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40 >Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</TH
77 >5. Troubleshooting</A
85 >5.1. I cannot connect to any websites. Or, I am getting
88 >"connection refused"</SPAN
89 > message with every web page. Why?</A
92 > There are several possibilities:</P
102 > is not running. Solution: verify
106 > is installed correctly, has not crashed, and is indeed running.
110 > logging, and look at the logs to see what they say.</P
114 >Or your browser is configured for a different port than what
118 > is using. Solution: verify that <SPAN
122 and your browser are set to the same port (<TT
129 >Or if using a forwarding rule, you have a configuration problem or a
130 problem with a host in the forwarding chain. Solution: temporarily alter your
131 configuration and take the forwarders out of the equation.</P
135 > Or you have a firewall that is interfering and blocking you. Solution:
136 try disabling or removing the firewall as a simple test.
148 >5.2. Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</A
151 > More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has
152 been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running! The solution is
153 to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
154 something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products
155 may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
164 >5.3. I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
165 still getting through. How?</A
168 > If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
169 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
170 the need for any request to the server, and <SPAN
174 will not be involved. Flush the browser's caches, and then try again.</P
176 > If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
177 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <A
178 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info"
180 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</A
182 and see if it really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking
183 spam: a lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game. And
184 remember you need to block the URL of the ad in question, which may be
185 entirely different from the site URL itself. Most ads are hosted on different
186 servers than the main site itself. If you right-click on the ad, you should
187 be able to get all the relevant information you need. Alternately, you can
188 find the correct URL by looking at <SPAN
192 (you may need to enable logging in the main config file if its disabled).</P
194 > Below is a slightly modified real-life log snippet that originates with one
198 > (name of site was changed
199 for this example, the number of requests is real). You can see in this the
200 complexity of what goes into making up this one <SPAN
204 are eight different domains involved here, with thirty two separate URLs
205 requested in all, making up all manner of images, Shockwave Flash,
206 JavaScript, CSS stylesheets, scripts, and other related content. Some of this
207 content is obviously <SPAN
214 Many of the more questionable looking requests, are going to outside domains
215 that seem to be identifying themselves with suspicious looking names, making
216 our job a little easier. <SPAN
223 and BLOCKED) quite a few items in this example, but perhaps missed a few as well. </P
233 >Request: www.example.com/
234 Request: www.example.com/favicon.ico
235 Request: img.example.com/main.css
236 Request: img.example.com/sr.js
237 Request: example.betamarker.com/example.html
238 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/bestsellers/skyscraper.php?likref=BSellers
239 Request: img.example.com/pb.png
240 Request: www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js crunch! (Blocked)
241 Request: www.advertising-department.com/ats/switch.ps.php?26856 crunch! (Blocked)
242 Request: img.example.com/p.gif
243 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example&mode=behind crunch! (Blocked)
244 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=5c3cf&tmpl=PBa.tmpl crunch! (Blocked)
245 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example crunch! (Blocked)
246 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/best_sellers.css
247 Request: www.adtrak.net/adx.js crunch! (Blocked)
248 Request: img.example.com/hbg.gif
249 Request: img.example.com/example.jpg
250 Request: img.example.com/mt.png
251 Request: img.example.com/mm.png
252 Request: img.example.com/mb.png
253 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=a71b91fa5&tmpl=Ua.tmp crunch! (Blocked)
254 Request: www.example.com/tracker.js
255 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/lsi_head.gif
256 Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=020548130&what=zone:61 crunch! (Blocked)
257 Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=463594413&what=zone:58&source=Ua crunch! (Blocked)
258 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/bottomani.swf
259 Request: mmm.elitemediagroup.net/install.php?allowpop=no&popupmincook=0&allowsp2=1 crunch! (Blocked)
260 Request: www.example.com/tracker.js?screen=1400x1050&win=962x693
261 Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=61 crunch! (Blocked)
262 Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=5c3cf599a9efd0320d26&si
263 Request: 66.70.21.80/img/pixel.gif
264 Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=58&source=Ua&block=86400 crunch! (Blocked)
265 Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=a71b9f6504b0c5681fa5&si=Ua</PRE
271 > Despite 12 out of 32 requests being blocked, the page looked, and seemed to
272 behave perfectly <SPAN
275 > (minus some ads, of course).</P
283 >5.4. One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy.
287 > First verify that it is indeed a <SPAN
291 by toggling off <SPAN
295 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle"
297 >http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</A
299 (the toggle feature may need to be enabled in the main
304 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
305 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
308 > If the problem went away, we know we have a configuration related problem.
310 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info"
312 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</A
314 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which
315 actions are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions
316 files are responsible for that. It might be helpful also to look at your logs
317 for this site too, to see what else might be happening (note: logging may need
318 to be enabled in the main config file). Many sites are
319 complex and require a number of related pages to help present their content.
320 Look at what else might be used by the page in question, and what of that
328 Now, armed with this information, go to
330 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status"
332 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</A
334 and select the appropriate actions files for editing. </P
336 > You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
337 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
338 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
339 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
340 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
341 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
342 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!</P
344 > Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
345 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
346 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
354 which is an alias that turns off most <SPAN
358 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
359 your privacy and protection more than necessary, </P
361 > Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <A
362 HREF="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT"
364 >User Manual appendix,
365 Troubleshooting: the Anatomy of an Action</A
368 HREF="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES"
372 with general configuration information and examples.</P
374 > As a last resort, you can always see if your browser has a setting that will
375 bypass the proxy setting for selective sites. Modern browsers can do this.</P
383 >5.5. After installing Privoxy, I have to log in
384 every time I start IE. What gives?</A
387 > This is a quirk that effects the installation of
391 >, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
392 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
393 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.</P
395 > When setting up an NT based Windows system with
399 > you may find that things do not seem to be
400 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
401 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
402 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
403 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
404 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
405 configured for the kids.</P
407 > When setting up <SPAN
410 > in this environment you
411 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
412 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
416 >. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
417 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
418 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
419 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
420 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
421 you have to store the password under each different user!</P
423 > The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
424 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
425 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
426 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
427 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
428 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.</P
430 >[Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]</P
438 >5.6. I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy
445 > cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
446 so do not configure your browser to use <SPAN
450 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for <SPAN
454 >any protocol other than HTTP
460 > Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
463 >ftp://ftp.example.com</TT
464 >, your browser is making
465 an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
469 > does not, and cannot proxy
473 > To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <SPAN
477 setting, which will enable various protocols, including
484 > HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is possible to
485 accidentally enable FTP proxying in these cases. And of course, if this
489 > will indeed cause problems since
490 it does not know FTP. Newer version will give a sane error
491 message if a FTP connection is attempted. Just disable the FTP setting
492 and all will be well again.
498 > ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely.
499 There just is not much reason, and the work to make this happen is more than
509 >5.7. In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
510 Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.</A
513 > Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
514 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
515 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
516 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
517 is checked and enter <TT
520 > in the entry field.
524 > in the Port field. The next time you start
525 IE, it should reflect these values.
534 >5.8. In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
535 uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
539 > Just dragging the <SPAN
542 > folder to the trash is
543 not enough to delete it. <SPAN
549 >uninstall.command</SPAN
550 > file that takes care of
551 these details. Open the trash, drag the <SPAN
553 >uninstall.command</SPAN
555 file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
556 confirmation and the administration password.
559 > The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
560 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
569 >5.9. In Mac OSX Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
570 experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
574 > as my browser's proxy setting.</A
577 > We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in OSX, but don't fully
578 understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
586 works around the problem.
595 >5.10. I get a completely blank page at one site. <SPAN
601 ><html><body></body></html></SPAN
603 Privoxy the page loads fine.</A
606 > Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
608 HREF="http://www.php.net/"
615 which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
616 an uncompressed page, like <SPAN
620 This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
623 > To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
626 >-prevent-compression</TT
641 > # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
643 {-prevent-compression}
649 > If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
650 site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
651 instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
652 or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
661 >5.11. My logs show many <SPAN
663 >"Unable to get my own hostname"</SPAN
671 > tries to get the hostname of the system
672 its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to
683 > setting). If the system cannot supply
684 this information, <SPAN
687 > logs this condition. </P
689 > Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration error. It is
690 not a fatal error to <SPAN
694 result in a much slower response from <SPAN
698 some platforms due to DNS timeouts.</P
700 > This can be caused by a problem with the local <TT
704 file. If this file has been changed from the original, try reverting it to
705 see if that helps. Make sure whatever name(s) are used for the local system,
706 that they resolve both ways.</P
714 >5.12. When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an
717 >"port 8118 is already in use"</SPAN
718 > (or similar wording).
729 > port. Typically this message would mean that there
730 is already one instance of <SPAN
734 your system is actually trying to start a second
738 > on the same port, which will not work.
739 (You can have multiple instances but they must be assigned different ports.)
740 How and why this might happen varies from platform to platform, but you need
741 to check your installation and start-up procedures.</P
749 >5.13. Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.</A
752 > This is caused by the <SPAN
755 > filter. You should either
759 >, or at least upgrade to the most
763 > file available from <A
764 HREF="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118"
768 Or you can simply disable the demoronizer filter.</P
776 >5.14. Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy
780 > This may also be caused by the <SPAN
784 in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting the content type. Binary
785 files are exempted from <SPAN
789 (unless the web server by mistake says the file is something else). Either
793 >, or go to the most recent
797 > file available from <A
798 HREF="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118"
809 >5.15. What is the <SPAN
812 > and why is it there?</A
815 > The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
816 were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
817 to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages
818 that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a
819 standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
820 displayed correctly. <SPAN
824 script, introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
825 correct these errors on the fly. </P
827 > But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in some
830 > If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
831 pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will
832 cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <SPAN
840 > On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
841 notice weird characters on pages, you might want to try it.</P
849 >5.16. Why do I keep seeing <SPAN
851 >"PrivoxyWindowOpen()"</SPAN
852 > in raw source code?</A
858 > is attempting to disable malicious
860 HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript"
864 in this case, with the <TT
866 >unsolicited-popups</TT
871 > cannot tell very well
875 > code snippets from <SPAN
880 > If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
881 this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this
882 where it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file,
883 then you should set an exception for this site or page such that the
884 integrity of the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.</P
892 >5.17. I am getting too many DNS errors like <SPAN
894 >"404 No Such Domain"</SPAN
896 can't Privoxy do this better?</A
899 > There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS resolution
900 is done by the underlying operating system -- not
908 merely initiates the process and hands it off, and then later reports
909 whatever the outcome was. And tries to give a coherent message if there seems
910 to be a problem. In some cases, this might otherwise be mitigated by the
911 browser itself which might try some work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g
915 > to the URL). In other cases, if
919 > is being chained with another proxy, this
920 could complicate the issue, and cause undue
921 delays and timeouts. In the case of a <SPAN
925 server handles all the DNS. <SPAN
932 > which is reporting whatever problem occurred
933 downstream, and not the root cause of the error.</P
935 > In any case, newer versions include various improvements to help
939 > better handle these cases.</P
947 >5.18. At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking
948 all CPU. Why is this?</A
951 > This is probably a manifestation of the <SPAN
955 occurs on pages containing many (thousands upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines
956 are in the raw HTML source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the
957 pattern matching in <SPAN
961 mechanism is trying to match against absurdly long strings and this becomes
962 very CPU-intensive, taking a long, long time to complete. Until a better
963 solution comes along, disable filtering on these pages, particularly the
969 >unsolicited-popups</TT
979 >5.19. I just installed Privoxy, and all my
980 browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives?</A
983 > This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users world-wide,
984 it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent interaction of software
985 components such as anti-virus software, spyware protectors, personal
986 firewalls or similar components. Try disabling (or uninstalling) these one
987 at a time and see if that helps.</P
995 >5.20. Why do my filters work on some sites but not on others?</A
998 > It's probably due to compression. It is a common practice for web servers to
999 send their content <SPAN
1002 > in order to speed things up, and
1003 then let the browser <SPAN
1006 > them. When compiled with zlib support
1010 > can decompress content before filtering, otherwise you may want to enable
1012 HREF="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION"
1014 >prevent-compression</A
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