1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN"[
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
8 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
9 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
10 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
11 <!entity p-version "3.0.16">
12 <!entity p-status "stable">
13 <!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
14 <!entity % p-stable "INCLUDE">
15 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
16 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
17 <!entity % p-supp-userman "INCLUDE"> <!-- Include all from supported.sgml -->
18 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
19 <!entity % p-newstuff "INCLUDE"> <!-- exclude stuff from devel versions -->
20 <!entity % seealso-extra "INCLUDE"> <!-- extra stuff from seealso.sgml -->
21 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
24 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/faq.sgml,v $
27 This file belongs into
28 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
30 $Id: faq.sgml,v 2.70 2010/02/20 18:08:31 ler762 Exp $
32 Copyright (C) 2001-2009 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
35 Based partially on the Internet Junkbuster FAQ originally written by and
36 Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters Corporation.
37 http://www.junkbusters.com/
39 <Qandaset defaultlabel='qanda'>
54 ========================================================================
55 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
58 Please we keep the info in this file as version independent as possible
59 so we only have to maintain one FAQ. Where significant changes are
60 made to Privoxy configuration, please note the change in such a way that
61 it makes sense to both users of older and newer versions.
62 ========================================================================
68 <article id="index" class="faq">
70 <title>Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</title>
74 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
75 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
76 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2010 by
77 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
81 <pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.70 2010/02/20 18:08:31 ler762 Exp $</pubdate>
85 Note: this should generate a separate page, and a live link to it.
86 But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave commented
87 unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the copyright
88 statement will be in copyright.smgl.
92 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
94 text goes here ........
104 <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
113 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
114 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
115 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
120 This FAQ gives quick answers to frequently asked questions about
121 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
122 It is not a substitute for the
123 <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
125 This works, at least in some situtations:
126 Test: <ulink url="privoxy-user-manual.pdf"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>.
130 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
131 <para>What is Privoxy?</para> &p-intro;
132 <!-- end boilerplate -->
135 Please note that this document is a work in progress. This copy represents
136 the state at the release of version &p-version;.
137 You can find the latest version of the document at <ulink
138 url="http://www.privoxy.org/faq/">http://www.privoxy.org/faq/</ulink>.
139 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> if you want to
140 contact the developers.
144 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
150 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
152 <sect1 id="general"><title>General Information</title>
153 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="who-uses"><title>Who should give &my-app; a try?</title>
155 Anyone who is interested in security, privacy, or in
156 finer-grained control over their web and Internet experience.
160 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="bestchoice"><title>Is Privoxy the best choice for
163 &my-app; is certainly a good choice, especially for those who want more
164 control and security. Those with the willingness to read the documentation
165 and the ability to fine-tune their installation will benefit the most.
168 One of <application>Privoxy's</application>
169 strengths is that it is highly configurable giving you the ability to
170 completely personalize your installation. Being familiar with, or at least
171 having an interest in learning about <ulink
172 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Http">HTTP</ulink> and other networking
173 protocols, <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html">HTML</ulink>, and
174 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
175 Expressions</quote></ulink>
176 will be a big plus and will help you get the most out of &my-app;.
177 A new installation just includes a very basic configuration. The user
178 should take this as a starting point only, and enhance it as he or she
179 sees fit. In fact, the user is encouraged, and expected to, fine-tune the
183 Much of <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration can be done
184 with a <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser">Web browser</ulink>.
185 But there are areas where configuration is done using a
186 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_editors">text editor</ulink>
187 to edit configuration files. Also note that the web-based action editor
188 doesn't use authentication and should only be enabled in environments
189 where all clients with access to &my-app; listening port can be trusted.
193 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="proxymoron"><title>What is a <quote>proxy</quote>? How does
194 Privoxy work? </title>
196 A <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">web proxy</ulink>
197 is a service, based on a software such as &my-app;, that clients
198 (i.e. browsers) can use instead of connecting to web servers directly.
199 The clients then ask the proxy to request objects (web pages, images, movies etc)
200 on their behalf and to forward the data to the clients.
201 It is a <quote>go-between</quote>. For details, see
202 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">Wikipedia's proxy definition</ulink>.
205 There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security (firewalling),
206 efficiency (caching) and others, and there are any number of proxies
207 to accommodate those needs.
210 &my-app; is a proxy that is primarily focused on
211 privacy enhancement, ad and junk elimination and freeing the user from
212 restrictions placed on his activities. Sitting between your browser(s) and the Internet,
213 it is in a perfect position to filter outbound personal information that your
214 browser is leaking, as well as inbound junk. It uses a variety of techniques to do
215 this, all of which are under your complete control via the various configuration
216 files and options. Being a proxy also makes it easier to share
217 configurations among multiple browsers and/or users.
221 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherstuff">
222 <title>Does Privoxy do anything more than ad blocking?</title>
224 Yes, ad blocking is but one possible use. There are many, many ways &my-app;
225 can be used to sanitize and customize web browsing.
229 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newjb"><title>What is this new version of
230 <quote><citetitle>Junkbuster</citetitle></quote>?</title>
232 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
239 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
240 <title id="whyprivoxy">Why <quote>Privoxy</quote>? Why change the name from
241 Junkbuster at all?</title>
243 Though outdated, <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>
244 continues to offer their original version of the <application>Internet
245 Junkbuster</application>, so publishing our
246 <application> Junkbuster</application>-derived software under the same name
250 There are also potential legal complications from our use of the
251 <application>Junkbuster</application> name, which is a registered trademark of
252 <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com/">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>.
253 There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
254 <application>Privoxy</application> project itself, and they, in fact, still
255 share our ideals and goals.
258 The developers also believed that there are so many improvements over the original
259 code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
260 a name in their own right.
263 <application>Privoxy</application> is the
264 <quote><emphasis>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</emphasis></quote>. Also, its content
265 modification and junk suppression gives <emphasis>you</emphasis>, the user, more
266 control, more freedom, and allows you to browse your personal and
267 <quote><emphasis>private</emphasis> edition</quote> of the web.
271 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="differs"><title>How does Privoxy differ
272 from the old Junkbuster?</title>
274 <application>Privoxy</application> picks up where
275 <application>Junkbuster</application> left off.
276 The new <application>Privoxy</application> still blocks ads and banners,
278 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>, and still
279 helps protect your privacy. But, most of these features have been enhanced,
280 and many new ones have been added, all in the same vein.
283 <application>Privoxy</application>'s new features include:
286 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml: -->
292 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whatsanad">
293 <title id="knows">How does Privoxy know what is
294 an ad, and what is not?</title>
296 <application>Privoxy</application>'s approach to blocking ads is twofold:
299 First, there are certain patterns in the <emphasis>locations</emphasis> (URLs)
300 of banner images. This applies to both the path (you wouldn't guess how many
301 web sites serve their banners from a directory called <quote>banners</quote>!)
302 and the host (blocking the big banner hosting services like doublecklick.net
303 already helps a lot). <application>Privoxy</application> takes advantage of this
304 fact by using <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL
305 patterns</ulink> to sort out and block the requests for things that sound
306 like they would be ads or banners.
309 Second, banners tend to come in certain <emphasis>sizes</emphasis>. But you
310 can't tell the size of an image by its URL without downloading it, and if you
311 do, it's too late to save bandwidth. Therefore, <application>Privoxy</application>
312 also inspects the HTML sources of web pages while they are loaded, and replaces
313 references to images with standard banner sizes by dummy references, so that
314 your browser doesn't request them anymore in the first place.
317 Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
318 and readily configurable.
322 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
323 <title id="mistakes">Can Privoxy make mistakes?
324 This does not sound very scientific.</title>
326 Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
327 rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. You will almost surely
328 run into such situations at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
329 cover every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
333 But this should not be a big concern since the
334 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is very flexible, and
335 includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
336 addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
337 (<link linkend="badsite">See the Troubleshooting section below</link>.)
342 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
343 <title id="configornot">Will I have to configure Privoxy
344 before I can use it?</title>
346 That depends on your expectations.
347 The default installation should give you a good starting
348 point, and block <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads and unwanted content,
349 but many of the more advanced features are off by default, and require
350 you to activate them.
353 You do have to set up your browser to use
354 <application>Privoxy</application> (see the <link
355 linkend="firststep">Installation section below</link>).
358 And you will certainly run into situations where there are false positives,
359 or ads not being blocked that you may not want to see. In these cases, you
360 would certainly benefit by customizing <application>Privoxy's</application>
361 configuration to more closely match your individual situation. And we
362 encourage you to do this. This is where the real power of
363 <application>Privoxy</application> lies!
368 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="lan">
369 <title>Can Privoxy run as a server on a network?</title>
371 Yes, &my-app; runs as a server already, and can easily be configured to
372 <quote>serve</quote> more than one client. See <link linkend="lanconfig">
373 How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN</link> below.
377 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
378 Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy at all?</title>
380 Modern browsers do indeed have <emphasis>some</emphasis> of the same
381 functionality as <application>Privoxy</application>. Maybe this is
382 adequate for you. But <application>Privoxy</application> is very
383 versatile and powerful, and can probably do a number of things
384 your browser just can't.
387 In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
388 have a LAN with multiple computers since &my-app; can run as a server
389 application. This way all the configuration is in one place, and you don't
390 have to maintain a similar configuration for possibly many browsers or
394 Note, however, that it's recommended to leverage both your browser's
395 and <application>Privoxy's</application> privacy enhancing features
396 at the same time. While your browser probably lacks some features
397 &my-app; offers, it should also be able to do some things more
398 reliable, for example restricting and suppressing JavaScript.
402 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whytrust"><title>Why should I trust Privoxy?</title>
404 The most important reason is because you have access to
405 <emphasis>everything</emphasis>, and you can control everything. You can
406 check every line of every configuration file yourself. You can check every
407 last bit of source code should you desire. And even if you can't read code,
408 there should be some comfort in knowing that <!-- thousands of -->other people can,
409 and do read it. You can build the software from scratch, if you want,
410 so that you know the executable is clean, and that it is
411 <emphasis>yours</emphasis>. In fact, we encourage this level of scrutiny. It
412 is one reason we use &my-app; ourselves.
416 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
417 warranty? Registration?</title>
419 <application>Privoxy</application> is free software and licensed under the <ulink
420 url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html">GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2</ulink>.
421 It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this
422 license. Please see the <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> section for more
423 information on the license and copyright. Or the <filename>LICENSE</filename> file
424 that should be included.
427 There is <emphasis>no warranty</emphasis> of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
428 That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
433 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="spyware">
434 <title>Can Privoxy remove spyware? Adware? Viruses?</title>
436 No, at least not reliably enough to trust it. &my-app; is not designed to be
437 a malware removal tool and the default configuration doesn't even try to
438 filter out any malware.
441 &my-app; could help prevent contact from (known) sites that use such
442 tactics with appropriate configuration rules, and thus could conceivably
443 prevent contamination from such sites. However, keeping such a configuration
444 up to date would require a lot of time and effort that would be better spend
445 on keeping your software itself up to date so it doesn't have known
451 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherads">
452 <title>Can I use Privoxy with other ad-blocking software?</title>
454 &my-app; should work fine with other proxies and other software in general.
457 But it is probably not necessary to use &my-app; in conjunction with other
458 ad-blocking products, and this could conceivably cause undesirable results.
459 It might be better to choose one software or the other and work a little to
460 tweak its configuration to your liking.
463 Note that this is an advice specific to ad blocking.
467 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="help-the-developers"><title id="jointeam">I would like to help you, what can I do?</title>
469 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="participate"><title id="jointeam-work">Would you like to participate?</title>
471 Well, we <emphasis>always</emphasis> need help. There is something for
472 everybody who wants to help us. We welcome new developers, packagers,
473 testers, documentation writers or really anyone with a desire to help in
474 any way. You <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> need to be a
475 <quote>programmer</quote>. There are many other tasks available. In fact,
476 the programmers often can't spend as much time programming because of some
477 of the other, more mundane things that need to be done, like checking the
478 Tracker feedback sections or responding to user questions on the mailing
482 So first thing, subscribe to the <ulink
483 url="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-users">Privoxy Users</ulink>
484 or the <ulink url="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-developers">Privoxy
485 Developers</ulink> mailing list, join the discussion, help out other users, provide general
486 feedback or report problems you noticed.
489 If you intend to help out with the trackers, you also might want to <ulink
490 url="https://sourceforge.net/account/register.php">get an account on SourceForge.net</ulink>
491 so we don't confuse you with the other name-less users.
494 We also have a <ulink
495 url="../developer-manual/index.html">Developer's Manual</ulink>.
496 While it is partly out of date, it's still worth reading.
499 Our <ulink url="http://ijbswa.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ijbswa/current/TODO?view=markup">TODO list</ulink>
500 may be of interest to you as well.
501 Please let us know if you want to work on one of the items listed.
505 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="donate"><title>Would you like to donate?</title>
507 <application>Privoxy</application> is developed by unpaid volunteers
508 and thus our current running costs are pretty low. Nevertheless, we
509 have plans that will cost money in the future. We would like to get
510 this money through donations made by our users.
514 <application>Privoxy</application> has therefore become an associated
515 project of <ulink url="http://www.spi-inc.org/about-spi/about-spi">Software
516 in the Public Interest (SPI)</ulink>, which allows us to receive tax-deductible
517 donations in most western countries.
521 We intend to use the donations to pay for our domain after transfering
522 it to SPI. Our goal is to make sure there's no single point of failure
523 and the bill gets paid and the site keeps running even if a some of
524 the currently active developers were to suddenly disappear for a while.
528 We would also like to spend some money on more reliable hosting,
529 on hardware to help make sure <application>Privoxy</application>
530 keeps running on platforms the developers currently can't test on,
531 and on technical books to educate our developers about said platforms
532 or to improve their knowledge in general.
536 If you enjoy our software and feel like helping out with a donation,
537 please have a look at
538 <ulink url="http://www.spi-inc.org/donations">SPI's donation page</ulink>
539 to see what the options are.
548 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
550 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
552 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichbrowsers">
553 <title>Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?</title>
555 Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
556 should be virtually all browsers, including
557 <application>Firefox</application>, <application>Internet
558 Explorer</application>, <application>Opera</application>, and
559 <application>Safari</application> among others.
560 Direct browser support is not an absolute requirement since
561 <application>Privoxy</application> runs as a separate application and talks
562 to the browser in the standardized HTTP protocol, just like a web server
567 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichos">
568 <title>Which operating systems are supported?</title>
570 Include supported.sgml here:
575 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="email-client">
576 <title>Can I use Privoxy with my email client?</title>
578 As long as there is some way to set a HTTP proxy for the client, then yes,
579 any application can be used, whether it is strictly speaking a
580 <quote>browser</quote> or not. Though this may not be the best approach for
581 dealing with some of the common abuses of HTML in email. See <link
582 linkend="outlook">How can I configure <application>Privoxy</application>
583 with <application>Outlook</application>?</link> below for more on
587 Be aware that HTML email presents a number of unique security and privacy
588 related issues, that can require advanced skills to overcome. The developers
589 recommend using email clients that can be configured to convert HTML to plain
590 text for these reasons.
594 <!-- Nobody is going to still be doing this!
595 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
596 Privoxy over Junkbuster?</title>
598 We recommend you un-install <application>Junkbuster</application>
599 first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
600 save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
601 files and syntax have substantially changed, so you will need to manually
602 port your old patterns. See the <ulink url="../user-manual/upgradersnote.html">note
603 to upgraders</ulink> and <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">installation
604 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink>
608 Note: Some installers may automatically un-install
609 <application>Junkbuster</application>, if present!
615 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="firststep">
616 <title>I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything
617 special I have to do now?</title>
620 All browsers should be told to use <application>Privoxy</application>
621 as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
622 in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. It's possible
623 to combine &my-app; with a packet filter to intercept HTTP requests
624 even if the client isn't explicitly configured to use &my-app;,
625 but where possible, configuring the client is recommended. See
626 <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">the User Manual for more
627 details</ulink>. You should also flush your browser's memory and disk
628 cache to get rid of any cached junk items, and remove any stored
629 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>.
635 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of Privoxy?</title>
637 If you set up the <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
638 the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
639 networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>
640 (sometimes referred to as <quote>localhost</quote>,
641 which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
642 to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you used the <ulink
643 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink>
644 config option to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
648 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
649 the word <quote>localhost</quote> or the IP address <quote>127.0.0.1</quote>
650 in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote> and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and
651 then the number <quote>8118</quote> for <quote>port</quote>.
652 This tells your browser to send all web requests to <application>Privoxy</application>
653 instead of directly to the Internet.
656 <application>Privoxy</application> can also be used to proxy for
657 a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
658 address of the LAN host where <application>Privoxy</application>
659 is running, or the equivalent hostname, e.g. <literal>192.168.1.1</literal>.
660 Port assignment would be same as above. Note that
661 <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't listen on any LAN interfaces by
665 <application>Privoxy</application> does not currently handle
666 any other protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, etc.
670 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nothing">
671 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening.
672 All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
675 Did you configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
676 as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
677 the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
678 that <application>Privoxy</application> is running, and your browser
679 is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
680 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>.
681 <!-- Use http://p.p/ instead of http://config.privoxy.org/ here because
682 of potential redirect caching problem (see next Q). -->
683 This should take you to a page titled <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote> with
684 access to <application>Privoxy's</application> internal configuration.
685 If you see this, then you are good to go. If you receive a page saying
686 <quote>Privoxy is not running</quote>, then the browser is not set up to use
687 your <application>Privoxy</application> installation.
688 If you receive anything else (probably nothing at all), it could either
689 be that the browser is not set up correctly, or that
690 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running at all. Check the <ulink
691 url="../user-manual/config.html#LOGFILE">log file</ulink>. For instructions
692 on starting <application>Privoxy</application> and browser configuration,
693 see the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
694 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
695 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
700 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="notused">
701 <title>I get a <quote>Privoxy is not being used</quote> dummy page although
702 Privoxy is running and being used.</title>
705 First, make sure that Privoxy is <emphasis>really</emphasis> running and
706 being used by visiting <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. You
707 should see the <application>Privoxy</application> main page. If not, see
708 the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
709 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
710 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
714 Now if <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> works for you, but
715 other parts of <application>Privoxy</application>'s web interface show
716 the dummy page, your browser has cached a redirection it encountered before
717 <application>Privoxy</application> was being used. You need to clear your
718 browser's cache. Note that shift-reloading the dummy page won't help, since
719 that'll only refresh the dummy page, not the redirection that lead you there.
723 The procedure for clearing the cache varies from browser to browser. For
724 example, <application>Mozilla/Netscape</application> users would click
725 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -->
726 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
727 then click both <quote><guibutton>Clear Memory Cache</guibutton></quote>
728 and <quote><guibutton>Clear Disk Cache</guibutton></quote>.
729 In some <application>Firefox</application> versions it's
730 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -->
731 <guibutton>Privacy</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
732 then click <quote><guibutton>Clear Cache Now</guibutton></quote>.
733 <!-- In my Firefox versions it's the Netscape way. fk 2007-11-19-->
740 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
742 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
743 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
744 <title id="actionsfile">What exactly is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
747 &my-app; utilizes the concept of <quote>
748 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink></quote>
749 that are used to manipulate and control web page data.
750 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">Actions files</ulink>
751 are where these <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink>
752 that <application>Privoxy</application> could take while processing a certain
753 request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
754 that apply globally to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
755 There is a wide array of actions available that give the user a high degree
756 of control and flexibility on how to process each and every web page.
760 Actions can be defined on a <ulink
761 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</ulink> basis, i.e.
762 for single URLs, whole web sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be
763 grouped together and then applied to requests matching one or more patterns.
764 There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
765 if you are blocking <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
766 as one of your default actions, but need to accept cookies from a given site,
767 you would need to define an exception for this site in one of your actions
768 files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>.
773 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionss">
774 <title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
775 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
777 For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer
778 to the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions file
779 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User
780 Manual</ulink>. It includes a <ulink
781 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">list of all actions</ulink>
782 and an <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions
783 file tutorial</ulink> to get you started.
788 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
789 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
790 way to do this?</title>
793 Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
794 with a text editor. But probably the easiest way is to access
795 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface with your web browser
796 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
797 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and then select
798 <quote><ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View &
799 change the current configuration</ulink></quote> from the menu. Note
800 that this feature must be explicitly enabled in the main config file
802 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>).
807 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
808 <title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
809 the differences?</title>
811 Please have a look at the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">the actions chapter</ulink>
812 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> for a detailed explanation.
817 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
819 Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updates of
820 <filename>default.action</filename> will be
821 made available from time to time on the <ulink
822 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files section</ulink> of
823 our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project page</ulink>.
827 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
828 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
829 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
830 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
835 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
837 The syntax and purpose of configuration files has remained roughly the
838 same throughout the 3.x series, but backwards compatibility is not guaranteed.
839 Also each release contains updated, <quote>improved</quote> versions and it is
840 therefore strongly recommended to install the newer configuration files
841 and merge back your modifications.
845 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="difficult">
846 <title>Why is the configuration so complicated?</title>
848 <quote>Complicated</quote> is in the eye of the beholder. Those that are
849 familiar with some of the underlying concepts, such as regular expression
850 syntax, take to it like a fish takes to water. Also, software that tries
851 hard to be <quote>user friendly</quote>, often lacks sophistication and
852 flexibility. There is always that trade-off there between power vs.
853 easy-of-use. Furthermore, anyone is welcome to contribute ideas and
854 implementations to enhance &my-app;.
858 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account work?</title>
860 The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services.
861 It may, however, make all <ulink
862 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
863 temporary, so that your browser will forget your
864 login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would like not to have to log
865 in manually each time you access those websites, simply turn off all cookie handling
866 for them in the <filename>user.action</filename> file. An example for yahoo might
870 <screen># Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
872 { -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</ulink> -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</ulink> -<ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</ulink> }
873 .login.yahoo.com</screen>
876 These kinds of sites are often quite complex and heavy with
877 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> and
878 thus <quote>fragile</quote>. So if <emphasis>still</emphasis> a problem,
880 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> just for such
884 <screen># Gmail is a _fragile_ site:
886 { <literal>fragile</literal> }
888 mail.google.com</screen>
891 Be sure to flush your browser's caches whenever making these kinds of
892 changes, just to make sure the changes <quote>take</quote>.
895 Make sure the domain, host and path are appropriate as well. Your browser can
896 tell you where you are specifically and you should use that information for
897 your configuration settings. Note that above it is not referenced as
898 <literal>gmail.com</literal>, which is a valid domain name.
903 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
904 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Advanced</quote> defaults?</title>
906 Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To
907 help you get started, we provide you with three different default action
908 <quote>profiles</quote> in the web based actions file editor at <ulink
909 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
910 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html"><citetitle>User
911 Manual</citetitle></ulink> for a list of actions, and how the default
916 Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
917 known popular <quote>problem</quote> sites are included, but in
918 general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more exceptions
919 you will have to make later. New users are best to start off in
920 <quote>Cautious</quote> setting. This is safest and will have the fewest
921 problems. See the <ulink
922 url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>
923 for a more detailed discussion.
927 It should be noted that the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile (formerly known
928 as the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> profile) is more
929 aggressive, and will make use of some of
930 <application>Privoxy's</application> advanced features. Use at your own risk!
935 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration
936 with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
938 It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files with their
939 browsers, although the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
940 belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
943 When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
944 itself is writing to the config files. Because
945 <application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>,
946 it can update its own config files.
949 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in
950 a LAN) or aren't entirely in control of your own browser, you will probably want
951 to make sure that the the web-based editor and remote toggle features are
952 <quote>off</quote> by setting <quote><literal><ulink
953 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>
954 0</literal></quote> and <quote><literal><ulink
955 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">enable-remote-toggle</ulink>
956 0</literal></quote> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
959 As of &my-app; 3.0.7 these options are disabled by default.
964 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
965 <title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file? What is a <quote>filter</quote>?</title>
967 The <ulink url="../user-manual/filter-file.html"><filename>default.filter</filename></ulink>
968 file is where <emphasis>filters</emphasis> as supplied by the developers are defined.
969 Filters are a special subset of actions that can be used to modify or
970 remove web page content or headers on the fly. Content filters can
971 be applied to <emphasis>anything</emphasis> in the page source,
972 header filters can be applied to either server or client headers.
973 Regular expressions are used to accomplish this.
976 There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common annoyances. The
977 filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you need to use the
979 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"><literal>filter</literal>
980 action</ulink> in one of the actions files. Content filtering is automatically
981 disabled for inappropriate MIME types, but if you know better than Privoxy
982 what should or should not be filtered you can filter any content you like.
986 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be confused with <ulink
987 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK"><literal>blocks</literal></ulink>, which
988 is a completely different action, and is more typically used to block ads and
993 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
994 the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and define
995 your own filters. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
996 requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
997 <![%p-newstuff;[ You should
998 place any modifications to the default filters, or any new ones you create
999 in a separate file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>, so they won't
1000 be overwritten during upgrades.
1001 The ability to define multiple filter files
1002 in <filename>config</filename> is a new feature as of v. 3.0.5.]]>
1006 There is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
1007 but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included
1008 <filename>default.filter</filename> file with the <ulink
1009 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
1010 Note that the custom actions editor must be explicitly enabled in
1011 the main config file (see <ulink
1012 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>).
1016 If you intend to develop your own filters, you might want to have a look at
1018 url="http://www.fabiankeil.de/sourcecode/pft/">Privoxy-Filter-Test</ulink>.
1023 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="lanconfig">
1024 <title>How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my
1027 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
1028 from <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> (localhost). To have it act as a server for
1029 a network, this needs to be changed in the <ulink
1030 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>. Look for
1032 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink></literal>
1033 option, which may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
1034 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
1035 and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you
1036 wish to run <application>Privoxy</application> on port 8118, this line
1042 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118</screen>
1046 Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
1047 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
1051 Alternately, you can have <application>Privoxy</application> listen on
1052 all available interfaces:
1057 listen-address :8118</screen>
1061 And then use <application>Privoxy's</application>
1063 url="../user-manual/config.html#PERMIT-ACCESS">permit-access</ulink>
1064 feature to limit connections. A firewall in this situation is recommended
1069 The above steps should be the same for any TCP network, regardless of
1074 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> on a LAN with untrusted users,
1075 we recommend that you double-check the <ulink
1076 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security</ulink>
1083 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1084 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
1086 The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the <ulink
1087 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1088 action</ulink>. You have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
1089 image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a redirect to a custom image of your choice.
1090 Note that this choice only has effect for images which are blocked as images, i.e.
1091 whose URLs match both a <literal><ulink
1092 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink></literal>
1093 <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><ulink
1094 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> action.
1097 If you want to see nothing, then change the <ulink
1098 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1099 action</ulink> to <quote>blank</quote>. This can be done by editing the
1100 <filename>user.action</filename> file, or through the <ulink
1101 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
1106 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1107 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
1109 Remember that <link linkend="whatsanad">telling which image is an ad and which
1110 isn't</link>, is an educated guess. While we hope that the standard configuration
1111 is rather smart, it will make occasional mistakes. The checkerboard image is visually
1112 decent, and it shows you where images have been blocked, which can be very
1113 helpful in case some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was
1114 erroneously blocked. It is recommended for new users so they can
1115 <quote>see</quote> what is happening. Some people might also enjoy seeing how
1116 many banners they <emphasis>don't</emphasis> have to see.
1121 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1122 <title id="blockedbytext">I see some images being replaced with text
1123 instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
1125 This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of the
1126 page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded into (i)frames
1127 or (i)layers, and these external HTML documents are blocked. Being non-images
1128 they get replaced by a substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image,
1129 which wouldn't work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts
1130 only HTML when it has requested an HTML document.
1133 The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself as a
1134 miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown with a
1135 large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
1138 If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to it that
1139 the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked. Clicking
1140 the <quote>See why</quote> link offered in the substitute page will show
1141 you which rule blocked the page. After changing the rule and un-blocking
1142 the HTML documents, the browser will try to load the actual banner images
1143 and the usual image blocking will (hopefully!) kick in.
1148 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="srvany">
1149 <title>Can Privoxy run as a service
1150 on Win2K/NT/XP?</title>
1153 Yes. Version 3.0.5 introduces full <application>Windows</application> service
1154 functionality. See <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html#installation-pack-win">
1155 the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink> for details on how to install and configure
1156 <application>Privoxy</application> as a service.
1159 Earlier ]]>3.x versions could run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
1160 See the discussion at <ulink
1161 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>,
1162 for details, and a sample configuration.
1167 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherproxy">
1168 <title>How can I make Privoxy work with other
1169 proxies like Squid or Tor?</title>
1171 This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
1172 <application>Privoxy</application> with those of a another proxy.
1174 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1175 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> which
1176 describes how to do this, and the <link linkend="TOR">
1177 How do I use Privoxy together with
1178 Tor</link> section below.
1182 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="port-80">
1183 <title>Can I just set Privoxy to use port 80
1184 and thus avoid individual browser configuration?</title>
1187 No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special kinds
1188 of proxies known as <quote>intercepting</quote> proxies (see below).
1193 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
1194 <title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>transparent
1195 </quote> proxy?</title>
1197 The whole idea of Privoxy is to modify client requests
1198 and server responses in all sorts of ways and therefore
1199 it's not a transparent proxy as described in
1200 <ulink url="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616">RFC 2616</ulink>.
1203 However, some people say <quote>transparent proxy</quote> when they
1204 mean <quote>intercepting proxy</quote>. If you are one of them,
1205 please read the <ulink url="#intercepting">next entry</ulink>.
1210 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="intercepting">
1211 <title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>intercepting</quote> proxy?</title>
1213 <application>Privoxy</application> can't intercept traffic itself,
1214 but it can handle requests that where intercepted and redirected
1215 with a packet filter (like <application>PF</application> or
1216 <application>iptables</application>), as long as the <literal>Host</literal>
1220 As the <literal>Host</literal> header is required by HTTP/1.1 and as most
1221 web sites rely on it anyway, this limitation shouldn't be a problem.
1224 Please refer to your packet filter's documentation to learn how to
1225 intercept and redirect traffic into <application>Privoxy</application>.
1226 Afterward you just have to configure <application>Privoxy</application> to
1227 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCEPT-INTERCEPTED-REQUESTS">accept
1228 intercepted requests</ulink>.
1233 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook">
1234 <title>How can I configure Privoxy for use with Outlook?</title>
1236 Versions of <application>Outlook</application> prior to Office 2007, use
1237 <application>Internet Explorer</application> components to both render HTML,
1238 and fetch any HTTP requests that may be embedded in an HTML email. So however
1239 you have <application>Privoxy</application> configured to work with IE, this
1240 configuration should automatically be shared, at least with older version of
1244 Starting with Office 2007, Microsoft is instead using the MS-Word rendering
1245 engine with Outlook. It is unknown whether this can be configured to use a
1247 <!-- FIXME HB 2009-02-15 -->
1251 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook-more">
1252 <title>How can I have separate rules just for HTML mail?</title>
1254 The short answer is, you can't. <application>Privoxy</application> has no way
1255 of knowing which particular application makes a request, so there is no way to
1256 distinguish between web pages and HTML mail.
1257 <application>Privoxy</application> just blindly proxies all requests. In the
1258 case of <application>Outlook Express</application> (see above), OE uses
1259 IE anyway, and there is no way for <application>Privoxy</application> to ever
1260 be able to distinguish between them (nor could any other proxy type application for
1264 For a good discussion of some of the issues involved (including privacy and
1265 security issues), see
1266 <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>.
1270 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="sneaky-cookies">
1271 <title>I sometimes notice cookies sneaking through. How?</title>
1274 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Cookies</ulink> can be
1275 set in several ways. The classic method is via the
1276 <literal>Set-Cookie</literal> HTTP header. This is straightforward, and an
1277 easy one to manipulate, such as the &my-app; concept of
1278 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</ulink>.
1279 There is also the possibility of using
1280 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> to
1281 set cookies (&my-app; calls these <literal>content-cookies</literal>). This
1282 is trickier because the syntax can vary widely, and thus requires a certain
1283 amount of guesswork. It is not realistic to catch all of these short of
1284 disabling Javascript, which would break many sites. And lastly, if the
1285 cookies are embedded in a HTTPS/SSL secure session via Javascript, they are beyond
1286 <application>Privoxy's</application> reach.
1289 All in all, &my-app; can help manage cookies in general, can help minimize
1290 the loss of privacy posed by cookies, but can't realistically stop all
1295 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="evil-cookies">
1296 <title>Are all cookies bad? Why?</title>
1298 No, in fact there are many beneficial uses of
1300 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>. Cookies are just a
1301 method that browsers can use to store data between pages, or between browser
1302 sessions. Sometimes there is a good reason for this, and the user's life is a
1303 bit easier as a result. But there is a long history of some websites taking
1304 advantage of this layer of trust, and using the data they glean from you and
1305 your browsing habits for their own purposes, and maybe to your potential
1306 detriment. Such sites are using you and storing their data on your system.
1307 That is why the privacy conscious watch from whom those cookies come, and why
1308 they really <emphasis>need</emphasis> to be there.
1312 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Wikipedia cookie
1313 definition</ulink> for more.
1317 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allow-cookies">
1318 <title>How can I allow permanent cookies for my trusted sites?</title>
1321 There are several actions that relate to cookies. The default behavior is to
1322 allow only <quote>session cookies</quote>, which means the cookies only last
1323 for the current browser session. This eliminates most kinds of abuse related
1324 to cookies. But there may be cases where you want cookies to last.
1327 To disable all cookie actions, so that cookies are allowed unrestricted,
1328 both in and out, for <literal>example.com</literal>:
1332 { -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only -filter{content-cookies} }
1333 .example.com</screen>
1336 Place the above in <filename>user.action</filename>. Note that some of these may
1337 be off by default anyway, so this might be redundant, but there is no harm
1338 being explicit in what you want to happen. <filename>user.action</filename>
1339 includes an alias for this situation, called
1340 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal>.
1344 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="multiples">
1345 <title>Can I have separate configurations for different users?</title>
1347 Each instance of <application>Privoxy</application> has its own
1348 configuration, including such attributes as the TCP port that it listens on.
1349 What you can do is run multiple instances of <application>Privoxy</application>, each with
1351 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink>
1352 configuration setting, and configuration path, and then
1353 each of these can have their own configurations. Think of it as per-port
1357 Simple enough for a few users, but for large installations, consider having
1358 groups of users that might share like configurations.
1362 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whitelists">
1363 <title>Can I set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of
1364 <quote>good</quote> sites?</title>
1366 Sure. There are a couple of things you can do for simple white-listing.
1367 Here's one real easy one:
1370 ############################################################
1372 ############################################################
1373 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
1374 / # Block *all* URLs
1376 ############################################################
1378 ############################################################
1379 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
1382 games.example.com</screen>
1384 This allows access to only those three sites by first blocking all URLs, and
1385 then subsequently allowing three specific exceptions.
1388 Another approach is <application>Privoxy's</application>
1389 <literal>trustfile</literal> concept, which incorporates the notion of
1390 <quote>trusted referrers</quote>. See the <ulink
1391 url="../user-manual/config.html#TRUSTFILE">Trust documentation</ulink>
1395 These are fairly simple approaches and are not completely foolproof. There
1396 are various other configuration options that should be disabled (described
1397 elsewhere here and in <ulink url="../user-manual/">the User Manual</ulink>)
1398 so that users can't modify their own configuration and easily circumvent the
1403 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="no-adblock">
1404 <title>How can I turn off ad-blocking?</title>
1406 Ad blocking is achieved through a complex application of various &my-app;
1407 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions</ulink>. These
1408 actions are deployed against simple images, banners, flash animations,
1409 text pages, JavaScript, pop-ups and pop-unders, etc., so its not as simple as
1410 just turning one or two actions off. The various actions that make up
1411 &my-app; ad blocking are hard-coded into the default configuration files. It
1412 has been assumed that everyone using &my-app; is interested in this
1416 If you want to do without this, there are several approaches you can take:
1417 You can manually undo the many block rules in
1418 <filename>default.action</filename>. Or even easier, just create your own
1419 <filename>default.action</filename> file from scratch without the many ad
1420 blocking rules, and corresponding exceptions. Or lastly, if you are not
1421 concerned about the additional blocks that are done for privacy reasons, you
1422 can very easily over-ride <emphasis>all</emphasis> blocking with the
1423 following very simple rule in your <filename>user.action</filename>:
1427 # Unblock everybody, everywhere
1428 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
1429 / # UN-Block *all* URLs</screen>
1432 Or even a more comprehensive reversing of various ad related actions:
1436 # Unblock everybody, everywhere, and turn off appropriate filtering, etc
1437 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> \
1438 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">-filter{banners-by-size}</ulink> \
1439 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">-filter{banners-by-link}</ulink> \
1440 <literal>allow-popups</literal> \
1442 / # UN-Block *all* URLs and allow ads</screen>
1445 This last <quote>action</quote> in this compound statement,
1446 <literal>allow-popups</literal>, is an <ulink
1447 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> that disables
1448 various pop-up blocking features.
1452 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="templates">
1453 <title>How can I have custom template pages, like the
1454 <emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
1456 &my-app; <quote>templates</quote> are specialized text files utilized by
1457 &my-app; for various purposes and can easily be modified using any text
1458 editor. All the template pages are installed in a sub-directory appropriately
1459 named: <filename>templates</filename>. Knowing something about HTML syntax
1460 will of course be helpful.
1463 Be forewarned that the default templates are subject to being overwritten
1464 during upgrades. You can, however, create completely new templates,
1465 place them in another directory and specify the alternate path in the main
1466 <filename>config</filename>. For details, have a look at the <ulink
1467 url="../user-manual/config.html#templdir">templdir</ulink> option.
1471 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blockall">
1472 <title>How can I remove the <quote>Go There Anyway</quote> link from
1473 the <emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
1475 There is more than one way to do it (although Perl is not involved).
1478 Editing the BLOCKED template page (see above) may dissuade some users, but
1479 this method is easily circumvented. Where you need this level of control, you
1480 might want to build &my-app; from source, and disable various features that are
1481 available as compile-time options. You should
1482 <command>configure</command> the sources as follows:
1486 ./configure --disable-toggle --disable-editor --disable-force</screen>
1489 This will create an executable with hard-coded security features so that
1490 &my-app; does not allow easy bypassing of blocked sites, or changing the
1491 current configuration via any connected user's web browser.
1494 Finally, all of these features can also be toggled on/off via options in
1495 <application>Privoxy's</application> main <ulink
1496 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">config</ulink> file which
1497 means you don't have to recompile anything.
1503 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1506 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1508 <sect1 id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
1510 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1511 <title id="slowsme">How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This
1512 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
1514 How much of an impact depends on many things, including the CPU of the host
1515 system, how aggressive the configuration is, which specific actions are being triggered,
1516 the size of the page, the bandwidth of the connection, etc.
1519 Overall, it should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
1520 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not typically being
1521 retrieved and displayed. The actual processing time required by
1522 <application>Privoxy</application> itself for each page, is relatively small
1523 in the overall scheme of things, and happens very quickly. This is typically
1524 more than offset by time saved not downloading and rendering ad images and
1525 other junk content (if ad blocking is being used).
1529 <quote>Filtering</quote> content via the <literal><ulink
1530 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> or
1532 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1533 actions may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document
1534 needs to be buffered before displaying. And on very large documents,
1535 filtering may have some measurable impact. How much depends on the page size,
1536 the actual definition of the filter(s), etc. See below. Most other actions
1537 have little to no impact on speed.
1540 Also, when filtering is enabled but zlib support isn't available, compression
1541 is often disabled (see <ulink
1542 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>).
1543 This can have an impact on speed as well, although it's probably smaller than
1544 you might think. Again, the page size, etc. will determine how much of an impact.
1550 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I notice considerable
1551 delays in page requests. What's wrong?</title>
1553 If you use any <literal><ulink
1554 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> action,
1555 such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <literal><ulink
1556 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1557 action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
1558 mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time.
1561 The loading time typically does not really change much in real numbers, but
1562 the feeling is different, because most browsers are able to start rendering
1563 incomplete content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is
1564 more noticeable on slower dialup connections. Extremely large documents
1565 may have some impact on the time to load the page where there is filtering
1566 being done. But overall, the difference should be very minimal. If there is a
1567 big impact, then probably some other situation is contributing (like
1568 anti-virus software).
1571 Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types. But note
1572 that if the web server mis-reports the MIME type, then content that should
1573 not be filtered, could be. <application>Privoxy</application> only knows how
1574 to differentiate filterable content because of the MIME type as reported by
1575 the server, or because of some configuration setting that enables/disables
1580 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
1581 "http://p.p/"?</title>
1583 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> is the
1584 address of <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in user interface, and
1585 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> is a shortcut for it.
1588 Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet,
1589 it can simply intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in
1590 <quote>web server</quote>.
1593 This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
1594 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1595 takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy ...</quote>, everything is OK.
1596 If you get a page saying <quote>Privoxy is not working</quote> instead, then
1597 your browser didn't use <application>Privoxy</application> for the request,
1598 hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <emphasis>real</emphasis>
1599 web site at config.privoxy.org.
1605 out of date 09/02/06 HB
1606 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
1608 No. The patterns for blocking now reside (among other things) in the <ulink
1609 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>, which are
1610 actively maintained instead. See next question ...
1614 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads, or report
1617 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> for
1618 various ways to interact with the developers.
1623 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads2"><title>If I do submit missed ads, will
1624 they be included in future updates?</title>
1626 Whether such submissions are eventually included in the
1627 <filename>default.action</filename> configuration file depends on how
1628 significant the issue is. We of course want to address any potential
1629 problem with major, high-profile sites such as <citetitle>Google</citetitle>,
1630 <citetitle>Yahoo</citetitle>, etc. Any site with global or regional reach,
1631 has a good chance of being a candidate. But at the other end of the spectrum
1632 are any number of smaller, low-profile sites such as for local clubs or
1633 schools. Since their reach and impact are much less, they are best handled by
1634 inclusion in the user's <filename>user.action</filename>, and thus would be
1635 unlikely to be included.
1641 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="noonecares"><title>Why doesn't anyone answer my support
1644 Rest assured that it has been read and considered. Why it is not answered,
1645 could be for various reasons, including no one has a good answer for it, no
1646 one has had time to yet investigate it thoroughly, it has been reported
1647 numerous times already, or because not enough information was provided to help
1648 us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.
1654 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
1656 If you run both the browser and &my-app; locally, you cannot hide your IP
1657 address with <application>Privoxy</application> or ultimately any other
1658 software alone. The server needs to know your IP address so that it knows
1659 where to send the responses back.
1662 There are many publicly usable "anonymous" proxies out there, which
1663 provide a further level of indirection between you and the web server.
1666 However, these proxies are called "anonymous" because you don't need
1667 to authenticate, not because they would offer any real anonymity.
1668 Most of them will log your IP address and make it available to the
1669 authorities in case you violate the law of the country they run in. In fact
1670 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
1671 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
1674 If you want to hide your IP address from most adversaries,
1675 you should consider chaining <application>Privoxy</application>
1676 with <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</ulink>.
1677 The configuration details can be found in
1678 <ulink url="#TOR">How do I use <application>Privoxy</application> together
1679 with <application>Tor</application> section</ulink>
1684 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1685 <title id="anonforsure">Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
1687 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are improved, but unless you
1688 <ulink url="#TOR">chain <application>Privoxy</application> with <application>Tor</application></ulink>
1689 or a similar proxy and know what you're doing when it comes to configuring
1690 the rest of your system, you should assume that everything you do
1691 on the Web can be traced back to you.
1694 <application>Privoxy</application> can remove various information about you,
1695 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
1696 you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it neither
1697 hides your IP address, nor can it guarantee that the rest of the system
1698 behaves correctly. There are several possibilities how a web sites can find
1699 out who you are, even if you are using a strict <application>Privoxy</application>
1700 configuration and chained it with <application>Tor</application>.
1703 Most of <application>Privoxy's</application> privacy-enhancing features can be easily subverted
1704 by an insecure browser configuration, therefore you should use a browser that can
1705 be configured to only execute code from trusted sites, and be careful which sites you trust.
1706 For example there is no point in having <application>Privoxy</application>
1707 modify the User-Agent header, if websites can get all the information they want
1708 through JavaScript, ActiveX, Flash, Java etc.
1711 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
1712 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Privoxy</application>
1713 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
1714 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
1715 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
1718 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
1719 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
1720 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
1721 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
1722 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
1728 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1729 <title id="proxytest">A test site says I am not using a Proxy.</title>
1731 Good! Actually, they are probably testing for some other kinds of proxies.
1732 Hiding yourself completely would require additional steps.
1736 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="tor"><title>How do I use Privoxy
1737 together with Tor?</title>
1739 Before you configure <application>Privoxy</application> to use
1740 <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</ulink>,
1741 please follow the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> chapters
1742 <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">2. Installation</ulink> and
1743 <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">5. Startup</ulink> to make sure
1744 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is setup correctly.
1747 If it is, refer to <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/documentation.html">Tor's
1748 extensive documentation</ulink> to learn how to install <application>Tor</application>,
1749 and make sure <application>Tor</application>'s logfile says that
1750 <quote>Tor has successfully opened a circuit</quote> and it
1751 <quote>looks like client functionality is working</quote>.
1754 If either <application>Tor</application> or <application>Privoxy</application>
1755 isn't working, their combination most likely will neither. Testing them on their
1756 own will also help you to direct problem reports to the right audience.
1757 If <application>Privoxy</application> isn't working, don't bother the
1758 <application>Tor</application> developers. If <application>Tor</application>
1759 isn't working, don't send bug reports to the <application>Privoxy</application> Team.
1762 If you verified that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>Tor</application>
1763 are working, it is time to connect them. As far as <application>Privoxy</application>
1764 is concerned, <application>Tor</application> is just another proxy that can be reached
1765 by socks4 or socks4a. Most likely you are interested in <application>Tor</application>
1766 to increase your anonymity level, therefore you should use socks5, to make sure DNS
1767 requests are done through <application>Tor</application> and thus invisible to your
1768 local network. Using socks4a would work to, but with socks5 you get more precise error
1774 Since <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.5, its
1775 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>
1776 is already prepared for <application>Tor</application>, if you are using a
1777 default <application>Tor</application> configuration and run it on the same
1778 system as &my-app;, you just have to edit the
1779 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding section</ulink>
1780 and uncomment the line:
1784 # forward-socks5 / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
1788 This is enough to reach the Internet, but additionally you might want to
1789 uncomment the following forward rules, to make sure your local network is still
1790 reachable through Privoxy:
1794 # forward 192.168.*.*/ .
1795 # forward 10.*.*.*/ .
1796 # forward 127.*.*.*/ .
1800 Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will
1801 be as (un)secure as the local network is, but the alternative is
1802 that your browser can't reach the network at all. Then again,
1803 that may actually be desired and if you don't know for sure
1804 that your browser has to be able to reach the local network,
1805 there's no reason to allow it.
1808 If you want your browser to be able to reach servers in your local
1809 network by using their names, you will need additional exceptions
1810 that look like this:
1814 # forward localhost/ .
1818 Save the modified configuration file and open
1819 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status/</ulink>
1820 in your browser, confirm that <application>Privoxy</application> has reloaded its configuration
1821 and that there are no other forward lines, unless you know that you need them. If everything looks good,
1823 <ulink url="https://wiki.torproject.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ#IsMyConnectionPrivate">Tor
1824 Faq 4.2</ulink> to learn how to verify that you are really using <application>Tor</application>.
1827 Afterward, please take the time to at least skim through the rest
1828 of <application>Tor's</application> documentation. Make sure you understand
1829 what <application>Tor</application> does, why it is no replacement for
1830 application level security, and why you probably don't want to
1831 use it for unencrypted logins.
1835 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1836 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information or
1837 content is being altered?</title>
1840 Definitely. It is common for sites to use browser type, browser version,
1841 HTTP header content, and various other techniques in order to dynamically
1842 decide what to display and how to display it. What you see, and what I see,
1843 might be very different. There are many, many ways that this can be handled,
1844 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
1848 The <quote>User-Agent</quote> is sometimes used in this way to identify
1849 the browser, and adjust content accordingly.
1853 Also, different browsers use different encodings of non-English
1854 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
1855 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
1856 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
1857 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
1858 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
1859 <quote>Referer</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
1860 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
1861 <quote>Referer</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
1862 can forge both headers without giving information away). There are
1863 many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server. The
1864 results of which could inadvertently cause pages to load incorrectly,
1865 partially, or even not at all. And there may be no obvious clues as to just
1866 what went wrong, or why. Nowhere will there be a message that says
1867 <quote><emphasis>Turn off <literal>fast-redirects</literal> or else!</emphasis>
1872 Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree,
1877 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
1878 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
1879 be required, but by no means the only one.
1885 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1886 <title id="caching">Can Privoxy act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
1887 speed up web browsing?</title>
1889 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
1890 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> or
1891 <ulink url="http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/polipo/">Polipo</ulink> for this.
1892 And, yes, before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
1893 with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
1894 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding
1895 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
1896 manual</ulink> for details.
1900 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1901 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?</title>
1903 Not in the way you mean, or in the way some firewall vendors claim they can.
1904 <application>Privoxy</application> can help protect your privacy, but can't
1905 protect your system from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
1906 to use <emphasis>both</emphasis>.
1910 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1911 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
1912 ads used to be. Why?</title>
1914 It is technically possible to eliminate banners and ads in a way that frees
1915 their allocated page space. This could easily be done by blocking with
1916 <application>Privoxy's</application> filters,
1917 and eliminating the <emphasis>entire</emphasis> image references from the
1921 But, this would consume considerably more CPU resources (IOW, slow things
1922 down), would likely destroy the layout of some web pages which rely on the
1923 banners utilizing a certain amount of page space, and might fail in other
1924 cases, where the screen space is reserved (e.g. by HTML tables for instance).
1925 Also, making ads and banners disappear without any trace complicates
1926 troubleshooting, and would sooner or later be problematic.
1929 The better alternative is to instead let them stay, and block the resulting
1930 requests for the banners themselves as is now the case. This leaves either
1931 empty space, or the familiar checkerboard pattern.
1934 So the developers won't support this in the default configuration, but you
1935 can of course define appropriate filters yourself to achieve this.
1939 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1940 <title id="ssl">How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1942 Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
1943 and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably <emphasis>secure</emphasis>,
1944 there is little that <application>Privoxy</application> can do but hand the raw
1945 gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed.
1948 The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs
1949 to tell <application>Privoxy</application> the name of the remote server,
1950 so that <application>Privoxy</application> can establish the connection.
1951 If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.
1954 As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
1955 seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often
1956 the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless
1957 for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
1958 <application>Privoxy</application>'s ad blocking.
1961 <quote>Content cookies</quote> (those that are embedded in the actual HTML or
1962 JS page content, see <literal><ulink
1963 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</ulink></literal>),
1964 in an SSL transaction will be impossible to block under these conditions.
1965 Fortunately, this does not seem to be a very common scenario since most
1966 cookies come by traditional means.
1971 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1972 <title id="secure">Privoxy runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1973 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1975 On Unix-like systems, <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
1976 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1977 <application>Privoxy</application> listens to requests from <quote>localhost</quote>
1981 The server aspect of <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly
1982 exposed to the Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1983 <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1984 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1985 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
1986 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration file and check all <ulink
1987 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security
1988 options</ulink>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address
1989 in the browser proxy configuration, but <application>Privoxy</application>
1990 will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in addition,
1991 and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
1996 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
1997 <title>Can I temporarily disable Privoxy?</title>
1999 &my-app; doesn't have a transparent proxy mode,
2000 but you can toggle off blocking and content filtering.
2003 The easiest way to do that is to point your browser
2004 to the remote toggle URL: <ulink
2005 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>.
2008 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS">Bookmarklets section</ulink>
2009 of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> for an easy way to access this
2010 feature. Note that this is a feature that may need to be enabled in the main
2011 <filename>config</filename> file.
2016 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="reallyoff">
2017 <title>When <quote>disabled</quote> is Privoxy totally
2018 out of the picture?</title>
2020 No, this just means all optional filtering and actions are disabled.
2021 <application>Privoxy</application> is still acting as a proxy, but just
2022 doing less of the things that <application>Privoxy</application> would
2023 normally be expected to do. It is still a <quote>middle-man</quote> in
2024 the interaction between your browser and web sites. See below to bypass
2029 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff2">
2030 <title>How can I tell Privoxy to totally ignore certain sites?</title>
2032 Bypassing a proxy, or proxying based on arbitrary criteria, is purely a browser
2033 configuration issue, not a &my-app; issue. Modern browsers typically do have
2034 settings for not proxying certain sites. Check your browser's help files.
2039 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="crunch">
2040 <title>My logs show Privoxy <quote>crunches</quote>
2041 ads, but also its own internal CGI pages. What is a <quote>crunch</quote>?</title>
2043 A <quote>crunch</quote> simply means <application>Privoxy</application> intercepted
2044 <emphasis>something</emphasis>, nothing more. Often this is indeed ads or
2045 banners, but <application>Privoxy</application> uses the same mechanism for
2046 trapping requests for its own internal pages. For instance, a request for
2047 <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration page at: <ulink
2048 url="http://config.privoxy.org">http://config.privoxy.org</ulink>, is
2049 intercepted (i.e. it does not go out to the 'net), and the familiar CGI
2050 configuration is returned to the browser, and the log consequently will show
2051 a <quote>crunch</quote>.
2054 Since version 3.0.7, Privoxy will also log the crunch reason.
2055 If you are using an older version you might want to upgrade.
2059 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads">
2060 <title>Can Privoxy effect files that I download
2061 from a webserver? FTP server?</title>
2063 From the webserver's perspective, there is no difference between
2064 viewing a document (i.e. a page), and downloading a file. The same is true of
2065 <application>Privoxy</application>. If there is a match for a <literal><ulink
2066 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> pattern,
2067 it will still be blocked, and of course this is obvious.
2070 Filtering is potentially more of a concern since the results are not always
2071 so obvious, and the effects of filtering are there whether the file is simply
2072 viewed, or downloaded. And potentially whether the content is some obnoxious
2073 advertisement, or Mr. Jimmy's latest/greatest source code jewel. Of course,
2074 one of these presumably is <quote>bad</quote> content that we don't want, and
2075 the other is <quote>good</quote> content that we do want.
2076 <application>Privoxy</application> is blind to the differences, and can only
2077 distinguish <quote>good from bad</quote> by the configuration parameters
2078 <emphasis>we</emphasis> give it.
2081 <application>Privoxy</application> knows the differences in files according
2082 to the <quote>Content Type</quote> as reported by the webserver. If this is
2083 reported accurately (e.g. <quote>application/zip</quote> for a zip archive),
2084 then <application>Privoxy</application> knows to ignore these where
2085 appropriate. <application>Privoxy</application> potentially can filter HTML
2086 as well as plain text documents, subject to configuration parameters of
2087 course. Also, documents that are of an unknown type (generally assumed to be
2088 <quote>text/plain</quote>) can be filtered, as will those that might be
2089 incorrectly reported by the webserver. If such a file is a downloaded file
2090 that is intended to be saved to disk, then any content that might have been
2091 altered by filtering, will be saved too, for these (probably rare) cases.
2094 Note that versions later than 3.0.2 do NOT filter document types reported as
2095 <quote>text/plain</quote>. Prior to this, <application>Privoxy</application>
2096 did filter this document type.
2099 In short, filtering is <quote>ON</quote> if a) the content type as reported
2100 by the webserver is appropriate <emphasis>and</emphasis> b) the configuration
2101 allows it (or at least does not disallow it). That's it. There is no magic
2102 cookie anywhere to say this is <quote>good</quote> and this is
2103 <quote>bad</quote>. It's the configuration that lets it all happen or not.
2106 If you download text files, you probably do not want these to be filtered,
2107 particularly if the content is source code, or other critical content. Source
2108 code sometimes might be mistaken for Javascript (i.e. the kind that might
2109 open a pop-up window). It is recommended to turn off filtering for download
2110 sites (particularly if the content may be plain text files and you are using
2111 version 3.0.2 or earlier) in your <filename>user.action</filename> file. And
2112 also, for any site or page where making <emphasis>any</emphasis> changes at
2113 all to the content is to be avoided.
2116 <application>Privoxy</application> does not do FTP at all, only HTTP
2117 and HTTPS (SSL) protocols.
2121 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads2">
2122 <title>I just downloaded a Perl script, and Privoxy
2123 altered it! Yikes, what is wrong!</title>
2129 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="hostsfile">
2130 <title>Should I continue to use a <quote>HOSTS</quote> file for ad-blocking?</title>
2132 One time-tested technique to defeat common ads is to trick the local DNS
2133 system by giving a phony IP address for the ad generator in the local
2134 <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, typically using <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>, aka
2135 <literal>localhost</literal>. This effectively blocks the ad.
2138 There is no reason to use this technique in conjunction with
2139 <application>Privoxy</application>. <application>Privoxy</application>
2140 does essentially the same thing, much more elegantly and with much more
2141 flexibility. A large <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, in fact, not only
2142 duplicates effort, but may get in the way and seriously slow down your system.
2143 It is recommended to remove such entries from your <filename>HOSTS</filename> file. If you think
2144 your hosts list is neglected by <application>Privoxy's </application>
2145 configuration, consider adding your list to your <filename>user.action</filename> file:
2152 ads.galore.example.com
2153 etc.example.com</screen>
2157 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
2158 <title>Where can I find more information about Privoxy
2159 and related issues?</title>
2160 <!-- Include seealso.sgml boilerplate: -->
2162 <!-- end boilerplate -->
2167 <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
2173 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="microsuck">
2174 <title>I've noticed that Privoxy changes <quote>Microsoft</quote> to
2175 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>! Why are you manipulating my browsing?</title>
2178 We're not. The text substitutions that you are seeing are disabled
2179 in the default configuration as shipped. You have either manually
2180 activated the <quote><literal>fun</literal></quote> filter which
2181 is clearly labeled <quote>Text replacements for subversive browsing
2182 fun!</quote> or you are using an older Privoxy version and have implicitly
2183 activated it by choosing the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile in the
2184 web-based editor. Please upgrade.
2188 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="valid">
2189 <title>Does Privoxy produce <quote>valid</quote> HTML (or XHTML)?</title>
2192 Privoxy generates HTML in both its own <quote>templates</quote>, and possibly
2193 whenever there are text substitutions via a &my-app; filter. While this
2194 should always conform to the HTML 4.01 specifications, it has not been
2195 validated against this or any other standard.
2199 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="surprise-privoxy">
2200 <title>How did you manage to get Privoxy on my computer without my consent?</title>
2203 We didn't. We make Privoxy available for download, but we don't go
2204 around installing it on other people's systems behind their back.
2205 If you discover Privoxy running on your system and are sure you didn't
2206 install it yourself, somebody else did. You may not even be running
2207 the real Privoxy, but maybe something else that only pretends to be
2208 Privoxy, or maybe something that is based on the real Privoxy,
2209 but has been modified.
2212 Lately there have been reports of problems with some kind of
2213 Privoxy versions that come preinstalled on some Netbooks.
2214 Some of the problems described are inconsistent with the behaviour
2215 of official Privoxy versions, which suggests that the preinstalled
2216 software may contain vendor modifications that we don't know about
2217 and thus can't debug.
2220 Privoxy's <link linkend="copyright">license</link> allows vendor
2221 modifications, but the vendor has to comply with the license,
2222 which involves informing the user about the changes and to make
2223 the changes available under the same license as Privoxy itself.
2226 If you are having trouble with a modified Privoxy version,
2227 please try to talk to whoever made the modifications before
2228 reporting the problem to us. Please also try to convince
2229 whoever made the modifications to talk to us. If you think
2230 somebody gave you a modified Privoxy version without complying
2231 to the license, please let us know.
2239 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2241 <sect1 id="trouble">
2242 <title>Troubleshooting</title>
2244 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
2245 <title id="refused">I cannot connect to any websites. Or, I am getting
2246 <quote>connection refused</quote> message with every web page. Why?</title>
2248 There are several possibilities:
2253 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running. Solution: verify
2254 that &my-app; is installed correctly, has not crashed, and is indeed running.
2255 Turn on <application>Privoxy's</application> logging, and look at the logs to see what they say.
2257 <listitem><para>Or your browser is configured for a different port than what
2258 <application>Privoxy</application> is using. Solution: verify that &my-app;
2259 and your browser are set to the same port (<literal>listen-address</literal>).
2261 <listitem><para>Or if using a forwarding rule, you have a configuration problem or a
2262 problem with a host in the forwarding chain. Solution: temporarily alter your
2263 configuration and take the forwarders out of the equation.
2266 Or you have a firewall that is interfering and blocking you. Solution:
2267 try disabling or removing the firewall as a simple test.
2274 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2275 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="error503">
2276 <title>Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</title>
2278 More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has
2279 been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running! The solution is
2280 to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
2281 something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products
2282 may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
2286 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
2287 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
2288 still getting through. How?</title>
2290 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
2291 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
2292 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Privoxy</application>
2293 will not be involved. Flush the browser's caches, and then try again.
2297 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
2298 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
2299 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
2300 and see if it really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking
2301 spam: a lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game. And
2302 remember you need to block the URL of the ad in question, which may be
2303 entirely different from the site URL itself. Most ads are hosted on different
2304 servers than the main site itself. If you right-click on the ad, you should
2305 be able to get all the relevant information you need. Alternately, you can
2306 find the correct URL by looking at <application>Privoxy's</application> logs
2307 (you may need to enable logging in the main config file if its disabled).
2310 Below is a slightly modified real-life log snippet that originates with one
2311 requested URL: <literal>www.example.com</literal> (name of site was changed
2312 for this example, the number of requests is real). You can see in this the
2313 complexity of what goes into making up this one <quote>page</quote>. There
2314 are eight different domains involved here, with thirty two separate URLs
2315 requested in all, making up all manner of images, Shockwave Flash,
2316 JavaScript, CSS stylesheets, scripts, and other related content. Some of this
2317 content is obviously <quote>good</quote> or <quote>bad</quote>, but not all.
2318 Many of the more questionable looking requests, are going to outside domains
2319 that seem to be identifying themselves with suspicious looking names, making
2320 our job a little easier. &my-app; has <quote>crunched</quote> (meaning caught
2321 and BLOCKED) quite a few items in this example, but perhaps missed a few as well.
2326 Request: www.example.com/
2327 Request: www.example.com/favicon.ico
2328 Request: img.example.com/main.css
2329 Request: img.example.com/sr.js
2330 Request: example.betamarker.com/example.html
2331 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/bestsellers/skyscraper.php?likref=BSellers
2332 Request: img.example.com/pb.png
2333 Request: www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js crunch! (Blocked)
2334 Request: www.advertising-department.com/ats/switch.ps.php?26856 crunch! (Blocked)
2335 Request: img.example.com/p.gif
2336 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example&mode=behind crunch! (Blocked)
2337 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=5c3cf&tmpl=PBa.tmpl crunch! (Blocked)
2338 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example crunch! (Blocked)
2339 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/best_sellers.css
2340 Request: www.adtrak.net/adx.js crunch! (Blocked)
2341 Request: img.example.com/hbg.gif
2342 Request: img.example.com/example.jpg
2343 Request: img.example.com/mt.png
2344 Request: img.example.com/mm.png
2345 Request: img.example.com/mb.png
2346 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=a71b91fa5&tmpl=Ua.tmp crunch! (Blocked)
2347 Request: www.example.com/tracker.js
2348 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/lsi_head.gif
2349 Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=020548130&what=zone:61 crunch! (Blocked)
2350 Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=463594413&what=zone:58&source=Ua crunch! (Blocked)
2351 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/bottomani.swf
2352 Request: mmm.elitemediagroup.net/install.php?allowpop=no&popupmincook=0&allowsp2=1 crunch! (Blocked)
2353 Request: www.example.com/tracker.js?screen=1400x1050&win=962x693
2354 Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=61 crunch! (Blocked)
2355 Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=5c3cf599a9efd0320d26&si
2356 Request: 66.70.21.80/img/pixel.gif
2357 Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=58&source=Ua&block=86400 crunch! (Blocked)
2358 Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=a71b9f6504b0c5681fa5&si=Ua
2363 Despite 12 out of 32 requests being blocked, the page looked, and seemed to
2364 behave perfectly <quote>normal</quote> (minus some ads, of course).
2369 <sect2 id="badsite" renderas="sect3">
2370 <title >One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy.
2371 What can I do?</title>
2374 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
2375 by toggling off <application>Privoxy</application> through <ulink
2376 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
2377 (the toggle feature may need to be enabled in the main
2378 <filename>config</filename>),
2379 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
2380 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
2385 If the problem went away, we know we have a configuration related problem.
2387 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
2388 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which
2389 actions are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions
2390 files are responsible for that. It might be helpful also to look at your logs
2391 for this site too, to see what else might be happening (note: logging may need
2392 to be enabled in the main config file). Many sites are
2393 complex and require a number of related pages to help present their content.
2394 Look at what else might be used by the page in question, and what of that
2395 might be <emphasis>required</emphasis>.
2396 Now, armed with this information, go to
2398 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2399 and select the appropriate actions files for editing. </para>
2401 You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
2402 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
2403 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
2404 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
2405 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
2406 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
2407 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
2410 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
2411 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
2412 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
2413 site to a <literal>{ fragile }</literal> section in <filename>user.action</filename>,
2414 which is an alias that turns off most <quote>dangerous</quote>
2415 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
2416 your privacy and protection more than necessary,
2419 Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <ulink
2420 url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">User Manual appendix,
2421 Troubleshooting: the Anatomy of an Action</ulink>.
2422 There is also an <ulink
2423 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions tutorial</ulink>
2424 with general configuration information and examples.
2427 As a last resort, you can always see if your browser has a setting that will
2428 bypass the proxy setting for selective sites. Modern browsers can do this.
2434 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2435 <sect2 id="dun" renderas="sect3">
2436 <title>After installing Privoxy, I have to log in
2437 every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
2440 This is a quirk that effects the installation of
2441 <application>Privoxy</application>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
2442 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
2443 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.
2447 When setting up an NT based Windows system with
2448 <application>Privoxy</application> you may find that things do not seem to be
2449 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
2450 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
2451 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
2452 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
2453 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
2454 configured for the kids.
2458 When setting up <application>Privoxy</application> in this environment you
2459 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
2460 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
2461 <application>Privoxy</application>. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
2462 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
2463 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
2464 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
2465 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
2466 you have to store the password under each different user!
2470 The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
2471 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
2472 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
2473 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
2474 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
2475 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.
2479 [Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
2484 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2485 <sect2 id="ftp" renderas="sect3">
2486 <title>I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy
2487 is blocking me.</title>
2489 <application>Privoxy</application> cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
2490 so do not configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
2491 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for <emphasis>any protocol other than HTTP
2492 or HTTPS (SSL)</emphasis>.
2495 Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
2496 a URL like <literal>ftp://ftp.example.com</literal>, your browser is making
2497 an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
2498 speak FTP, <application>Privoxy</application> does not, and cannot proxy
2502 To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <quote>proxy</quote>
2503 setting, which will enable various protocols, including
2504 <emphasis>both</emphasis> HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is possible to
2505 accidentally enable FTP proxying in these cases. And of course, if this
2506 happens, <application>Privoxy</application> will indeed cause problems since
2507 it does not know FTP. <![%p-newstuff;[Newer version will give a sane error
2508 message if a FTP connection is attempted.]]> Just disable the FTP setting
2509 and all will be well again.
2512 Will <application>Privoxy</application> ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely.
2513 There just is not much reason, and the work to make this happen is more than
2518 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2519 <sect2 id="macosxie" renderas="sect3">
2520 <title>In Mac OS X, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
2521 Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.</title>
2523 Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
2524 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
2525 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
2526 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
2527 is checked and enter <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> in the entry field.
2528 Enter <literal>8118</literal> in the Port field. The next time you start
2529 IE, it should reflect these values.
2533 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2534 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosxuninstall">
2535 <title>In Mac OS X, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
2536 uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
2537 empty the trash.</title>
2539 Note: This ONLY applies to privoxy 3.0.6 and earlier.
2542 Just dragging the <application>Privoxy</application> folder to the trash is
2543 not enough to delete it. <application>Privoxy</application> supplies an
2544 <application>uninstall.command</application> file that takes care of
2545 these details. Open the trash, drag the <application>uninstall.command</application>
2546 file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
2547 confirmation and the administration password.
2550 The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
2551 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
2556 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2557 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosximages">
2558 <title>In Mac OS X Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
2559 experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
2560 <literal>localhost</literal> as my browser's proxy setting.</title>
2562 We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in Mac OS X, but don't fully
2563 understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
2564 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> instead of <literal>localhost</literal>
2565 works around the problem.
2569 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2570 <!-- XXX: Is this still relevant now that we have gzip support? -->
2571 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blankpage">
2572 <title>I get a completely blank page at one site. <quote>View Source</quote>
2573 shows only: <markup><![CDATA[<html><body></body></html>]]></markup>. Without
2574 Privoxy the page loads fine.</title>
2576 Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
2577 <ulink url="http://www.php.net/"><application>PHP</application></ulink>,
2578 which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
2579 an uncompressed page, like <application>Privoxy</application> does.
2580 This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
2583 To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
2584 the site to a <literal>-prevent-compression</literal> section in
2585 <filename>user.action</filename>:
2588 # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
2590 {-prevent-compression}
2591 .example.com</screen>
2593 If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
2594 site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
2595 instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
2596 or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
2600 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nohostname">
2601 <title>My logs show many <quote>Unable to get my own hostname</quote> lines.
2604 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to get the hostname of the system
2605 its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to
2606 (from the <filename>config</filename> file
2607 <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> setting). If the system cannot supply
2608 this information, <application>Privoxy</application> logs this condition.
2611 Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration error. It is
2612 not a fatal error to <application>Privoxy</application> however, but may
2613 result in a much slower response from <application>Privoxy</application> on
2614 some platforms due to DNS timeouts.
2617 This can be caused by a problem with the local <filename>hosts</filename>
2618 file. If this file has been changed from the original, try reverting it to
2619 see if that helps. Make sure whatever name(s) are used for the local system,
2620 that they resolve both ways.
2623 You should also be able to work around the problem with the
2624 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#HOSTNAME">hostname option</ulink>.
2628 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="inuse">
2629 <title>When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an
2630 error message <quote>port 8118 is already in use</quote> (or similar wording).
2633 Port 8118 is <application>Privoxy's</application> default TCP
2634 <quote>listening</quote> port. Typically this message would mean that there
2635 is already one instance of <application>Privoxy</application> running, and
2636 your system is actually trying to start a second
2637 <application>Privoxy</application> on the same port, which will not work.
2638 (You can have multiple instances but they must be assigned different ports.)
2639 How and why this might happen varies from platform to platform, but you need
2640 to check your installation and start-up procedures.
2644 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer">
2646 Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.
2649 This is caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter. You should either
2650 upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or at least upgrade to the most
2651 recent <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
2652 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
2653 Or you can simply disable the demoronizer filter.
2657 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer2">
2659 Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy
2663 This may also be caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter,
2664 in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting the content type. Binary
2665 files are exempted from <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering
2666 (unless the web server by mistake says the file is something else). Either
2667 upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or go to the most recent
2668 <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
2669 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
2673 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer3">
2675 What is the <quote>demoronizer</quote> and why is it there?
2678 The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
2679 were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
2680 to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages
2681 that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a
2682 standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
2683 displayed correctly. <application>Privoxy</application> borrowed from this
2684 script, introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
2685 correct these errors on the fly.
2688 But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in some
2692 If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
2693 pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will
2694 cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <emphasis>should not be on</emphasis>.
2697 On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
2698 notice weird characters on pages, you might want to try it.
2702 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="windowopen">
2704 Why do I keep seeing <quote>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</quote> in raw source code?
2707 <application>Privoxy</application> is attempting to disable malicious
2708 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink>
2709 in this case, with the <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal>
2710 filter. <application>Privoxy</application> cannot tell very well
2711 <quote>good</quote> code snippets from <quote>bad</quote> code snippets.
2714 If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
2715 this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this
2716 where it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file,
2717 then you should set an exception for this site or page such that the
2718 integrity of the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.
2722 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="dnserrors">
2724 I am getting too many DNS errors like <quote>404 No Such Domain</quote>. Why
2725 can't Privoxy do this better?
2728 There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS resolution
2729 is done by the underlying operating system -- not
2730 <application>Privoxy</application> itself. <application>Privoxy</application>
2731 merely initiates the process and hands it off, and then later reports
2732 whatever the outcome was and tries to give a coherent message if there seems
2733 to be a problem. In some cases, this might otherwise be mitigated by the
2734 browser itself which might try some work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g
2735 adding <quote>www.</quote> to the URL).
2738 In other cases, if <application>Privoxy</application> is being chained
2739 with another proxy, this could complicate the issue, and cause undue
2740 delays and timeouts. In the case of a <quote>socks4a</quote> proxy, the socks
2741 server handles all the DNS. <application>Privoxy</application> would just be
2742 the <quote>messenger</quote> which is reporting whatever problem occurred
2743 downstream, and not the root cause of the error.
2747 In any case, versions newer than 3.0.3 include various improvements to help
2748 <application>Privoxy</application> better handle these cases.
2752 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allcpu">
2754 At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking
2755 all CPU. Why is this?
2758 This is probably a manifestation of the <quote>100% cpu</quote> problem that
2759 occurs on pages containing many (thousands upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines
2760 are in the raw HTML source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the
2761 pattern matching in <application>Privoxy's</application> page filtering
2762 mechanism is trying to match against absurdly long strings and this becomes
2763 very CPU-intensive, taking a long, long time to complete.
2766 Until a better solution comes along, disable filtering on these pages,
2767 particularly the <literal>js-annoyances</literal> and
2768 <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal> filters. If you run into this problem
2769 with a recent &my-app; version, please send a problem report.
2773 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="slowcrawl">
2774 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and all my
2775 browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? </title>
2777 This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users world-wide,
2778 it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent interaction of software
2779 components such as anti-virus software, spyware protectors, personal
2780 firewalls or similar components. Try disabling (or uninstalling) these one
2781 at a time and see if that helps. Either way, if you are using a
2782 recent &my-app; version, please report the problem.
2786 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="preventcomp">
2787 <title>Why do my filters work on some sites but not on others? </title>
2789 It's probably due to compression. It is a common practice for web servers to
2790 send their content <quote>compressed</quote> in order to speed things up, and
2791 then let the browser <quote>uncompress</quote> them. When compiled with zlib support
2792 &my-app; can decompress content before filtering, otherwise you may want to enable
2794 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>.
2797 As of &my-app; 3.0.9, zlib support is enabled in the default builds.
2802 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ssl-warnings">
2803 <title>On some HTTPS sites my browser warns me about unauthenticated content,
2804 the URL bar doesn't get highlighted and the lock symbol appears to be broken.
2805 What's going on?</title>
2807 Probably the browser is requesting ads through HTTPS and &my-app;
2808 is blocking the requests. Privoxy's error messages are delivered
2809 unencrypted and while it's obvious for the browser that the HTTPS
2810 request is already blocked by the proxy, some warn about unauthenticated
2814 To work around the problem you can redirect those requests to an invalid
2815 local address instead of blocking them. While the redirects aren't
2816 encrypted either, many browsers don't care. They simply follow the
2817 redirect, fail to reach a server and display an error message instead
2821 To do that, enable logging to figure out which requests get blocked by
2822 &my-app; and add the hosts (no path patterns) to a section like this:
2827 {+redirect{http://127.0.0.1:0/} -block -limit-connect}
2833 Additionally you have to configure your browser to contact
2834 <quote>127.0.0.1:0</quote> directly (instead of through &my-app;).
2837 To add a proxy exception in <application>Mozilla Firefox</application>
2838 open the <quote>Preferences</quote>, click the <quote>Settings</quote>
2839 button located on the <quote>Network</quote> tab in the <quote>Advanced</quote>
2840 section, and add <quote>127.0.0.1:0</quote> in the <quote>No Proxy for:</quote>
2846 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="se-linux">
2847 <title>I get selinux error messages. How can I fix this?</title>
2849 Please report the problem to the creator of your selinux policies.
2852 The problem is that some selinux policy writers aren't familiar
2853 with the application they are trying to <quote>secure</quote> and
2854 thus create policies that make no sense.
2857 In <application>Privoxy's</application> case the problem usually
2858 is that the policy only allows outgoing connections for certain
2859 destination ports (e.g. 80 and 443). While this may cover the
2860 standard ports, websites occasionally use other ports as well.
2861 This isn't a security problem and therefore <application>Privoxy's</application>
2862 default configuration doesn't block these requests.
2865 If you really want to block these ports (and don't be able
2866 to load websites that don't use standard ports), you should
2867 configure Privoxy to block these ports as well, so it doesn't
2868 trigger the selinux warnings.
2873 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="gentoo-ricers">
2874 <title>I compiled &my-app; with Gentoo's portage and it appears to be very slow. Why?</title>
2876 Probably you unintentionally compiled &my-app; without threading support
2877 in which case requests have to be serialized and only one can be served
2881 Check your <quote>USE</quote> flags and make sure they include
2882 <quote>threads</quote>. If they don't, add the flag and rebuild &my-app;.
2885 If you compiled &my-app; with threading support (on POSIX-based systems),
2886 the <quote>Conditional #defines</quote> section on <ulink
2887 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2888 will list <quote>FEATURE_PTHREAD</quote> as <quote>enabled</quote>.
2895 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2896 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
2897 <!-- Include contacting.sgml -->
2899 <!-- end contacting -->
2902 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2903 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
2905 <!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
2911 Portions of this document are <quote>borrowed</quote> from the original
2912 <application>Junkbuster</application> (tm) FAQ, and modified as
2913 appropriate for <application>Privoxy</application>.
2916 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2917 <sect2><title>License</title>
2918 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
2920 <!-- end copyright -->
2922 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2924 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2925 <sect2><title>History</title>
2926 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
2932 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2935 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2937 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
2939 <!-- Include seealso.sgml -->
2950 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
2952 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
2953 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
2954 Public License as published by the Free Software
2955 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
2956 your option) any later version.
2958 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
2959 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
2960 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
2961 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
2962 License for more details.
2964 The GNU General Public License should be included with
2965 this file. If not, you can view it at
2966 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
2967 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
2968 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
2971 Revision 2.70 2010/02/20 18:08:31 ler762
2974 Revision 2.69 2010/02/13 17:38:27 fabiankeil
2975 Update entities for 3.0.16 stable.
2977 Revision 2.68 2010/01/30 19:51:28 fabiankeil
2978 New FAQ entry: How did you manage to get Privoxy on my computer without my consent?
2980 Also bump copyright.
2982 Revision 2.67 2009/11/15 14:24:12 fabiankeil
2983 Prepare to generate docs for 3.0.16 UNRELEASED.
2985 Revision 2.66 2009/10/10 05:48:55 fabiankeil
2986 Prepare for 3.0.15 beta.
2988 Revision 2.65 2009/07/18 16:24:39 fabiankeil
2989 Bump entities for 3.0.14 beta.
2991 Revision 2.64 2009/07/18 12:18:52 fabiankeil
2992 Don't describe the action files in the FAQ when we can simply link to the description in the User Manual.
2994 Revision 2.63 2009/06/15 15:08:03 fabiankeil
2995 Patch #2806626 from Frédéric Crozat to fix a closing tag.
2997 Revision 2.62 2009/06/12 14:30:58 fabiankeil
2998 Update entities for 3.0.13 beta.
3000 Revision 2.61 2009/06/12 11:52:33 fabiankeil
3001 Mention the TODO list in the participate entry.
3003 Revision 2.60 2009/04/07 12:25:05 fabiankeil
3004 In the "I would like to help ..." entry:
3005 - Change the ids to more general ones as helping out doesn't require
3006 joining the team (and joining the team requires significantly helping
3008 - Add links to the subscription pages for the main mailing lists.
3010 Revision 2.59 2009/03/28 15:33:41 fabiankeil
3011 Recommend the use of forward-socks5 when forwarding to Tor.
3012 The error messages are more detailed than with forward-socks4a.
3014 Revision 2.58 2009/03/21 12:27:44 fabiankeil
3015 Turn the donation entry title into a question,
3016 also rephrase the content a bit.
3018 Revision 2.57 2009/03/19 19:07:49 fabiankeil
3019 First draft of a "Donating" entry. To be polished tomorrow.
3021 Revision 2.56 2009/02/19 17:05:05 fabiankeil
3022 Explain slowness when build with Gentoo's portage.
3024 Revision 2.55 2009/02/19 02:20:21 hal9
3025 Make some links in seealso conditional. Man page is now privoxy only links.
3027 Revision 2.54 2009/02/15 20:47:12 hal9
3030 Revision 2.53 2009/02/15 20:46:13 hal9
3031 Update Outlook HTML rendering engine comments re: Office 2007.
3033 Revision 2.52 2009/02/14 10:27:52 fabiankeil
3034 Finish last paragraph in the selinux entry which
3035 I unintentionally committed with the last commit.
3037 Revision 2.51 2009/02/12 16:08:26 fabiankeil
3038 Declare the code stable.
3040 Revision 2.50 2009/02/11 18:13:36 fabiankeil
3043 Revision 2.49 2009/02/10 16:30:20 fabiankeil
3044 Add a workaround for "unauthenticated content" warnings on HTTPS sites.
3046 Revision 2.48 2009/01/13 16:50:35 fabiankeil
3047 The standard.action file is gone.
3049 Revision 2.47 2008/11/24 18:29:39 fabiankeil
3050 Two changes suggested by Roger Dingledine:
3051 - Use https://www.torproject.org/ in section 4.7, too.
3052 - Replace the Tor wiki URL in section 4.10 with one
3053 with a more useful anchor name.
3055 Revision 2.46 2008/08/30 15:37:35 fabiankeil
3058 Revision 2.45 2008/08/16 08:51:28 fabiankeil
3059 Update version-related entities.
3061 Revision 2.44 2008/06/19 01:41:36 hal9
3062 Add short note about zlib being enabled in 3.0.9
3064 Revision 2.43 2008/06/14 13:21:25 fabiankeil
3065 Prepare for the upcoming 3.0.9 beta release.
3067 Revision 2.42 2008/06/07 13:11:15 fabiankeil
3068 - Note that the "100% cpu problem" is worth
3069 reporting if it happens with a recent release.
3070 - Mention the hostname option as a workaround for
3071 the "can't get my own hostname" issue.
3072 - The profile formerly known as "Adventuresome"
3073 is called "Advanced" now.
3074 - Some white-space fixes.
3076 Revision 2.41 2008/06/06 15:32:09 fabiankeil
3078 - Don't claim that all the old Junkbuster features remain.
3079 Some of them have been removed or replaced with better ones.
3081 Revision 2.40 2008/02/22 05:54:27 markm68k
3082 updates for mac os x
3084 Revision 2.39 2008/02/03 21:37:41 hal9
3085 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
3087 Revision 2.38 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
3088 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
3090 Revision 2.37 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
3091 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
3093 Revision 2.36 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
3094 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
3097 Revision 2.35 2007/11/19 17:57:59 fabiankeil
3098 A bunch of rewordings, minor updates and fixes.
3100 Revision 2.34 2007/11/19 02:38:11 hal9
3101 Minor revisions and rebuild
3103 Revision 2.33 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
3104 Results of spell check.
3106 Revision 2.32 2007/11/13 03:03:42 hal9
3107 Various changes to reflect new features and revised configuration for the
3110 Revision 2.31 2007/11/05 02:34:53 hal9
3111 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
3113 Revision 2.30 2007/11/04 15:16:40 hal9
3116 Revision 2.29 2007/11/04 15:12:47 hal9
3117 Various minor adjustments.
3119 Revision 2.28 2007/10/27 15:14:16 fabiankeil
3120 Change Tor links to use the new domain torproject.org.
3122 Revision 2.27 2007/10/22 19:47:05 fabiankeil
3123 - Bump version and copyright.
3124 - Adjust Tor section to make it clear that forward exceptions
3125 aren't required and may not even be desired.
3126 - A bunch of other minor rewordings.
3127 - Fix markup problems Roland noticed (hopefully without adding new ones).
3129 Revision 2.26 2007/08/05 15:37:55 fabiankeil
3130 - Don't claim that thousands of people read our code.
3131 - Specify the GPL version and link to GPLv2 instead of v3.
3132 - Note that configuration syntax may change between releases.
3133 - Mention zlib support.
3134 - Answer the "transparent proxy" question properly.
3135 - Add "intercepting proxy" entry.
3137 - Rephrase some other sentences for various reasons.
3139 Revision 2.25 2007/07/18 11:00:34 hal9
3140 Add misc note about valid mark-up in Privoxy.
3142 Revision 2.24 2006/11/14 01:57:46 hal9
3143 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
3146 Revision 2.23 2006/10/21 22:19:52 hal9
3147 Two new FAQs, a rewrite or two, and some touch ups.
3149 Revision 2.22 2006/10/14 20:33:10 hal9
3150 Three new FAQ's re: templates and blocking, and various minor touch-ups/improvements.
3152 Revision 2.21 2006/10/03 14:40:51 fabiankeil
3153 Added links from the Tor faq to the
3154 configuration chapter in the User Manual.
3156 Revision 2.20 2006/09/26 10:12:37 fabiankeil
3159 Revision 2.19 2006/09/22 10:54:32 hal9
3160 Change references to 3.0.4 to 3.0.5 and minor adjustments.
3162 Revision 2.18 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
3163 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
3164 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
3166 Revision 2.17 2006/09/17 14:56:32 hal9
3167 This includes yet several more new FAQs, some improved wording, enhanced
3168 mark-up, various hyper links to wikipedia to explain key terminology to the
3169 uninitiated, etc. This is ready for release IMO pending final tagging of cvs
3170 and Privoxy version stamping.
3172 Revision 2.16 2006/09/10 15:30:46 hal9
3175 Revision 2.15 2006/09/08 23:05:07 hal9
3176 Fix broken links. Add faq on hosts files. Move most of new windows service
3177 feature to user manual and reference in faq. Various other small changes.
3179 Revision 2.14 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
3180 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
3182 Revision 2.13 2006/09/04 19:20:33 fabiankeil
3183 Adjusted anonymity related sections to match reality.
3184 Added a section about using Privoxy with Tor.
3186 Revision 2.12 2006/09/03 14:15:30 hal9
3187 Various updates, including 7 or 8 new FAQs, and updates/changes to various
3188 other ones to better reflect improvements, additions and changes for the
3189 upcoming release. This is close to final form for 3.0.4 IMHO.
3191 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:50 david__schmidt
3192 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
3193 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
3195 Revision 1.61.2.41 2004/04/05 13:44:05 oes
3196 Fixed allow-all-cookies alias name; closes SR #929746
3198 Revision 1.61.2.40 2004/01/30 17:00:33 oes
3199 Added Mac OS X Panther problem
3201 Revision 1.61.2.39 2004/01/29 22:53:08 hal9
3202 Minor changes for exempting docs of text/plain. Change copyright date.
3204 Revision 1.61.2.38 2003/12/10 03:39:45 hal9
3205 Added FAQs for: demoronizer, related problems and why its included. Also,
3206 port 8118 already in use questions, and PrivoxyWindowOpen() questions. All in
3207 troubleshooting section.
3209 Revision 1.61.2.37 2003/10/17 11:01:50 oes
3210 Added Q&A for "not being used" page problem
3212 Revision 1.61.2.36 2003/06/26 23:49:20 hal9
3213 More on the filter/source code problem.
3215 Revision 1.61.2.35 2003/06/26 13:38:08 hal9
3216 Add FAQ on whether configuring Privoxy is necessary or not.
3218 Revision 1.61.2.34 2003/06/26 03:00:03 hal9
3219 Sorry, found another copyright date.
3221 Revision 1.61.2.33 2003/06/26 02:57:05 hal9
3222 Fix typo (finally!) and very minor modifications.
3224 Revision 1.61.2.32 2003/06/26 02:52:04 hal9
3227 Revision 1.61.2.31 2003/06/25 01:27:51 hal9
3228 Fix copyright, and a few nits.
3230 Revision 1.61.2.30 2003/06/25 01:13:52 hal9
3233 - FAQ on "Unable to get my own hostname"
3234 - Another one on filtering effects on text files.
3236 Revision 1.61.2.29 2003/06/15 21:32:58 hal9
3237 Add to the 4.17 (filtering effects on downloaded files).
3239 Revision 1.61.2.28 2003/03/18 19:37:21 oes
3240 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
3242 Revision 1.61.2.27 2002/12/01 06:31:58 hal9
3243 Add faq on win32 error 503 due to ZoneAlarm.
3245 Revision 1.61.2.26 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
3246 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
3249 Revision 1.61.2.25 2002/10/29 03:21:50 hal9
3250 Add 3 Q/A's relating to HTML in email. Other minor touchups.
3252 Revision 1.61.2.24 2002/10/15 12:50:22 oes
3253 s/Advanced/Radical/ (stupid me)
3255 Revision 1.61.2.23 2002/10/15 12:38:56 oes
3256 Added Microsuck faq; more detail for PHP problem
3258 Revision 1.61.2.22 2002/10/12 01:13:13 hal9
3259 Updates for demoronizer, more commentary on Radical profile, and update on
3260 the srvany.exe/icon fix.
3262 Revision 1.61.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
3263 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
3265 Revision 1.61.2.20 2002/09/26 01:22:45 hal9
3266 Small additions for LAN setup, content-cookies/SSL, and FTP non-support.
3268 Revision 1.61.2.19 2002/08/25 23:31:56 hal9
3269 Fix one grammatical error. Add brief FAQ relating to tranparent proxies (ie
3270 port 80 setting). Add FAQ on effects of Privoxy on downloaded files
3271 (especially filtering).
3273 Revision 1.61.2.18 2002/08/14 16:39:37 hal9
3274 Fix wrong tag on FAQ addition.
3276 Revision 1.61.2.17 2002/08/14 00:01:18 hal9
3279 Revision 1.61.2.16 2002/08/13 00:10:38 hal9
3280 Add faq to troubleshooting re: blank page syndrome, ie {-prevent-compression}.
3282 Revision 1.61.2.15 2002/08/10 11:34:22 oes
3283 Add disclaimer about probably being out-of-date
3285 Revision 1.61.2.14 2002/08/07 02:53:43 hal9
3286 Fix some minor markup errors, and move one Mac OS X Q/A to troubleshooting section.
3288 Revision 1.61.2.13 2002/08/06 11:55:32 oes
3289 Added missing close tag
3291 Revision 1.61.2.12 2002/08/06 11:43:46 david__schmidt
3292 Updated Mac OS X uninstall FAQ... we have an uninstall script now.
3294 Revision 1.61.2.11 2002/08/06 08:54:03 oes
3295 Style police: Fixed formatting details
3297 Revision 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 david__schmidt
3298 Made the Mac OS X removal commands far less dangerous
3300 Revision 1.61.2.9 2002/08/02 13:14:45 oes
3301 Added warning about sudo rm -r for Mac OS X deinstallation; moved this item to install section
3303 Revision 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt
3304 Add FAQ item for MSIE on Mac OS X HTTP proxy confusion
3306 Revision 1.61.2.7 2002/08/02 01:46:01 david__schmidt
3307 Added FAQ item for Mac OS X uninstall woes
3309 Revision 1.61.2.6 2002/07/30 20:04:56 hal9
3310 Fix typo: 'schould'.
3312 Revision 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes
3313 - Updated to reflect changes in standard.action
3314 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
3316 Revision 1.61.2.4 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
3317 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
3319 Revision 1.61.2.3 2002/06/09 16:36:33 hal9
3320 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
3322 Revision 1.61.2.2 2002/06/06 02:51:34 hal9
3323 Fix typo in URL http:/config.privoxy.org
3325 Revision 1.61.2.1 2002/06/05 23:10:43 hal9
3326 Add new FAQ re: DUN/IE. Change release date from May to June :)
3328 Revision 1.61 2002/05/25 12:37:25 hal9
3329 Various minor changes and edits.
3331 Revision 1.60 2002/05/22 17:17:48 oes
3332 Proofread & added more links into u-m
3334 Revision 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9
3335 Fix ulink -> link markup.
3337 Revision 1.58 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
3338 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
3339 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
3340 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
3342 Revision 1.57 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
3343 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
3345 Revision 1.56 2002/05/04 08:44:44 swa
3348 Revision 1.55 2002/05/04 00:41:56 hal9
3349 -Remove TOC/first page kludge in favor of proper handling via dsl file.
3351 Revision 1.54 2002/05/03 05:06:44 hal9
3352 Add brief Q/A on transparent proxies.
3354 Revision 1.53 2002/05/03 01:34:52 hal9
3355 Fix section numbering for new sections (due to TOC kludge).
3357 Revision 1.52 2002/04/29 03:08:43 hal9
3358 -Added new Q/A on new actions file set up (pointer to u-m)
3359 -Fixed a few broken links and converted old actions as a result of
3362 Revision 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa
3363 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
3365 Revision 1.50 2002/04/26 05:25:23 hal9
3366 Mass commit to catch a few scattered fixes.
3368 Revision 1.49 2002/04/12 10:10:18 swa
3371 Revision 1.48 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
3374 Revision 1.47 2002/04/10 04:05:32 hal9
3377 Revision 1.45 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
3378 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
3380 Revision 1.44 2002/04/07 21:24:29 hal9
3381 Touch up on name change.
3383 Revision 1.43 2002/04/04 21:59:53 hal9
3384 Added NT/W2K service/icon situation.
3386 Revision 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
3387 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
3389 Revision 1.41 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
3390 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
3391 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
3392 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
3393 eventually be set by Makefile.
3394 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
3396 Revision 1.40 2002/04/03 04:22:03 hal9
3397 Fixed several typos.
3399 Revision 1.39 2002/04/03 03:53:03 hal9
3400 Revert some changes, and then make some news, to layout, and appearance.
3402 Revision 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9
3403 Major changes to doc structure and layout. Sections are not automatically
3404 numbered now. TOC is on page by itself.
3406 Revision 1.37 2002/04/01 16:24:07 hal9
3407 -Rework of supported Q/A.
3408 -Set up entities to include boilerplate text.
3410 Revision 1.36 2002/03/31 23:18:47 hal9
3411 More on dealing with BLOCKED.
3413 Revision 1.35 2002/03/30 04:14:19 hal9
3414 Fix privoxy.org/config links.
3416 Revision 1.34 2002/03/29 04:35:56 hal9
3419 Revision 1.33 2002/03/29 01:31:48 hal9
3420 Several new Q/A's and other touch ups.
3422 Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
3423 Touch ups for name change.
3425 Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
3426 we have a new homepage!
3428 Revision 1.30 2002/03/25 16:39:22 hal9
3429 A few new sections. Made all links relative to user-manual.
3431 Revision 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9
3432 Moved section, and touch ups.
3434 Revision 1.28 2002/03/25 04:27:33 hal9
3435 New section related to name change.
3437 Revision 1.25 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
3438 we are too lazy to make a block-built
3439 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
3441 Revision 1.24 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
3442 name change related issue.
3444 Revision 1.23 2002/03/24 12:33:01 swa
3447 Revision 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
3448 name change. changed filenames.
3450 Revision 1.21 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
3453 Revision 1.20 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
3454 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
3455 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
3456 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
3457 comments and remarks to history untouched.
3459 Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
3462 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
3465 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
3468 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
3469 A few more additions.
3471 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
3472 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
3474 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
3475 A little more added ...
3477 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
3478 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
3480 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
3483 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
3486 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
3487 correct feedback channels
3489 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
3490 more info on not hiding ip address
3492 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
3493 added default config section
3495 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
3498 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
3499 Committing changes by Stefan
3501 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
3502 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
3504 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
3505 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
3506 will work - no other changes are needed.
3508 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
3509 upload process established. run make webserver and
3510 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
3511 are now linked correctly.
3513 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
3514 merged standards into developer manual
3516 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
3517 source files for junkbuster documentation
3519 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
3520 first proposal of a structure.
3522 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
3523 docs should have an author.
3525 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
3526 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.