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3 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/faq.sgml,v $
7 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
9 $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9 Exp $
11 Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
12 FOOBAR team. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net
14 Based on the Internet Junkbuster originally written
15 by and Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and
16 Junkbusters Corporation. http://www.junkbusters.com
21 <title>Foobar Frequently Asked Questions</title>
23 <pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
28 <orgname>By: Foobar Developers</orgname>
35 The FAQ document gives users and developers alike answers to frequently asked
37 <application>Foobar</application>. <application>Foobar</application> is a web
38 proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting privacy, filtering
39 web page content, managing cookies, controlling access, and removing ads,
40 banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet
41 Junk. <application>Foobar</application> has a very flexible configuration and
42 can be customized to suit individual needs and
43 tastes. <application>Foobar</application> has application for both stand-alone
44 systems and multi-user networks.
47 You can find the latest version of the document at <ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/">http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/faq/</ulink>.
48 Please see the Contact section in the
49 <ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/contact.html">user-manual</ulink> if you want to contact the developers.
53 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
59 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
62 <sect1 id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
68 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
70 <sect1 id="questions"><title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
72 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
74 <sect2 id="general"><title>General Information</title>
76 <sect3 id="newjb"><title>What is this new version of <application>Foobar</application>?</title>
78 The original <application>Internet Junkbuster</application> (tm) is a
79 coyrighted product of <ulink url="http://www.junkbusters.com">Junkbusters
80 Corporation</ulink>. Development of this effort stopped some time ago as of
81 version 2.0.2. Stefan Waldherr started the ijbswa project on <ulink
82 url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net">Sourceforge</ulink> to rekindle
83 development. Other developers subsequently joined with Stefan, and have
84 since added many new features, refinements and enhancements.
87 The new <application>Foobar</application> started with the same
88 code base, but has changed significantly at this point.
93 <sect3 id="differs"><title>How does it differ from the old <application>Junkbuster?</application></title>
95 All the old features remain. The new <application>Foobar</application>
96 still blocks ads and banners, still manages cookies, and still helps protect
97 your privacy. But, these are all enhanced, and many new features have been
98 added, all in the same vein.
101 The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
102 users will notice right off the bat. The <quote>blocklist</quote> file does
103 not exist any more. This is replaced by <quote>actions</quote> files, such
104 as <filename>ijb.actions</filename>. This is where most of the per site
105 configuration is now.
110 <sect3 id="features"><title>What are some of the new features?</title>
112 The section is in both user-manual and faq. Please keep in sync!!!
119 Integrated browser based configuration and control utility (<ulink
120 url="http://i.j.b">http://i.j.b</ulink>). Browser-based tracing of rule
127 Modularized configuration that will allow for system wide settings, and
128 individual user settings. (not implemented yet, probably a 3.1 feature)
134 Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
140 HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 1.1 features are supported).
146 Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files, and
147 generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
160 Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size,
161 invisible <quote>web-bugs</quote>, JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse,
168 Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
175 Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
181 Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
187 User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
193 Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
199 Builds from source on most UNIX-like systems. Packages available for: Linux
200 (RedHat, SuSE, or Debian), Windows, Sun Solaris, Mac OSX, OS/2, HP-UX 11 and AmigaOS.
207 In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile over-all.
216 <sect3 id="proxymoron"><title>What is a <quote>proxy</quote>? How does
217 <application>Foobar</application> work? </title>
219 When you connect to a web site with <application>Foobar</application>,
220 you are really connecting to your locally running version of
221 <application>Foobar</application>. <application>Foobar</application>
222 intercepts your requests for the web page, and relays that to the
223 <quote>real</quote> web site. The web site sends the HTTP data stream
224 back to <application>Foobar</application>, where
225 <application>Foobar</application> can work its magic before it
226 relays this data back to your web browser.
230 Since <application>Foobar</application> sits between you and the
231 WWW, it is in a position to intercept and completely manage all web traffic and
232 HTTP content before it gets to your browser.
233 <application>Foobar</application> uses various programming methods to do
234 this, all of which is under your control via the various configuration
239 There are many kinds of proxies. <application>Foobar</application> best
240 fits the <quote>filtering proxy</quote> category.
245 <sect3 id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
246 <application>Foobar</application>. Why should I use
247 <application>Foobar</application> at all?</title>
249 Modern browsers do indeed have <emphasis>some</emphasis> of the same
250 functionality as <application>Foobar</application>. Maybe this is
251 adequate for you. But <application>Foobar</application> is much more
252 verstatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
255 In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
256 have a LAN with multiple computers. This way all the configuration
257 is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar configuration
258 for possibly many browsers.
265 <sect3 id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
266 warranty? Registration?</title>
268 <application>Foobar</application> is licensed under the
269 GNU General Public License (GPL). It is free to use, copy,
270 modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this license.
272 url="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html</ulink>
276 There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise. That is
277 something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
278 <application>Foobar</application> really is <emphasis>free</emphasis>
287 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
289 <sect2 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
291 <sect3 id="newinstall"><title>Can I install the new
292 <application>Foobar</application> over the old one?</title>
294 We recommend you uninstall the old <application>Junkbuster</application>
295 first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
296 save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
297 is substantially changed.
301 url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/">user-manual</ulink> for
302 platform specific installation instructions. [FIXME: This is meant for after
303 the name change for 3.0!]
309 <title id="firststep">I just installed <application>Foobar</application>. Is there anything
310 special I have to do now?</title>
313 All browsers must be told to use <application>Foobar</application>
314 as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
315 in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. See below.
322 <sect3 id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of <application>Foobar</application>?</title>
324 If you set up the <application>Foobar</application> to run on
325 the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
326 networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <quote>localhost</quote>
327 (which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
328 to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have <application>Foobar</application> to run on a different port with the
329 <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> config option).
332 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
333 the word <quote>localhost</quote> in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote>
334 and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and then the number <quote>8118</quote>
335 for <quote>port</quote>. This tells your browser to send all web
336 requests to <application>Foobar</application> instead of directly to the
340 <application>Foobar</application> can also be used to proxy for
341 a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
342 address of the LAN host where <application>Foobar</application>
343 is running, or the equivalent hostname. Port assignment would be
347 <application>Foobar</application> does not currently handle
348 protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, or other Internet
354 <title id="nothing">I just installed <application>Foobar</application>, and nothing is happening.
355 All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
358 Did you configure your browser to use <application>Foobar</application>
359 as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
360 the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
361 that <application>Foobar</application> is running, and your browser
362 is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
363 <ulink url="http://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</ulink>. This should give you
364 a banner that says <quote>This is Foobar</quote> and
365 access to <application>Foobar's</application> internal configuration.
366 If you see this, then you are good to go. If not, the browser or
367 <application>Foobar</application> are not set up correctly.
376 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
378 <sect2 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
380 <sect3 id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
382 There are major changes to <application>Junkbuster</application>
383 configuration from version 2.0.x to 2.9.x and later. The older files will
384 not work at all. If this is the case, you will need to re-enter your old
385 data into the new configuration structure. This is probably also a good
386 recommendation even if upgrading from 2.9.x to 3.x since there were
387 many minor changes along the way.
392 <title id="actionsfile">What is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
395 <quote>actions</quote> files are where various actions that
396 <application>Foobar</application> might take, are configured.
397 Typically, you would define a set of default actions that apply
398 to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults.
402 Actions can be defined on a per site basis, or for groups of sites. Actions
403 can also be grouped together and then applied to one or more sites. There
404 are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
405 if we are blocking cookies as one of our default
406 <application>actions</application>, but need to accept cookies from a given
407 site, we would define this in our <quote>actions</quote> file.
412 <application>Foobar</application> comes with several default
413 <application>actions</application> files, with varying degrees
414 of filtering and blocking, as starting points for your own
415 configuration (see below).
420 <sect3 id="actionss">
421 <title>The <quote>actions</quote>concept confuses me. Please list
422 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
424 These are all explained in the
425 <ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE">user-manual</ulink>.
426 Please refer to that.
432 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
433 way to do this?</title>
436 The easiest way to do this, is to access <application>Foobar</application>
437 with your web browser at <ulink url="http://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</ulink>,
439 "<ulink url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/edit-actions">Edit the actions list</ulink>"
440 from the selection list. You can also do this by editing the appropriate
441 file with a text editor.
447 url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE">user-manual</ulink> for a
448 detailed explanation of these and other configuration files, and their
449 various options and syntax.
455 FIXME: Commenting these out until we have some data there. HB 03/17/02.
457 <sect3 id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo account work?</title>
463 <sect3 id="hotmail"> <title>How can I make my Hotmail account work?</title>
469 <sect3 id="gmx"> <title>How can I make my GMX account work?</title>
476 <sect3 id="configfiles"> <title>What are the differences between
477 ijb-intermediate.action, ijb-basic.action, etc.?</title>
479 Configuring <application>Foobar</application> is not easy. To help you get
480 started, we provide you with three different default configurations. The
481 following table shows you, which features are enabled in each configuration.
484 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
485 <tgroup cols=5 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
493 <entry>Feature</entry>
494 <entry>ijb.action</entry>
495 <entry>ijb-basic.action</entry>
496 <entry>ijb-intermediate.action</entry>
497 <entry>ijb-advanced.action</entry>
503 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
504 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
505 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
506 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
507 <!-- <entry>f5</entry> -->
514 <entry>ad-filtering</entry>
522 <entry>blank image</entry>
530 <entry>de-animate GIFs</entry>
538 <entry>referer forging</entry>
546 <entry>jon's +no-cookies-keep (i.e. session cookies only)</entry>
554 <entry>no-popup windows</entry>
562 <entry>fast redirects</entry>
570 <entry>hide-referrer</entry>
578 <entry>hide-useragent</entry>
586 <entry>content-modification</entry>
594 <entry>feature-x</entry>
602 <entry>feature-y</entry>
610 <entry>feature-z</entry>
623 <sect3 id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration with a
624 browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
626 What I don't understand, is how I can browser edit the config file as a
627 regular user, while the whole /etc/foobar hierarchy belongs to the user
628 "foobar", with only 644 perms.
631 When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Foobar</application>
632 itself is writing to the config files. Because
633 <application>Foobar</application> is running as the user "foobar", it can
634 update the config files.
637 If you don't like this, setting "enable-edit-actions 0" in the config file
638 will disable the browser-based editor. If you're that paranoid, you should
639 also consider setting "enable-remote-toggle 0" to prevent browser-based
640 enabling/disabling of <application>Foobar</application>.
643 Note that normally only local users can connect to <application>Foobar</application>, so this is not
644 (normally) a security problem.
649 <title id="lanconfig">How can I set up <application>Foobar</application> to act as a proxy for my
652 By default, <application>Foobar</application> only responds to requests
653 from localhost. To have it act as a server for a network, this needs to be
654 changed in the main config file where the <application>Foobar</application>
655 configuration is located. In that file is a <quote>listen-address</quote>
656 option. It may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
657 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
658 and port number to use:
663 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118
668 Save the file, and restart <application>Foobar</application>. Configure
669 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
676 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a Foobar logo [or
677 checkerboard]. I don't want to see anything.</title>
679 This is a configuration option for images that
680 <application>Foobar</application> is stopping. You have the choice of the
681 <application>Foobar</application> logo, a checkerboard pattern (this
682 scales better), a transparent 1x1 GIF image, or a custom URL or your choice.
686 If you want to see nothing, then change the <quote>+image-blocker</quote>
687 action to <quote>+image-blocker{blank}</quote>. This can be done from the
688 <quote>Edit Actions List</quote> selection at <ulink
689 url="http://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</ulink>. Or by hand editing the appropriate
690 actions file. This will only effect what is defined as <quote>images</quote>
699 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see the logo or checkerboard?</title>
701 This can be helpful for troubleshooting problems. It might also be good
702 for anyone new to <application>Foobar</application> so that they can
703 see if their favorite pages are displaying correctly, and
704 <application>Foobar</application> is not inadvertantly removing something
711 <title id="blockedisugly">I see large red banners on some pages that say
712 <quote>Blocked</quote>. How do I get rid of this?</title>
714 These are URLs that match something in one of
715 <application>Foobar's</application> block actions (+block). It is meant
716 to be a warning so that you know something has been blocked and an easy way
717 for you to see why. These are handled differently than what has been defined
718 as <quote>images</quote> (e.g. ad banners). If you want them to be treated
719 as if they were images, so that they can be invisible, then move the
720 offending URL from the <quote>+block</quote> section to the
721 <quote>+imageblock</quote> section of your actions file. Alternately, you
722 could modify the <quote><filename>block</filename></quote> HTML template that
723 is used by <application>Foobar</application> to display this, and make it
724 something more to your liking.
731 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
733 <sect2 id="misc"><title>Misc</title>
736 <title id="slowsme">How much does <application>Foobar</application> slow my browsing down? This
737 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
739 It should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
740 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not being displayed.
741 The actual processing time required by <application>Foobar</application>
742 itself for each page, is relatively small in the overall scheme of things,
743 and happens very quickly. This is typically more than offset by time saved
744 not downloading and rendering ad images.
748 <quote>Filtering</quote> via the <filename>re_filterfile</filename>
749 mechanism may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire page is buffered
750 before displaying. See below.
757 <sect3 id="loadingtimes"><title>I noticed considerable
758 delays in page requests compared to the old IJB. What's wrong?</title>
760 Using the default filtering configuration, I noticed considerable delays in
761 page requests compared to the old IJB. Loading pages with large contents
762 seemed to take forever, then suddenly delivering all the content at once.
765 The whole content must be loaded in order to filter, and nothing is is
766 sent to the browser during this time. The loading time does not really
767 change in real numbers, but the feeling is different, because most
768 browsers are able to start rendering incomplete content, giving the
769 user a feeling of "it works".
772 To modify the content of a page (i.e. make frames resizeable again, etc.) and
773 not just replace ads, <application>Foobar</application> needs to download the
774 entire page first, do its content magic and then send the page to the browser.
779 <sect3 id="configurl"><title>What is the "http://i.j.b/"?</title>
781 Since <application>Foobar</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can be
782 programmed to handle certain pages specially.
786 With recent versions of <application>Foobar</application> (version 2.9.x), you can get some
787 information about <application>Foobar</application> and change some settings by going to
788 http://i.j.b/ or, equivalently, http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/
789 (Note that i.j.b is far easier to type but may not work in some
794 These pages are *not* forwarded to a server on the internet - instead they are
795 handled by a special web server which is built in to <application>Foobar</application>.
799 If you are not running <application>Foobar</application>, then http://i.j.b/ will fail, and
800 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/ will return a web page telling you
801 you're not running <application>Foobar</application>.
805 If you have version 2.0.2, then the equivalent is
806 http://example.com/show-proxy-args (but you get far less information, and you
807 should really consider upgrading to 2.9.x).
812 FIXME: commented out until we have data. HB 03/18/02.
814 <sect3 id="badfiledesc"><title>I get the message 'Bad File Descriptor', why?</title>
820 <sect3 id="proxy-chaining"><title>How do I chain <application>Foobar</application> with other proxies
821 (e.g. squid)?</title>
828 <sect3 id="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what do I do?</title>
830 Well, helping the team is always a good idea. We welcome new developers,
831 RPM gurus or documentation makers. Simply get an account on sourceforge.net
832 and mail your id to the developer mailing list. Once we have added you to
833 the team, you'll have write access to the CVS repository, and together
834 we'll find a suitable task for you.
838 <sect3 id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
840 No. The format of the blocklists has changed significantly in the versions
841 2.9.x. Once we have released the new version, there will again be
842 blocklists that you can update automatically.
846 <sect3 id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads?</title>
848 As of now, please discontinue to submit new ad blocking infos. Once we
849 have released the new version, there will again be a form on the website,
850 which you can use to contribute new ads.
854 <sect3 id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
856 You cannot hide your IP address with <application>Foobar</application> or any other software, since
857 the server needs to know your IP address to send the answer to you.
860 Fortunately there are many publicly usable anonymous proxies out there, which
861 solve the problem by providing a further level of indirection between you and
862 the web server, shared by many people and thus letting your requests "drown"
863 in white noise of unrelated requests as far as user tracking is concerned.
866 Most of them will, however, log your IP address and make it available to the
867 authorities in case you abuse that anonymity for criminal purposes. In fact
868 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
869 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
872 You can find a list of anonymous public proxies at <ulink
873 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">multiproxy.org</ulink> and many
878 <!-- <sect3 id="image"><title>What is the imagefile (simage.ini, etc.) for?</title> -->
880 <!-- Anytime <application>Foobar</application> determines (with the help of the blocklist) that a URL -->
881 <!-- contains an advertisement, it has to decide whether this advertisement is an -->
882 <!-- image or not. <application>Foobar</application> uses the imagefile for that purpose. -->
887 <title id="anonforsure">Can <application>Foobar</application> guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
889 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
890 are an expert on Internet security it would be safest to assume that
891 everything you do on the Web can be traced back to you.
894 <application>Foobar</application> can remove various information about you,
895 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
896 you can trust. But it's still possible that web sites can find out who you
897 are. Here's one way this can happen.
900 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
901 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Foobar</application>
902 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
903 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
904 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
907 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
908 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
909 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
910 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
911 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
918 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information is
919 being altered?</title>
922 Definitely. More and more sites use HTTP header content to decide what to
923 display and how to display it. There is many ways that this can be handled,
924 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
928 <quote>USER AGENT</quote> in particular is often used in this way to identify
929 the browser, and adjust content accordingly. Changing this now is not
930 recommended, since so many sites do look for this. You may get undesirable
931 results by changing this.
935 For instance, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
936 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
937 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
938 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
939 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
940 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
941 <quote>REFERER</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
942 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
943 <quote>REFERER</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. There are
944 many, many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server.
948 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
949 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
950 be required, but by no means the only one.
958 <title id="caching">Can <application>Foobar</application> act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
959 speed up web browsing?</title>
961 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
962 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> for this. And, yes,
963 before you ask, <application>Foobar</application> can co-exist
964 with other kinds of proxies like <quote>Squid</quote>.
969 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can <application>Foobar</application> protect me?</title>
971 Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can, or a proxy that
972 has this specific capability. <application>Foobar</application> can help
973 protect your privacy, but not really protect you from intrusion attempts.
979 <title id="logo">The <application>Foobar</application> logo that replaces ads is very blocky
980 and ugly looking. Can't a better font be used?</title>
983 This is not a font problem. The logo is an image that is created by
984 <application>Foobar</application> on the fly. So as to not waste
985 memory, the image is rather small. The blockiness comes when the
986 image is scaled to fill a largish area. There is not much to be done
987 about this, other than to use one of the other
988 <quote>imageblock</quote> directives: <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>,
989 <emphasis>blank</emphasis>, or a URL of your chosing.
995 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be.
996 Why does <application>Foobar</application> leave these large gaps?</title>
998 It would be easy enough to just eliminate this space altogether, rather than
999 fill it with blank space. But, this would create problems with many pages
1000 that use the overall size of the ad to help organize the page layout and
1001 position the various components of the page where they were intended to be.
1002 It is best left this way.
1008 <title id="ssl">How can <application>Foobar</application> filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1010 This is a limitation since HTTPS transactions are encrypted SSL sessions
1011 between your browser and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably
1012 <emphasis>secure</emphasis> and private. This means that all cookies and HTTP
1013 header information are also encrypted from the time they leave your browser,
1014 to the site, and vice versa. <application>Foobar</application> does not
1015 try to unencrypt this information, so it just passes through as is.
1016 <application>Foobar</application> can still catch images and ads that
1017 are embedded in the SSL stream though.
1024 <title id="secure"><application>Foobar</application> runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1025 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1027 There are no known exploits that might effect
1028 <application>Foobar</application>. On Unix-like systems,
1029 <application>Foobar</application> can run as a non-privileged
1030 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1031 <application>Foobar</application> only listens to requests
1032 from <quote>localhost</quote>. It is not itself directly exposed to the
1033 Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1034 <application>Foobar</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1035 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1036 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1 in the main
1037 <application>Foobar</application> config file. All LAN hosts can then use
1038 this as their proxy address in the browser proxy configuration. In this way,
1039 <application>Foobar</application> will not listen on any external ports.
1040 Of course, a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
1046 <title id="filterfile">What is a <quote>re_filterfile</quote>?</title>
1048 The <quote>re_filterfile</quote> is used to <quote>filter</quote> any
1049 page content. By <quote>filtering</quote> we mean it can modify, remove,
1050 or change <emphasis>anything</emphasis> on the page, including HTML tags, and
1051 JavaScript. Regular expressions are used to accomplish this. This is
1052 potentially a very powerful feature, but requires some expertise.
1056 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
1057 the provided <filename>re_filterfile</filename> with a text editor and see
1058 some of things it can be used for.
1062 Presently, there is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration.
1069 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1072 <title id="trouble">Troubleshooting</title>
1075 <title id="refused">I just upgraded and am getting <quote>connection refused</quote>
1076 with every web page?</title>
1078 Either <application>Foobar</application> is not running, or your
1079 browser is configured for a different port than what
1080 <application>Foobar</application> is using.
1084 The old <application>Foobar</application> used port 8000 by
1085 default. This has been changed to port 8118 now, due to a conflict
1086 with NAS (Network Audio Service), which uses port 8000. If you haven't,
1087 you need to change your browser to the new port number, or alternately
1088 change <application>Foobar's</application> <quote>listen-address</quote>
1089 setting in the <filename>config</filename> file used to start
1090 <application>Foobar</application>.
1096 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
1097 still getting through. How?</title>
1099 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
1100 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
1101 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Foobar</application>
1102 will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flusing the browser's
1103 caches. And then try again.
1107 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
1108 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
1109 url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info">http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info</ulink>
1110 and see if any actions match your new rule.
1116 <title id="badsite">One of my favorite sites does not work with <application>Foobar</application>.
1117 What can I do?</title>
1120 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Foobar</application> problem,
1121 by disabling <application>Foobar</application> filtering and blocking.
1122 Go to <ulink url="http://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</ulink> and click on
1123 <quote>Toggle Foobar On or Off</quote>, then disable it. Now try that
1128 If still a problem, go to <quote>Show which actions apply to a URL and
1129 why</quote> from <ulink url="http://i.j.b/">http://i.j.b/</ulink> and paste
1130 the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions are
1131 being applied to the URL. Now, armed with this information, go to <quote>Edit
1132 the actions list</quote>. Here you should see various sections that have
1133 various <application>Foobar</application> features disabled for specific
1134 sites. Disabled <quote>actions</quote> will have a <quote>-</quote> (minus
1135 sign) in front of them. Add your problem page URL to one of these sections
1136 that looks like it is disabling the feature that is causing the
1137 problem. Re-try the page. There might be some trial and error involved. This
1138 is discussed in a little more detail in the <ulink
1139 url="http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/appenix.html#ACTIONSANAT">user-manual
1145 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
1146 the same thing by editing the appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file.
1152 <title id="time">What time is it?</title>
1163 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1165 FIXME: Commented out until we have something to put here. HB 03/18/02.
1166 <sect1 id="knownissues"><title>Known Issues</title>
1172 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1173 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contact the developers</title>
1174 <para>Please see the user manual for information on how to contact the developers.
1178 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1179 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Copyright and History</title>
1180 <para>Please see the user manual for information on Copyright and History.
1184 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1185 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
1186 <para>Please see the user manual for information on references.
1192 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
1194 Last modified: Mon Sep 10 19:22:09 CEST 2001
1196 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1197 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
1198 Public License as published by the Free Software
1199 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
1200 your option) any later version.
1202 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
1203 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
1204 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
1205 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
1206 License for more details.
1208 The GNU General Public License should be included with
1209 this file. If not, you can view it at
1210 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
1211 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
1212 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
1215 Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
1218 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
1221 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
1224 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
1225 A few more additions.
1227 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
1228 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
1230 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
1231 A little more added ...
1233 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
1234 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
1236 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
1239 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
1242 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
1243 correct feedback channels
1245 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
1246 more info on not hiding ip address
1248 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
1249 added default config section
1251 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
1254 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
1255 Committing changes by Stefan
1257 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
1258 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
1260 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
1261 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
1262 will work - no other changes are needed.
1264 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
1265 upload process established. run make webserver and
1266 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
1267 are now linked correctly.
1269 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
1270 merged standards into developer manual
1272 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
1273 source files for junkbuster documentation
1275 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
1276 first proposal of a structure.
1278 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
1279 docs should have an author.
1281 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
1282 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.