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3 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/faq.sgml,v $
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9 $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9 Exp $
11 Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
12 IJBSWA team. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net
14 Based on the Internet Junkbuster originally written
15 by and Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and
16 Junkbusters Corporation. http://www.junkbusters.com
21 <title>Junkbuster Frequently Asked Questions</title>
23 <pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
28 <orgname>By: Junkbuster Developers</orgname>
35 The FAQ document gives users and developers alike answers to frequently asked
36 questions about the Internet Junkbuster. <application>Internet
37 Junkbuster</application> is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities
38 for protecting privacy, filtering web page content, managing cookies,
39 controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious
40 Internet Junk. Junkbuster has a very flexible configuration and can be
41 customized to suit individual needs and tastes. <application>Internet
42 Junkbuster</application> has application for both stand-alone systems and
46 You can find the latest version of the document at <ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/">http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/</ulink>.
47 Please see the Contact section in the
48 <ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/contact.html">user-manual</ulink> if you want to contact the developers.
52 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
58 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
61 <sect1 id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
67 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
69 <sect1 id="questions"><title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
71 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
73 <sect2 id="general"><title>General Information</title>
75 <sect3 id="newjb"><title>What is this new version of <application>Junkbuster</application>?</title>
77 The original <application>Internet Junkbuster</application> (tm) is a
78 coyrighted product of <ulink url="http://www.junkbusters.com">Junkbusters
79 Corporation</ulink>. Development of this effort stopped some time ago as of
80 version 2.0.2. Stefan Walherr started the ijbswa project on <ulink
81 url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net">Sourceforge</ulink> to rekindle
82 development. Other developers subsequently joined with Stefan, and have
83 since added many new features, refinements and enhancements.
86 The new <application>Junkbuster</application> started with the same
87 code base, but has changed significantly at this point.
92 <sect3 id="differs"><title>How does it differ from the old <application>Junkbuster?</application></title>
94 All the old features remain. The new <application>Junkbuster</application>
95 still blocks ads and banners, still manages cookies, and still helps protect
96 your privacy. But, these are all enhanced, and many new features have been
97 added, all in the same vein.
100 The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
101 users will notice right off the bat. The <quote>blocklist</quote> file does
102 not exist any more. This is replaced by <quote>actions</quote> files, such
103 as <filename>ijb.actions</filename>. This is where most of the per site
104 configuration is now.
109 <sect3 id="features"><title>What are some of the new features?</title>
111 The section is in both user-manual and faq. Please keep in sync!!!
118 Integrated browser based configuration and control utility (<ulink
119 url="http://i.j.b">http://i.j.b</ulink>). Browser-based tracing of rule
126 Modularized configuration that will allow for system wide settings, and
127 individual user settings. (not implemented yet, probably a 3.1 feature)
133 Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
139 HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 1.1 features are supported).
145 Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files, and
146 generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
159 Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size,
160 invisible <quote>web-bugs</quote>, JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse,
167 Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
174 Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
180 Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
186 User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
192 Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
198 Builds from source on most UNIX-like systems. Packages available for: Linux
199 (RedHat, SuSE, or Debian), Windows, Sun Solaris, Mac OSX, OS/2, HP-UX 11 and AmigaOS.
206 In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile over-all.
215 <sect3 id="proxymoron"><title>What is a <quote>proxy</quote>? How does
216 <application>Junkbuster</application> work? </title>
218 When you connect to a web site with <application>Junkbuster</application>,
219 you are really connecting to your locally running version of
220 <application>Junkbuster</application>. <application>Junkbuster</application>
221 intercepts your requests for the web page, and relays that to the
222 <quote>real</quote> web site. The web site sends the HTTP data stream
223 back to <application>Junkbuster</application>, where
224 <application>Junkbuster</application> can work its magic before it
225 relays this data back to your web browser.
229 Since <application>Junkbuster</application> sits between you and the
230 WWW, it is in a position to intercept and completely manage all web traffic and
231 HTTP content before it gets to your browser.
232 <application>Junkbuster</application> uses various programming methods to do
233 this, all of which is under your control via the various configuration
238 There are many kinds of proxies. <application>Junkbuster</application> best
239 fits the <quote>filtering proxy</quote> category.
244 <sect3 id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
245 Junkbuster. Why should I use Junkbuster at all?</title>
247 Modern browsers do indeed have <emphasis>some</emphasis> of the same
248 functionality as <application>Junkbuster</application>. Maybe this is
249 adequate for you. But <application>Junkbuster</application> is much more
250 verstatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
253 In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
254 have a LAN with multiple computers. This way all the configuration
255 is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar configuration
256 for possibly many browsers.
263 <sect3 id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
264 warranty? Registration?</title>
266 <application>Junkbuster</application> is licensed under the
267 GNU General Public License (GPL). It is free to use, copy,
268 modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this license.
270 url="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html</ulink>
274 There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise. That is
275 something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
276 <application>Junkbuster</application> really is <emphasis>free</emphasis>
285 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
287 <sect2 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
289 <sect3 id="newinstall"><title>Can I install the new
290 <application>Junkbuster</application> over the old one?</title>
292 We recommend you uninstall the old <application>Junkbuster</application>
293 first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
294 save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
295 is substantially changed.
299 url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/">user-manual</ulink> for
300 platform specific installation instructions. [FIXME: This is meant for after
301 the name change for 3.0!]
307 <title id="firststep">I just installed Junkbuster. Is there anything
308 special I have to do now?</title>
311 All browsers must be told to use <application>Junkbuster</application>
312 as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
313 in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. See below.
320 <sect3 id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of Junkbuster?</title>
322 If you set up the <application>Junkbuster</application> to run on
323 the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
324 networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <quote>localhost</quote>
325 (which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
326 to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have told the Internet
327 Junkbuster to run on a different port with the
328 <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> config option).
331 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
332 the word <quote>localhost</quote> in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote>
333 and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and then the number <quote>8118</quote>
334 for <quote>port</quote>. This tells your browser to send all web
335 requests to <quote>Junkbuster</quote> instead of directly to the
339 <application>Junkbuster</application> can also be used to proxy for
340 a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
341 address of the LAN host where <application>Junkbuster</application>
342 is running, or the equivalent hostname. Port assignment would be
346 <application>Junkbuster</application> does not currently handle
347 protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, or other Internet
353 <title id="nothing">I just installed Junkbuster, and nothing is happening.
354 All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
357 Did you configure your browser to use <application>Junkbuster</application>
358 as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
359 the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
360 that <application>Junkbuster</application> is running, and your browser
361 is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
362 <ulink url="http://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</ulink>. This should give you
363 a banner that says <quote>This is the Internet JUNKBUSTER</quote> and
364 access to <application>Junkbuster's</application> internal configuration.
365 If you see this, then you are good to go. If not, the browser or
366 <application>Junkbuster</application> are not set up correctly.
375 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
377 <sect2 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
379 <sect3 id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
381 There are major changes to <application>Junkbuster</application>
382 configuration from version 2.0.x to 2.9.x and later. The older files will
383 not work at all. If this is the case, you will need to re-enter your old
384 data into the new configuration structure. This is probably also a good
385 recommendation even if upgrading from 2.9.x to 3.x since there were
386 many minor changes along the way.
391 <title id="actionsfile">What is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
394 <quote>actions</quote> files are where various actions that
395 <application>Junkbuster</application> might take, are configured.
396 Typically, you would define a set of default actions that apply
397 to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults.
401 Actions can be defined on a per site basis, or for groups of sites. Actions
402 can also be grouped together and then applied to one or more sites. There
403 are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
404 if we are blocking cookies as one of our default
405 <application>actions</application>, but need to accept cookies from a given
406 site, we would define this in our <quote>actions</quote> file.
411 <application>Junkbuster</application> comes with several default
412 <application>actions</application> files, with varying degrees
413 of filtering and blocking, as starting points for your own
414 configuration (see below).
419 <sect3 id="actionss">
420 <title>The <quote>actions</quote>concept confuses me. Please list
421 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
423 These are all explained in the
424 <ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE">user-manual</ulink>.
425 Please refer to that.
431 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
432 way to do this?</title>
435 The easiest way to do this, is to access <application>Junkbuster</application>
436 with your web browser at <ulink url="http://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</ulink>,
438 "<ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/edit-actions">Edit the actions list</ulink>"
439 from the selection list. You can also do this by editing the appropriate
440 file with a text editor.
446 url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE">user-manual</ulink> for a
447 detailed explanation of these and other configuration files, and their
448 various options and syntax.
454 FIXME: Commenting these out until we have some data there. HB 03/17/02.
456 <sect3 id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo account work?</title>
462 <sect3 id="hotmail"> <title>How can I make my Hotmail account work?</title>
468 <sect3 id="gmx"> <title>How can I make my GMX account work?</title>
475 <sect3 id="configfiles"> <title>What are the differences between
476 ijb-intermediate.action, ijb-basic.action, etc.?</title>
478 Configuring the Internet Junkbuster is not easy. To help you get started, we
479 provide you with three different default configurations. The following table
480 shows you, which features are enabled in each configuration.
483 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
484 <tgroup cols=5 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
492 <entry>Feature</entry>
493 <entry>ijb.action</entry>
494 <entry>ijb-basic.action</entry>
495 <entry>ijb-intermediate.action</entry>
496 <entry>ijb-advanced.action</entry>
502 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
503 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
504 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
505 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
506 <!-- <entry>f5</entry> -->
513 <entry>ad-filtering</entry>
521 <entry>blank image</entry>
529 <entry>de-animate GIFs</entry>
537 <entry>referer forging</entry>
545 <entry>jon's +no-cookies-keep (i.e. session cookies only)</entry>
553 <entry>no-popup windows</entry>
561 <entry>fast redirects</entry>
569 <entry>hide-referrer</entry>
577 <entry>hide-useragent</entry>
585 <entry>content-modification</entry>
593 <entry>feature-x</entry>
601 <entry>feature-y</entry>
609 <entry>feature-z</entry>
622 <sect3 id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration with a
623 browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
625 What I don't understand, is how I can browser edit the config file as a
626 regular user, while the whole /etc/junkbuster hierarchy belongs to the user
627 "junkbuster", with only 644 perms.
630 When you use the browser-based editor, JunkBuster itself is writing to the
631 config files. Because JunkBuster is running as the user "junkbuster", it can
632 update the config files.
635 If you don't like this, setting "enable-edit-actions 0" in the config file
636 will disable the browser-based editor. If you're that paranoid, you should
637 also consider setting "enable-remote-toggle 0" to prevent browser-based
638 enabling/disabling of JunkBuster.
641 Note that normally only local users can connect to JunkBuster, so this is not
642 (normally) a security problem.
647 <title id="lanconfig">How can I set up Junkbuster to act as a proxy for my
650 By default, <application>Junkbuster</application> only responds to requests
651 from localhost. To have it act as a server for a network, this needs to be
652 changed in the main config file where the <application>Junkbuster</application>
653 configuration is located. In that file is a <quote>listen-address</quote>
654 option. It may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
655 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
656 and port number to use:
661 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118
666 Save the file, and restart <application>Junkbuster</application>. Configure
667 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
674 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a Junkbuster logo [or
675 checkerboard]. I don't want to see anything.</title>
677 This is a configuration option for images that
678 <application>Junkbuster</application> is stopping. You have the choice of the
679 <application>Junkbuster</application> logo, a checkerboard pattern (this
680 scales better), a transparent 1x1 GIF image, or a custom URL or your choice.
684 If you want to see nothing, then change the <quote>+image-blocker</quote>
685 action to <quote>+image-blocker{blank}</quote>. This can be done from the
686 <quote>Edit Actions List</quote> selection at <ulink
687 url="http://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</ulink>. Or by hand editing the appropriate
688 actions file. This will only effect what is defined as <quote>images</quote>
697 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see the logo or checkerboard?</title>
699 This can be helpful for troubleshooting problems. It might also be good
700 for anyone new to <application>Junkbuster</application> so that they can
701 see if their favorite pages are displaying correctly, and
702 <application>Junkbuster</application> is not inadvertantly removing something
709 <title id="blockedisugly">I see large red banners on some pages that say
710 <quote>Blocked</quote>. How do I get rid of this?</title>
712 These are URLs that match something in one of
713 <application>Junkbuster's</application> block actions (+block). It is meant
714 to be a warning so that you know something has been blocked and an easy way
715 for you to see why. These are handled differently than what has been defined
716 as <quote>images</quote> (e.g. ad banners). If you want them to be treated
717 as if they were images, so that they can be invisible, then move the
718 offending URL from the <quote>+block</quote> section to the
719 <quote>+imageblock</quote> section of your actions file. Alternately, you
720 could modify the <quote><filename>block</filename></quote> HTML template that
721 is used by <application>Junkbuster</application> to display this, and make it
722 something more to your liking.
729 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
731 <sect2 id="misc"><title>Misc</title>
734 <title id="slowsme">How much does Junkbuster slow my browsing down? This
735 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
737 It should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
738 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not being displayed.
739 The actual processing time required by <application>Junkbuster</application>
740 itself for each page, is relatively small in the overall scheme of things,
741 and happens very quickly. This is typically more than offset by time saved
742 not downloading and rendering ad images.
746 <quote>Filtering</quote> via the <filename>re_filterfile</filename>
747 mechanism may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire page is buffered
748 before displaying. See below.
755 <sect3 id="loadingtimes"><title>I noticed considerable
756 delays in page requests compared to the old IJB. What's wrong?</title>
758 Using the default filtering configuration, I noticed considerable delays in
759 page requests compared to the old IJB. Loading pages with large contents
760 seemed to take forever, then suddenly delivering all the content at once.
763 The whole content must be loaded in order to filter, and nothing is is
764 sent to the browser during this time. The loading time does not really
765 change in real numbers, but the feeling is different, because most
766 browsers are able to start rendering incomplete content, giving the
767 user a feeling of "it works".
770 To modify the content of a page (i.e. make frames resizeable again, etc.) and
771 not just replace ads, the Internet Junkbuster needs to download the entire
772 page first, do its content magic and then send the page to the browser.
777 <sect3 id="configurl"><title>What is the "http://i.j.b/"?</title>
779 Since JunkBuster sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can be
780 programmed to handle certain pages specially.
784 With recent versions of JunkBuster (version 2.9.x), you can get some
785 information about JunkBuster and change some settings by going to
786 http://i.j.b/ or, equivalently, http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/
787 (Note that i.j.b is far easier to type but may not work in some
792 These pages are *not* forwarded to a server on the internet - instead they are
793 handled by a special web server which is built in to JunkBuster.
797 If you are not running JunkBuster, then http://i.j.b/ will fail, and
798 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/ will return a web page telling you
799 you're not running JunkBuster.
803 If you have version 2.0.2, then the equivalent is
804 http://example.com/show-proxy-args (but you get far less information, and you
805 should really consider upgrading to 2.9.x).
810 FIXME: commented out until we have data. HB 03/18/02.
812 <sect3 id="badfiledesc"><title>I get the message 'Bad File Descriptor', why?</title>
818 <sect3 id="proxy-chaining"><title>How do I chain Junkbuster with other proxies
819 (e.g. squid)?</title>
826 <sect3 id="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what do I do?</title>
828 Well, helping the team is always a good idea. We welcome new developers,
829 RPM gurus or documentation makers. Simply get an account on sourceforge.net
830 and mail your id to the developer mailing list. Once we have added you to
831 the team, you'll have write access to the CVS repository, and together
832 we'll find a suitable task for you.
836 <sect3 id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
838 No. The format of the blocklists has changed significantly in the versions
839 2.9.x. Once we have released the new version, there will again be
840 blocklists that you can update automatically.
844 <sect3 id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads?</title>
846 As of now, please discontinue to submit new ad blocking infos. Once we
847 have released the new version, there will again be a form on the website,
848 which you can use to contribute new ads.
852 <sect3 id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
854 You cannot hide your IP address with Junkbuster or any other software, since
855 the server needs to know your IP address to send the answer to you.
858 Fortunately there are many publicly usable anonymous proxies out there, which
859 solve the problem by providing a further level of indirection between you and
860 the web server, shared by many people and thus letting your requests "drown"
861 in white noise of unrelated requests as far as user tracking is concerned.
864 Most of them will, however, log your IP address and make it available to the
865 authorities in case you abuse that anonymity for criminal purposes. In fact
866 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
867 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
870 You can find a list of anonymous public proxies at <ulink
871 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">multiproxy.org</ulink> and many
876 <!-- <sect3 id="image"><title>What is the imagefile (simage.ini, etc.) for?</title> -->
878 <!-- Anytime the Junkbuster determines (with the help of the blocklist) that a URL -->
879 <!-- contains an advertisement, it has to decide whether this advertisement is an -->
880 <!-- image or not. The Junkbuster uses the imagefile for that purpose. -->
885 <title id="anonforsure">Can Junkbuster guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
887 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
888 are an expert on Internet security it would be safest to assume that
889 everything you do on the Web can be traced back to you.
892 <application>Junkbuster</application> can remove various information about you,
893 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
894 you can trust. But it's still possible that web sites can find out who you
895 are. Here's one way this can happen.
898 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
899 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Junkbuster</application>
900 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
901 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
902 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
905 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
906 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
907 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
908 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
909 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
916 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information is
917 being altered?</title>
920 Definitely. More and more sites use HTTP header content to decide what to
921 display and how to display it. There is many ways that this can be handled,
922 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
926 <quote>USER AGENT</quote> in particular is often used in this way to identify
927 the browser, and adjust content accordingly. Changing this now is not
928 recommended, since so many sites do look for this. You may get undesirable
929 results by changing this.
933 For instance, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
934 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
935 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
936 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
937 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
938 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
939 <quote>REFERER</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
940 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
941 <quote>REFERER</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. There are
942 many, many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server.
946 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
947 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
948 be required, but by no means the only one.
956 <title id="caching">Can Junkbuster act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
957 speed up web browsing?</title>
959 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
960 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> for this. And, yes,
961 before you ask, <application>Junkbuster</application> can co-exist
962 with other kinds of proxies like <quote>Squid</quote>.
967 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can Junkbuster protect me?</title>
969 Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can, or a proxy that
970 has this specific capability. <application>Junkbuster</application> can help
971 protect your privacy, but not really protect you from intrusion attempts.
977 <title id="logo">The Junkbuster logo that replaces ads is very blocky
978 and ugly looking. Can't a better font be used?</title>
981 This is not a font problem. The logo is an image that is created by
982 <application>Junkbuster</application> on the fly. So as to not waste
983 memory, the image is rather small. The blockiness comes when the
984 image is scaled to fill a largish area. There is not much to be done
985 about this, other than to use one of the other
986 <quote>imageblock</quote> directives: <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>,
987 <emphasis>blank</emphasis>, or a URL of your chosing.
993 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be.
994 Why does Junkbuster leave these large gaps?</title>
996 It would be easy enough to just eliminate this space altogether, rather than
997 fill it with blank space. But, this would create problems with many pages
998 that use the overall size of the ad to help organize the page layout and
999 position the various components of the page where they were intended to be.
1000 It is best left this way.
1006 <title id="ssl">How can Junkbuster filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1008 This is a limitation since HTTPS transactions are encrypted SSL sessions
1009 between your browser and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably
1010 <emphasis>secure</emphasis> and private. This means that all cookies and HTTP
1011 header information are also encrypted from the time they leave your browser,
1012 to the site, and vice versa. <application>Junkbuster</application> does not
1013 try to unencrypt this information, so it just passes through as is.
1014 <application>Junkbuster</application> can still catch images and ads that
1015 are embedded in the SSL stream though.
1022 <title id="secure">Junkbuster runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1023 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1025 There are no known exploits that might effect
1026 <application>Junkbuster</application>. On Unix-like systems,
1027 <application>Junkbuster</application> can run as a non-privileged
1028 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1029 <application>Junkbuster</application> only listens to requests
1030 from <quote>localhost</quote>. It is not itself directly exposed to the
1031 Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1032 <application>Junkbuster</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1033 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1034 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1 in the main
1035 <application>Junkbuster</application> config file. All LAN hosts can then use
1036 this as their proxy address in the browser proxy configuration. In this way,
1037 <application>Junkbuster</application> will not listen on any external ports.
1038 Of course, a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
1044 <title id="filterfile">What is a <quote>re_filterfile</quote>?</title>
1046 The <quote>re_filterfile</quote> is used to <quote>filter</quote> any
1047 page content. By <quote>filtering</quote> we mean it can modify, remove,
1048 or change <emphasis>anything</emphasis> on the page, including HTML tags, and
1049 JavaScript. Regular expressions are used to accomplish this. This is
1050 potentially a very powerful feature, but requires some expertise.
1054 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
1055 the provided <filename>re_filterfile</filename> with a text editor and see
1056 some of things it can be used for.
1060 Presently, there is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration.
1067 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1070 <title id="trouble">Troubleshooting</title>
1073 <title id="refused">I just upgraded and am getting <quote>connection refused</quote>
1074 with every web page?</title>
1076 Either <application>Junkbuster</application> is not running, or your
1077 browser is configured for a different port than what
1078 <application>Junkbuster</application> is using.
1082 The old <application>Junkbuster</application> used port 8000 by
1083 default. This has been changed to port 8118 now, due to a conflict
1084 with NAS (Network Audio Service), which uses port 8000. If you haven't,
1085 you need to change your browser to the new port number, or alternately
1086 change <application>Junkbuster's</application> <quote>listen-address</quote>
1087 setting in the <filename>config</filename> file used to start
1088 <application>Junkbuster</application>.
1094 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
1095 still getting through. How?</title>
1097 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
1098 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
1099 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Junkbuster</application>
1100 will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flusing the browser's
1101 caches. And then try again.
1105 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
1106 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
1107 url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info">http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info</ulink>
1108 and see if any actions match your new rule.
1114 <title id="badsite">One of my favorite sites does not work with Junkbuster.
1115 What can I do?</title>
1118 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Junkbuster</application> problem,
1119 by disabling <application>Junkbuster</application> filtering and blocking.
1120 Go to <ulink url="http://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</ulink> and click on
1121 <quote>Toggle Junkbuster On or Off</quote>, then disable it. Now try that
1126 If still a problem, go to <quote>Show which actions apply to a URL and
1127 why</quote> from <ulink url="http://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</ulink> and
1128 paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which
1129 actions are being applied to the URL. Now, armed with this information,
1130 go to <quote>Edit the actions list</quote>. Here you should see various
1131 sections that have various <quote>Junkbuster</quote> features disabled
1132 for specific sites. Disabled <quote>actions</quote> will have a
1133 <quote>-</quote> (minus sign) in front of them. Add your problem page
1134 URL to one of these sections that looks like it is disabling the feature that
1135 is causing the problem. Re-try the page. There might be some trial and error
1136 involved. This is discussed in a little more detail in
1137 the <ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/appenix.html#ACTIONSANAT">user-manual appendix</ulink>.
1142 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
1143 the same thing by editing the appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file.
1149 <title id="time">What time is it?</title>
1160 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1162 FIXME: Commented out until we have something to put here. HB 03/18/02.
1163 <sect1 id="knownissues"><title>Known Issues</title>
1169 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1170 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contact the developers</title>
1171 <para>Please see the user manual for information on how to contact the developers.
1175 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1176 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Copyright and History</title>
1177 <para>Please see the user manual for information on Copyright and History.
1181 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1182 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
1183 <para>Please see the user manual for information on references.
1189 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
1191 Last modified: Mon Sep 10 19:22:09 CEST 2001
1193 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1194 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
1195 Public License as published by the Free Software
1196 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
1197 your option) any later version.
1199 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
1200 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
1201 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
1202 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
1203 License for more details.
1205 The GNU General Public License should be included with
1206 this file. If not, you can view it at
1207 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
1208 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
1209 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
1212 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
1215 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
1218 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
1219 A few more additions.
1221 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
1222 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
1224 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
1225 A little more added ...
1227 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
1228 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
1230 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
1233 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
1236 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
1237 correct feedback channels
1239 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
1240 more info on not hiding ip address
1242 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
1243 added default config section
1245 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
1248 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
1249 Committing changes by Stefan
1251 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
1252 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
1254 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
1255 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
1256 will work - no other changes are needed.
1258 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
1259 upload process established. run make webserver and
1260 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
1261 are now linked correctly.
1263 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
1264 merged standards into developer manual
1266 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
1267 source files for junkbuster documentation
1269 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
1270 first proposal of a structure.
1272 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
1273 docs should have an author.
1275 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
1276 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.