<!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
<!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
<!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
-<!entity p-version SYSTEM "doc_version.tmp">
-<!entity p-status SYSTEM "doc_status.tmp">
+<!entity p-version "3.0.3">
+<!entity p-status "stable">
<!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
-<!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
+<!entity % p-stable "INCLUDE">
<!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
<!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
<!entity % p-supp-userman "INCLUDE"> <!-- Include all from supported.sgml -->
This file belongs into
ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
- $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.64 2002/06/09 16:37:31 hal9 Exp $
+ $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.61.2.41 2004/04/05 13:44:05 oes Exp $
- Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
+ Copyright (C) 2001-2004 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
See LICENSE.
Based partially on the Internet Junkbuster FAQ originally written by and
========================================================================
NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
- anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
+ this file!
+
+ Please we keep the info in this file as version independent as possible
+ so we only have to maintain one FAQ. Where significant changes are
+ made to Privoxy configuration, please note the change in such a way that
+ it makes sense to both users of older and newer versions.
========================================================================
<subscript>
<!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
<!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
- <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
+ <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2004 by
<ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
</subscript>
</pubdate>
-<pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.64 2002/06/09 16:37:31 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
+<pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.61.2.41 2004/04/05 13:44:05 oes Exp $</pubdate>
<!--
]]>
<para>
This FAQ gives quick answers to frequently asked questions about
- <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>
- <![%p-stable;[ v.&p-version]]>. It can't and doesn't replace the
+ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
+ It can't and doesn't replace the
<ulink url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
+<!--
+ This works, at least in some situtations:
+ Test: <ulink url="privoxy-user-manual.pdf"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
+-->
</para>
<!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
<!-- end boilerplate -->
<para>
+ Please note that this document is constantly evolving. This copy represents
+ the state at the release of version &p-version;.
You can find the latest version of the document at <ulink
url="http://www.privoxy.org/faq/">http://www.privoxy.org/faq/</ulink>.
Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> if you want to
This does not sound very scientific.</title>
<para>
Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
- rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. There is a good chance
- you may run into such a situation at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
+ rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. You will almost surely
+ run into such situations at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
cover every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
</para>
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3">
+<title id="configornot">Will I have to configure <application>Privoxy</application>
+ before I can use it?</title>
+<para>
+ No, not really. The default installation should give you a good starting
+ point, and block <emphasis>most</emphasis> unwanted content.
+</para>
+<para>
+ But you will certainly run into situations where there are false positives,
+ or ads not being blocked that you may not want to see. In these cases, you
+ would certainly benefit by customizing <application>Privoxy's</application>
+ configuration to more closely match your individual situation. And we would
+ encourage you to do this. This is where the real power of
+ <application>Privoxy</application> lies!
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
<application>Privoxy</application>. Why should I use
<application>Privoxy</application> at all?</title>
&supported;
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="email-client">
+<title>Can I use <application>Privoxy</application> with my email client?</title>
+<para>
+ As long as there is some way to set a HTTP proxy for the client, then yes,
+ any application can be used, whether it is strictly speaking a
+ <quote>browser</quote> or not. Though this may not be the best approach for
+ dealing with some of the common abuses of HTML in email. See <link
+ linkend="outlook">How can I configure <application>Privoxy</application>
+ with <application>Outlook Express</application>?</link> below for more on
+ this.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Be aware that HTML email presents a number of unique security and privacy
+ related issues, that can require advanced skills to overcome. The developers
+ recommend using email clients that can be configured to convert HTML to plain
+ text for these reasons.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
<application>Privoxy</application> over <application>Junkbuster</application>?</title>
<para>
as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. See below.
You should also flush your browser's memory and disk cache to get rid of any
- cached junk items.
+ cached junk items, and remove any stored cookies.
</para>
</para>
<para>
<application>Privoxy</application> does not currently handle
- protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, or other Internet
- protocols.
+ any other protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, etc.
</para>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title
id="nothing">I just installed <application>Privoxy</application>, and nothing is happening.
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nothing">
+<title>I just installed <application>Privoxy</application>, and nothing is happening.
All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
<para>
the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
that <application>Privoxy</application> is running, and your browser
is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
- <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>.
+ <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>.
+ <!-- Use http://p.p/ instead of http://config.privoxy.org/ here because
+ of potential redirect caching problem (see next Q). -->
This should take you to a page titled <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote> with
access to <application>Privoxy's</application> internal configuration.
If you see this, then you are good to go. If you receive a page saying
If you receive anything else (probably nothing at all), it could either
be that the browser is not set up correctly, or that
<application>Privoxy</application> is not running at all. Check the <ulink
- url="../user-manual/config.html#LOGFILE">log file</ulink>.
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#LOGFILE">log file</ulink>. For instructions
+ on starting <application>Privoxy</application> and browser configuration,
+ see the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
+ on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
+ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">user manual</ulink>.
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="notused">
+<title>I get a <quote>Privoxy is not being used</quote> dummy page although
+<application>Privoxy</application> is running and being used.</title>
+
+<para>
+ First, make sure that Privoxy is <emphasis>really</emphasis> running and
+ being used by visiting <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. You
+ should see the <application>Privoxy</application> main page. If not, see
+ the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
+ on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
+ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">user manual</ulink>.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Now if <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> works for you, but
+ other parts of <application>Privoxy</application>'s web interface show
+ the dummy page, your browser has cached a redirection it encountered before
+ <application>Privoxy</application> was being used. You need to clear your
+ browser's cache. Note that shift-reloading the dummy page won't help, since
+ that'll only refresh the dummy page, not the redirection that lead you there.
</para>
+<para>
+ The procedure for clearing the cache varies from browser to browser. As an
+ example, <application>Mozilla</application> users would click
+ <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -->
+ <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
+ then click both <quote><guibutton>Clear Memory Cache</guibutton></quote>
+ and <quote><guibutton>Clear Disk Cache</guibutton></quote>.
+</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
+ <para>
+ Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updated actions files will be
+ made available on the <ulink
+ url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files section</ulink> of
+ our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project page</ulink>.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
+ <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
+ url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
+ to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
+ </para>
+
+</sect2>
+
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
<para>
The syntax, number, and purpose of configuration files has substantially
There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
if you are blocking cookies as one of your default actions, but need to accept
cookies from a given site, you would need to define an exception for this
- site in one of your actions files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>
+ site in one of your actions files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>.
</para>
</sect2>
<para>
Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
- with a text editor. The probably easiest way is to access
+ with a text editor. But probably the easiest way is to access
<application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface with your web browser
at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
(Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and then select
</sect2>
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect2 renderas="sect3">
<title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
the differences?</title>
</sect2>
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
-<quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Advanced</quote> defaults?</title>
+<quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Adventuresome</quote> defaults?</title>
<para>
- Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To help you get
- started, we provide you with three different default action <quote>packages</quote> in
- the web based actions file editor at <ulink
+ Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To
+ help you get started, we provide you with three different default action
+
<quote>profiles</quote> in the web based actions file editor at <ulink
url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
- The following table shows you, which of the most important features are enabled in each
- configuration:
+ See the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html"><citetitle>User
+ Manual</citetitle></ulink> for a list of actions, and how the default
+ profiles are set.
</para>
- <para>
-<table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
-<tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
-<colspec colname=c1>
-<colspec colname=c2>
-<colspec colname=c3>
-<colspec colname=c4>
-<thead>
-<row>
- <entry>Feature</entry>
- <entry>Cautious</entry>
- <entry>Intermadiate</entry>
- <entry>Advanced</entry>
-</row>
-</thead>
-<!-- <tfoot> -->
-<!-- <row> -->
-<!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
-<!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
-<!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
-<!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
-<!-- </row> -->
-<!-- </tfoot> -->
-<tbody>
-
-<row>
- <entry>Ad-blocking by URL</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
- <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
- <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
- <entry>no</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
- <entry>Referer forging</entry>
- <entry>no</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
- <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
- <entry>none</entry>
- <entry>session-only</entry>
- <entry>kill</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
- <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
- <entry>no</entry>
- <entry>no</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
- <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
- <entry>no</entry>
- <entry>no</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
- <entry>HTML taming</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
- <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
- <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
-</row>
-
-<row>
- <entry>Fun text replacements</entry>
- <entry>no</entry>
- <entry>no</entry>
- <entry>yes</entry>
-</row>
-
-</tbody>
-</tgroup>
-</table>
-</para>
+
<para>
Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
known popular <quote>problem</quote> sites are included, but in
- general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more
- exceptions you will have to make later. See the <ulink
- url="../user-manual/index.html">user manual</ulink> for a more
- deatiled discussion.
+ general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more exceptions
+ you will have to make later. See the <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>
+ for a more deatiled discussion.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ It should be noted that the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> profile (formerly known
+ as the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile) is not only more
+ aggressive, but also includes fun and, extreme usage of most of
+ <application>Privoxy's</application> features. Use at your own risk!
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file?</title>
+<title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file? What is a <quote>filter</quote>?</title>
<para>
The <ulink url="../user-manual/filter-file.html"><filename>default.filter</filename></ulink>
file is where <emphasis>filters</emphasis> are defined, which can be used to modify or
requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
</para>
-
<para>
Presently, there is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included
it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you
wish to run <application>Privoxy</application> on port 8118, this line
- schould look like:
+ should look like:
</para>
<para>
all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
</para>
+<para>
+ Alternately, you can have <application>Privoxy</application> listen on
+ all available interfaces:
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <screen>
+ listen-address :8118</screen>
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ And then use <application>Privoxy's</application>
+ <ulink
+ url="../user-manual/config.html#PERMIT-ACCESS">permit-access</ulink>
+ feature to limit connections. A firewall in this situation is recommended
+ as well.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ The above steps should be the same for any TCP network, regardless of
+ operating system.
+</para>
+
<para>
If you run <application>Privoxy</application> on a LAN with untrusted users,
we recommend that you double-check the <ulink
on Win2K/NT?</title>
<para>
Yes, it can run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
- The only catch is that this will effectively disable the
- <application>Privoxy</application> icon (and its menu!) in the taskbar. You can have
- one or the other, but not both at this time :(
+ See the discussion at <ulink
+ 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>,
+ for details, and a sample configuration.
</para>
<para>
- There is a pending feature request for this functionality. See the discussion
- at <ulink
- 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>,
- for details, and a sample configuration.
-
+ Version 3.0.1 fixes the problem where the icon and menu where not available
+ in the taskbar for this usage.
</para>
</sect2>
</para>
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="port-80">
+<title>Can I just set <application>Privoxy</application> to use port 80
+and thus avoid individual browser configuration?</title>
+
+<para>
+ No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special kinds
+ of proxies known as <quote>transparent</quote> proxies (see below).
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
<title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> run as a <quote>transparent
</quote> proxy?</title>
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook">
+<title>How can I configure <application>Privoxy</application> for use with <application>Outlook
+ Express</application>?</title>
+<para>
+ <application>Outlook Express</application> uses <application>Internet Explorer</application>
+ components to both render HTML, and fetch any HTTP requests that may be embedded in an HTML email.
+ So however you have <application>Privoxy</application> configured to work
+ with IE, this configuration should automatically be shared.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook-more">
+<title>How can I have separate rules just for HTML mail?</title>
+<para>
+ The short answer is, you can't. <application>Privoxy</application> has no way
+ of knowing which particular application makes a request, so there is no way to
+ distinguish between web pages and HTML mail.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> just blindly proxies all requests. In the
+ case of <application>Outlook Express</application> (see above), OE uses
+ IE anyway, and there is no way for <application>Privoxy</application> to ever
+ be able to distinguish between them (nor could any other proxy type application for
+ that matter).
+</para>
+<para>
+ For a good discussion of some of the issues involved (including privacy and
+ security issues), see
+ <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=211118&aid=629518&group_id=11118">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=211118&aid=629518&group_id=11118</ulink>.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allow-cookies">
+<title>How can I allow permanent cookies for my trusted sites?</title>
+
+<para>
+ There are several actions that relate to cookies. The default behavior is to
+ allow only <quote>session cookies</quote>, which means the cookies only last
+ for the current browser session. This eliminates most kinds of abuse related
+ to cookies. But there may be cases where we want cookies to last.
+</para>
+<para>
+ To disable all cookie actions, so that cookies are allowed unrestricted,
+ both in and out, for <literal>example.com</literal>:
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+ { -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only -filter{content-cookies} }
+ .example.com</screen>
+</para>
+<para>
+ Place the above in <filename>user.action</filename>. Note some of these may
+ be off by default anyway, so this might be redundant, but there is no harm
+ being explicit in what you want to happen. <filename>user.action</filename>
+ includes an alias for this situation, called
+ <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal>.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
</sect1>
<!-- ~ End section ~ -->
noticeable on slow dialup connections.
</para>
<para>
- Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types.
+ Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types. But note
+ that if the web server mis-reports the MIME type, then content that should
+ not be filtered, could be. <application>Privoxy</application> only knows how
+ to differentiate filterable content because of the MIME type as reported by
+ the server, or because of some configuration setting that enables/disables
+ filtering.
+
</para>
</sect2>
<para>
This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
- takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote>, everything is OK.
+ takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy ...</quote>, everything is OK.
If you get a page saying <quote>Privoxy is not working</quote> instead, then
your browser didn't use <application>Privoxy</application> for the request,
hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <emphasis>real</emphasis>
url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">multiproxy.org</ulink> and many
more through Google. A particularly interesting project is the JAP service
offered by the Technical University of Dresden (<ulink
- url="http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html">http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html</ulink>.
+ url="http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html">http://anon.inf.tu-dresden.de/index_en.html</ulink>).
</para>
<para>
There is, however, even in the single-machine case the possibility to make the
for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
<application>Privoxy</application>'s ad blocking.
</para>
+<para>
+ <quote>Content cookies</quote> (those that are embedded in the actual HTML or
+ JS page content, see <literal><ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</ulink></literal>),
+ in an SSL transaction will be impossible to block under these conditions.
+ Fortunately, this does not seem to be a very common scenario since most
+ cookies come by traditional means.
+</para>
</sect2>
</sect2>
-
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
<title>How can I temporarily disable <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
<para>
</para>
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="crunch">
+<title>My logs show <application>Privoxy</application> <quote>crunches</quote>
+ads, but also its own CGI pages. What is a <quote>crunch</quote>?</title>
+<para>
+ A <quote>crunch</quote> simply means <application>Privoxy</application> intercepted
+ <emphasis>something</emphasis>, nothing more. Often this is indeed ads or
+ banners, but <application>Privoxy</application> uses the same mechanism for
+ trapping requests for its own internal pages. For instance, a request for
+ <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration page at: <ulink
+ url="http://config.privoxy.org">http://config.privoxy.org</ulink>, is
+ intercepted (i.e. it does not go out to the 'net), and the familiar CGI
+ configuration is returned to the browser, and the log consequently will show
+ a <quote>crunch</quote>.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads">
+<title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> effect files that I download
+from a webserver? FTP server?</title>
+<para>
+ From the webserver's perspective, there is no difference between
+ viewing a document (i.e. a page), and downloading a file. The same is true of
+ <application>Privoxy</application>. If there is a match for a <literal><ulink
+ url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> pattern,
+ it will still be blocked, and of course this is obvious.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Filtering is potentially more of a concern since the results are not always
+ so obvious, and the effects of filtering are there whether the file is simply
+ viewed, or downloaded. And potentially whether the content is some obnoxious
+ advertizement, or Mr. Jimmy's latest/greatest source code jewel. Of course,
+ one of these presumably is <quote>bad</quote> content that we don't want, and
+ the other is <quote>good</quote> content that we do want.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is blind to the differences, and can only
+ distinguish <quote>good from bad</quote> by the configuration parameters
+ <emphasis>we</emphasis> give it.
+</para>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> knows the differences in files according
+ to the <quote>Document Type</quote> as reported by the webserver. If this is
+ reported accurately (e.g. <quote>application/zip</quote> for a zip archive),
+ then <application>Privoxy</application> knows to ignore these where
+ appropriate. <application>Privoxy</application> potentially can filter HTML
+ as well as plain text documents, subject to configuration parameters of
+ course. Also, documents that are of an unknown type (generally assumed to be
+ <quote>text/plain</quote>) can be filtered, as will those that might be
+ incorrectly reported by the webserver. If such a file is a downloaded file
+ that is intended to be saved to disk, then any content that might have been
+ altered by filtering, will be saved too, for these (probably rare) cases.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Note that versions later than 3.0.2 do NOT filter document types of
+ <quote>text/plain</quote>. Prior to this, <application>Privoxy</application>
+ did filter this document type.
+</para>
+<para>
+ In short, filtering is <quote>ON</quote> if a) the Document Type as reported
+ by the webserver is appropriate <emphasis>and</emphasis> b) the configuration
+ allows it (or at least does not disallow it). That's it. There is no magic
+ cookie anywhere to say this is <quote>good</quote> and this is
+ <quote>bad</quote>. It's the configuration that let's it all happen or not.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If you download text files, you probably do not want these to be filtered,
+ particularly if the content is source code, or other critical content. Source
+ code sometimes might be mistaken for Javascript (i.e. the kind that might
+ open a pop-up window). It is recommended to turn off filtering for download
+ sites (particularly if the content may be plain text files and you are using
+ version 3.0.2 or earlier) in your <filename>user.action</filename> file. And
+ also, for any site or page where making <emphasis>any</emphasis> changes at
+ all to the content is to be avoided.
+</para>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> does not do FTP at all, only HTTP
+ protocols, so please don't even try.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads2">
+<title>I just downloaded a Perl script, and <application>Privoxy</application>
+altered it! Yikes, what is wrong!</title>
+<para>
+ Please read above.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
<title>Where can I find more information about <application>Privoxy</application>
-->
</sect2>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="microsuck">
+<title>I've noticed that Privoxy changes <quote>Microsoft</quote> to
+<quote>MicroSuck</quote>! Why are you manipulating my browsing?</title>
+
+<para>
+ We're not. The text substitutions that you are seeing are disabled
+ in the default configuration as shipped. You have either manually
+ activated the <quote><literal>fun</literal></quote> filter which
+ is clearly labeled <quote>Text replacements for subversive browsing
+ fun!</quote> or you have implicitly activated it by choosing the
+ <quote>Adventuresome</quote> profile in the web-based editor (formerly known
+ as the <application>Advanced</application> profile).
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
</sect1>
</sect2>
-<sect2 renderas="sect3">
-<title
id="badsite">One of my favorite sites does not work with <application>Privoxy</application>.
+<sect2 id="badsite" renderas="sect3">
+<title >One of my favorite sites does not work with <application>Privoxy</application>.
What can I do?</title>
<para>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect2 id="dun">
+<sect2 id="dun" renderas="sect3">
<title>After installing <application>Privoxy</application>, I have to log in
every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect2 id="ftp">
+<sect2 id="ftp" renderas="sect3">
<title>I cannot connect to any FTP sites. <application>Privoxy</application>
seems to be blocking me.</title>
<para>
<application>Privoxy</application> cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
so do not configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
- as an FTP proxy. The same is true for any protocol other than HTTP or HTTPS.
+ as an FTP proxy. The same is true for <emphasis>any protocol other than HTTP
+ or HTTPS</emphasis>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
+ a URL like <literal>ftp://ftp.example.com</literal>, your browser is making
+ an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
+ speak FTP, <application>Privoxy</application> does not, and cannot proxy
+ such traffic.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <quote>proxy</quote>
+ setting, which will silently enable <emphasis>both</emphasis> HTTP and FTP
+ proxying! So it is possible to accidentally enable FTP proxying in these
+ cases. And of course, if this happens, <application>Privoxy</application>
+ will indeed cause problems since it does not know FTP.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Will <application>Privoxy</application> ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely.
+ There just is not much reason, and the work to make this happen is more than
+ it may seem.
</para>
</sect2>
-</sect1>
-<!--
-</sect1>
--->
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 id="osxie" renderas="sect3">
+<title>In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
+ <application>Privoxy</application> as the HTTP proxy.</title>
+ <para>
+ Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
+ network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
+ Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
+ comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
+ is checked and enter <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> in the entry field.
+ Enter <literal>8118</literal> in the Port field. The next time you start
+ IE, it should reflect these values.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<!--
-FIXME: Commented out until we have something to put here. HB 03/18/02.
-<sect1 id="knownissues"><title>Known Issues</title>
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="osxuninstall">
+<title>In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
+ uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
+ empty the trash.</title>
+ <para>
+ Just dragging the <application>Privoxy</application> folder to the trash is
+ not enough to delete it. <application>Privoxy</application> supplies an
+ <application>uninstall.command</application> file that takes care of
+ these details. Open the trash, drag the <application>uninstall.command</application>
+ file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
+ confirmation and the administration password.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
+ from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="osximages">
+<title>In Mac OSX Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
+ experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
+ <literal>localhost</literal> as my browser's proxy setting.</title>
+ <para>
+ We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in OSX, but don't fully
+ understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
+ <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> instead of <literal>localhost</literal>
+ works around the problem.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blankpage">
+<title>I get a completely blank page at one site. <quote>View Source</quote>
+ shows only: <markup><![CDATA[<html><body></body></html>]]></markup>. Without
+ <application>Privoxy</application> the page loads fine.</title>
+ <para>
+ Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
+ <ulink url="http://www.php.net/"><application>PHP</application></ulink>,
+ which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
+ an uncompressed page, like <application>Privoxy</application> does.
+ This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
+ the site to a <literal>-prevent-compression</literal> section in
+ <filename>user.action</filename>:
+ </para>
+ <screen>
+ # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
+ #
+ {-prevent-compression}
+ .example.com</screen>
+ <para>
+ If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
+ site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
+ instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
+ or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
+ </para>
+</sect2>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="error503">
+<title>Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</title>
+ <para>
+ More than likely this is a problem with the network stack. ZoneAlarm has
+ been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running. The solution is
+ to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
+ something better behaved in its place. Other firewall type products may
+ cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
+ </para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nohostname">
+<title>My logs show many <quote>Unable to get my own hostname</quote> lines.
+Why?</title>
<para>
- Fill me.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> tries to get the hostname of the system
+ its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to
+ (from the <filename>config</filename> file
+ <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> setting). If the system cannot supply
+ this information, <application>Privoxy</application> logs this condition.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Typically, this would be considered a system configuration error. It is not a
+ fatal error to <application>Privoxy</application> however, but may result in
+ a much slower response from <application>Privoxy</application> due to DNS
+ timeouts.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="inuse">
+<title>When I try to launch <application>Privoxy</application>, I get an
+error message <quote>port 8118 is already in use</quote> (or similar wording).
+Why?</title>
+<para>
+ Port 8118 is <application>Privoxy's</application> default TCP
+ <quote>listening</quote> port. Typically this message would mean that there
+ is already one instance of <application>Privoxy</application> running, and
+ you are actually trying to start a second <application>Privoxy</application>
+ on the same port, which will not work. How and why this might happen varies
+ from platform to platform, but you need to check your installation and
+ start-up procedures.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer">
+<title>
+ Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.
+</title>
+<para>
+ This is caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter, which was introduced
+ in version 3.0.2, and was inappropriately turned on by default. You should
+ either upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or at least upgrade to the most
+ recent <filename>default.action</filename> file available from
+ <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
+ Or you can simply disable the demoronizer filter.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer2">
+<title>
+ Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when <application>Privoxy</application>
+ is used?
+</title>
+<para>
+ This may also be caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter,
+ in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting a file type. Binary
+ files are exempted from <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering
+ (unless the web server by mistake says the file is a plain text file). Either
+ upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or go to the most recent
+ <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
+ url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer3">
+<title>
+ What is the <quote>demoronizer</quote> and why is it there?
+</title>
+<para>
+ The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
+ were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
+ to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages
+ that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a
+ standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
+ displayed correctly. <application>Privoxy</application> borrowed from this
+ script, introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
+ correct these errors on the fly.
+</para>
+<para>
+ But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in some
+ other situations.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
+ pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will
+ cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <emphasis>should not be on</emphasis>.
+</para>
+<para>
+ On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
+ notice wierd characters on pages, you might want to try it.
+</para>
+<para>
+ This filter was introduced with version 3.0.2 of <application>Privoxy</application>,
+ and was on by default in that version. It is off in all subsequent versions
+ (unless turned on by the user).
</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 renderas="sect3" id="windowopen">
+<title>
+ Why do I keep seeing <quote>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</quote> in raw source code?
+</title>
+<para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is attempting to disable malicious
+ Javascript in this case, with the <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal>
+ filter. <application>Privoxy</application> cannot tell very well
+ <quote>good</quote> code snippets from <quote>bad</quote> code snippets.
+</para>
+<para>
+ If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
+ this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this
+ where it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file,
+ then you should set an exception for this site or page such that the
+ integrity of the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
</sect1>
--->
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
©right;
<!-- end -->
+
<para>
Portions of this document are <quote>borrowed</quote> from the original
<application>Junkbuster</application> (tm) FAQ, and modified as
<!--
Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
- Last modified: Mon Sep 10 19:22:09 CEST 2001
-
This program is free software; you can redistribute it
and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
Public License as published by the Free Software
Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
$Log: faq.sgml,v $
-Revision 1.64 2002/06/09 16:37:31 hal9
-Sync with filtering clarifications in 3.0 branch.
+Revision 1.61.2.41 2004/04/05 13:44:05 oes
+Fixed allow-all-cookies alias name; closes SR #929746
+
+Revision 1.61.2.40 2004/01/30 17:00:33 oes
+Added OSX Panther problem
+
+Revision 1.61.2.39 2004/01/29 22:53:08 hal9
+Minor changes for exempting docs of text/plain. Change copyright date.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.38 2003/12/10 03:39:45 hal9
+Added FAQs for: demoronizer, related problems and why its included. Also,
+port 8118 already in use questions, and PrivoxyWindowOpen() questions. All in
+troubleshooting section.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.37 2003/10/17 11:01:50 oes
+Added Q&A for "not being used" page problem
+
+Revision 1.61.2.36 2003/06/26 23:49:20 hal9
+More on the filter/source code problem.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.35 2003/06/26 13:38:08 hal9
+Add FAQ on whether configuring Privoxy is necessary or not.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.34 2003/06/26 03:00:03 hal9
+Sorry, found another copyright date.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.33 2003/06/26 02:57:05 hal9
+Fix typo (finally!) and very minor modifications.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.32 2003/06/26 02:52:04 hal9
+Test, no changes.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.31 2003/06/25 01:27:51 hal9
+Fix copyright, and a few nits.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.30 2003/06/25 01:13:52 hal9
+Add:
+
+ - FAQ on "Unable to get my own hostname"
+ - Another one on filtering effects on text files.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.29 2003/06/15 21:32:58 hal9
+Add to the 4.17 (filtering effects on downloaded files).
+
+Revision 1.61.2.28 2003/03/18 19:37:21 oes
+s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
+
+Revision 1.61.2.27 2002/12/01 06:31:58 hal9
+Add faq on win32 error 503 due to ZoneAlarm.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.26 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
+Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
+Add faq on cookies.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.25 2002/10/29 03:21:50 hal9
+Add 3 Q/A's relating to HTML in email. Other minor touchups.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.24 2002/10/15 12:50:22 oes
+s/Advanced/Radical/ (stupid me)
+
+Revision 1.61.2.23 2002/10/15 12:38:56 oes
+Added Microsuck faq; more detail for PHP problem
+
+Revision 1.61.2.22 2002/10/12 01:13:13 hal9
+Updates for demoronizer, more commentary on Radical profile, and update on
+the srvany.exe/icon fix.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
+s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.20 2002/09/26 01:22:45 hal9
+Small additions for LAN setup, content-cookies/SSL, and FTP non-support.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.19 2002/08/25 23:31:56 hal9
+Fix one grammatical error. Add brief FAQ relating to tranparent proxies (ie
+port 80 setting). Add FAQ on effects of Privoxy on downloaded files
+(especially filtering).
+
+Revision 1.61.2.18 2002/08/14 16:39:37 hal9
+Fix wrong tag on FAQ addition.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.17 2002/08/14 00:01:18 hal9
+Add a crunch FAQ.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.16 2002/08/13 00:10:38 hal9
+Add faq to troubleshooting re: blank page syndrome, ie {-prevent-compression}.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.15 2002/08/10 11:34:22 oes
+Add disclaimer about probably being out-of-date
+
+Revision 1.61.2.14 2002/08/07 02:53:43 hal9
+Fix some minor markup errors, and move one OSX Q/A to troubleshooting section.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.13 2002/08/06 11:55:32 oes
+Added missing close tag
+
+Revision 1.61.2.12 2002/08/06 11:43:46 david__schmidt
+Updated OSX uninstall FAQ... we have an uninstall script now.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.11 2002/08/06 08:54:03 oes
+Style police: Fixed formatting details
+
+Revision 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 david__schmidt
+Made the OSX removal commands far less dangerous
+
+Revision 1.61.2.9 2002/08/02 13:14:45 oes
+Added warning about sudo rm -r for Mac OSX deinstallation; moved this item to install section
+
+Revision 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt
+Add FAQ item for MSIE on OSX HTTP proxy confusion
+
+Revision 1.61.2.7 2002/08/02 01:46:01 david__schmidt
+Added FAQ item for Mac OSX uninstall woes
+
+Revision 1.61.2.6 2002/07/30 20:04:56 hal9
+Fix typo: 'schould'.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes
+- Updated to reflect changes in standard.action
+- Added info on where to get updated actions files
+
+Revision 1.61.2.4 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
+Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
+
+Revision 1.61.2.3 2002/06/09 16:36:33 hal9
+Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
-Revision 1.63 2002/06/05 00:31:55 hal9
-Mass commit for new entities, most significantly so docs can read version
-and code status info from tmp files, so perl is no longer used. Also, docs can
-differentiate on alpha -> beta -> stable now.
+Revision 1.61.2.2 2002/06/06 02:51:34 hal9
+Fix typo in URL http:/config.privoxy.org
-Revision 1.62 2002/06/03 00:28:16 hal9
-Sync with various changes from 3.0 branch. Add two new files for config stuff.
+Revision 1.61.2.1 2002/06/05 23:10:43 hal9
+Add new FAQ re: DUN/IE. Change release date from May to June :)
Revision 1.61 2002/05/25 12:37:25 hal9
Various minor changes and edits.
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff