal pages. For instance, a request for
2032 <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration page at: <ulink
2033 url="http://config.privoxy.org">http://config.privoxy.org</ulink>, is
2034 intercepted (i.e. it does not go out to the 'net), and the familiar CGI
2035 configuration is returned to the browser, and the log consequently will show
2036 a <quote>crunch</quote>.
2039 Since version 3.0.7, Privoxy will also log the crunch reason.
2040 If you are using an older version you might want to upgrade.
2044 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads">
2045 <title>Can Privoxy effect files that I download
2046 from a webserver? FTP server?</title>
2048 From the webserver's perspective, there is no difference between
2049 viewing a document (i.e. a page), and downloading a file. The same is true of
2050 <application>Privoxy</application>. If there is a match for a <literal><ulink
2051 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> pattern,
2052 it will still be blocked, and of course this is obvious.
2055 Filtering is potentially more of a concern since the results are not always
2056 so obvious, and the effects of filtering are there whether the file is simply
2057 viewed, or downloaded. And potentially whether the content is some obnoxious
2058 advertisement, or Mr. Jimmy's latest/greatest source code jewel. Of course,
2059 one of these presumably is <quote>bad</quote> content that we don't want, and
2060 the other is <quote>good</quote> content that we do want.
2061 <application>Privoxy</application> is blind to the differences, and can only
2062 distinguish <quote>good from bad</quote> by the configuration parameters
2063 <emphasis>we</emphasis> give it.
2066 <application>Privoxy</application> knows the differences in files according
2067 to the <quote>Content Type</quote> as reported by the webserver. If this is
2068 reported accurately (e.g. <quote>application/zip</quote> for a zip archive),
2069 then <application>Privoxy</application> knows to ignore these where
2070 appropriate. <application>Privoxy</application> potentially can filter HTML
2071 as well as plain text documents, subject to configuration parameters of
2072 course. Also, documents that are of an unknown type (generally assumed to be
2073 <quote>text/plain</quote>) can be filtered, as will those that might be
2074 incorrectly reported by the webserver. If such a file is a downloaded file
2075 that is intended to be saved to disk, then any content that might have been
2076 altered by filtering, will be saved too, for these (probably rare) cases.
2079 Note that versions later than 3.0.2 do NOT filter document types reported as
2080 <quote>text/plain</quote>. Prior to this, <application>Privoxy</application>
2081 did filter this document type.
2084 In short, filtering is <quote>ON</quote> if a) the content type as reported
2085 by the webserver is appropriate <emphasis>and</emphasis> b) the configuration
2086 allows it (or at least does not disallow it). That's it. There is no magic
2087 cookie anywhere to say this is <quote>good</quote> and this is
2088 <quote>bad</quote>. It's the configuration that lets it all happen or not.
2091 If you download text files, you probably do not want these to be filtered,
2092 particularly if the content is source code, or other critical content. Source
2093 code sometimes might be mistaken for Javascript (i.e. the kind that might
2094 open a pop-up window). It is recommended to turn off filtering for download
2095 sites (particularly if the content may be plain text files and you are using
2096 version 3.0.2 or earlier) in your <filename>user.action</filename> file. And
2097 also, for any site or page where making <emphasis>any</emphasis> changes at
2098 all to the content is to be avoided.
2101 <application>Privoxy</application> does not do FTP at all, only HTTP
2102 and HTTPS (SSL) protocols.
2106 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads2">
2107 <title>I just downloaded a Perl script, and Privoxy
2108 altered it! Yikes, what is wrong!</title>
2114 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="hostsfile">
2115 <title>Should I continue to use a <quote>HOSTS</quote> file for ad-blocking?</title>
2117 One time-tested technique to defeat common ads is to trick the local DNS
2118 system by giving a phony IP address for the ad generator in the local
2119 <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, typically using <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>, aka
2120 <literal>localhost</literal>. This effectively blocks the ad.
2123 There is no reason to use this technique in conjunction with
2124 <application>Privoxy</application>. <application>Privoxy</application>
2125 does essentially the same thing, much more elegantly and with much more
2126 flexibility. A large <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, in fact, not only
2127 duplicates effort, but may get in the way and seriously slow down your system.
2128 It is recommended to remove such entries from your <filename>HOSTS</filename> file. If you think
2129 your hosts list is neglected by <application>Privoxy's </application>
2130 configuration, consider adding your list to your <filename>user.action</filename> file:
2137 ads.galore.example.com
2138 etc.example.com</screen>
2142 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
2143 <title>Where can I find more information about Privoxy
2144 and related issues?</title>
2145 <!-- Include seealso.sgml boilerplate: -->
2147 <!-- end boilerplate -->
2152 <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
2158 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="microsuck">
2159 <title>I've noticed that Privoxy changes <quote>Microsoft</quote> to
2160 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>! Why are you manipulating my browsing?</title>
2163 We're not. The text substitutions that you are seeing are disabled
2164 in the default configuration as shipped. You have either manually
2165 activated the <quote><literal>fun</literal></quote> filter which
2166 is clearly labeled <quote>Text replacements for subversive browsing
2167 fun!</quote> or you are using an older Privoxy version and have implicitly
2168 activated it by choosing the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile in the
2169 web-based editor. Please upgrade.
2173 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="valid">
2174 <title>Does Privoxy produce <quote>valid</quote> HTML (or XHTML)?</title>
2177 Privoxy generates HTML in both its own <quote>templates</quote>, and possibly
2178 whenever there are text substitutions via a &my-app; filter. While this
2179 should always conform to the HTML 4.01 specifications, it has not been
2180 validated against this or any other standard.
2188 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2190 <sect1 id="trouble">
2191 <title>Troubleshooting</title>
2193 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
2194 <title id="refused">I cannot connect to any websites. Or, I am getting
2195 <quote>connection refused</quote> message with every web page. Why?</title>
2197 There are several possibilities:
2202 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running. Solution: verify
2203 that &my-app; is installed correctly, has not crashed, and is indeed running.
2204 Turn on <application>Privoxy's</application> logging, and look at the logs to see what they say.
2206 <listitem><para>Or your browser is configured for a different port than what
2207 <application>Privoxy</application> is using. Solution: verify that &my-app;
2208 and your browser are set to the same port (<literal>listen-address</literal>).
2210 <listitem><para>Or if using a forwarding rule, you have a configuration problem or a
2211 problem with a host in the forwarding chain. Solution: temporarily alter your
2212 configuration and take the forwarders out of the equation.
2215 Or you have a firewall that is interfering and blocking you. Solution:
2216 try disabling or removing the firewall as a simple test.
2223 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2224 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="error503">
2225 <title>Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</title>
2227 More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has
2228 been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running! The solution is
2229 to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
2230 something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products
2231 may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
2235 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
2236 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
2237 still getting through. How?</title>
2239 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
2240 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
2241 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Privoxy</application>
2242 will not be involved. Flush the browser's caches, and then try again.
2246 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
2247 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
2248 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
2249 and see if it really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking
2250 spam: a lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game. And
2251 remember you need to block the URL of the ad in question, which may be
2252 entirely different from the site URL itself. Most ads are hosted on different
2253 servers than the main site itself. If you right-click on the ad, you should
2254 be able to get all the relevant information you need. Alternately, you can
2255 find the correct URL by looking at <application>Privoxy's</application> logs
2256 (you may need to enable logging in the main config file if its disabled).
2259 Below is a slightly modified real-life log snippet that originates with one
2260 requested URL: <literal>www.example.com</literal> (name of site was changed
2261 for this example, the number of requests is real). You can see in this the
2262 complexity of what goes into making up this one <quote>page</quote>. There
2263 are eight different domains involved here, with thirty two separate URLs
2264 requested in all, making up all manner of images, Shockwave Flash,
2265 JavaScript, CSS stylesheets, scripts, and other related content. Some of this
2266 content is obviously <quote>good</quote> or <quote>bad</quote>, but not all.
2267 Many of the more questionable looking requests, are going to outside domains
2268 that seem to be identifying themselves with suspicious looking names, making
2269 our job a little easier. &my-app; has <quote>crunched</quote> (meaning caught
2270 and BLOCKED) quite a few items in this example, but perhaps missed a few as well.
2275 Request: www.example.com/
2276 Request: www.example.com/favicon.ico
2277 Request: img.example.com/main.css
2278 Request: img.example.com/sr.js
2279 Request: example.betamarker.com/example.html
2280 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/bestsellers/skyscraper.php?likref=BSellers
2281 Request: img.example.com/pb.png
2282 Request: www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js crunch! (Blocked)
2283 Request: www.advertising-department.com/ats/switch.ps.php?26856 crunch! (Blocked)
2284 Request: img.example.com/p.gif
2285 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example&mode=behind crunch! (Blocked)
2286 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=5c3cf&tmpl=PBa.tmpl crunch! (Blocked)
2287 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example crunch! (Blocked)
2288 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/best_sellers.css
2289 Request: www.adtrak.net/adx.js crunch! (Blocked)
2290 Request: img.example.com/hbg.gif
2291 Request: img.example.com/example.jpg
2292 Request: img.example.com/mt.png
2293 Request: img.example.com/mm.png
2294 Request: img.example.com/mb.png
2295 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=a71b91fa5&tmpl=Ua.tmp crunch! (Blocked)
2296 Request: www.example.com/tracker.js
2297 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/lsi_head.gif
2298 Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=020548130&what=zone:61 crunch! (Blocked)
2299 Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=463594413&what=zone:58&source=Ua crunch! (Blocked)
2300 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/bottomani.swf
2301 Request: mmm.elitemediagroup.net/install.php?allowpop=no&popupmincook=0&allowsp2=1 crunch! (Blocked)
2302 Request: www.example.com/tracker.js?screen=1400x1050&win=962x693
2303 Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=61 crunch! (Blocked)
2304 Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=5c3cf599a9efd0320d26&si
2305 Request: 66.70.21.80/img/pixel.gif
2306 Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=58&source=Ua&block=86400 crunch! (Blocked)
2307 Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=a71b9f6504b0c5681fa5&si=Ua
2312 Despite 12 out of 32 requests being blocked, the page looked, and seemed to
2313 behave perfectly <quote>normal</quote> (minus some ads, of course).
2318 <sect2 id="badsite" renderas="sect3">
2319 <title >One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy.
2320 What can I do?</title>
2323 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
2324 by toggling off <application>Privoxy</application> through <ulink
2325 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
2326 (the toggle feature may need to be enabled in the main
2327 <filename>config</filename>),
2328 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
2329 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
2334 If the problem went away, we know we have a configuration related problem.
2336 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
2337 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which
2338 actions are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions
2339 files are responsible for that. It might be helpful also to look at your logs
2340 for this site too, to see what else might be happening (note: logging may need
2341 to be enabled in the main config file). Many sites are
2342 complex and require a number of related pages to help present their content.
2343 Look at what else might be used by the page in question, and what of that
2344 might be <emphasis>required</emphasis>.
2345 Now, armed with this information, go to
2347 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2348 and select the appropriate actions files for editing. </para>
2350 You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
2351 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
2352 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
2353 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
2354 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
2355 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
2356 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
2359 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
2360 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
2361 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
2362 site to a <literal>{ fragile }</literal> section in <filename>user.action</filename>,
2363 which is an alias that turns off most <quote>dangerous</quote>
2364 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
2365 your privacy and protection more than necessary,
2368 Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <ulink
2369 url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">User Manual appendix,
2370 Troubleshooting: the Anatomy of an Action</ulink>.
2371 There is also an <ulink
2372 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions tutorial</ulink>
2373 with general configuration information and examples.
2376 As a last resort, you can always see if your browser has a setting that will
2377 bypass the proxy setting for selective sites. Modern browsers can do this.
2383 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2384 <sect2 id="dun" renderas="sect3">
2385 <title>After installing Privoxy, I have to log in
2386 every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
2389 This is a quirk that effects the installation of
2390 <application>Privoxy</application>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
2391 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
2392 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.
2396 When setting up an NT based Windows system with
2397 <application>Privoxy</application> you may find that things do not seem to be
2398 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
2399 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
2400 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
2401 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
2402 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
2403 configured for the kids.
2407 When setting up <application>Privoxy</application> in this environment you
2408 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
2409 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
2410 <application>Privoxy</application>. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
2411 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
2412 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
2413 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
2414 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
2415 you have to store the password under each different user!
2419 The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
2420 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
2421 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
2422 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
2423 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
2424 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.
2428 [Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
2433 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2434 <sect2 id="ftp" renderas="sect3">
2435 <title>I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy
2436 is blocking me.</title>
2438 <application>Privoxy</application> cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
2439 so do not configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
2440 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for <emphasis>any protocol other than HTTP
2441 or HTTPS (SSL)</emphasis>.
2444 Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
2445 a URL like <literal>ftp://ftp.example.com</literal>, your browser is making
2446 an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
2447 speak FTP, <application>Privoxy</application> does not, and cannot proxy
2451 To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <quote>proxy</quote>
2452 setting, which will enable various protocols, including
2453 <emphasis>both</emphasis> HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is possible to
2454 accidentally enable FTP proxying in these cases. And of course, if this
2455 happens, <application>Privoxy</application> will indeed cause problems since
2456 it does not know FTP. <![%p-newstuff;[Newer version will give a sane error
2457 message if a FTP connection is attempted.]]> Just disable the FTP setting
2458 and all will be well again.
2461 Will <application>Privoxy</application> ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely.
2462 There just is not much reason, and the work to make this happen is more than
2467 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2468 <sect2 id="macosxie" renderas="sect3">
2469 <title>In Mac OS X, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
2470 Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.</title>
2472 Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
2473 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
2474 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
2475 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
2476 is checked and enter <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> in the entry field.
2477 Enter <literal>8118</literal> in the Port field. The next time you start
2478 IE, it should reflect these values.
2482 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2483 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosxuninstall">
2484 <title>In Mac OS X, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
2485 uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
2486 empty the trash.</title>
2488 Note: This ONLY applies to privoxy 3.0.6 and earlier.
2491 Just dragging the <application>Privoxy</application> folder to the trash is
2492 not enough to delete it. <application>Privoxy</application> supplies an
2493 <application>uninstall.command</application> file that takes care of
2494 these details. Open the trash, drag the <application>uninstall.command</application>
2495 file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
2496 confirmation and the administration password.
2499 The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
2500 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
2505 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2506 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosximages">
2507 <title>In Mac OS X Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
2508 experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
2509 <literal>localhost</literal> as my browser's proxy setting.</title>
2511 We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in Mac OS X, but don't fully
2512 understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
2513 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> instead of <literal>localhost</literal>
2514 works around the problem.
2518 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2519 <!-- XXX: Is this still relevant now that we have gzip support? -->
2520 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blankpage">
2521 <title>I get a completely blank page at one site. <quote>View Source</quote>
2522 shows only: <markup><![CDATA[<html><body></body></html>]]></markup>. Without
2523 Privoxy the page loads fine.</title>
2525 Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
2526 <ulink url="http://www.php.net/"><application>PHP</application></ulink>,
2527 which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
2528 an uncompressed page, like <application>Privoxy</application> does.
2529 This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
2532 To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
2533 the site to a <literal>-prevent-compression</literal> section in
2534 <filename>user.action</filename>:
2537 # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
2539 {-prevent-compression}
2540 .example.com</screen>
2542 If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
2543 site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
2544 instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
2545 or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
2549 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nohostname">
2550 <title>My logs show many <quote>Unable to get my own hostname</quote> lines.
2553 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to get the hostname of the system
2554 its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to
2555 (from the <filename>config</filename> file
2556 <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> setting). If the system cannot supply
2557 this information, <application>Privoxy</application> logs this condition.
2560 Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration error. It is
2561 not a fatal error to <application>Privoxy</application> however, but may
2562 result in a much slower response from <application>Privoxy</application> on
2563 some platforms due to DNS timeouts.
2566 This can be caused by a problem with the local <filename>hosts</filename>
2567 file. If this file has been changed from the original, try reverting it to
2568 see if that helps. Make sure whatever name(s) are used for the local system,
2569 that they resolve both ways.
2572 You should also be able to work around the problem with the
2573 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#HOSTNAME">hostname option</ulink>.
2577 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="inuse">
2578 <title>When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an
2579 error message <quote>port 8118 is already in use</quote> (or similar wording).
2582 Port 8118 is <application>Privoxy's</application> default TCP
2583 <quote>listening</quote> port. Typically this message would mean that there
2584 is already one instance of <application>Privoxy</application> running, and
2585 your system is actually trying to start a second
2586 <application>Privoxy</application> on the same port, which will not work.
2587 (You can have multiple instances but they must be assigned different ports.)
2588 How and why this might happen varies from platform to platform, but you need
2589 to check your installation and start-up procedures.
2593 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer">
2595 Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.
2598 This is caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter. You should either
2599 upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or at least upgrade to the most
2600 recent <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
2601 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
2602 Or you can simply disable the demoronizer filter.
2606 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer2">
2608 Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy
2612 This may also be caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter,
2613 in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting the content type. Binary
2614 files are exempted from <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering
2615 (unless the web server by mistake says the file is something else). Either
2616 upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or go to the most recent
2617 <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
2618 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
2622 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer3">
2624 What is the <quote>demoronizer</quote> and why is it there?
2627 The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
2628 were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
2629 to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages
2630 that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a
2631 standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
2632 displayed correctly. <application>Privoxy</application> borrowed from this
2633 script, introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
2634 correct these errors on the fly.
2637 But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in some
2641 If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
2642 pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will
2643 cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <emphasis>should not be on</emphasis>.
2646 On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
2647 notice weird characters on pages, you might want to try it.
2651 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="windowopen">
2653 Why do I keep seeing <quote>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</quote> in raw source code?
2656 <application>Privoxy</application> is attempting to disable malicious
2657 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink>
2658 in this case, with the <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal>
2659 filter. <application>Privoxy</application> cannot tell very well
2660 <quote>good</quote> code snippets from <quote>bad</quote> code snippets.
2663 If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
2664 this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this
2665 where it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file,
2666 then you should set an exception for this site or page such that the
2667 integrity of the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.
2671 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="dnserrors">
2673 I am getting too many DNS errors like <quote>404 No Such Domain</quote>. Why
2674 can't Privoxy do this better?
2677 There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS resolution
2678 is done by the underlying operating system -- not
2679 <application>Privoxy</application> itself. <application>Privoxy</application>
2680 merely initiates the process and hands it off, and then later reports
2681 whatever the outcome was and tries to give a coherent message if there seems
2682 to be a problem. In some cases, this might otherwise be mitigated by the
2683 browser itself which might try some work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g
2684 adding <quote>www.</quote> to the URL).
2687 In other cases, if <application>Privoxy</application> is being chained
2688 with another proxy, this could complicate the issue, and cause undue
2689 delays and timeouts. In the case of a <quote>socks4a</quote> proxy, the socks
2690 server handles all the DNS. <application>Privoxy</application> would just be
2691 the <quote>messenger</quote> which is reporting whatever problem occurred
2692 downstream, and not the root cause of the error.
2696 In any case, versions newer than 3.0.3 include various improvements to help
2697 <application>Privoxy</application> better handle these cases.
2701 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allcpu">
2703 At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking
2704 all CPU. Why is this?
2707 This is probably a manifestation of the <quote>100% cpu</quote> problem that
2708 occurs on pages containing many (thousands upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines
2709 are in the raw HTML source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the
2710 pattern matching in <application>Privoxy's</application> page filtering
2711 mechanism is trying to match against absurdly long strings and this becomes
2712 very CPU-intensive, taking a long, long time to complete.
2715 Until a better solution comes along, disable filtering on these pages,
2716 particularly the <literal>js-annoyances</literal> and
2717 <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal> filters. If you run into this problem
2718 with a recent &my-app; version, please send a problem report.
2722 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="slowcrawl">
2723 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and all my
2724 browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? </title>
2726 This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users world-wide,
2727 it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent interaction of software
2728 components such as anti-virus software, spyware protectors, personal
2729 firewalls or similar components. Try disabling (or uninstalling) these one
2730 at a time and see if that helps. Either way, if you are using a
2731 recent &my-app; version, please report the problem.
2735 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="preventcomp">
2736 <title>Why do my filters work on some sites but not on others? </title>
2738 It's probably due to compression. It is a common practice for web servers to
2739 send their content <quote>compressed</quote> in order to speed things up, and
2740 then let the browser <quote>uncompress</quote> them. When compiled with zlib support
2741 &my-app; can decompress content before filtering, otherwise you may want to enable
2743 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>.
2746 As of &my-app; 3.0.9, zlib support is enabled in the default builds.
2751 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ssl-warnings">
2752 <title>On some HTTPS sites my browser warns me about unauthenticated content,
2753 the URL bar doesn't get highlighted and the lock symbol appears to be broken.
2754 What's going on?</title>
2756 Probably the browser is requesting ads through HTTPS and &my-app;
2757 is blocking the requests. Privoxy's error messages are delivered
2758 unencrypted and while it's obvious for the browser that the HTTPS
2759 request is already blocked by the proxy, some warn about unauthenticated
2763 To work around the problem you can redirect those requests to an invalid
2764 local address instead of blocking them. While the redirects aren't
2765 encrypted either, many browsers don't care. They simply follow the
2766 redirect, fail to reach a server and display an error message instead
2770 To do that, enable logging to figure out which requests get blocked by
2771 &my-app; and add the hosts (no path patterns) to a section like this:
2776 {+redirect{http://127.0.0.1:0/} -block -limit-connect}
2782 Additionally you have to configure your browser to contact
2783 <quote>127.0.0.1:0</quote> directly (instead of through &my-app;).
2786 To add a proxy exception in <application>Mozilla Firefox</application>
2787 open the <quote>Preferences</quote>, click the <quote>Settings</quote>
2788 button located on the <quote>Network</quote> tab in the <quote>Advanced</quote>
2789 section, and add <quote>127.0.0.1:0</quote> in the <quote>No Proxy for:</quote>
2795 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="se-linux">
2796 <title>I get selinux error messages. How can I fix this?</title>
2798 Please report the problem to the creator of your selinux policies.
2801 The problem is that some selinux policy writers aren't familiar
2802 with the application they are trying to <quote>secure</quote> and
2803 thus create policies that make no sense.
2806 In <application>Privoxy's</application> case the problem usually
2807 is that the policy only allows outgoing connections for certain
2808 destination ports (e.g. 80 and 443). While this may cover the
2809 standard ports, websites occasionally use other ports as well.
2810 This isn't a security problem and therefore <application>Privoxy's</application>
2811 default configuration doesn't block these requests.
2814 If you really want to block these ports (and don't be able
2815 to load websites that don't use standard ports), you should
2816 configure Privoxy to block these ports as well, so it doesn't
2817 trigger the selinux warnings.
2824 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2825 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
2826 <!-- Include contacting.sgml -->
2828 <!-- end contacting -->
2831 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2832 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
2834 <!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
2840 Portions of this document are <quote>borrowed</quote> from the original
2841 <application>Junkbuster</application> (tm) FAQ, and modified as
2842 appropriate for <application>Privoxy</application>.
2845 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2846 <sect2><title>License</title>
2847 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
2849 <!-- end copyright -->
2851 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2853 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2854 <sect2><title>History</title>
2855 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
2861 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2864 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2866 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
2868 <!-- Include seealso.sgml -->
2879 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
2881 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
2882 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
2883 Public License as published by the Free Software
2884 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
2885 your option) any later version.
2887 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
2888 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
2889 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
2890 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
2891 License for more details.
2893 The GNU General Public License should be included with
2894 this file. If not, you can view it at
2895 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
2896 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
2897 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
2900 Revision 2.52 2009/02/14 10:27:52 fabiankeil
2901 Finish last paragraph in the selinux entry which
2902 I unintentionally committed with the last commit.
2904 Revision 2.51 2009/02/12 16:08:26 fabiankeil
2905 Declare the code stable.
2907 Revision 2.50 2009/02/11 18:13:36 fabiankeil
2910 Revision 2.49 2009/02/10 16:30:20 fabiankeil
2911 Add a workaround for "unauthenticated content" warnings on HTTPS sites.
2913 Revision 2.48 2009/01/13 16:50:35 fabiankeil
2914 The standard.action file is gone.
2916 Revision 2.47 2008/11/24 18:29:39 fabiankeil
2917 Two changes suggested by Roger Dingledine:
2918 - Use https://www.torproject.org/ in section 4.7, too.
2919 - Replace the Tor wiki URL in section 4.10 with one
2920 with a more useful anchor name.
2922 Revision 2.46 2008/08/30 15:37:35 fabiankeil
2925 Revision 2.45 2008/08/16 08:51:28 fabiankeil
2926 Update version-related entities.
2928 Revision 2.44 2008/06/19 01:41:36 hal9
2929 Add short note about zlib being enabled in 3.0.9
2931 Revision 2.43 2008/06/14 13:21:25 fabiankeil
2932 Prepare for the upcoming 3.0.9 beta release.
2934 Revision 2.42 2008/06/07 13:11:15 fabiankeil
2935 - Note that the "100% cpu problem" is worth
2936 reporting if it happens with a recent release.
2937 - Mention the hostname option as a workaround for
2938 the "can't get my own hostname" issue.
2939 - The profile formerly known as "Adventuresome"
2940 is called "Advanced" now.
2941 - Some white-space fixes.
2943 Revision 2.41 2008/06/06 15:32:09 fabiankeil
2945 - Don't claim that all the old Junkbuster features remain.
2946 Some of them have been removed or replaced with better ones.
2948 Revision 2.40 2008/02/22 05:54:27 markm68k
2949 updates for mac os x
2951 Revision 2.39 2008/02/03 21:37:41 hal9
2952 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
2954 Revision 2.38 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
2955 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
2957 Revision 2.37 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
2958 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
2960 Revision 2.36 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
2961 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
2964 Revision 2.35 2007/11/19 17:57:59 fabiankeil
2965 A bunch of rewordings, minor updates and fixes.
2967 Revision 2.34 2007/11/19 02:38:11 hal9
2968 Minor revisions and rebuild
2970 Revision 2.33 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
2971 Results of spell check.
2973 Revision 2.32 2007/11/13 03:03:42 hal9
2974 Various changes to reflect new features and revised configuration for the
2977 Revision 2.31 2007/11/05 02:34:53 hal9
2978 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
2980 Revision 2.30 2007/11/04 15:16:40 hal9
2983 Revision 2.29 2007/11/04 15:12:47 hal9
2984 Various minor adjustments.
2986 Revision 2.28 2007/10/27 15:14:16 fabiankeil
2987 Change Tor links to use the new domain torproject.org.
2989 Revision 2.27 2007/10/22 19:47:05 fabiankeil
2990 - Bump version and copyright.
2991 - Adjust Tor section to make it clear that forward exceptions
2992 aren't required and may not even be desired.
2993 - A bunch of other minor rewordings.
2994 - Fix markup problems Roland noticed (hopefully without adding new ones).
2996 Revision 2.26 2007/08/05 15:37:55 fabiankeil
2997 - Don't claim that thousands of people read our code.
2998 - Specify the GPL version and link to GPLv2 instead of v3.
2999 - Note that configuration syntax may change between releases.
3000 - Mention zlib support.
3001 - Answer the "transparent proxy" question properly.
3002 - Add "intercepting proxy" entry.
3004 - Rephrase some other sentences for various reasons.
3006 Revision 2.25 2007/07/18 11:00:34 hal9
3007 Add misc note about valid mark-up in Privoxy.
3009 Revision 2.24 2006/11/14 01:57:46 hal9
3010 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
3013 Revision 2.23 2006/10/21 22:19:52 hal9
3014 Two new FAQs, a rewrite or two, and some touch ups.
3016 Revision 2.22 2006/10/14 20:33:10 hal9
3017 Three new FAQ's re: templates and blocking, and various minor touch-ups/improvements.
3019 Revision 2.21 2006/10/03 14:40:51 fabiankeil
3020 Added links from the Tor faq to the
3021 configuration chapter in the User Manual.
3023 Revision 2.20 2006/09/26 10:12:37 fabiankeil
3026 Revision 2.19 2006/09/22 10:54:32 hal9
3027 Change references to 3.0.4 to 3.0.5 and minor adjustments.
3029 Revision 2.18 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
3030 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
3031 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
3033 Revision 2.17 2006/09/17 14:56:32 hal9
3034 This includes yet several more new FAQs, some improved wording, enhanced
3035 mark-up, various hyper links to wikipedia to explain key terminology to the
3036 uninitiated, etc. This is ready for release IMO pending final tagging of cvs
3037 and Privoxy version stamping.
3039 Revision 2.16 2006/09/10 15:30:46 hal9
3042 Revision 2.15 2006/09/08 23:05:07 hal9
3043 Fix broken links. Add faq on hosts files. Move most of new windows service
3044 feature to user manual and reference in faq. Various other small changes.
3046 Revision 2.14 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
3047 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
3049 Revision 2.13 2006/09/04 19:20:33 fabiankeil
3050 Adjusted anonymity related sections to match reality.
3051 Added a section about using Privoxy with Tor.
3053 Revision 2.12 2006/09/03 14:15:30 hal9
3054 Various updates, including 7 or 8 new FAQs, and updates/changes to various
3055 other ones to better reflect improvements, additions and changes for the
3056 upcoming release. This is close to final form for 3.0.4 IMHO.
3058 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:50 david__schmidt
3059 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
3060 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
3062 Revision 1.61.2.41 2004/04/05 13:44:05 oes
3063 Fixed allow-all-cookies alias name; closes SR #929746
3065 Revision 1.61.2.40 2004/01/30 17:00:33 oes
3066 Added Mac OS X Panther problem
3068 Revision 1.61.2.39 2004/01/29 22:53:08 hal9
3069 Minor changes for exempting docs of text/plain. Change copyright date.
3071 Revision 1.61.2.38 2003/12/10 03:39:45 hal9
3072 Added FAQs for: demoronizer, related problems and why its included. Also,
3073 port 8118 already in use questions, and PrivoxyWindowOpen() questions. All in
3074 troubleshooting section.
3076 Revision 1.61.2.37 2003/10/17 11:01:50 oes
3077 Added Q&A for "not being used" page problem
3079 Revision 1.61.2.36 2003/06/26 23:49:20 hal9
3080 More on the filter/source code problem.
3082 Revision 1.61.2.35 2003/06/26 13:38:08 hal9
3083 Add FAQ on whether configuring Privoxy is necessary or not.
3085 Revision 1.61.2.34 2003/06/26 03:00:03 hal9
3086 Sorry, found another copyright date.
3088 Revision 1.61.2.33 2003/06/26 02:57:05 hal9
3089 Fix typo (finally!) and very minor modifications.
3091 Revision 1.61.2.32 2003/06/26 02:52:04 hal9
3094 Revision 1.61.2.31 2003/06/25 01:27:51 hal9
3095 Fix copyright, and a few nits.
3097 Revision 1.61.2.30 2003/06/25 01:13:52 hal9
3100 - FAQ on "Unable to get my own hostname"
3101 - Another one on filtering effects on text files.
3103 Revision 1.61.2.29 2003/06/15 21:32:58 hal9
3104 Add to the 4.17 (filtering effects on downloaded files).
3106 Revision 1.61.2.28 2003/03/18 19:37:21 oes
3107 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
3109 Revision 1.61.2.27 2002/12/01 06:31:58 hal9
3110 Add faq on win32 error 503 due to ZoneAlarm.
3112 Revision 1.61.2.26 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
3113 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
3116 Revision 1.61.2.25 2002/10/29 03:21:50 hal9
3117 Add 3 Q/A's relating to HTML in email. Other minor touchups.
3119 Revision 1.61.2.24 2002/10/15 12:50:22 oes
3120 s/Advanced/Radical/ (stupid me)
3122 Revision 1.61.2.23 2002/10/15 12:38:56 oes
3123 Added Microsuck faq; more detail for PHP problem
3125 Revision 1.61.2.22 2002/10/12 01:13:13 hal9
3126 Updates for demoronizer, more commentary on Radical profile, and update on
3127 the srvany.exe/icon fix.
3129 Revision 1.61.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
3130 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
3132 Revision 1.61.2.20 2002/09/26 01:22:45 hal9
3133 Small additions for LAN setup, content-cookies/SSL, and FTP non-support.
3135 Revision 1.61.2.19 2002/08/25 23:31:56 hal9
3136 Fix one grammatical error. Add brief FAQ relating to tranparent proxies (ie
3137 port 80 setting). Add FAQ on effects of Privoxy on downloaded files
3138 (especially filtering).
3140 Revision 1.61.2.18 2002/08/14 16:39:37 hal9
3141 Fix wrong tag on FAQ addition.
3143 Revision 1.61.2.17 2002/08/14 00:01:18 hal9
3146 Revision 1.61.2.16 2002/08/13 00:10:38 hal9
3147 Add faq to troubleshooting re: blank page syndrome, ie {-prevent-compression}.
3149 Revision 1.61.2.15 2002/08/10 11:34:22 oes
3150 Add disclaimer about probably being out-of-date
3152 Revision 1.61.2.14 2002/08/07 02:53:43 hal9
3153 Fix some minor markup errors, and move one Mac OS X Q/A to troubleshooting section.
3155 Revision 1.61.2.13 2002/08/06 11:55:32 oes
3156 Added missing close tag
3158 Revision 1.61.2.12 2002/08/06 11:43:46 david__schmidt
3159 Updated Mac OS X uninstall FAQ... we have an uninstall script now.
3161 Revision 1.61.2.11 2002/08/06 08:54:03 oes
3162 Style police: Fixed formatting details
3164 Revision 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 david__schmidt
3165 Made the Mac OS X removal commands far less dangerous
3167 Revision 1.61.2.9 2002/08/02 13:14:45 oes
3168 Added warning about sudo rm -r for Mac OS X deinstallation; moved this item to install section
3170 Revision 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt
3171 Add FAQ item for MSIE on Mac OS X HTTP proxy confusion
3173 Revision 1.61.2.7 2002/08/02 01:46:01 david__schmidt
3174 Added FAQ item for Mac OS X uninstall woes
3176 Revision 1.61.2.6 2002/07/30 20:04:56 hal9
3177 Fix typo: 'schould'.
3179 Revision 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes
3180 - Updated to reflect changes in standard.action
3181 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
3183 Revision 1.61.2.4 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
3184 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
3186 Revision 1.61.2.3 2002/06/09 16:36:33 hal9
3187 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
3189 Revision 1.61.2.2 2002/06/06 02:51:34 hal9
3190 Fix typo in URL http:/config.privoxy.org
3192 Revision 1.61.2.1 2002/06/05 23:10:43 hal9
3193 Add new FAQ re: DUN/IE. Change release date from May to June :)
3195 Revision 1.61 2002/05/25 12:37:25 hal9
3196 Various minor changes and edits.
3198 Revision 1.60 2002/05/22 17:17:48 oes
3199 Proofread & added more links into u-m
3201 Revision 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9
3202 Fix ulink -> link markup.
3204 Revision 1.58 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
3205 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
3206 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
3207 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
3209 Revision 1.57 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
3210 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
3212 Revision 1.56 2002/05/04 08:44:44 swa
3215 Revision 1.55 2002/05/04 00:41:56 hal9
3216 -Remove TOC/first page kludge in favor of proper handling via dsl file.
3218 Revision 1.54 2002/05/03 05:06:44 hal9
3219 Add brief Q/A on transparent proxies.
3221 Revision 1.53 2002/05/03 01:34:52 hal9
3222 Fix section numbering for new sections (due to TOC kludge).
3224 Revision 1.52 2002/04/29 03:08:43 hal9
3225 -Added new Q/A on new actions file set up (pointer to u-m)
3226 -Fixed a few broken links and converted old actions as a result of
3229 Revision 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa
3230 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
3232 Revision 1.50 2002/04/26 05:25:23 hal9
3233 Mass commit to catch a few scattered fixes.
3235 Revision 1.49 2002/04/12 10:10:18 swa
3238 Revision 1.48 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
3241 Revision 1.47 2002/04/10 04:05:32 hal9
3244 Revision 1.45 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
3245 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
3247 Revision 1.44 2002/04/07 21:24:29 hal9
3248 Touch up on name change.
3250 Revision 1.43 2002/04/04 21:59:53 hal9
3251 Added NT/W2K service/icon situation.
3253 Revision 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
3254 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
3256 Revision 1.41 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
3257 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
3258 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
3259 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
3260 eventually be set by Makefile.
3261 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
3263 Revision 1.40 2002/04/03 04:22:03 hal9
3264 Fixed several typos.
3266 Revision 1.39 2002/04/03 03:53:03 hal9
3267 Revert some changes, and then make some news, to layout, and appearance.
3269 Revision 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9
3270 Major changes to doc structure and layout. Sections are not automatically
3271 numbered now. TOC is on page by itself.
3273 Revision 1.37 2002/04/01 16:24:07 hal9
3274 -Rework of supported Q/A.
3275 -Set up entities to include boilerplate text.
3277 Revision 1.36 2002/03/31 23:18:47 hal9
3278 More on dealing with BLOCKED.
3280 Revision 1.35 2002/03/30 04:14:19 hal9
3281 Fix privoxy.org/config links.
3283 Revision 1.34 2002/03/29 04:35:56 hal9
3286 Revision 1.33 2002/03/29 01:31:48 hal9
3287 Several new Q/A's and other touch ups.
3289 Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
3290 Touch ups for name change.
3292 Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
3293 we have a new homepage!
3295 Revision 1.30 2002/03/25 16:39:22 hal9
3296 A few new sections. Made all links relative to user-manual.
3298 Revision 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9
3299 Moved section, and touch ups.
3301 Revision 1.28 2002/03/25 04:27:33 hal9
3302 New section related to name change.
3304 Revision 1.25 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
3305 we are too lazy to make a block-built
3306 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
3308 Revision 1.24 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
3309 name change related issue.
3311 Revision 1.23 2002/03/24 12:33:01 swa
3314 Revision 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
3315 name change. changed filenames.
3317 Revision 1.21 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
3320 Revision 1.20 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
3321 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
3322 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
3323 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
3324 comments and remarks to history untouched.
3326 Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
3329 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
3332 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
3335 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
3336 A few more additions.
3338 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
3339 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
3341 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
3342 A little more added ...
3344 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
3345 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
3347 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
3350 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
3353 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
3354 correct feedback channels
3356 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
3357 more info on not hiding ip address
3359 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
3360 added default config section
3362 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
3365 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
3366 Committing changes by Stefan
3368 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
3369 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
3371 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
3372 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
3373 will work - no other changes are needed.
3375 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
3376 upload process established. run make webserver and
3377 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
3378 are now linked correctly.
3380 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
3381 merged standards into developer manual
3383 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
3384 source files for junkbuster documentation
3386 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
3387 first proposal of a structure.
3389 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
3390 docs should have an author.
3392 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
3393 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.