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38 >Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</TH
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73 >1. General Information</A
81 >1.1. What is this new version of <SPAN
94 > (tm) is a copyrighted product of <A
95 HREF="http://www.junkbusters.com"
97 >Junkbusters Corporation</A
99 Development of this effort stopped some time ago as of version 2.0.2. Stefan
100 Waldherr started the ijbswa project on <A
101 HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/"
105 rekindle development. Other developers subsequently joined with Stefan, and
106 have since added many new features, refinements and enhancements. The result
107 of this effort is <SPAN
116 > has evolved from the
119 >Junkbuster 2.0.2</SPAN
120 > code base, and has advanced
121 significantly at this point.
125 Please see the History section for more
126 information on the history of <SPAN
145 >? Why a name change at all?</A
156 >Privacy Enhancing Proxy</I
160 > There are potential legal complications from the continued use of the
164 > name, which is a trademark of
166 HREF="http://junkbusters.com"
168 >Junkbusters Corporation</A
170 (There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
174 > project itself, and they, in fact, still
175 share our ideals and goals.)</P
177 > The developers also believed that there are so many changes from the original
178 code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
179 a name in their own right, especially now with the pending
180 release of version 3.0.</P
205 > left off. All the old features remain.
209 > still blocks ads and banners,
210 still manages cookies, and still helps protect your privacy. But, these are
211 all enhanced, and many new features have been added, all in the same vein.
214 > The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
215 users will notice right off the bat if you are upgrading from
223 file does not exist any more. This is replaced by <SPAN
230 >. This is where most of
231 the per site configuration is now.
240 >1.4. What are some of the new features?</A
248 > Integrated browser based configuration and control utility (<A
252 >). Browser-based tracing of rule
258 > Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
263 > HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 1.1 features are supported).
268 > Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files, and
269 generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
280 > Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size,
284 >, JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse,
290 > Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
296 > Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
301 > Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
306 > User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
311 > Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
316 > Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
321 > Builds from source on most UNIX-like systems. Packages available for: Linux
322 (RedHat, SuSE, or Debian), Windows, Sun Solaris, Mac OSX, OS/2, HP-UX 11 and AmigaOS.
328 > In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile over-all.
340 >1.5. What is a <SPAN
350 > When you connect to a web site with <SPAN
354 you are really connecting to your locally running version of
362 intercepts your requests for the web page, and relays that to the
366 > web site. The web site sends the HTTP data stream
374 > can work its magic before it
375 relays this data back to your web browser.
381 > sits between you and the
382 WWW, it is in a position to intercept and completely manage all web traffic and
383 HTTP content before it gets to your browser.
387 > uses various programming methods to do
388 this, all of which is under your control via the various configuration
392 > There are many kinds of proxies. <SPAN
398 >"filtering proxy"</SPAN
412 an ad, and what is not?</A
418 > processes all the raw content of every
419 web page. So it reads everything on each page. It then compares this to the
420 rules as set up in the configuration files, and looks for any matches to
427 >"regular expressions"</SPAN
428 >. (If you are not familiar with regular
429 expressions, it is explained briefly in <A
430 HREF="../user-manual/appendix.html"
434 expressions facilitate matching of one text string against another, using
435 wildcards to build complex patterns. So <SPAN
439 will typically look for URLs and other content that match certain key words
440 and expressions as defined in the configuration files. For instance a URL
444 >, has a high probability of containing
445 ad banners, and thus would be a prime candidate to have a matching rule.</P
450 > will look for these kinds of obvious
451 looking culprits. And also, will use lists of known organizations that
452 specialize in ads. Again, using complex patterns to match as many potential
453 combinations as possible since there tend to be many, many variations used by
454 advertisers, and new ones are being introduced all the time.</P
466 This does not sound very scientific.</A
469 > Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad rule
470 accidentally block something by mistake. There is a good chance you may run
471 into such a situation at some point. It is tricky writing rules to cover
472 every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.</P
474 > But this should not be a big concern since the
478 > configuration is very flexible, and
479 includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
480 addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
482 HREF="trouble.html#AEN645"
483 >See the Troubleshooting section below</A
492 >1.8. My browser does the same things as
503 > Modern browsers do indeed have <I
507 functionality as <SPAN
511 adequate for you. But <SPAN
515 versatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
518 > In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
519 have a LAN with multiple computers. This way all the configuration
520 is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar configuration
521 for possibly many browsers.
531 >1.9. Is there is a license or fee? What about a
532 warranty? Registration?</A
538 > is licensed under the GNU General Public
539 License (GPL). It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish
540 under the terms of this license. Please see the Copyright section for more
541 information on the license and copyright.
545 > There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise. That is
546 something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
564 >1.10. I would like to help you, what do I do?</A
571 NAME="JOINTEAM-MONEY"
572 >1.10.1. Money Money Money</A
575 > We, of course, welcome donations and use the money for domain registering,
576 regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). Anyway, we'll soon describe the
577 process how to donate money to the team.</P
585 >1.10.2. You want to work with us?</A
588 > Well, helping the team is always a good idea. We welcome new developers,
589 RPM gurus or documentation makers. Simply get an account on sourceforge.net
590 and mail your id to the developer mailing list. Then read the
591 section Quickstart in the <A
592 HREF="../developer-manual/quickstart.html"
594 > Developer's Manual</A
597 > Once we have added you to the team, you'll have write access to the CVS
598 repository, and together we'll find a suitable task for you.</P
633 HREF="installation.html"
642 >Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</TD