1 Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions
5 $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.27 2002/03/25 03:42:23 hal9 Exp $
7 The FAQ document gives users and developers alike answers to frequently asked
8 questions about Privoxy. Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering
9 capabilities for protecting privacy, filtering web page content, managing
10 cookies, controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other
11 obnoxious Internet Junk. Privoxy has a very flexible configuration and can be
12 customized to suit individual needs and tastes. Privoxy has application for
13 both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.
15 You can find the latest version of the document at http://
16 ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/. Please see the Contact section in the user-manual
17 if you want to contact the developers.
19 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22 1. Frequently Asked Questions
24 1.1. General Information
26 1.1.1. What is this new version of Privoxy?
27 1.1.2. How does it differ from the old Junkbuster?
28 1.1.3. What are some of the new features?
29 1.1.4. What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
30 1.1.5. My browser does the same things as Privoxy. Why should I use
32 1.1.6. Is there is a license or fee? What about a warranty?
34 1.1.7. I would like to help you, what do I do?
38 1.2.1. Can I install the new Privoxy over the old one?
39 1.2.2. I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything special I have to do
41 1.2.3. What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
42 1.2.4. I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening. All the ads
43 are there. What's wrong?
47 1.3.1. Can I use my old config files?
48 1.3.2. What is an "actions" file?
49 1.3.3. The "actions"concept confuses me. Please list some of these
51 1.3.4. How are actions files configured? What is the easiest way to do
53 1.3.5. What are the differences between intermediate.action,
55 1.3.6. Why can I change the configuration with a browser? Does that not
56 raise security issues?
57 1.3.7. How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN?
58 1.3.8. Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want
60 1.3.9. Why would anybody want to see the checkerboard?
61 1.3.10. I see large red banners on some pages that say "Blocked". How
66 1.4.1. How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This has to add
67 extra time to browsing.
68 1.4.2. I noticed considerable delays in page requests compared to the
69 old Junkbuster. What's wrong?
70 1.4.3. What is the "http://p.p/"?
71 1.4.4. Do you still maintain the blocklists?
72 1.4.5. How can I submit new ads?
73 1.4.6. How can I hide my IP address?
74 1.4.7. Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?
75 1.4.8. Might some things break because header information is being
77 1.4.9. Can Privoxy act as a "caching" proxy to speed up web browsing?
78 1.4.10. What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?
79 1.4.11. The Privoxy logo that replaces ads is very blocky and ugly
80 looking. Can't a better font be used?
81 1.4.12. I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be. Why does
82 Privoxy leave these large gaps?
83 1.4.13. How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?
84 1.4.14. Privoxy runs as a "server". How secure is it? Do I need to take
85 any special precautions?
86 1.4.15. What is a "default.filter"?
90 1.5.1. I just upgraded and am getting "connection refused" with every
92 1.5.2. I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is still getting
94 1.5.3. One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy. What can I
96 1.5.4. What time is it?
98 2. Contact the developers
99 3. Copyright and History
102 1. Frequently Asked Questions
104 1.1. General Information
106 1.1.1. What is this new version of Privoxy?
108 The original Internet Junkbuster (tm) is a copyrighted product of Junkbusters
109 Corporation. Development of this effort stopped some time ago as of version
110 2.0.2. Stefan Waldherr started the ijbswa project on Sourceforge to rekindle
111 development. Other developers subsequently joined with Stefan, and have since
112 added many new features, refinements and enhancements.
114 The new Privoxy started with the same code base, but has changed significantly
117 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
119 1.1.2. How does it differ from the old Junkbuster?
121 All the old features remain. The new Privoxy still blocks ads and banners,
122 still manages cookies, and still helps protect your privacy. But, these are all
123 enhanced, and many new features have been added, all in the same vein.
125 The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
126 users will notice right off the bat. The "blocklist" file does not exist any
127 more. This is replaced by "actions" files, such as default.actions. This is
128 where most of the per site configuration is now.
130 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
132 1.1.3. What are some of the new features?
134 * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility (http://p.p).
135 Browser-based tracing of rule and filter effects.
137 * Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
139 * HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 1.1 features are supported).
141 * Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files,
142 and generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
147 * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size, invisible
148 "web-bugs", JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse, etc.)
150 * Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
152 * Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
154 * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
156 * User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
158 * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
160 * Builds from source on most UNIX-like systems. Packages available for: Linux
161 (RedHat, SuSE, or Debian), Windows, Sun Solaris, Mac OSX, OS/2, HP-UX 11
164 * In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile
167 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
169 1.1.4. What is a "proxy"? How does Privoxy work?
171 When you connect to a web site with Privoxy, you are really connecting to your
172 locally running version of Privoxy. Privoxy intercepts your requests for the
173 web page, and relays that to the "real" web site. The web site sends the HTTP
174 data stream back to Privoxy, where Privoxy can work its magic before it relays
175 this data back to your web browser.
177 Since Privoxy sits between you and the WWW, it is in a position to intercept
178 and completely manage all web traffic and HTTP content before it gets to your
179 browser. Privoxy uses various programming methods to do this, all of which is
180 under your control via the various configuration files and options.
182 There are many kinds of proxies. Privoxy best fits the "filtering proxy"
185 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
187 1.1.5. My browser does the same things as Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy at
190 Modern browsers do indeed have some of the same functionality as Privoxy. Maybe
191 this is adequate for you. But Privoxy is much more versatile and powerful, and
192 can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
194 In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or have a LAN
195 with multiple computers. This way all the configuration is in one place, and
196 you don't have to maintain a similar configuration for possibly many browsers.
198 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
200 1.1.6. Is there is a license or fee? What about a warranty? Registration?
202 Privoxy is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It is free to
203 use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this license.
204 See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html for specifics.
206 There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise. That is
207 something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
208 Privoxy really is free in every respect!
210 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
212 1.1.7. I would like to help you, what do I do?
214 1.1.7.1. Money Money Money
216 We, of course, welcome donations and use the money for domain registering,
217 regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). Anyway, we'll soon describe the
218 process how to donate money to the team.
220 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
222 1.1.7.2. You want to work with us?
224 Well, helping the team is always a good idea. We welcome new developers, RPM
225 gurus or documentation makers. Simply get an account on sourceforge.net and
226 mail your id to the developer mailing list. Then read the section Quickstart in
227 the developers manual.
229 Once we have added you to the team, you'll have write access to the CVS
230 repository, and together we'll find a suitable task for you.
232 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
236 1.2.1. Can I install the new Privoxy over the old one?
238 We recommend you uninstall the old Junkbuster first to minimize conflicts and
239 confusion. You may want to save your old configuration files for future
240 reference. The configuration is substantially changed.
242 See the user-manual for platform specific installation instructions. [FIXME:
243 This is meant for after the name change for 3.0!]
245 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
247 1.2.2. I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything special I have to do now?
249 All browsers must be told to use Privoxy as a proxy by specifying the correct
250 proxy address and port number in the appropriate configuration area for the
253 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
255 1.2.3. What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
257 If you set up the Privoxy to run on the computer you browse from (rather than
258 your ISP's server or some networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on
259 "localhost" (which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet
260 to refer to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have Privoxy to run
261 on a different port with the listen-address config option).
263 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter the word
264 "localhost" in the boxes next to "HTTP" and "Secure" (HTTPS) and then the
265 number "8118" for "port". This tells your browser to send all web requests to
266 Privoxy instead of directly to the Internet.
268 Privoxy can also be used to proxy for a Local Area Network. In this case, your
269 would enter either the IP address of the LAN host where Privoxy is running, or
270 the equivalent hostname. Port assignment would be same as above.
272 Privoxy does not currently handle protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, or
273 other Internet protocols.
275 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
277 1.2.4. I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening. All the ads are
280 Did you configure your browser to use Privoxy as a proxy? It does not sound
281 like it. See above. You might also try flushing the browser's caches to force a
282 full re-reading of pages. You can verify that Privoxy is running, and your
283 browser is correctly configured by entering the special URL: http://p.p/. This
284 should give you a banner that says "This is Privoxy" and access to Privoxy's
285 internal configuration. If you see this, then you are good to go. If not, the
286 browser or Privoxy are not set up correctly.
288 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
292 1.3.1. Can I use my old config files?
294 There are major changes to Junkbuster configuration from version 2.0.x to 2.9.x
295 and later. The older files will not work at all. If this is the case, you will
296 need to re-enter your old data into the new configuration structure. This is
297 probably also a good recommendation even if upgrading from 2.9.x to 3.x since
298 there were many minor changes along the way.
300 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
302 1.3.2. What is an "actions" file?
304 "actions" files are where various actions that Privoxy might take, are
305 configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions that apply to
306 all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults.
308 Actions can be defined on a per site basis, or for groups of sites. Actions can
309 also be grouped together and then applied to one or more sites. There are many
310 possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example, if we are
311 blocking cookies as one of our default actions, but need to accept cookies from
312 a given site, we would define this in our "actions" file.
314 Privoxy comes with several default actions files, with varying degrees of
315 filtering and blocking, as starting points for your own configuration (see
318 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
320 1.3.3. The "actions"concept confuses me. Please list some of these "actions".
322 These are all explained in the user-manual. Please refer to that.
324 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
326 1.3.4. How are actions files configured? What is the easiest way to do this?
328 The easiest way to do this, is to access Privoxy with your web browser at http:
329 //p.p/, and then select "Edit the actions list" from the selection list. You
330 can also do this by editing the appropriate file with a text editor.
332 Please see the user-manual for a detailed explanation of these and other
333 configuration files, and their various options and syntax.
335 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
337 1.3.5. What are the differences between intermediate.action, basic.action,
340 Configuring Privoxy is not easy. To help you get started, we provide you with
341 three different default configurations. The following table shows you, which
342 features are enabled in each configuration.
344 Table 1. Default Configurations
346 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
347 |Feature |default.action|basic.action |intermediate.action|advanced.action|
348 |--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
349 |ad-filtering |? |x |x |x |
350 |--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
351 |blank image |? |x |x |x |
352 |--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
353 |de-animate GIFs |? |x |x |x |
354 |--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
355 |referer forging |? |x |x |x |
356 |--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
358 |+no-cookies-keep | | | | |
359 |(i.e. session | | | | |
360 |cookies only) | | | | |
361 |--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
362 |no-popup windows |? | |x |x |
363 |--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
364 |fast redirects |? | |x |x |
365 |--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
366 |hide-referrer |? | |x |x |
367 |--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
368 |hide-useragent |? | |x |x |
369 |--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
370 |content-modification|? | | |x |
371 |--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
372 |feature-x |? | | | |
373 |--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
374 |feature-y |? | | | |
375 |--------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------------+---------------|
376 |feature-z |? | | | |
377 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
379 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
381 1.3.6. Why can I change the configuration with a browser? Does that not raise
384 What I don't understand, is how I can browser edit the config file as a regular
385 user, while the whole /etc/privoxy hierarchy belongs to the user "privoxy",
388 When you use the browser-based editor, Privoxy itself is writing to the config
389 files. Because Privoxy is running as the user "privoxy", it can update the
392 If you don't like this, setting "enable-edit-actions 0" in the config file will
393 disable the browser-based editor. If you're that paranoid, you should also
394 consider setting "enable-remote-toggle 0" to prevent browser-based enabling/
395 disabling of Privoxy.
397 Note that normally only local users can connect to Privoxy, so this is not
398 (normally) a security problem.
400 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
402 1.3.7. How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN?
404 By default, Privoxy only responds to requests from localhost. To have it act as
405 a server for a network, this needs to be changed in the main config file where
406 the Privoxy configuration is located. In that file is a "listen-address"
407 option. It may be commented out with a "#" symbol. Make sure it is uncommented,
408 and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface, and port number to use:
410 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118
413 Save the file, and restart Privoxy. Configure all browsers on the network then
414 to use this address and port number.
416 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
418 1.3.8. Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see
421 This is a configuration option for images that Privoxy is stopping. You have
422 the choice a checkerboard pattern (this scales better), a transparent 1x1 GIF
423 image, or a custom URL or your choice.
425 If you want to see nothing, then change the "+image-blocker" action to
426 "+image-blocker{blank}". This can be done from the "Edit Actions List"
427 selection at http://p.p/. Or by hand editing the appropriate actions file. This
428 will only effect what is defined as "images" though.
430 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
432 1.3.9. Why would anybody want to see the checkerboard?
434 This can be helpful for troubleshooting problems. It might also be good for
435 anyone new to Privoxy so that they can see if their favorite pages are
436 displaying correctly, and Privoxy is not inadvertently removing something
439 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
441 1.3.10. I see large red banners on some pages that say "Blocked". How do I get
444 These are URLs that match something in one of Privoxy's block actions (+block).
445 It is meant to be a warning so that you know something has been blocked and an
446 easy way for you to see why. These are handled differently than what has been
447 defined as "images" (e.g. ad banners). If you want them to be treated as if
448 they were images, so that they can be invisible, then move the offending URL
449 from the "+block" section to the "+imageblock" section of your actions file.
450 Alternately, you could modify the "block" HTML template that is used by Privoxy
451 to display this, and make it something more to your liking.
453 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
457 1.4.1. How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This has to add extra time
460 It should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help speed
461 things up since ads, banners and other junk are not being displayed. The actual
462 processing time required by Privoxy itself for each page, is relatively small
463 in the overall scheme of things, and happens very quickly. This is typically
464 more than offset by time saved not downloading and rendering ad images.
466 "Filtering" via the filterfile mechanism may cause a perceived slowdown, since
467 the entire page is buffered before displaying. See below.
469 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
471 1.4.2. I noticed considerable delays in page requests compared to the old
472 Junkbuster. What's wrong?
474 Using the default filtering configuration, I noticed considerable delays in
475 page requests compared to the old Junkbuster. Loading pages with large contents
476 seemed to take forever, then suddenly delivering all the content at once.
478 The whole content must be loaded in order to filter, and nothing is is sent to
479 the browser during this time. The loading time does not really change in real
480 numbers, but the feeling is different, because most browsers are able to start
481 rendering incomplete content, giving the user a feeling of "it works".
483 To modify the content of a page (i.e. make frames resize-able again, etc.) and
484 not just replace ads, Privoxy needs to download the entire page first, do its
485 content magic and then send the page to the browser.
487 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
489 1.4.3. What is the "http://p.p/"?
491 Since Privoxy sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can be
492 programmed to handle certain pages specially.
494 With recent versions of Privoxy (version 2.9.x), you can get some information
495 about Privoxy and change some settings by going to http://p.p/ or,
496 equivalently, http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/ (Note that p.p is far
497 easier to type but may not work in some configurations).
499 These pages are *not* forwarded to a server on the Internet - instead they are
500 handled by a special web server which is built in to Privoxy.
502 If you are not running Privoxy, then http://p.p/ will fail, and http://
503 ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/ will return a web page telling you you're not
506 If you have version 2.0.2, then the equivalent is http://example.com/
507 show-proxy-args (but you get far less information, and you should really
508 consider upgrading to 2.9.x).
510 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
512 1.4.4. Do you still maintain the blocklists?
514 No. The format of the blocklists has changed significantly in the versions
515 2.9.x. Once we have released the new version, there will again be blocklists
516 that you can update automatically.
518 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
520 1.4.5. How can I submit new ads?
522 As of now, please discontinue to submit new ad blocking infos. Once we have
523 released the new version, there will again be a form on the website, which you
524 can use to contribute new ads.
526 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
528 1.4.6. How can I hide my IP address?
530 You cannot hide your IP address with Privoxy or any other software, since the
531 server needs to know your IP address to send the answer to you.
533 Fortunately there are many publicly usable anonymous proxies out there, which
534 solve the problem by providing a further level of indirection between you and
535 the web server, shared by many people and thus letting your requests "drown" in
536 white noise of unrelated requests as far as user tracking is concerned.
538 Most of them will, however, log your IP address and make it available to the
539 authorities in case you abuse that anonymity for criminal purposes. In fact you
540 can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information on
541 (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
543 You can find a list of anonymous public proxies at multiproxy.org and many more
546 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
548 1.4.7. Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?
550 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
551 are an expert on Internet security it would be safest to assume that everything
552 you do on the Web can be traced back to you.
554 Privoxy can remove various information about you, and allows you more freedom
555 to decide which sites you can trust. But it's still possible that web sites can
556 find out who you are. Here's one way this can happen.
558 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such as
559 when transferring a file by FTP. Privoxy does not filter FTP. If you need this
560 feature, or are concerned about the mail handler of your browser disclosing
561 your email address, you might consider products such as NSClean.
563 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give out
564 any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
565 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
566 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
567 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
570 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
572 1.4.8. Might some things break because header information is being altered?
574 Definitely. More and more sites use HTTP header content to decide what to
575 display and how to display it. There is many ways that this can be handled, so
576 having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
578 "USER AGENT" in particular is often used in this way to identify the browser,
579 and adjust content accordingly. Changing this now is not recommended, since so
580 many sites do look for this. You may get undesirable results by changing this.
582 For instance, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
583 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the User
584 Agent header. Giving a "User Agent" with the wrong operating system or browser
585 manufacturer causes some sites in these languages to be garbled; Surfers to
586 Eastern European sites should change it to something closer. And then some page
587 access counters work by looking at the "REFERER" header; they may fail or break
588 if unavailable. The weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their
589 server when no "REFERER" or cookie is provided, is another example. There are
590 many, many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server.
592 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
593 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may be
594 required, but by no means the only one.
596 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
598 1.4.9. Can Privoxy act as a "caching" proxy to speed up web browsing?
600 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like Squid for
601 this. And, yes, before you ask, Privoxy can co-exist with other kinds of
602 proxies like "Squid".
604 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
606 1.4.10. What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?
608 Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can, or a proxy that has
609 this specific capability. Privoxy can help protect your privacy, but not really
610 protect you from intrusion attempts.
612 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
614 1.4.11. The Privoxy logo that replaces ads is very blocky and ugly looking.
615 Can't a better font be used?
617 This is not a font problem. The logo is an image that is created by Privoxy on
618 the fly. So as to not waste memory, the image is rather small. The blockiness
619 comes when the image is scaled to fill a largish area. There is not much to be
620 done about this, other than to use one of the other "imageblock" directives:
621 pattern, blank, or a URL of your choosing.
623 Given the above problem, we have decided to remove the logo option entirely.
625 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
627 1.4.12. I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be. Why does Privoxy
628 leave these large gaps?
630 It would be easy enough to just eliminate this space altogether, rather than
631 fill it with blank space. But, this would create problems with many pages that
632 use the overall size of the ad to help organize the page layout and position
633 the various components of the page where they were intended to be. It is best
636 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
638 1.4.13. How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?
640 This is a limitation since HTTPS transactions are encrypted SSL sessions
641 between your browser and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably secure
642 and private. This means that all cookies and HTTP header information are also
643 encrypted from the time they leave your browser, to the site, and vice versa.
644 Privoxy does not try to unencrypt this information, so it just passes through
645 as is. Privoxy can still catch images and ads that are embedded in the SSL
648 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
650 1.4.14. Privoxy runs as a "server". How secure is it? Do I need to take any
653 There are no known exploits that might effect Privoxy. On Unix-like systems,
654 Privoxy can run as a non-privileged user, which is how we recommend it be run.
655 Also, by default Privoxy only listens to requests from "localhost". It is not
656 itself directly exposed to the Internet in this configuration. If you want to
657 have Privoxy serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to be opened up to allow for
658 LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend you specify only the LAN gateway
659 address, e.g. 192.168.1.1 in the main Privoxy config file. All LAN hosts can
660 then use this as their proxy address in the browser proxy configuration. In
661 this way, Privoxy will not listen on any external ports. Of course, a firewall
662 is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
664 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
666 1.4.15. What is a "default.filter"?
668 The "default.filter" is used to "filter" any page content. By "filtering" we
669 mean it can modify, remove, or change anything on the page, including HTML
670 tags, and JavaScript. Regular expressions are used to accomplish this. This is
671 potentially a very powerful feature, but requires some expertise.
673 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at the
674 provided default.filter with a text editor and see some of things it can be
677 Presently, there is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration.
679 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
683 1.5.1. I just upgraded and am getting "connection refused" with every web page?
685 Either Privoxy is not running, or your browser is configured for a different
686 port than what Privoxy is using.
688 The old Privoxy (and also Junkbuster) used port 8000 by default. This has been
689 changed to port 8118 now, due to a conflict with NAS (Network Audio Service),
690 which uses port 8000. If you haven't, you need to change your browser to the
691 new port number, or alternately change Privoxy's "listen-address" setting in
692 the config file used to start Privoxy.
694 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
696 1.5.2. I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is still getting through.
699 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be held
700 in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without the need
701 for any request to the server, and Privoxy will not be in the picture. The best
702 thing to do is try flushing the browser's caches. And then try again.
704 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you applied. Try
705 pasting the full URL of the offending ad into http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/
706 config/show-url-info and see if any actions match your new rule.
708 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
710 1.5.3. One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy. What can I do?
712 First verify that it is indeed a Privoxy problem, by disabling Privoxy
713 filtering and blocking. Go to http://p.p/ and click on "Toggle Privoxy On or
714 Off", then disable it. Now try that page again.
716 If still a problem, go to "Show which actions apply to a URL and why" from
717 http://p.p/ and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See
718 which actions are being applied to the URL. Now, armed with this information,
719 go to "Edit the actions list". Here you should see various sections that have
720 various Privoxy features disabled for specific sites. Disabled "actions" will
721 have a "-" (minus sign) in front of them. Add your problem page URL to one of
722 these sections that looks like it is disabling the feature that is causing the
723 problem. Re-try the page. There might be some trial and error involved. This is
724 discussed in a little more detail in the user-manual appendix.
726 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish the
727 same thing by editing the appropriate "actions" file.
729 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
731 1.5.4. What time is it?
735 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
737 2. Contact the developers
739 Please see the user manual for information on how to contact the developers.
741 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
743 3. Copyright and History
745 Please see the user manual for information on Copyright and History.
747 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
751 Please see the user manual for information on references.