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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 SYSTEM "doc_version.tmp">
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17 <!entity % p-supp-userman "INCLUDE"> <!-- Include all from supported.sgml -->
18 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
21 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/faq.sgml,v $
24 This file belongs into
25 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
27 $Id: faq.sgml,v 2.5 2002/09/26 05:57:14 hal9 Exp $
29 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
32 Based partially on the Internet Junkbuster FAQ originally written by and
33 Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters Corporation.
34 http://www.junkbusters.com/
36 <Qandaset defaultlabel='qanda'>
51 ========================================================================
52 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
53 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation. You have been warned!
54 Failure to abide by this rule will result in the revocation of your license
55 to live a peaceful existence!
56 ========================================================================
62 <article id="index" class="faq">
64 <title>Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</title>
68 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
69 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
70 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
71 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
75 <pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.5 2002/09/26 05:57:14 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
79 Note: this should generate a separate page, and a live link to it.
80 But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave commented
81 unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the copyright
82 statement will be in copyright.smgl.
86 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
88 text goes here ........
98 <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
107 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
108 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
109 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
114 This FAQ gives quick answers to frequently asked questions about
115 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
116 It can't and doesn't replace the
117 <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
119 This works, at least in some situtations:
120 Test: <ulink url="privoxy-user-manual.pdf"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
124 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
126 <!-- end boilerplate -->
130 Please note that this document is constantly evolving. This copy represents
131 the state at the release of version &p-version;. ]]>
132 You can find the latest version of the document at <ulink
133 url="http://www.privoxy.org/faq/">http://www.privoxy.org/faq/</ulink>.
134 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> if you want to
135 contact the developers.
139 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
145 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
147 <sect1 id="general"><title>General Information</title>
149 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newjb"><title>What is this new version of <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
151 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
158 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
159 <title id="whyprivoxy">Why <quote>Privoxy</quote>? Why a name change at all?</title>
161 <application>Privoxy</application> is the
162 <quote><emphasis>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</emphasis></quote>. Also, its content
163 modification and junk suppression allow you to browse your
164 <quote><emphasis>private</emphasis> edition</quote> of the web.
167 <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>
168 continues to offer their original version of the <application>Internet
169 Junkbuster</application>, so publishing our
170 <application> Junkbuster</application>-derived software under the same name
174 There are also potential legal complications from the continued use of the
175 <application>Junkbuster</application> name, which is a registered trademark of
176 <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>.
177 There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
178 <application>Privoxy</application> project itself, and they, in fact, still
179 share our ideals and goals.
182 The developers also believed that there are so many changes from the original
183 code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
184 a name in their own right<![%p-not-stable;[, especially now with the pending
185 release of version 3.0]]>.
190 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="differs"><title>How does <application>Privoxy</application> differ
191 from the old <application>Junkbuster?</application></title>
193 <application>Privoxy</application> picks up where
194 <application>Junkbuster</application> left off. All the old features remain.
195 The new <application>Privoxy</application> still blocks ads and banners,
196 still manages cookies, and still helps protect your privacy. But, these are
197 all enhanced, and many new features have been added, all in the same vein.
200 The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
201 users will notice right off the bat if upgrading from
202 <application>Junkbuster</application> 2.0.x. The <quote>blocklist</quote>
203 <quote>cookielist</quote>, <quote>imagelist</quote> and much more has been
204 combined into the <quote>actions</quote> files, with a completely different
205 syntax. See the <ulink url="../user-manual/upgradersnote.html">note to
206 upgraders</ulink> for details.
209 <application>Privoxy</application>'s new features include:
212 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml: -->
218 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="proxymoron"><title>What is a <quote>proxy</quote>? How does
219 <application>Privoxy</application> work? </title>
221 A web proxy is a service, based on a software such as <application>Privoxy</application>,
222 that clients (i.e. browsers) can use instead of connecting directly to the web
223 servers on the Internet. The clients then ask the proxy to fetch the objects
224 they need (web pages, images, movies etc) on their behalf, and when the proxy
225 has done so, it hands the results back to the client.
228 There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security (firewalling),
229 efficiency (caching) and others, and there are just as many different proxies
230 to accommodate those needs.
233 <application>Privoxy</application> is a proxy that is solely focused on privacy
234 protection and junk elimination. Sitting between your browser(s) and the Internet,
235 it is in a perfect position to filter outbound personal information that your
236 browser is leaking, as well as inbound junk. It uses a variety of techniques to do
237 this, all of which are under your control via the various configuration
243 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whatsanad">
244 <title id="knows">How does <application>Privoxy</application> know what is
245 an ad, and what is not?</title>
247 <application>Privoxy</application>'s approach to blocking ads is twofold:
250 First, there are certain patterns in the <emphasis>locations</emphasis> (URLs)
251 of banner images. This applies to both the path (you wouldn't guess how many
252 web sites serve their banners from a directory called <quote>banners</quote>!)
253 and the host (blocking the big banner hosting services like doublecklick.net
254 already helps a lot). <application>Privoxy</application> takes advantage of this
255 fact by using <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL
256 patterns</ulink> to sort out and block the requests for banners.
259 Second, banners tend to come in certain <emphasis>sizes</emphasis>. But you
260 can't tell the size of an image by its URL without downloading it, and if you
261 do, it's too late to save bandwidth. Therefore, <application>Privoxy</application>
262 also inspects the HTML sources of web pages while they are loaded, and replaces
263 references to images with standard banner sizes by dummy references, so that
264 your browser doesn't request them anymore in the first place.
267 Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
272 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
273 <title id="mistakes">Can <application>Privoxy</application> make mistakes?
274 This does not sound very scientific.</title>
276 Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
277 rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. There is a good chance
278 you may run into such a situation at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
279 cover every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
283 But this should not be a big concern since the
284 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is very flexible, and
285 includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
286 addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
287 (<link linkend="badsite">See the Troubleshooting section below</link>.)
293 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
294 <application>Privoxy</application>. Why should I use
295 <application>Privoxy</application> at all?</title>
297 Modern browsers do indeed have <emphasis>some</emphasis> of the same
298 functionality as <application>Privoxy</application>. Maybe this is
299 adequate for you. But <application>Privoxy</application> is much more
300 versatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
303 In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
304 have a LAN with multiple computers. This way all the configuration
305 is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar configuration
306 for possibly many browsers.
312 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
313 warranty? Registration?</title>
315 <application>Privoxy</application> is licensed under the <ulink
316 url="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public License (GPL)</ulink>.
317 It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this
318 license. Please see the <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> section for more
319 information on the license and copyright. Or the <filename>LICENSE</filename> file
320 that should be included.
323 There is <emphasis>no warranty</emphasis> of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
324 That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
325 <application>Privoxy</application> really is <emphasis>free</emphasis>
331 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what do I do?</title>
333 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-money"><title>Money Money Money</title>
335 We, of course, welcome donations and could use money for domain registering,
336 buying software to test <application>Privoxy</application> with, and, of course,
337 for regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). If you enjoy the software and feel
338 like helping us with a donation, just <ulink
339 url="mailto:developers@privoxy.org">drop us a note</ulink>.
343 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-software"><title>Software</title>
345 If you are a vendor of a web-related software like a browser, web server
346 or proxy, and would like us to ensure that <application>Privoxy</application>
347 runs smoothly with your product, you might consider supplying us with a
348 copy or license. We can't, however, guarantee that we will fix all potential
349 compatibility issues as a result.
353 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-work"><title>You want to work with us?</title>
355 Well, helping the team is always a good idea. We welcome new developers,
356 packaging gurus or documentation writers. Simply <ulink
357 url="https://sourceforge.net/account/register.php">get an account on SourceForge.net</ulink>
358 and mail your id to the <ulink url="mailto:developers@privoxy.org">developers
359 mailing list</ulink>. Then read the <ulink
360 url="../developer-manual/index.html">Developer's Manual</ulink>.
363 Once we have added you to the team, you'll have write access to the <ulink
364 url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">CVS repository</ulink>, and
365 together we'll find a suitable task for you.
374 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
376 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
378 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichbrowsers">
379 <title>Which browsers are supported by <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
381 Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
382 should be virtually all browsers. Direct browser support is not necessary
383 since <application>Privoxy</application> runs as a separate application and
384 talks to the browser in the standardized HTTP protocol, just like a web server
389 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichos">
390 <title>Which operating systems are supported?</title>
392 Include supported.sgml here:
397 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
398 <application>Privoxy</application> over <application>Junkbuster</application>?</title>
400 We recommend you un-install <application>Junkbuster</application>
401 first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
402 save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
403 files and syntax have substantially changed, so you will need to manually
404 port your old patterns. See the <ulink url="../user-manual/upgradersnote.html">note
405 to upgraders</ulink> and <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">installation
406 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink>
410 Note: Some installers may automatically un-install
411 <application>Junkbuster</application>, if present!
416 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
417 <title id="firststep">I just installed <application>Privoxy</application>. Is there anything
418 special I have to do now?</title>
421 All browsers must be told to use <application>Privoxy</application>
422 as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
423 in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. See below.
424 You should also flush your browser's memory and disk cache to get rid of any
432 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
434 If you set up the <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
435 the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
436 networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>
437 (sometimes referred to as <quote>localhost</quote>,
438 which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
439 to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have <application>Privoxy</application>
440 to run on a different port with the <ulink
441 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink> config option).
444 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
445 the word <quote>localhost</quote> or the IP address <quote>127.0.0.1</quote>
446 in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote> and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and
447 then the number <quote>8118</quote> for <quote>port</quote>.
448 This tells your browser to send all web requests to <application>Privoxy</application>
449 instead of directly to the Internet.
452 <application>Privoxy</application> can also be used to proxy for
453 a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
454 address of the LAN host where <application>Privoxy</application>
455 is running, or the equivalent hostname. Port assignment would be
456 same as above. Note that <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't
457 listen on any LAN interfaces by default.
460 <application>Privoxy</application> does not currently handle
461 protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, or other Internet
466 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nothing">
467 <title>I just installed <application>Privoxy</application>, and nothing is happening.
468 All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
471 Did you configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
472 as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
473 the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
474 that <application>Privoxy</application> is running, and your browser
475 is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
476 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>.
477 This should take you to a page titled <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote> with
478 access to <application>Privoxy's</application> internal configuration.
479 If you see this, then you are good to go. If you receive a page saying
480 <quote>Privoxy is not running</quote>, then the browser is not set up to use
481 your <application>Privoxy</application> installation.
482 If you receive anything else (probably nothing at all), it could either
483 be that the browser is not set up correctly, or that
484 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running at all. Check the <ulink
485 url="../user-manual/config.html#LOGFILE">log file</ulink>.
493 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
495 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
497 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
499 Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updated actions files will be
500 made available on the <ulink
501 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files section</ulink> of
502 our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project page</ulink>.
506 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
507 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
508 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
509 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
514 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
516 The syntax, number, and purpose of configuration files has substantially
517 changed from <application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions
518 of <application>Privoxy</application>. The old files, like <filename>blocklist</filename>
519 will not work at all. If you are upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will
520 need to port your configuration data to the new format. Note that even the
521 pattern syntax has changed! Even configuration files from the 2.9.x versions
522 will need to be adapted, as configuration syntax has been very much in flow
527 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
528 <title id="actionsfile">What is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
531 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">Actions files</ulink>
532 are where various <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink>
533 that <application>Privoxy</application> might take while processing a certain
534 request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
535 that apply to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
539 Actions can be defined on a <ulink
540 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</ulink> basis, i.e.
541 for single URLs, whole web sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be
542 grouped together and then applied to requests matching one or more patterns.
543 There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
544 if you are blocking cookies as one of your default actions, but need to accept
545 cookies from a given site, you would need to define an exception for this
546 site in one of your actions files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>
551 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionss">
552 <title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
553 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
555 For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer
556 to the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions file
557 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
558 manual</ulink>. It includes a <ulink
559 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">list of all actions</ulink>
560 and an <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions
561 file tutorial</ulink> to get you started.
566 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
567 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
568 way to do this?</title>
571 Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
572 with a text editor. But probably the easiest way is to access
573 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface with your web browser
574 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
575 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and then select
576 <quote><ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View &
577 change the current configuration</ulink></quote> from the menu.
582 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
583 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
584 <title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
585 the differences?</title>
587 As of <application>Privoxy</application> v2.9.15, three actions files
588 are being included, to be used for
589 different purposes: These are
590 <filename>default.action</filename>, the <quote>main</quote> actions file
591 which is actively maintained by the <application>Privoxy</application>
592 developers, <filename>user.action</filename>, where users are encouraged
593 to make their private customizations, and <filename>standard.action</filename>,
594 which is for internal <application>Privoxy</application> use only.
595 Please see <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">the actions chapter</ulink>
596 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink> for a more
597 detailed explanation.
601 Earlier versions included three different versions of the
602 <filename>default.action</filename> file. The new scheme allows for
603 greater flexibility of local configuration, and for browser based
604 selection of pre-defined <quote>aggressiveness</quote> levels.
609 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/GMX account work?</title>
611 The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services.
612 It will, however, make all cookies temporary, so that your browser will forget your
613 login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would like not to have to log
614 in manually each time you access those websites, simply turn off all cookie handling
615 for them in the <filename>user.action</filename> file. An example for yahoo might
619 <screen># Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
621 { -<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> }
622 .login.yahoo.com</screen>
627 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
628 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Radical</quote> defaults?</title>
630 Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To help you get
631 started, we provide you with three different default action <quote>packages</quote> in
632 the web based actions file editor at <ulink
633 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
634 The following table shows you, which of the most important features are enabled in each
638 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
639 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
646 <entry>Feature</entry>
647 <entry>Cautious</entry>
648 <entry>Intermadiate</entry>
649 <entry>Radical</entry>
654 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
655 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
656 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
657 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
663 <entry>Ad-blocking by URL</entry>
670 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
677 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
684 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
691 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
693 <entry>session-only</entry>
698 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
705 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
712 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
719 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
726 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
733 <entry>Fun text replacements</entry>
740 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
747 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
759 Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
760 known popular <quote>problem</quote> sites are included, but in
761 general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more
762 exceptions you will have to make later. See the <ulink
763 url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink> for a more
769 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration
770 with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
772 It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files with their
773 browsers, although the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
774 belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
777 When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
778 itself is writing to the config files. Because
779 <application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>,
780 it can update the config files.
783 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in
784 a LAN), you will probably want to turn the web-based editor and remote toggle
785 features off by setting <quote><literal><ulink
786 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>
787 0</literal></quote> and <quote><literal><ulink
788 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">enable-remote-toggle</ulink>
789 0</literal></quote> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
792 Note that in the default configuration, only local users (i.e. those on
793 <quote>localhost</quote>) can connect to <application>Privoxy</application>,
794 so this is not (normally) a security problem.
799 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
800 <title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file? What is a <quote>filter</quote>?</title>
802 The <ulink url="../user-manual/filter-file.html"><filename>default.filter</filename></ulink>
803 file is where <emphasis>filters</emphasis> are defined, which can be used to modify or
804 remove, web page content on the fly. Filters apply to <emphasis>anything</emphasis>
805 in the page source, including HTML tags, and JavaScript. Regular expressions are used
806 to accomplish this. There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common
807 annoyances. The filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you need to use the
809 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"><literal>filter</literal>
810 action</ulink> in one of the actions files. Filtering is automatically
811 disabled for inappropriate MIME types.
815 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
816 the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and define
817 your own filters. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
818 requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
822 Presently, there is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
823 but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included
824 <filename>default.filter</filename> file with the <ulink
825 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
830 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
831 <title id="lanconfig">How can I set up <application>Privoxy</application> to act as a proxy for my
834 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
835 from <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> (localhost). To have it act as a server for
836 a network, this needs to be changed in the <ulink
837 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>. Look for
839 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink></literal>
840 option, which may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
841 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
842 and port number to use. Assuming your server's LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you
843 wish to run <application>Privoxy</application> on port 8118, this line
849 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118</screen>
853 Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
854 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
858 Alternately, you can have <application>Privoxy</application> listen on
859 all available interfaces:
864 listen-address :8118</screen>
868 And then use <application>Privoxy's</application>
870 url="../user-manual/config.html#PERMIT-ACCESS">permit-access</ulink>
871 feature to limit connections. A firewall in this situation is recommended
876 The above steps should be the same for any TCP network, regardless of
881 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> on a LAN with untrusted users,
882 we recommend that you double-check all <ulink
883 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security</ulink>
890 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
891 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
893 The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the <ulink
894 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
895 action</ulink>. You have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
896 image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a redirect to a custom image of your choice.
897 Note that this choice only has effect for images which are blocked as images, i.e.
898 whose URLs match both a <literal><ulink
899 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink></literal>
900 <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><ulink
901 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> action.
904 If you want to see nothing, then change the <ulink
905 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
906 action</ulink> to <quote>blank</quote>. This can be done by editing the
907 <filename>default.action</filename> file, or trough the <ulink
908 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
913 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
914 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
916 Remember that <link linkend="whatsanad">telling which image is an ad and which
917 isn't</link>, is mostly guesswork. While we hope that the standard configuration
918 is rather smart, it can and will make errors. The checkerboard image is visually
919 decent, but it shows you that and where images were blocked, which can be very
920 helpful in case some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was
921 erraneously blocked. Some people might also enjoy seeing how many banners
922 they <emphasis>don't</emphasis> have to see..
927 <!-- This has changed with the adaptive "blocked" page
929 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
930 <title id="blockedisugly">I see large red banners on some pages that say
931 <quote>Blocked</quote>. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
933 These are URLs that match something in one of
934 <application>Privoxy's</application> block actions
936 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink>).
937 It is meant to be a warning so that you know something has been blocked and
938 an easy way for you to see why. These are handled differently than what has
939 been defined explicitly as <quote>images</quote> (e.g. ads that are GIF image
940 files). Depending on the URL itself, it is sometimes hard for
941 <application>Privoxy</application> to really know whether there is indeed an
942 ad image there or not. And there are limitations as to what
943 <application>Privoxy</application> can do to <quote>fool</quote> the
948 For instance, if the ad is in a frame, then it is embedded in the separate
949 HTML page used for the frame. In this case, you cannot just substitute an
950 aribitrary image (like we would for a <quote>blank</quote> image), for an HTML
951 page. The browser is expecting an HTML page, and that is what it must have
952 for frames. Such situations can be a little trickier to deal with, and
953 <application>Privoxy</application> may show the <quote>Blocked</quote> page,
954 despite your best efforts.
958 If you want these to be treated as if they were images, so that they can be
959 made invisible, you can try moving the offending URL from the
960 <quote>+block</quote> section to the <quote>+imageblock</quote> section of
961 your actions file. Just be forewarned, if any URL is made
962 <quote>invisible</quote>, you may not have any inkling that something has
963 been removed from that page, or why. If this approach does not work, then you are
964 probably dealing with a frame (or <quote>ilayer</quote>), and the only thing
965 that can go there is an HTML page of some sort.
968 To deal with this situation, you could modify the
969 <quote><filename>block</filename></quote> HTML template that is used by
970 <application>Privoxy</application> to display this, and make it something
971 more to your liking. Currently, there is no configuration option for this.
972 You will have to modify, or create your own page, and use this to replace
973 <filename>templates/blocked</filename>, which is what
974 <application>Privoxy</application> uses to display the <quote>Blocked</quote>
978 Another way to deal with this is find why and where
979 <application>Privoxy</application> is blocking the frame, and
980 diable this. Then let the <quote>+set-image-blocker</quote> action
981 handle the ad that is embedded in the frame's HTML page.
986 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="alliseeisred">
987 <title>I cannot see all of the <quote>Blocked</quote> page banner. Help.</title>
989 There is not enough available space to fit the entire Blocked page. Try right
990 clicking on the visible portion, and select <quote>Show Frame</quote>,
991 or equivalent. This will usually allow you to see the entire Privoxy
992 <quote>Blocked</quote> page, and from there you can see just what is being
996 As of Privoxy 2.9.14, the Blocked banner page is re-sizeable, and tries
997 to adjust to the allotted space. There may be occassions where there
998 just isn't enough room to display much of anything useful though.
1005 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1006 <title id="blockedbytext">I see some images being replaced by a text
1007 instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
1009 This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of the
1010 page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded into (i)frames
1011 or (i)layers, and these external HTML documents are blocked. Being non-images
1012 they get replaced by a substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image,
1013 which wouldn't work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts
1014 only HTML when it has requested an HTML document.
1017 The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself as a
1018 miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown with a
1019 large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
1022 If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to it that
1023 the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked. Clicking
1024 the <quote>See why</quote> link offered in the substitute page will show
1025 you which rule blocked the page. After changing the rule and un-blocking
1026 the HTML documents, the browser will try to load the actual banner images
1027 and the usual image blocking will (hopefully!) kick in.
1032 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="srvany">
1033 <title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> run as a service
1034 on Win2K/NT?</title>
1036 Yes, it can run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
1037 The only catch is that this will effectively disable the
1038 <application>Privoxy</application> icon (and its menu!) in the taskbar. You can have
1039 one or the other, but not both at this time :(
1042 There is a pending feature request for this functionality. See the discussion
1044 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>,
1045 for details, and a sample configuration.
1051 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherproxy">
1052 <title>How can I make <application>Privoxy</application> work with other
1053 proxies like <application>Squid</application>?</title>
1055 This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
1056 <application>Privoxy</application> with those of a caching proxy.
1058 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1059 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink> which
1060 describes how to do this.
1064 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="port-80">
1065 <title>Can I just set <application>Privoxy</application> to use port 80
1066 and thus avoid individual browser configuration?</title>
1069 No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special kinds
1070 of proxies known as <quote>transparent</quote> proxies (see below).
1075 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
1076 <title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> run as a <quote>transparent
1077 </quote> proxy?</title>
1079 No, <application>Privoxy</application> currently does not have this ability,
1080 though it is planned for a future release. Transparent proxies require
1081 special handling of the request headers beyond what
1082 <application>Privoxy</application> is now capable of.
1086 Chaining <application>Privoxy</application> behind another proxy that has
1087 this ability should work though.
1089 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1090 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink>. As
1091 a transparent proxy to be used for chaining we recommend Transproxy
1092 (<ulink url="http://www.transproxy.nlc.net.au/">http://www.transproxy.nlc.net.au/</ulink>).
1099 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1102 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1104 <sect1 id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
1106 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1107 <title id="slowsme">How much does <application>Privoxy</application> slow my browsing down? This
1108 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
1110 It should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
1111 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not being displayed.
1112 The actual processing time required by <application>Privoxy</application>
1113 itself for each page, is relatively small in the overall scheme of things,
1114 and happens very quickly. This is typically more than offset by time saved
1115 not downloading and rendering ad images.
1119 <quote>Filtering</quote> content via the <literal><ulink
1120 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> or
1122 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1123 actions may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document needs to be buffered
1124 before displaying. See below.
1130 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I noticed considerable
1131 delays in page requests compared to the old Junkbuster. What's wrong?</title>
1133 If you use any <literal><ulink
1134 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> action,
1135 such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <literal><ulink
1136 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1137 action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
1138 mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time.
1141 The loading time does not really change in real numbers, but the feeling is
1142 different, because most browsers are able to start rendering incomplete
1143 content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is especially
1144 noticeable on slow dialup connections.
1147 Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types.
1153 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
1154 "http://p.p/"?</title>
1156 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> is the
1157 address of <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in user interface, and
1158 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> is a shortcut for it.
1161 Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet,
1162 it can simply intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in
1163 <quote>web server</quote>.
1166 This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
1167 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1168 takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote>, everything is OK.
1169 If you get a page saying <quote>Privoxy is not working</quote> instead, then
1170 your browser didn't use <application>Privoxy</application> for the request,
1171 hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <emphasis>real</emphasis>
1172 web site at config.privoxy.org.
1175 With recent versions of <application>Privoxy</application> (version 2.9.x and
1176 later), the user interface features information on the run time status, the
1177 configuration, and even a built-in editor for the <ulink
1178 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>.
1182 Note that the built-in URLs from earlier versions of <application>Junkbuster</application>
1183 / <application>Privoxy</application>, http://example.com/show-proxy-args and http://i.j.b/,
1184 are no longer supported. If you still use such an old version, you should really consider
1185 upgrading to &p-version;.
1190 FIXME: commented out until we have data. HB 03/18/02.
1192 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="badfiledesc"><title>I get the message 'Bad File Descriptor', why?</title>
1200 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
1202 No. The patterns for blocking now reside (among other things) in the <ulink
1203 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>, which are
1204 actively maintained instead. See next question ...
1208 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads?</title>
1210 Yes, absolutely! Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> for
1211 how to do that. Please note that you (technically) need the latest
1212 <application>Privoxy</application> version for this to work.
1217 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
1219 If you run both the browser and the proxy locally, you cannot hide your IP
1220 address with <application>Privoxy</application> or any other software. The
1221 server needs to know your IP address to send the answers back to you.
1224 Fortunately there are many publicly usable anonymous proxies out there, which
1225 solve the problem by providing a further level of indirection between you and
1226 the web server, shared by many people, and thus letting your requests "drown"
1227 in white noise of unrelated requests as far as user tracking is concerned.
1230 Most of them will, however, log your IP address and make it available to the
1231 authorities in case you abuse that anonymity for criminal purposes. In fact
1232 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
1233 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
1236 You can find a list of anonymous public proxies at <ulink
1237 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">multiproxy.org</ulink> and many
1238 more through Google. A particularly interesting project is the JAP service
1239 offered by the Technical University of Dresden (<ulink
1240 url="http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html">http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html</ulink>.
1243 There is, however, even in the single-machine case the possibility to make the
1244 server believe that your machine is in fact a shared proxy serving a whole big
1245 LAN, and we are looking into that.
1249 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1250 <title id="anonforsure">Can <application>Privoxy</application> guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
1252 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
1253 are an expert on Internet security it would be safest to assume that
1254 everything you do on the Web can be traced back to you.
1257 <application>Privoxy</application> can remove various information about you,
1258 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
1259 you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it's still possible
1260 that web sites can find out who you are. Here's one way this can happen.
1263 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
1264 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Privoxy</application>
1265 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
1266 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
1267 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
1270 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
1271 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
1272 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
1273 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
1274 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
1280 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1281 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information or
1282 content is being altered?</title>
1285 Definitely. More and more sites use HTTP header content to decide what to
1286 display and how to display it. There is many ways that this can be handled,
1287 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
1291 <quote>User-Agent</quote> in particular is often used in this way to identify
1292 the browser, and adjust content accordingly. Changing this now (at least not
1293 further than removing the OS information) is not recommended, since so many
1294 sites do look for it. You may get undesirable results by changing this.
1298 For instance, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
1299 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
1300 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
1301 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
1302 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
1303 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
1304 <quote>Referer</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
1305 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
1306 <quote>Referer</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
1307 can forge both headers without giving information away). There are
1308 many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server.
1312 Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree,
1317 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
1318 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
1319 be required, but by no means the only one.
1325 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1326 <title id="caching">Can <application>Privoxy</application> act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
1327 speed up web browsing?</title>
1329 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
1330 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> for this. And, yes,
1331 before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
1332 with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
1333 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding
1334 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
1335 manual</ulink> for details.
1339 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1340 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can <application>Privoxy</application> protect me?</title>
1342 Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can.
1343 <application>Privoxy</application> can help protect your privacy, but not
1344 protect you from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
1345 and recommended to use <emphasis>both</emphasis>.
1349 <!-- No longer needed
1350 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1351 <title id="logo">The <application>Privoxy</application> logo that replaces ads is very blocky
1352 and ugly looking. Can't a better font be used?</title>
1355 This is not a font problem. The logo is an image that is created by
1356 <application>Privoxy</application> on the fly. So as to not waste
1357 memory, the image is rather small. The blockiness comes when the
1358 image is scaled to fill a largish area. There is not much to be done
1359 about this, other than to use one of the other
1360 <quote>imageblock</quote> directives: <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>,
1361 <emphasis>blank</emphasis>, or a URL of your choosing.
1364 Given the above problem, we have decided to remove the logo option entirely
1370 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1371 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
1372 ads used to be. Why?</title>
1374 It would be technically possible eliminate the banners in a way that frees
1375 their screen estate in many cases, by doing all banner blocking with filters,
1376 i.e. eliminating the whole image references from the HTML pages instead
1377 of letting them stay in, and blocking the resulting requests for the
1381 But this would consume considerable CPU resources, would likely destroy
1382 the layout of many web pages which rely on the banners consuming a certain
1383 amount of screen space, and would fail in other cases, where the screen space
1384 is reserved e.g. by tables anyway. Also, making the banners disappear without
1385 a visual trace complicates troubleshooting.
1388 So we won't support this in the default configuration, but you can of course
1389 define appropriate filters yourself.
1393 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1394 <title id="ssl">How can <application>Privoxy</application> filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1396 Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
1397 and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably <emphasis>secure</emphasis>,
1398 there is little that <application>Privoxy</application> can do but hand the raw
1399 gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed.
1402 The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs
1403 to tell <application>Privoxy</application> the name of the remote server,
1404 so that <application>Privoxy</application> can establish the connection.
1405 If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.
1408 As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
1409 seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often
1410 the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless
1411 for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
1412 <application>Privoxy</application>'s ad blocking.
1415 <quote>Content cookies</quote> (those that are embedded in the actual HTML or
1416 JS page content, see <literal><ulink
1417 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</ulink></literal>),
1418 in an SSL transaction will be impossible to block under these conditions.
1419 Fortunately, this does not seem to be a very common scenario since most
1420 cookies come by traditional means.
1425 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1426 <title id="secure"><application>Privoxy</application> runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1427 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1429 There are no known exploits that might affect
1430 <application>Privoxy</application>. On Unix-like systems,
1431 <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
1432 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1433 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens to requests
1434 from <quote>localhost</quote> only. The server aspect of
1435 <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly exposed to the
1436 Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1437 <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1438 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1439 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
1440 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration file and check all <ulink
1441 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security
1442 options</ulink>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address
1443 in the browser proxy configuration, but <application>Privoxy</application>
1444 will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in addition,
1445 and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
1450 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
1451 <title>How can I temporarily disable <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
1453 The easiest way is to access <application>Privoxy</application> with your
1454 browser by using the remote toggle URL: <ulink
1455 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>.
1456 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS">Bookmarklets section</ulink>
1457 of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> for an easy way to access this
1462 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="reallyoff">
1463 <title>When <quote>disabled</quote> is <application>Privoxy</application> totally
1464 out of the picture?</title>
1466 No, this just means all filtering and actions are disabled.
1467 <application>Privoxy</application> is still acting as a proxy, but just not
1468 doing any of the things that <application>Privoxy</application> would
1469 normally be expected to do. It is still a <quote>middle-man</quote> in
1470 the interaction between your browser and web sites.
1474 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="crunch">
1475 <title>My logs show <application>Privoxy</application> <quote>crunches</quote>
1476 ads, but also its own CGI pages. What is a <quote>crunch</quote>?</title>
1478 A <quote>crunch</quote> simply means <application>Privoxy</application> intercepted
1479 <emphasis>something</emphasis>, nothing more. Often this is indeed ads or
1480 banners, but <application>Privoxy</application> uses the same mechanism for
1481 trapping requests for its own internal pages. For instance, a request for
1482 <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration page at: <ulink
1483 url="http://config.privoxy.org">http://config.privoxy.org</ulink>, is
1484 intercepted (i.e. it does not go out to the 'net), and the familiar CGI
1485 configuration is returned to the browser, and the log consequently will show
1486 a <quote>crunch</quote>.
1490 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads">
1491 <title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> effect files that I download
1492 from a webserver? FTP server?</title>
1494 From the webserver's perspective, there is no difference between
1495 viewing a document (i.e. a page), and downloading a file. The same is true of
1496 <application>Privoxy</application>. If there is a match for a <literal><ulink
1497 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> pattern,
1498 it will still be blocked, and of course this is obvious. Filtering is
1499 potentially more of a concern since the results are not always so obvious.
1502 <application>Privoxy</application> knows the differences in files according
1503 to the <quote>Document Type</quote> as reported by the webserver. If this is
1504 reported accurately (e.g. <quote>application/zip</quote> for a zip archive),
1505 then <application>Privoxy</application> knows to ignore these where
1506 appropriate. It is possible, however, that documents that are of an unknown
1507 type (generally assumed to be <quote>text/plain</quote>) will be filtered, as
1508 will those that might be incorrectly reported by the webserver. If such a
1509 file is a downloaded file that is intended to be saved to disk, then any
1510 content that might have been altered by filtering, will be saved too, for
1511 these (probably very rare) cases.
1514 <application>Privoxy</application> does not do FTP at all, only HTTP
1520 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
1521 <title>Where can I find more information about <application>Privoxy</application>
1522 and related issues?</title>
1523 <!-- Include seealso.sgml boilerplate: -->
1525 <!-- end boilerplate -->
1530 <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
1536 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="microsuck">
1537 <title>I've noticed that Privoxy changes <quote>Microsoft</quote> to
1538 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>! Why are you manipulating my browsing?</title>
1541 We're not. The text substitutions that you are seeing are disabled
1542 in the default configuration as shipped. You have either manually
1543 activated the <quote><literal>fun</literal></quote> filter which
1544 is clearly labeled <quote>Text replacements for subversive browsing
1545 fun!</quote> or you have implicitly activated it by choosing the
1546 <quote>Advanced</quote> profile in the web-based editor.
1553 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1555 <sect1 id="trouble">
1556 <title>Troubleshooting</title>
1558 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1559 <title id="refused">I just upgraded and am getting <quote>connection refused</quote>
1560 with every web page?</title>
1562 Either <application>Privoxy</application> is not running, or your
1563 browser is configured for a different port than what
1564 <application>Privoxy</application> is using.
1568 The old <application>Privoxy</application> (and also
1569 <application>Junkbuster</application>) used port 8000 by
1570 default. This has been changed to port 8118 now, due to a conflict
1571 with NAS (Network Audio Service), which uses port 8000. If you haven't,
1572 you need to change your browser to the new port number, or alternately
1574 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS"><literal>listen-address</literal>
1575 option</ulink> in <application>Privoxy's</application> <ulink
1576 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
1581 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1582 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
1583 still getting through. How?</title>
1585 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
1586 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
1587 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Privoxy</application>
1588 will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flushing the browser's
1589 caches. And then try again.
1593 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
1594 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
1595 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
1596 and see if it really matches your new rule.
1601 <sect2 id="badsite" renderas="sect3">
1602 <title >One of my favorite sites does not work with <application>Privoxy</application>.
1603 What can I do?</title>
1606 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
1607 by toggling off <application>Privoxy</application> through <ulink
1608 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>,
1609 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
1610 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
1615 If still a problem, go to <ulink
1616 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
1617 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions
1618 are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions files are
1619 responsible for that. Now, armed with this information, go to <ulink
1620 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1621 and select the appropriate actions files for editing.
1624 You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
1625 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
1626 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
1627 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
1628 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
1629 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
1630 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
1633 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
1634 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
1635 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
1636 site to a <literal>{ fragile }</literal> section in <filename>user.action</filename>,
1637 which is an alias that turns off most <quote>dangerous</quote>
1638 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
1639 your privacy and protection more than necessary,
1642 Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <ulink
1643 url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">user-manual appendix</ulink>.
1644 There is also an <ulink
1645 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions tutorial</ulink>.
1651 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1652 <sect2 id="dun" renderas="sect3">
1653 <title>After installing <application>Privoxy</application>, I have to log in
1654 every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
1657 This is a quirk that effects the installation of
1658 <application>Privoxy</application>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
1659 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
1660 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.
1664 When setting up an NT based Windows system with
1665 <application>Privoxy</application> you may find that things do not seem to be
1666 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
1667 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
1668 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
1669 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
1670 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
1671 configured for the kids.
1675 When setting up <application>Privoxy</application> in this environment you
1676 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
1677 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
1678 <application>Privoxy</application>. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
1679 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
1680 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
1681 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
1682 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
1683 you have to store the password under each different user!
1687 The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
1688 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
1689 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
1690 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
1691 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
1692 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.
1696 [Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
1701 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1702 <sect2 id="ftp" renderas="sect3">
1703 <title>I cannot connect to any FTP sites. <application>Privoxy</application>
1704 seems to be blocking me.</title>
1706 <application>Privoxy</application> cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
1707 so do not configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
1708 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for any protocol other than HTTP or HTTPS.
1711 Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
1712 a URL like <literal>ftp://ftp.example.com</literal>, your browser is making
1713 an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
1714 speak FTP, <application>Privoxy</application> does not, and cannot proxy
1719 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1720 <sect2 id="osxie" renderas="sect3">
1721 <title>In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
1722 <application>Privoxy</application> as the HTTP proxy.</title>
1724 Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
1725 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
1726 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
1727 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
1728 is checked and enter <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> in the entry field.
1729 Enter <literal>8118</literal> in the Port field. The next time you start
1730 IE, it should reflect these values.
1734 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1735 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="osxuninstall">
1736 <title>In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
1737 uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
1738 empty the trash.</title>
1740 Just dragging the <application>Privoxy</application> folder to the trash is
1741 not enough to delete it. <application>Privoxy</application> supplies an
1742 <application>uninstall.command</application> file that takes care of
1743 these details. Open the trash, drag the <application>uninstall.command</application>
1744 file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
1745 confirmation and the administration password.
1748 The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
1749 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
1754 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1755 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blankpage">
1756 <title>I get a completely blank page at one site. <quote>View Source</quote>
1757 shows only: <markup><![CDATA[<html><body></body></html>]]></markup>. Without
1758 <application>Privoxy</application> the page loads fine.</title>
1760 Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
1761 <ulink url="http://www.php.net/"><application>PHP</application></ulink>,
1762 which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
1763 an uncompressed page, like <application>Privoxy</application> does.
1764 This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
1767 To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
1768 the site to a <literal>-prevent-compression</literal> section in
1769 <filename>user.action</filename>:
1772 # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
1774 {-prevent-compression}
1775 .example.com</screen>
1777 If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
1778 site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
1779 instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
1780 or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
1790 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1792 FIXME: Commented out until we have something to put here. HB 03/18/02.
1793 <sect1 id="knownissues"><title>Known Issues</title>
1800 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1801 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
1802 <!-- Include contacting.sgml -->
1804 <!-- end contacting -->
1807 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1808 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
1810 <!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
1815 Portions of this document are <quote>borrowed</quote> from the original
1816 <application>Junkbuster</application> (tm) FAQ, and modified as
1817 appropriate for <application>Privoxy</application>.
1820 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1821 <sect2><title>License</title>
1822 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
1824 <!-- end copyright -->
1826 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1828 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1829 <sect2><title>History</title>
1830 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
1836 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1839 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1841 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
1843 <!-- Include seealso.sgml -->
1854 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
1856 Last modified: Mon Sep 10 19:22:09 CEST 2001
1858 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1859 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
1860 Public License as published by the Free Software
1861 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
1862 your option) any later version.
1864 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
1865 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
1866 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
1867 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
1868 License for more details.
1870 The GNU General Public License should be included with
1871 this file. If not, you can view it at
1872 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
1873 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
1874 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
1877 Revision 2.5 2002/09/26 05:57:14 hal9
1878 Conditionally exclude 'this doc is evolving' comment in intro for non release
1881 Revision 2.4 2002/09/26 00:14:42 hal9
1882 Small additions for content-cookies/SSL, LAN configuration, and FTP (non)
1885 Revision 2.3 2002/09/13 11:50:55 oes
1886 Added MicroSuck topic; Updated PHP bug topic
1888 Revision 2.2 2002/09/05 04:25:05 hal9
1889 Sync with 3.0 branch. No new content.
1891 Revision 1.61.2.19 2002/08/25 23:31:56 hal9
1892 Fix one grammatical error. Add brief FAQ relating to tranparent proxies (ie
1893 port 80 setting). Add FAQ on effects of Privoxy on downloaded files
1894 (especially filtering).
1896 Revision 1.61.2.18 2002/08/14 16:39:37 hal9
1897 Fix wrong tag on FAQ addition.
1899 Revision 1.61.2.17 2002/08/14 00:01:18 hal9
1902 Revision 1.61.2.16 2002/08/13 00:10:38 hal9
1903 Add faq to troubleshooting re: blank page syndrome, ie {-prevent-compression}.
1905 Revision 1.61.2.15 2002/08/10 11:34:22 oes
1906 Add disclaimer about probably being out-of-date
1908 Revision 1.61.2.14 2002/08/07 02:53:43 hal9
1909 Fix some minor markup errors, and move one OSX Q/A to troubleshooting section.
1911 Revision 1.61.2.13 2002/08/06 11:55:32 oes
1912 Added missing close tag
1914 Revision 1.61.2.12 2002/08/06 11:43:46 david__schmidt
1915 Updated OSX uninstall FAQ... we have an uninstall script now.
1917 Revision 1.61.2.11 2002/08/06 08:54:03 oes
1918 Style police: Fixed formatting details
1920 Revision 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 david__schmidt
1921 Made the OSX removal commands far less dangerous
1923 Revision 1.61.2.9 2002/08/02 13:14:45 oes
1924 Added warning about sudo rm -r for Mac OSX deinstallation; moved this item to install section
1926 Revision 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt
1927 Add FAQ item for MSIE on OSX HTTP proxy confusion
1929 Revision 1.61.2.7 2002/08/02 01:46:01 david__schmidt
1930 Added FAQ item for Mac OSX uninstall woes
1932 Revision 1.61.2.6 2002/07/30 20:04:56 hal9
1933 Fix typo: 'schould'.
1935 Revision 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes
1936 - Updated to reflect changes in standard.action
1937 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
1939 Revision 1.61.2.4 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
1940 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
1942 Revision 1.61.2.3 2002/06/09 16:36:33 hal9
1943 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
1945 Revision 1.61.2.2 2002/06/06 02:51:34 hal9
1946 Fix typo in URL http:/config.privoxy.org
1948 Revision 1.61.2.1 2002/06/05 23:10:43 hal9
1949 Add new FAQ re: DUN/IE. Change release date from May to June :)
1951 Revision 1.61 2002/05/25 12:37:25 hal9
1952 Various minor changes and edits.
1954 Revision 1.60 2002/05/22 17:17:48 oes
1955 Proofread & added more links into u-m
1957 Revision 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9
1958 Fix ulink -> link markup.
1960 Revision 1.58 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
1961 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
1962 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
1963 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
1965 Revision 1.57 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
1966 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
1968 Revision 1.56 2002/05/04 08:44:44 swa
1971 Revision 1.55 2002/05/04 00:41:56 hal9
1972 -Remove TOC/first page kludge in favor of proper handling via dsl file.
1974 Revision 1.54 2002/05/03 05:06:44 hal9
1975 Add brief Q/A on transparent proxies.
1977 Revision 1.53 2002/05/03 01:34:52 hal9
1978 Fix section numbering for new sections (due to TOC kludge).
1980 Revision 1.52 2002/04/29 03:08:43 hal9
1981 -Added new Q/A on new actions file set up (pointer to u-m)
1982 -Fixed a few broken links and converted old actions as a result of
1985 Revision 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa
1986 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
1988 Revision 1.50 2002/04/26 05:25:23 hal9
1989 Mass commit to catch a few scattered fixes.
1991 Revision 1.49 2002/04/12 10:10:18 swa
1994 Revision 1.48 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
1997 Revision 1.47 2002/04/10 04:05:32 hal9
2000 Revision 1.45 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
2001 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
2003 Revision 1.44 2002/04/07 21:24:29 hal9
2004 Touch up on name change.
2006 Revision 1.43 2002/04/04 21:59:53 hal9
2007 Added NT/W2K service/icon situation.
2009 Revision 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
2010 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
2012 Revision 1.41 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
2013 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
2014 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
2015 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
2016 eventually be set by Makefile.
2017 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
2019 Revision 1.40 2002/04/03 04:22:03 hal9
2020 Fixed several typos.
2022 Revision 1.39 2002/04/03 03:53:03 hal9
2023 Revert some changes, and then make some news, to layout, and appearance.
2025 Revision 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9
2026 Major changes to doc structure and layout. Sections are not automatically
2027 numbered now. TOC is on page by itself.
2029 Revision 1.37 2002/04/01 16:24:07 hal9
2030 -Rework of supported Q/A.
2031 -Set up entities to include boilerplate text.
2033 Revision 1.36 2002/03/31 23:18:47 hal9
2034 More on dealing with BLOCKED.
2036 Revision 1.35 2002/03/30 04:14:19 hal9
2037 Fix privoxy.org/config links.
2039 Revision 1.34 2002/03/29 04:35:56 hal9
2042 Revision 1.33 2002/03/29 01:31:48 hal9
2043 Several new Q/A's and other touch ups.
2045 Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
2046 Touch ups for name change.
2048 Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
2049 we have a new homepage!
2051 Revision 1.30 2002/03/25 16:39:22 hal9
2052 A few new sections. Made all links relative to user-manual.
2054 Revision 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9
2055 Moved section, and touch ups.
2057 Revision 1.28 2002/03/25 04:27:33 hal9
2058 New section related to name change.
2060 Revision 1.25 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
2061 we are too lazy to make a block-built
2062 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
2064 Revision 1.24 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
2065 name change related issue.
2067 Revision 1.23 2002/03/24 12:33:01 swa
2070 Revision 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
2071 name change. changed filenames.
2073 Revision 1.21 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
2076 Revision 1.20 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
2077 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
2078 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
2079 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
2080 comments and remarks to history untouched.
2082 Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
2085 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
2088 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
2091 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
2092 A few more additions.
2094 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
2095 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
2097 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
2098 A little more added ...
2100 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
2101 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
2103 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
2106 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
2109 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
2110 correct feedback channels
2112 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
2113 more info on not hiding ip address
2115 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
2116 added default config section
2118 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
2121 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
2122 Committing changes by Stefan
2124 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
2125 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
2127 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
2128 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
2129 will work - no other changes are needed.
2131 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
2132 upload process established. run make webserver and
2133 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
2134 are now linked correctly.
2136 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
2137 merged standards into developer manual
2139 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
2140 source files for junkbuster documentation
2142 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
2143 first proposal of a structure.
2145 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
2146 docs should have an author.
2148 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
2149 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.