4 >General Information</TITLE
7 CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.64
10 TITLE="Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions"
11 HREF="index.html"><LINK
13 TITLE="Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions"
14 HREF="index.html"><LINK
17 HREF="installation.html"><LINK
20 HREF="../p_doc.css"></HEAD
39 >Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</TH
60 HREF="installation.html"
74 >1. General Information</A
82 >1.1. What is this new version of <SPAN
95 > (tm) is a copyrighted product of <A
96 HREF="http://www.junkbusters.com"
98 >Junkbusters Corporation</A
100 Development of this effort stopped some time ago as of version 2.0.2. Stefan
101 Waldherr started the ijbswa project on <A
102 HREF="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/"
106 rekindle development. Other developers subsequently joined with Stefan, and
107 have since added many new features, refinements and enhancements. The result
108 of this effort is <SPAN
117 > has evolved from the
120 >Junkbuster 2.0.2</SPAN
121 > code base, and has advanced
122 significantly at this point.
127 HREF="copyright.html"
130 information on the history of <SPAN
149 >? Why a name change at all?</A
160 >Privacy Enhancing Proxy</I
164 > There are potential legal complications from the continued use of the
168 > name, which is a registered trademark of
170 HREF="http://junkbusters.com"
172 >Junkbusters Corporation</A
177 > the rights to the name.
178 (There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
182 > project itself, and they, in fact, still
183 share our ideals and goals.)</P
185 > The developers also believed that there are so many changes from the original
186 code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
187 a name in their own right, especially now with the pending
188 release of version 3.0.</P
213 > left off. All the old features remain.
217 > still blocks ads and banners,
218 still manages cookies, and still helps protect your privacy. But, these are
219 all enhanced, and many new features have been added, all in the same vein.
222 > The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
223 users will notice right off the bat if you are upgrading from
231 file does not exist any more. This is replaced by <SPAN
238 >. This is where most of
239 the per site configuration is now.
248 >1.4. What are some of the new features?</A
256 > Integrated browser based configuration and control utility (<A
260 >). Browser-based tracing of rule
266 > Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
271 > HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 1.1 features are supported).
276 > Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files, and
277 generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
288 > Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size,
292 >, JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse,
298 > Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
304 > Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
309 > Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
314 > User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
319 > Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
324 > Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
329 > Builds from source on most UNIX-like systems. Packages available for: Linux
330 (RedHat, SuSE, or Debian), Windows, Sun Solaris, Mac OSX, OS/2, HP-UX 11 and AmigaOS.
336 > In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile over-all.
348 >1.5. What is a <SPAN
358 > When you connect to a web site with <SPAN
362 you are really connecting to your locally running version of
370 intercepts your requests for the web page, and relays that to the
374 > web site. The web site sends the HTTP data stream
382 > can work its magic before it
383 relays this data back to your web browser.
389 > sits between you and the
390 WWW, it is in a position to intercept and completely manage all web traffic and
391 HTTP content before it gets to your browser.
395 > uses various programming methods to do
396 this, all of which is under your control via the various configuration
400 > There are many kinds of proxies. <SPAN
406 >"filtering proxy"</SPAN
420 an ad, and what is not?</A
426 > processes all the raw content of every
427 web page. So it reads everything on each page. It then compares this to the
428 rules as set up in the configuration files, and looks for any matches to
435 >"regular expressions"</SPAN
436 >. (If you are not familiar with regular
437 expressions, it is explained briefly in <A
438 HREF="../user-manual/appendix.html"
442 expressions facilitate matching of one text string against another, using
443 wildcards to build complex patterns. So <SPAN
447 will typically look for URLs and other content that match certain key words
448 and expressions as defined in the configuration files. For instance a URL
452 >, has a high probability of containing
453 ad banners, and thus would be a prime candidate to have a matching rule.</P
458 > will look for these kinds of obvious
459 looking culprits. And also, will use lists of known organizations that
460 specialize in ads. Again, using complex patterns to match as many potential
461 combinations as possible since there tend to be many, many variations used by
462 advertisers, and new ones are being introduced all the time.</P
474 This does not sound very scientific.</A
477 > Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad rule
478 accidentally block something by mistake. There is a good chance you may run
479 into such a situation at some point. It is tricky writing rules to cover
480 every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.</P
482 > But this should not be a big concern since the
486 > configuration is very flexible, and
487 includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
488 addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
490 HREF="trouble.html#AEN647"
491 >See the Troubleshooting section below</A
500 >1.8. My browser does the same things as
511 > Modern browsers do indeed have <I
515 functionality as <SPAN
519 adequate for you. But <SPAN
523 versatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
526 > In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
527 have a LAN with multiple computers. This way all the configuration
528 is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar configuration
529 for possibly many browsers.
539 >1.9. Is there is a license or fee? What about a
540 warranty? Registration?</A
546 > is licensed under the GNU General Public
547 License (GPL). It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish
548 under the terms of this license. Please see the Copyright section for more
549 information on the license and copyright.
553 > There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise. That is
554 something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
572 >1.10. I would like to help you, what do I do?</A
579 NAME="JOINTEAM-MONEY"
580 >1.10.1. Money Money Money</A
583 > We, of course, welcome donations and use the money for domain registering,
584 regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). Anyway, we'll soon describe the
585 process how to donate money to the team.</P
593 >1.10.2. You want to work with us?</A
596 > Well, helping the team is always a good idea. We welcome new developers,
597 RPM gurus or documentation makers. Simply get an account on sourceforge.net
598 and mail your id to the developer mailing list. Then read the
599 section Quickstart in the <A
600 HREF="../developer-manual/quickstart.html"
602 > Developer's Manual</A
605 > Once we have added you to the team, you'll have write access to the CVS
606 repository, and together we'll find a suitable task for you.</P
641 HREF="installation.html"
650 >Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</TD