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 "3.0.11">
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 2.57 2009/03/19 19:07:49 fabiankeil 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; 2001-2009 by
77 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
81 <pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.57 2009/03/19 19:07:49 fabiankeil 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="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what can I do?</title>
469 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-work"><title>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.
481 So first thing, <ulink
482 url="https://sourceforge.net/account/register.php">get an account on SourceForge.net</ulink>
483 and mail your id to the <ulink url="mailto:ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net">developers
484 mailing list</ulink>. Then, please read the <ulink
485 url="../developer-manual/index.html">Developer's Manual</ulink>, at least
486 the pertinent sections.
489 You can also start helping out without SourceForge.net account,
490 simply by showing up on the mailing list, helping out other users,
491 providing general feedback or reporting problems you noticed.
495 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="donate"><title>Would you like to donate?</title>
497 <application>Privoxy</application> is developed by unpaid volunteers
498 and thus our current running costs are pretty low. Nevertheless, we
499 have plans that will cost money in the future. We would like to get
500 this money through donations made by our users.
504 <application>Privoxy</application> has therefore become an associated
505 project of <ulink url="http://www.spi-inc.org/about-spi/about-spi">Software
506 in the Public Interest (SPI)</ulink>, which allows us to receive tax-deductible
507 donations in most western countries.
511 We intend to use the donations to pay for our domain after transfering
512 it to SPI. Our goal is to make sure there's no single point of failure
513 and the bill gets paid and the site keeps running even if a some of
514 the currently active developers were to suddenly disappear for a while.
518 We would also like to spend some money on more reliable hosting,
519 on hardware to help make sure <application>Privoxy</application>
520 keeps running on platforms the developers currently can't test on,
521 and on technical books to educate our developers about said platforms
522 or to improve their knowledge in general.
526 If you enjoy our software and feel like helping out with a donation,
527 please have a look at
528 <ulink url="http://www.spi-inc.org/donations">SPI's donation page</ulink>
529 to see what the options are.
538 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
540 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
542 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichbrowsers">
543 <title>Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?</title>
545 Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
546 should be virtually all browsers, including
547 <application>Firefox</application>, <application>Internet
548 Explorer</application>, <application>Opera</application>, and
549 <application>Safari</application> among others.
550 Direct browser support is not an absolute requirement since
551 <application>Privoxy</application> runs as a separate application and talks
552 to the browser in the standardized HTTP protocol, just like a web server
557 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichos">
558 <title>Which operating systems are supported?</title>
560 Include supported.sgml here:
565 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="email-client">
566 <title>Can I use Privoxy with my email client?</title>
568 As long as there is some way to set a HTTP proxy for the client, then yes,
569 any application can be used, whether it is strictly speaking a
570 <quote>browser</quote> or not. Though this may not be the best approach for
571 dealing with some of the common abuses of HTML in email. See <link
572 linkend="outlook">How can I configure <application>Privoxy</application>
573 with <application>Outlook</application>?</link> below for more on
577 Be aware that HTML email presents a number of unique security and privacy
578 related issues, that can require advanced skills to overcome. The developers
579 recommend using email clients that can be configured to convert HTML to plain
580 text for these reasons.
584 <!-- Nobody is going to still be doing this!
585 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
586 Privoxy over Junkbuster?</title>
588 We recommend you un-install <application>Junkbuster</application>
589 first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
590 save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
591 files and syntax have substantially changed, so you will need to manually
592 port your old patterns. See the <ulink url="../user-manual/upgradersnote.html">note
593 to upgraders</ulink> and <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">installation
594 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink>
598 Note: Some installers may automatically un-install
599 <application>Junkbuster</application>, if present!
605 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="firststep">
606 <title>I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything
607 special I have to do now?</title>
610 All browsers should be told to use <application>Privoxy</application>
611 as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
612 in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. It's possible
613 to combine &my-app; with a packet filter to intercept HTTP requests
614 even if the client isn't explicitly configured to use &my-app;,
615 but where possible, configuring the client is recommended. See
616 <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">the User Manual for more
617 details</ulink>. You should also flush your browser's memory and disk
618 cache to get rid of any cached junk items, and remove any stored
619 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>.
625 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of Privoxy?</title>
627 If you set up the <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
628 the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
629 networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>
630 (sometimes referred to as <quote>localhost</quote>,
631 which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
632 to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you used the <ulink
633 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink>
634 config option to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
638 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
639 the word <quote>localhost</quote> or the IP address <quote>127.0.0.1</quote>
640 in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote> and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and
641 then the number <quote>8118</quote> for <quote>port</quote>.
642 This tells your browser to send all web requests to <application>Privoxy</application>
643 instead of directly to the Internet.
646 <application>Privoxy</application> can also be used to proxy for
647 a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
648 address of the LAN host where <application>Privoxy</application>
649 is running, or the equivalent hostname, e.g. <literal>192.168.1.1</literal>.
650 Port assignment would be same as above. Note that
651 <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't listen on any LAN interfaces by
655 <application>Privoxy</application> does not currently handle
656 any other protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, etc.
660 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nothing">
661 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening.
662 All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
665 Did you configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
666 as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
667 the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
668 that <application>Privoxy</application> is running, and your browser
669 is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
670 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>.
671 <!-- Use http://p.p/ instead of http://config.privoxy.org/ here because
672 of potential redirect caching problem (see next Q). -->
673 This should take you to a page titled <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote> with
674 access to <application>Privoxy's</application> internal configuration.
675 If you see this, then you are good to go. If you receive a page saying
676 <quote>Privoxy is not running</quote>, then the browser is not set up to use
677 your <application>Privoxy</application> installation.
678 If you receive anything else (probably nothing at all), it could either
679 be that the browser is not set up correctly, or that
680 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running at all. Check the <ulink
681 url="../user-manual/config.html#LOGFILE">log file</ulink>. For instructions
682 on starting <application>Privoxy</application> and browser configuration,
683 see the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
684 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
685 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
690 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="notused">
691 <title>I get a <quote>Privoxy is not being used</quote> dummy page although
692 Privoxy is running and being used.</title>
695 First, make sure that Privoxy is <emphasis>really</emphasis> running and
696 being used by visiting <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. You
697 should see the <application>Privoxy</application> main page. If not, see
698 the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
699 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
700 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
704 Now if <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> works for you, but
705 other parts of <application>Privoxy</application>'s web interface show
706 the dummy page, your browser has cached a redirection it encountered before
707 <application>Privoxy</application> was being used. You need to clear your
708 browser's cache. Note that shift-reloading the dummy page won't help, since
709 that'll only refresh the dummy page, not the redirection that lead you there.
713 The procedure for clearing the cache varies from browser to browser. For
714 example, <application>Mozilla/Netscape</application> users would click
715 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -->
716 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
717 then click both <quote><guibutton>Clear Memory Cache</guibutton></quote>
718 and <quote><guibutton>Clear Disk Cache</guibutton></quote>.
719 In some <application>Firefox</application> versions it's
720 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -->
721 <guibutton>Privacy</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
722 then click <quote><guibutton>Clear Cache Now</guibutton></quote>.
723 <!-- In my Firefox versions it's the Netscape way. fk 2007-11-19-->
730 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
732 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
733 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
734 <title id="actionsfile">What exactly is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
737 &my-app; utilizes the concept of <quote>
738 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink></quote>
739 that are used to manipulate and control web page data.
740 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">Actions files</ulink>
741 are where these <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink>
742 that <application>Privoxy</application> could take while processing a certain
743 request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
744 that apply globally to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
745 There is a wide array of actions available that give the user a high degree
746 of control and flexibility on how to process each and every web page.
750 Actions can be defined on a <ulink
751 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</ulink> basis, i.e.
752 for single URLs, whole web sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be
753 grouped together and then applied to requests matching one or more patterns.
754 There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
755 if you are blocking <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
756 as one of your default actions, but need to accept cookies from a given site,
757 you would need to define an exception for this site in one of your actions
758 files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>.
763 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionss">
764 <title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
765 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
767 For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer
768 to the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions file
769 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User
770 Manual</ulink>. It includes a <ulink
771 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">list of all actions</ulink>
772 and an <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions
773 file tutorial</ulink> to get you started.
778 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
779 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
780 way to do this?</title>
783 Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
784 with a text editor. But probably the easiest way is to access
785 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface with your web browser
786 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
787 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and then select
788 <quote><ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View &
789 change the current configuration</ulink></quote> from the menu. Note
790 that this feature must be explicitly enabled in the main config file
792 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>).
797 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
798 <title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
799 the differences?</title>
802 are being included by the developers, to be used for
803 different purposes: These are
804 <filename>default.action</filename>, the <quote>main</quote> actions file
805 which is actively maintained by the <application>Privoxy</application>
806 developers and typically sets the default policies, <filename>user.action</filename>,
807 where users are encouraged to make their private customizations.
808 Please see <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">the actions chapter</ulink>
809 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> for a more
810 detailed explanation.
814 Earlier versions included three different versions of the
815 <filename>default.action</filename> file. The new scheme allows for
816 greater flexibility of local configuration, and for browser based
817 selection of pre-defined <quote>aggressiveness</quote> levels.
822 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
824 Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updates of
825 <filename>default.action</filename> will be
826 made available from time to time on the <ulink
827 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files section</ulink> of
828 our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project page</ulink>.
832 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
833 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
834 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
835 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
840 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
842 The syntax and purpose of configuration files has remained roughly the
843 same throughout the 3.x series, but backwards compatibility is not guaranteed.
844 Also each release contains updated, <quote>improved</quote> versions and it is
845 therefore strongly recommended to install the newer configuration files
846 and merge back your modifications.
850 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="difficult">
851 <title>Why is the configuration so complicated?</title>
853 <quote>Complicated</quote> is in the eye of the beholder. Those that are
854 familiar with some of the underlying concepts, such as regular expression
855 syntax, take to it like a fish takes to water. Also, software that tries
856 hard to be <quote>user friendly</quote>, often lacks sophistication and
857 flexibility. There is always that trade-off there between power vs.
858 easy-of-use. Furthermore, anyone is welcome to contribute ideas and
859 implementations to enhance &my-app;.
863 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account work?</title>
865 The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services.
866 It may, however, make all <ulink
867 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
868 temporary, so that your browser will forget your
869 login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would like not to have to log
870 in manually each time you access those websites, simply turn off all cookie handling
871 for them in the <filename>user.action</filename> file. An example for yahoo might
875 <screen># Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
877 { -<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> }
878 .login.yahoo.com</screen>
881 These kinds of sites are often quite complex and heavy with
882 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> and
883 thus <quote>fragile</quote>. So if <emphasis>still</emphasis> a problem,
885 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> just for such
889 <screen># Gmail is a _fragile_ site:
891 { <literal>fragile</literal> }
893 mail.google.com</screen>
896 Be sure to flush your browser's caches whenever making these kinds of
897 changes, just to make sure the changes <quote>take</quote>.
900 Make sure the domain, host and path are appropriate as well. Your browser can
901 tell you where you are specifically and you should use that information for
902 your configuration settings. Note that above it is not referenced as
903 <literal>gmail.com</literal>, which is a valid domain name.
908 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
909 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Advanced</quote> defaults?</title>
911 Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To
912 help you get started, we provide you with three different default action
913 <quote>profiles</quote> in the web based actions file editor at <ulink
914 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
915 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html"><citetitle>User
916 Manual</citetitle></ulink> for a list of actions, and how the default
921 Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
922 known popular <quote>problem</quote> sites are included, but in
923 general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more exceptions
924 you will have to make later. New users are best to start off in
925 <quote>Cautious</quote> setting. This is safest and will have the fewest
926 problems. See the <ulink
927 url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>
928 for a more detailed discussion.
932 It should be noted that the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile (formerly known
933 as the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> profile) is more
934 aggressive, and will make use of some of
935 <application>Privoxy's</application> advanced features. Use at your own risk!
940 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration
941 with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
943 It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files with their
944 browsers, although the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
945 belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
948 When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
949 itself is writing to the config files. Because
950 <application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>,
951 it can update its own config files.
954 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in
955 a LAN) or aren't entirely in control of your own browser, you will probably want
956 to make sure that the the web-based editor and remote toggle features are
957 <quote>off</quote> by setting <quote><literal><ulink
958 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>
959 0</literal></quote> and <quote><literal><ulink
960 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">enable-remote-toggle</ulink>
961 0</literal></quote> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
964 As of &my-app; 3.0.7 these options are disabled by default.
969 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
970 <title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file? What is a <quote>filter</quote>?</title>
972 The <ulink url="../user-manual/filter-file.html"><filename>default.filter</filename></ulink>
973 file is where <emphasis>filters</emphasis> as supplied by the developers are defined.
974 Filters are a special subset of actions that can be used to modify or
975 remove web page content or headers on the fly. Content filters can
976 be applied to <emphasis>anything</emphasis> in the page source,
977 header filters can be applied to either server or client headers.
978 Regular expressions are used to accomplish this.
981 There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common annoyances. The
982 filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you need to use the
984 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"><literal>filter</literal>
985 action</ulink> in one of the actions files. Content filtering is automatically
986 disabled for inappropriate MIME types, but if you now better than Privoxy
987 what should or should not be filtered you can filter any content you like.
991 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be confused with <ulink
992 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK"><literal>blocks</literal></ulink>, which
993 is a completely different action, and is more typically used to block ads and
998 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
999 the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and define
1000 your own filters. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
1001 requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
1002 <![%p-newstuff;[ You should
1003 place any modifications to the default filters, or any new ones you create
1004 in a separate file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>, so they won't
1005 be overwritten during upgrades.
1006 The ability to define multiple filter files
1007 in <filename>config</filename> is a new feature as of v. 3.0.5.]]>
1011 There is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
1012 but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included
1013 <filename>default.filter</filename> file with the <ulink
1014 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
1015 Note that the custom actions editor must be explicitly enabled in
1016 the main config file (see <ulink
1017 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>).
1021 If you intend to develop your own filters, you might want to have a look at
1023 url="http://www.fabiankeil.de/sourcecode/pft/">Privoxy-Filter-Test</ulink>.
1028 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="lanconfig">
1029 <title>How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my
1032 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
1033 from <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> (localhost). To have it act as a server for
1034 a network, this needs to be changed in the <ulink
1035 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>. Look for
1037 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink></literal>
1038 option, which may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
1039 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
1040 and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you
1041 wish to run <application>Privoxy</application> on port 8118, this line
1047 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118</screen>
1051 Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
1052 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
1056 Alternately, you can have <application>Privoxy</application> listen on
1057 all available interfaces:
1062 listen-address :8118</screen>
1066 And then use <application>Privoxy's</application>
1068 url="../user-manual/config.html#PERMIT-ACCESS">permit-access</ulink>
1069 feature to limit connections. A firewall in this situation is recommended
1074 The above steps should be the same for any TCP network, regardless of
1079 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> on a LAN with untrusted users,
1080 we recommend that you double-check the <ulink
1081 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security</ulink>
1088 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1089 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
1091 The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the <ulink
1092 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1093 action</ulink>. You have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
1094 image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a redirect to a custom image of your choice.
1095 Note that this choice only has effect for images which are blocked as images, i.e.
1096 whose URLs match both a <literal><ulink
1097 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink></literal>
1098 <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><ulink
1099 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> action.
1102 If you want to see nothing, then change the <ulink
1103 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1104 action</ulink> to <quote>blank</quote>. This can be done by editing the
1105 <filename>user.action</filename> file, or through the <ulink
1106 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
1111 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1112 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
1114 Remember that <link linkend="whatsanad">telling which image is an ad and which
1115 isn't</link>, is an educated guess. While we hope that the standard configuration
1116 is rather smart, it will make occasional mistakes. The checkerboard image is visually
1117 decent, and it shows you where images have been blocked, which can be very
1118 helpful in case some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was
1119 erroneously blocked. It is recommended for new users so they can
1120 <quote>see</quote> what is happening. Some people might also enjoy seeing how
1121 many banners they <emphasis>don't</emphasis> have to see.
1126 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1127 <title id="blockedbytext">I see some images being replaced with text
1128 instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
1130 This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of the
1131 page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded into (i)frames
1132 or (i)layers, and these external HTML documents are blocked. Being non-images
1133 they get replaced by a substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image,
1134 which wouldn't work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts
1135 only HTML when it has requested an HTML document.
1138 The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself as a
1139 miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown with a
1140 large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
1143 If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to it that
1144 the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked. Clicking
1145 the <quote>See why</quote> link offered in the substitute page will show
1146 you which rule blocked the page. After changing the rule and un-blocking
1147 the HTML documents, the browser will try to load the actual banner images
1148 and the usual image blocking will (hopefully!) kick in.
1153 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="srvany">
1154 <title>Can Privoxy run as a service
1155 on Win2K/NT/XP?</title>
1158 Yes. Version 3.0.5 introduces full <application>Windows</application> service
1159 functionality. See <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html#installation-pack-win">
1160 the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink> for details on how to install and configure
1161 <application>Privoxy</application> as a service.
1164 Earlier ]]>3.x versions could run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
1165 See the discussion at <ulink
1166 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>,
1167 for details, and a sample configuration.
1172 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherproxy">
1173 <title>How can I make Privoxy work with other
1174 proxies like Squid or Tor?</title>
1176 This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
1177 <application>Privoxy</application> with those of a another proxy.
1179 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1180 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> which
1181 describes how to do this, and the <link linkend="TOR">
1182 How do I use Privoxy together with
1183 Tor</link> section below.
1187 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="port-80">
1188 <title>Can I just set Privoxy to use port 80
1189 and thus avoid individual browser configuration?</title>
1192 No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special kinds
1193 of proxies known as <quote>intercepting</quote> proxies (see below).
1198 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
1199 <title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>transparent
1200 </quote> proxy?</title>
1202 The whole idea of Privoxy is to modify client requests
1203 and server responses in all sorts of ways and therefore
1204 it's not a transparent proxy as described in
1205 <ulink url="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616">RFC 2616</ulink>.
1208 However, some people say <quote>transparent proxy</quote> when they
1209 mean <quote>intercepting proxy</quote>. If you are one of them,
1210 please read the <ulink url="#intercepting">next entry</ulink>.
1215 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="intercepting">
1216 <title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>intercepting</quote> proxy?</title>
1218 <application>Privoxy</application> can't intercept traffic itself,
1219 but it can handle requests that where intercepted and redirected
1220 with a packet filter (like <application>PF</application> or
1221 <application>iptables</application>), as long as the <literal>Host</literal>
1225 As the <literal>Host</literal> header is required by HTTP/1.1 and as most
1226 web sites rely on it anyway, this limitation shouldn't be a problem.
1229 Please refer to your packet filter's documentation to learn how to
1230 intercept and redirect traffic into <application>Privoxy</application>.
1231 Afterward you just have to configure <application>Privoxy</application> to
1232 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCEPT-INTERCEPTED-REQUESTS">accept
1233 intercepted requests</ulink>.
1238 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook">
1239 <title>How can I configure Privoxy for use with Outlook?</title>
1241 Versions of <application>Outlook</application> prior to Office 2007, use
1242 <application>Internet Explorer</application> components to both render HTML,
1243 and fetch any HTTP requests that may be embedded in an HTML email. So however
1244 you have <application>Privoxy</application> configured to work with IE, this
1245 configuration should automatically be shared, at least with older version of
1249 Starting with Office 2007, Microsoft is instead using the MS-Word rendering
1250 engine with Outlook. It is unknown whether this can be configured to use a
1252 <!-- FIXME HB 2009-02-15 -->
1256 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook-more">
1257 <title>How can I have separate rules just for HTML mail?</title>
1259 The short answer is, you can't. <application>Privoxy</application> has no way
1260 of knowing which particular application makes a request, so there is no way to
1261 distinguish between web pages and HTML mail.
1262 <application>Privoxy</application> just blindly proxies all requests. In the
1263 case of <application>Outlook Express</application> (see above), OE uses
1264 IE anyway, and there is no way for <application>Privoxy</application> to ever
1265 be able to distinguish between them (nor could any other proxy type application for
1269 For a good discussion of some of the issues involved (including privacy and
1270 security issues), see
1271 <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>.
1275 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="sneaky-cookies">
1276 <title>I sometimes notice cookies sneaking through. How?</title>
1279 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Cookies</ulink> can be
1280 set in several ways. The classic method is via the
1281 <literal>Set-Cookie</literal> HTTP header. This is straightforward, and an
1282 easy one to manipulate, such as the &my-app; concept of
1283 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</ulink>.
1284 There is also the possibility of using
1285 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> to
1286 set cookies (&my-app; calls these <literal>content-cookies</literal>). This
1287 is trickier because the syntax can vary widely, and thus requires a certain
1288 amount of guesswork. It is not realistic to catch all of these short of
1289 disabling Javascript, which would break many sites. And lastly, if the
1290 cookies are embedded in a HTTPS/SSL secure session via Javascript, they are beyond
1291 <application>Privoxy's</application> reach.
1294 All in all, &my-app; can help manage cookies in general, can help minimize
1295 the loss of privacy posed by cookies, but can't realistically stop all
1300 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="evil-cookies">
1301 <title>Are all cookies bad? Why?</title>
1303 No, in fact there are many beneficial uses of
1305 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>. Cookies are just a
1306 method that browsers can use to store data between pages, or between browser
1307 sessions. Sometimes there is a good reason for this, and the user's life is a
1308 bit easier as a result. But there is a long history of some websites taking
1309 advantage of this layer of trust, and using the data they glean from you and
1310 your browsing habits for their own purposes, and maybe to your potential
1311 detriment. Such sites are using you and storing their data on your system.
1312 That is why the privacy conscious watch from whom those cookies come, and why
1313 they really <emphasis>need</emphasis> to be there.
1317 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Wikipedia cookie
1318 definition</ulink> for more.
1322 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allow-cookies">
1323 <title>How can I allow permanent cookies for my trusted sites?</title>
1326 There are several actions that relate to cookies. The default behavior is to
1327 allow only <quote>session cookies</quote>, which means the cookies only last
1328 for the current browser session. This eliminates most kinds of abuse related
1329 to cookies. But there may be cases where you want cookies to last.
1332 To disable all cookie actions, so that cookies are allowed unrestricted,
1333 both in and out, for <literal>example.com</literal>:
1337 { -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only -filter{content-cookies} }
1338 .example.com</screen>
1341 Place the above in <filename>user.action</filename>. Note that some of these may
1342 be off by default anyway, so this might be redundant, but there is no harm
1343 being explicit in what you want to happen. <filename>user.action</filename>
1344 includes an alias for this situation, called
1345 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal>.
1349 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="multiples">
1350 <title>Can I have separate configurations for different users?</title>
1352 Each instance of <application>Privoxy</application> has its own
1353 configuration, including such attributes as the TCP port that it listens on.
1354 What you can do is run multiple instances of <application>Privoxy</application>, each with
1356 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink>
1357 configuration setting, and configuration path, and then
1358 each of these can have their own configurations. Think of it as per-port
1362 Simple enough for a few users, but for large installations, consider having
1363 groups of users that might share like configurations.
1367 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whitelists">
1368 <title>Can I set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of
1369 <quote>good</quote> sites?</title>
1371 Sure. There are a couple of things you can do for simple white-listing.
1372 Here's one real easy one:
1375 ############################################################
1377 ############################################################
1378 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
1379 / # Block *all* URLs
1381 ############################################################
1383 ############################################################
1384 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
1387 games.example.com</screen>
1389 This allows access to only those three sites by first blocking all URLs, and
1390 then subsequently allowing three specific exceptions.
1393 Another approach is <application>Privoxy's</application>
1394 <literal>trustfile</literal> concept, which incorporates the notion of
1395 <quote>trusted referrers</quote>. See the <ulink
1396 url="../user-manual/config.html#TRUSTFILE">Trust documentation</ulink>
1400 These are fairly simple approaches and are not completely foolproof. There
1401 are various other configuration options that should be disabled (described
1402 elsewhere here and in <ulink url="../user-manual/">the User Manual</ulink>)
1403 so that users can't modify their own configuration and easily circumvent the
1408 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="no-adblock">
1409 <title>How can I turn off ad-blocking?</title>
1411 Ad blocking is achieved through a complex application of various &my-app;
1412 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions</ulink>. These
1413 actions are deployed against simple images, banners, flash animations,
1414 text pages, JavaScript, pop-ups and pop-unders, etc., so its not as simple as
1415 just turning one or two actions off. The various actions that make up
1416 &my-app; ad blocking are hard-coded into the default configuration files. It
1417 has been assumed that everyone using &my-app; is interested in this
1421 If you want to do without this, there are several approaches you can take:
1422 You can manually undo the many block rules in
1423 <filename>default.action</filename>. Or even easier, just create your own
1424 <filename>default.action</filename> file from scratch without the many ad
1425 blocking rules, and corresponding exceptions. Or lastly, if you are not
1426 concerned about the additional blocks that are done for privacy reasons, you
1427 can very easily over-ride <emphasis>all</emphasis> blocking with the
1428 following very simple rule in your <filename>user.action</filename>:
1432 # Unblock everybody, everywhere
1433 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
1434 / # UN-Block *all* URLs</screen>
1437 Or even a more comprehensive reversing of various ad related actions:
1441 # Unblock everybody, everywhere, and turn off appropriate filtering, etc
1442 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> \
1443 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">-filter{banners-by-size}</ulink> \
1444 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">-filter{banners-by-link}</ulink> \
1445 <literal>allow-popups</literal> \
1447 / # UN-Block *all* URLs and allow ads</screen>
1450 This last <quote>action</quote> in this compound statement,
1451 <literal>allow-popups</literal>, is an <ulink
1452 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> that disables
1453 various pop-up blocking features.
1457 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="templates">
1458 <title>How can I have custom template pages, like the
1459 <emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
1461 &my-app; <quote>templates</quote> are specialized text files utilized by
1462 &my-app; for various purposes and can easily be modified using any text
1463 editor. All the template pages are installed in a sub-directory appropriately
1464 named: <filename>templates</filename>. Knowing something about HTML syntax
1465 will of course be helpful.
1468 Be forewarned that the default templates are subject to being overwritten
1469 during upgrades. You can, however, create completely new templates,
1470 place them in another directory and specify the alternate path in the main
1471 <filename>config</filename>. For details, have a look at the <ulink
1472 url="../user-manual/config.html#templdir">templdir</ulink> option.
1476 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blockall">
1477 <title>How can I remove the <quote>Go There Anyway</quote> link from
1478 the <emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
1480 There is more than one way to do it (although Perl is not involved).
1483 Editing the BLOCKED template page (see above) may dissuade some users, but
1484 this method is easily circumvented. Where you need this level of control, you
1485 might want to build &my-app; from source, and disable various features that are
1486 available as compile-time options. You should
1487 <command>configure</command> the sources as follows:
1491 ./configure --disable-toggle --disable-editor --disable-force</screen>
1494 This will create an executable with hard-coded security features so that
1495 &my-app; does not allow easy bypassing of blocked sites, or changing the
1496 current configuration via any connected user's web browser.
1499 Finally, all of these features can also be toggled on/off via options in
1500 <application>Privoxy's</application> main <ulink
1501 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">config</ulink> file which
1502 means you don't have to recompile anything.
1508 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1511 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1513 <sect1 id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
1515 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1516 <title id="slowsme">How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This
1517 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
1519 How much of an impact depends on many things, including the CPU of the host
1520 system, how aggressive the configuration is, which specific actions are being triggered,
1521 the size of the page, the bandwidth of the connection, etc.
1524 Overall, it should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
1525 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not typically being
1526 retrieved and displayed. The actual processing time required by
1527 <application>Privoxy</application> itself for each page, is relatively small
1528 in the overall scheme of things, and happens very quickly. This is typically
1529 more than offset by time saved not downloading and rendering ad images and
1530 other junk content (if ad blocking is being used).
1534 <quote>Filtering</quote> content via the <literal><ulink
1535 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> or
1537 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1538 actions may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document
1539 needs to be buffered before displaying. And on very large documents,
1540 filtering may have some measurable impact. How much depends on the page size,
1541 the actual definition of the filter(s), etc. See below. Most other actions
1542 have little to no impact on speed.
1545 Also, when filtering is enabled but zlib support isn't available, compression
1546 is often disabled (see <ulink
1547 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>).
1548 This can have an impact on speed as well, although it's probably smaller than
1549 you might think. Again, the page size, etc. will determine how much of an impact.
1555 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I notice considerable
1556 delays in page requests. What's wrong?</title>
1558 If you use any <literal><ulink
1559 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> action,
1560 such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <literal><ulink
1561 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1562 action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
1563 mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time.
1566 The loading time typically does not really change much in real numbers, but
1567 the feeling is different, because most browsers are able to start rendering
1568 incomplete content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is
1569 more noticeable on slower dialup connections. Extremely large documents
1570 may have some impact on the time to load the page where there is filtering
1571 being done. But overall, the difference should be very minimal. If there is a
1572 big impact, then probably some other situation is contributing (like
1573 anti-virus software).
1576 Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types. But note
1577 that if the web server mis-reports the MIME type, then content that should
1578 not be filtered, could be. <application>Privoxy</application> only knows how
1579 to differentiate filterable content because of the MIME type as reported by
1580 the server, or because of some configuration setting that enables/disables
1585 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
1586 "http://p.p/"?</title>
1588 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> is the
1589 address of <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in user interface, and
1590 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> is a shortcut for it.
1593 Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet,
1594 it can simply intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in
1595 <quote>web server</quote>.
1598 This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
1599 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1600 takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy ...</quote>, everything is OK.
1601 If you get a page saying <quote>Privoxy is not working</quote> instead, then
1602 your browser didn't use <application>Privoxy</application> for the request,
1603 hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <emphasis>real</emphasis>
1604 web site at config.privoxy.org.
1610 out of date 09/02/06 HB
1611 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
1613 No. The patterns for blocking now reside (among other things) in the <ulink
1614 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>, which are
1615 actively maintained instead. See next question ...
1619 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads, or report
1622 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> for
1623 various ways to interact with the developers.
1628 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads2"><title>If I do submit missed ads, will
1629 they be included in future updates?</title>
1631 Whether such submissions are eventually included in the
1632 <filename>default.action</filename> configuration file depends on how
1633 significant the issue is. We of course want to address any potential
1634 problem with major, high-profile sites such as <citetitle>Google</citetitle>,
1635 <citetitle>Yahoo</citetitle>, etc. Any site with global or regional reach,
1636 has a good chance of being a candidate. But at the other end of the spectrum
1637 are any number of smaller, low-profile sites such as for local clubs or
1638 schools. Since their reach and impact are much less, they are best handled by
1639 inclusion in the user's <filename>user.action</filename>, and thus would be
1640 unlikely to be included.
1646 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="noonecares"><title>Why doesn't anyone answer my support
1649 Rest assured that it has been read and considered. Why it is not answered,
1650 could be for various reasons, including no one has a good answer for it, no
1651 one has had time to yet investigate it thoroughly, it has been reported
1652 numerous times already, or because not enough information was provided to help
1653 us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.
1659 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
1661 If you run both the browser and &my-app; locally, you cannot hide your IP
1662 address with <application>Privoxy</application> or ultimately any other
1663 software alone. The server needs to know your IP address so that it knows
1664 where to send the responses back.
1667 There are many publicly usable "anonymous" proxies out there, which
1668 provide a further level of indirection between you and the web server.
1671 However, these proxies are called "anonymous" because you don't need
1672 to authenticate, not because they would offer any real anonymity.
1673 Most of them will log your IP address and make it available to the
1674 authorities in case you violate the law of the country they run in. In fact
1675 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
1676 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
1679 If you want to hide your IP address from most adversaries,
1680 you should consider chaining <application>Privoxy</application>
1681 with <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</ulink>.
1682 The configuration details can be found in
1683 <ulink url="#TOR">How do I use <application>Privoxy</application> together
1684 with <application>Tor</application> section</ulink>
1689 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1690 <title id="anonforsure">Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
1692 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are improved, but unless you
1693 <ulink url="#TOR">chain <application>Privoxy</application> with <application>Tor</application></ulink>
1694 or a similar proxy and know what you're doing when it comes to configuring
1695 the rest of your system, you should assume that everything you do
1696 on the Web can be traced back to you.
1699 <application>Privoxy</application> can remove various information about you,
1700 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
1701 you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it neither
1702 hides your IP address, nor can it guarantee that the rest of the system
1703 behaves correctly. There are several possibilities how a web sites can find
1704 out who you are, even if you are using a strict <application>Privoxy</application>
1705 configuration and chained it with <application>Tor</application>.
1708 Most of <application>Privoxy's</application> privacy-enhancing features can be easily subverted
1709 by an insecure browser configuration, therefore you should use a browser that can
1710 be configured to only execute code from trusted sites, and be careful which sites you trust.
1711 For example there is no point in having <application>Privoxy</application>
1712 modify the User-Agent header, if websites can get all the information they want
1713 through JavaScript, ActiveX, Flash, Java etc.
1716 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
1717 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Privoxy</application>
1718 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
1719 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
1720 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
1723 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
1724 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
1725 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
1726 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
1727 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
1733 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1734 <title id="proxytest">A test site says I am not using a Proxy.</title>
1736 Good! Actually, they are probably testing for some other kinds of proxies.
1737 Hiding yourself completely would require additional steps.
1741 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="tor"><title>How do I use Privoxy
1742 together with Tor?</title>
1744 Before you configure <application>Privoxy</application> to use
1745 <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</ulink>,
1746 please follow the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> chapters
1747 <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">2. Installation</ulink> and
1748 <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">5. Startup</ulink> to make sure
1749 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is setup correctly.
1752 If it is, refer to <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/documentation.html">Tor's
1753 extensive documentation</ulink> to learn how to install <application>Tor</application>,
1754 and make sure <application>Tor</application>'s logfile says that
1755 <quote>Tor has successfully opened a circuit</quote> and it
1756 <quote>looks like client functionality is working</quote>.
1759 If either <application>Tor</application> or <application>Privoxy</application>
1760 isn't working, their combination most likely will neither. Testing them on their
1761 own will also help you to direct problem reports to the right audience.
1762 If <application>Privoxy</application> isn't working, don't bother the
1763 <application>Tor</application> developers. If <application>Tor</application>
1764 isn't working, don't send bug reports to the <application>Privoxy</application> Team.
1767 If you verified that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>Tor</application>
1768 are working, it is time to connect them. As far as <application>Privoxy</application>
1769 is concerned, <application>Tor</application> is just another proxy that can be reached
1770 by socks4 or socks4a. Most likely you are interested in <application>Tor</application>
1771 to increase your anonymity level, therefore you should use socks4a, to make sure DNS requests are
1772 done through <application>Tor</application> and thus invisible to your local network.
1777 Since <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.5, its
1778 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>
1779 is already prepared for <application>Tor</application>, if you are using a
1780 default <application>Tor</application> configuration and run it on the same
1781 system as &my-app;, you just have to edit the
1782 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding section</ulink>
1783 and uncomment the line:
1787 # forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
1791 This is enough to reach the Internet, but additionally you might want to
1792 uncomment the following forward rules, to make sure your local network is still
1793 reachable through Privoxy:
1797 # forward 192.168.*.*/ .
1798 # forward 10.*.*.*/ .
1799 # forward 127.*.*.*/ .
1803 Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will
1804 be as (un)secure as the local network is, but the alternative is
1805 that your browser can't reach the network at all. Then again,
1806 that may actually be desired and if you don't know for sure
1807 that your browser has to be able to reach the local network,
1808 there's no reason to allow it.
1811 If you want your browser to be able to reach servers in your local
1812 network by using their names, you will need additional exceptions
1813 that look like this:
1817 # forward localhost/ .
1821 Save the modified configuration file and open
1822 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status/</ulink>
1823 in your browser, confirm that <application>Privoxy</application> has reloaded its configuration
1824 and that there are no other forward lines, unless you know that you need them. If everything looks good,
1826 <ulink url="https://wiki.torproject.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ#IsMyConnectionPrivate">Tor
1827 Faq 4.2</ulink> to learn how to verify that you are really using <application>Tor</application>.
1830 Afterward, please take the time to at least skim through the rest
1831 of <application>Tor's</application> documentation. Make sure you understand
1832 what <application>Tor</application> does, why it is no replacement for
1833 application level security, and why you probably don't want to
1834 use it for unencrypted logins.
1838 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1839 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information or
1840 content is being altered?</title>
1843 Definitely. It is common for sites to use browser type, browser version,
1844 HTTP header content, and various other techniques in order to dynamically
1845 decide what to display and how to display it. What you see, and what I see,
1846 might be very different. There are many, many ways that this can be handled,
1847 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
1851 The <quote>User-Agent</quote> is sometimes used in this way to identify
1852 the browser, and adjust content accordingly.
1856 Also, different browsers use different encodings of non-English
1857 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
1858 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
1859 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
1860 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
1861 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
1862 <quote>Referer</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
1863 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
1864 <quote>Referer</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
1865 can forge both headers without giving information away). There are
1866 many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server. The
1867 results of which could inadvertently cause pages to load incorrectly,
1868 partially, or even not at all. And there may be no obvious clues as to just
1869 what went wrong, or why. Nowhere will there be a message that says
1870 <quote><emphasis>Turn off <literal>fast-redirects</literal> or else!</emphasis>
1875 Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree,
1880 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
1881 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
1882 be required, but by no means the only one.
1888 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1889 <title id="caching">Can Privoxy act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
1890 speed up web browsing?</title>
1892 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
1893 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> or
1894 <ulink url="http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/polipo/">Polipo</ulink> for this.
1895 And, yes, before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
1896 with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
1897 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding
1898 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
1899 manual</ulink> for details.
1903 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1904 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?</title>
1906 Not in the way you mean, or in the way some firewall vendors claim they can.
1907 <application>Privoxy</application> can help protect your privacy, but can't
1908 protect your system from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
1909 to use <emphasis>both</emphasis>.
1913 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1914 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
1915 ads used to be. Why?</title>
1917 It is technically possible to eliminate banners and ads in a way that frees
1918 their allocated page space. This could easily be done by blocking with
1919 <application>Privoxy's</application> filters,
1920 and eliminating the <emphasis>entire</emphasis> image references from the
1924 But, this would consume considerably more CPU resources (IOW, slow things
1925 down), would likely destroy the layout of some web pages which rely on the
1926 banners utilizing a certain amount of page space, and might fail in other
1927 cases, where the screen space is reserved (e.g. by HTML tables for instance).
1928 Also, making ads and banners disappear without any trace complicates
1929 troubleshooting, and would sooner or later be problematic.
1932 The better alternative is to instead let them stay, and block the resulting
1933 requests for the banners themselves as is now the case. This leaves either
1934 empty space, or the familiar checkerboard pattern.
1937 So the developers won't support this in the default configuration, but you
1938 can of course define appropriate filters yourself to achieve this.
1942 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1943 <title id="ssl">How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1945 Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
1946 and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably <emphasis>secure</emphasis>,
1947 there is little that <application>Privoxy</application> can do but hand the raw
1948 gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed.
1951 The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs
1952 to tell <application>Privoxy</application> the name of the remote server,
1953 so that <application>Privoxy</application> can establish the connection.
1954 If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.
1957 As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
1958 seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often
1959 the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless
1960 for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
1961 <application>Privoxy</application>'s ad blocking.
1964 <quote>Content cookies</quote> (those that are embedded in the actual HTML or
1965 JS page content, see <literal><ulink
1966 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</ulink></literal>),
1967 in an SSL transaction will be impossible to block under these conditions.
1968 Fortunately, this does not seem to be a very common scenario since most
1969 cookies come by traditional means.
1974 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1975 <title id="secure">Privoxy runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1976 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1978 On Unix-like systems, <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
1979 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1980 <application>Privoxy</application> listens to requests from <quote>localhost</quote>
1984 The server aspect of <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly
1985 exposed to the Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1986 <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1987 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1988 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
1989 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration file and check all <ulink
1990 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security
1991 options</ulink>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address
1992 in the browser proxy configuration, but <application>Privoxy</application>
1993 will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in addition,
1994 and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
1999 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
2000 <title>Can I temporarily disable Privoxy?</title>
2002 &my-app; doesn't have a transparent proxy mode,
2003 but you can toggle off blocking and content filtering.
2006 The easiest way to do that is to point your browser
2007 to the remote toggle URL: <ulink
2008 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>.
2011 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS">Bookmarklets section</ulink>
2012 of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> for an easy way to access this
2013 feature. Note that this is a feature that may need to be enabled in the main
2014 <filename>config</filename> file.
2019 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="reallyoff">
2020 <title>When <quote>disabled</quote> is Privoxy totally
2021 out of the picture?</title>
2023 No, this just means all optional filtering and actions are disabled.
2024 <application>Privoxy</application> is still acting as a proxy, but just
2025 doing less of the things that <application>Privoxy</application> would
2026 normally be expected to do. It is still a <quote>middle-man</quote> in
2027 the interaction between your browser and web sites. See below to bypass
2032 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff2">
2033 <title>How can I tell Privoxy to totally ignore certain sites?</title>
2035 Bypassing a proxy, or proxying based on arbitrary criteria, is purely a browser
2036 configuration issue, not a &my-app; issue. Modern browsers typically do have
2037 settings for not proxying certain sites. Check your browser's help files.
2042 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="crunch">
2043 <title>My logs show Privoxy <quote>crunches</quote>
2044 ads, but also its own internal CGI pages. What is a <quote>crunch</quote>?</title>
2046 A <quote>crunch</quote> simply means <application>Privoxy</application> intercepted
2047 <emphasis>something</emphasis>, nothing more. Often this is indeed ads or
2048 banners, but <application>Privoxy</application> uses the same mechanism for
2049 trapping requests for its own internal pages. For instance, a request for
2050 <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration page at: <ulink
2051 url="http://config.privoxy.org">http://config.privoxy.org</ulink>, is
2052 intercepted (i.e. it does not go out to the 'net), and the familiar CGI
2053 configuration is returned to the browser, and the log consequently will show
2054 a <quote>crunch</quote>.
2057 Since version 3.0.7, Privoxy will also log the crunch reason.
2058 If you are using an older version you might want to upgrade.
2062 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads">
2063 <title>Can Privoxy effect files that I download
2064 from a webserver? FTP server?</title>
2066 From the webserver's perspective, there is no difference between
2067 viewing a document (i.e. a page), and downloading a file. The same is true of
2068 <application>Privoxy</application>. If there is a match for a <literal><ulink
2069 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> pattern,
2070 it will still be blocked, and of course this is obvious.
2073 Filtering is potentially more of a concern since the results are not always
2074 so obvious, and the effects of filtering are there whether the file is simply
2075 viewed, or downloaded. And potentially whether the content is some obnoxious
2076 advertisement, or Mr. Jimmy's latest/greatest source code jewel. Of course,
2077 one of these presumably is <quote>bad</quote> content that we don't want, and
2078 the other is <quote>good</quote> content that we do want.
2079 <application>Privoxy</application> is blind to the differences, and can only
2080 distinguish <quote>good from bad</quote> by the configuration parameters
2081 <emphasis>we</emphasis> give it.
2084 <application>Privoxy</application> knows the differences in files according
2085 to the <quote>Content Type</quote> as reported by the webserver. If this is
2086 reported accurately (e.g. <quote>application/zip</quote> for a zip archive),
2087 then <application>Privoxy</application> knows to ignore these where
2088 appropriate. <application>Privoxy</application> potentially can filter HTML
2089 as well as plain text documents, subject to configuration parameters of
2090 course. Also, documents that are of an unknown type (generally assumed to be
2091 <quote>text/plain</quote>) can be filtered, as will those that might be
2092 incorrectly reported by the webserver. If such a file is a downloaded file
2093 that is intended to be saved to disk, then any content that might have been
2094 altered by filtering, will be saved too, for these (probably rare) cases.
2097 Note that versions later than 3.0.2 do NOT filter document types reported as
2098 <quote>text/plain</quote>. Prior to this, <application>Privoxy</application>
2099 did filter this document type.
2102 In short, filtering is <quote>ON</quote> if a) the content type as reported
2103 by the webserver is appropriate <emphasis>and</emphasis> b) the configuration
2104 allows it (or at least does not disallow it). That's it. There is no magic
2105 cookie anywhere to say this is <quote>good</quote> and this is
2106 <quote>bad</quote>. It's the configuration that lets it all happen or not.
2109 If you download text files, you probably do not want these to be filtered,
2110 particularly if the content is source code, or other critical content. Source
2111 code sometimes might be mistaken for Javascript (i.e. the kind that might
2112 open a pop-up window). It is recommended to turn off filtering for download
2113 sites (particularly if the content may be plain text files and you are using
2114 version 3.0.2 or earlier) in your <filename>user.action</filename> file. And
2115 also, for any site or page where making <emphasis>any</emphasis> changes at
2116 all to the content is to be avoided.
2119 <application>Privoxy</application> does not do FTP at all, only HTTP
2120 and HTTPS (SSL) protocols.
2124 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads2">
2125 <title>I just downloaded a Perl script, and Privoxy
2126 altered it! Yikes, what is wrong!</title>
2132 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="hostsfile">
2133 <title>Should I continue to use a <quote>HOSTS</quote> file for ad-blocking?</title>
2135 One time-tested technique to defeat common ads is to trick the local DNS
2136 system by giving a phony IP address for the ad generator in the local
2137 <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, typically using <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>, aka
2138 <literal>localhost</literal>. This effectively blocks the ad.
2141 There is no reason to use this technique in conjunction with
2142 <application>Privoxy</application>. <application>Privoxy</application>
2143 does essentially the same thing, much more elegantly and with much more
2144 flexibility. A large <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, in fact, not only
2145 duplicates effort, but may get in the way and seriously slow down your system.
2146 It is recommended to remove such entries from your <filename>HOSTS</filename> file. If you think
2147 your hosts list is neglected by <application>Privoxy's </application>
2148 configuration, consider adding your list to your <filename>user.action</filename> file:
2155 ads.galore.example.com
2156 etc.example.com</screen>
2160 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
2161 <title>Where can I find more information about Privoxy
2162 and related issues?</title>
2163 <!-- Include seealso.sgml boilerplate: -->
2165 <!-- end boilerplate -->
2170 <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
2176 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="microsuck">
2177 <title>I've noticed that Privoxy changes <quote>Microsoft</quote> to
2178 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>! Why are you manipulating my browsing?</title>
2181 We're not. The text substitutions that you are seeing are disabled
2182 in the default configuration as shipped. You have either manually
2183 activated the <quote><literal>fun</literal></quote> filter which
2184 is clearly labeled <quote>Text replacements for subversive browsing
2185 fun!</quote> or you are using an older Privoxy version and have implicitly
2186 activated it by choosing the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile in the
2187 web-based editor. Please upgrade.
2191 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="valid">
2192 <title>Does Privoxy produce <quote>valid</quote> HTML (or XHTML)?</title>
2195 Privoxy generates HTML in both its own <quote>templates</quote>, and possibly
2196 whenever there are text substitutions via a &my-app; filter. While this
2197 should always conform to the HTML 4.01 specifications, it has not been
2198 validated against this or any other standard.
2206 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2208 <sect1 id="trouble">
2209 <title>Troubleshooting</title>
2211 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
2212 <title id="refused">I cannot connect to any websites. Or, I am getting
2213 <quote>connection refused</quote> message with every web page. Why?</title>
2215 There are several possibilities:
2220 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running. Solution: verify
2221 that &my-app; is installed correctly, has not crashed, and is indeed running.
2222 Turn on <application>Privoxy's</application> logging, and look at the logs to see what they say.
2224 <listitem><para>Or your browser is configured for a different port than what
2225 <application>Privoxy</application> is using. Solution: verify that &my-app;
2226 and your browser are set to the same port (<literal>listen-address</literal>).
2228 <listitem><para>Or if using a forwarding rule, you have a configuration problem or a
2229 problem with a host in the forwarding chain. Solution: temporarily alter your
2230 configuration and take the forwarders out of the equation.
2233 Or you have a firewall that is interfering and blocking you. Solution:
2234 try disabling or removing the firewall as a simple test.
2241 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2242 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="error503">
2243 <title>Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</title>
2245 More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has
2246 been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running! The solution is
2247 to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
2248 something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products
2249 may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
2253 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
2254 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
2255 still getting through. How?</title>
2257 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
2258 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
2259 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Privoxy</application>
2260 will not be involved. Flush the browser's caches, and then try again.
2264 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
2265 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
2266 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
2267 and see if it really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking
2268 spam: a lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game. And
2269 remember you need to block the URL of the ad in question, which may be
2270 entirely different from the site URL itself. Most ads are hosted on different
2271 servers than the main site itself. If you right-click on the ad, you should
2272 be able to get all the relevant information you need. Alternately, you can
2273 find the correct URL by looking at <application>Privoxy's</application> logs
2274 (you may need to enable logging in the main config file if its disabled).
2277 Below is a slightly modified real-life log snippet that originates with one
2278 requested URL: <literal>www.example.com</literal> (name of site was changed
2279 for this example, the number of requests is real). You can see in this the
2280 complexity of what goes into making up this one <quote>page</quote>. There
2281 are eight different domains involved here, with thirty two separate URLs
2282 requested in all, making up all manner of images, Shockwave Flash,
2283 JavaScript, CSS stylesheets, scripts, and other related content. Some of this
2284 content is obviously <quote>good</quote> or <quote>bad</quote>, but not all.
2285 Many of the more questionable looking requests, are going to outside domains
2286 that seem to be identifying themselves with suspicious looking names, making
2287 our job a little easier. &my-app; has <quote>crunched</quote> (meaning caught
2288 and BLOCKED) quite a few items in this example, but perhaps missed a few as well.
2293 Request: www.example.com/
2294 Request: www.example.com/favicon.ico
2295 Request: img.example.com/main.css
2296 Request: img.example.com/sr.js
2297 Request: example.betamarker.com/example.html
2298 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/bestsellers/skyscraper.php?likref=BSellers
2299 Request: img.example.com/pb.png
2300 Request: www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js crunch! (Blocked)
2301 Request: www.advertising-department.com/ats/switch.ps.php?26856 crunch! (Blocked)
2302 Request: img.example.com/p.gif
2303 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example&mode=behind crunch! (Blocked)
2304 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=5c3cf&tmpl=PBa.tmpl crunch! (Blocked)
2305 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example crunch! (Blocked)
2306 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/best_sellers.css
2307 Request: www.adtrak.net/adx.js crunch! (Blocked)
2308 Request: img.example.com/hbg.gif
2309 Request: img.example.com/example.jpg
2310 Request: img.example.com/mt.png
2311 Request: img.example.com/mm.png
2312 Request: img.example.com/mb.png
2313 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=a71b91fa5&tmpl=Ua.tmp crunch! (Blocked)
2314 Request: www.example.com/tracker.js
2315 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/lsi_head.gif
2316 Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=020548130&what=zone:61 crunch! (Blocked)
2317 Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=463594413&what=zone:58&source=Ua crunch! (Blocked)
2318 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/bottomani.swf
2319 Request: mmm.elitemediagroup.net/install.php?allowpop=no&popupmincook=0&allowsp2=1 crunch! (Blocked)
2320 Request: www.example.com/tracker.js?screen=1400x1050&win=962x693
2321 Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=61 crunch! (Blocked)
2322 Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=5c3cf599a9efd0320d26&si
2323 Request: 66.70.21.80/img/pixel.gif
2324 Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=58&source=Ua&block=86400 crunch! (Blocked)
2325 Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=a71b9f6504b0c5681fa5&si=Ua
2330 Despite 12 out of 32 requests being blocked, the page looked, and seemed to
2331 behave perfectly <quote>normal</quote> (minus some ads, of course).
2336 <sect2 id="badsite" renderas="sect3">
2337 <title >One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy.
2338 What can I do?</title>
2341 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
2342 by toggling off <application>Privoxy</application> through <ulink
2343 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
2344 (the toggle feature may need to be enabled in the main
2345 <filename>config</filename>),
2346 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
2347 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
2352 If the problem went away, we know we have a configuration related problem.
2354 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
2355 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which
2356 actions are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions
2357 files are responsible for that. It might be helpful also to look at your logs
2358 for this site too, to see what else might be happening (note: logging may need
2359 to be enabled in the main config file). Many sites are
2360 complex and require a number of related pages to help present their content.
2361 Look at what else might be used by the page in question, and what of that
2362 might be <emphasis>required</emphasis>.
2363 Now, armed with this information, go to
2365 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2366 and select the appropriate actions files for editing. </para>
2368 You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
2369 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
2370 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
2371 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
2372 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
2373 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
2374 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
2377 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
2378 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
2379 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
2380 site to a <literal>{ fragile }</literal> section in <filename>user.action</filename>,
2381 which is an alias that turns off most <quote>dangerous</quote>
2382 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
2383 your privacy and protection more than necessary,
2386 Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <ulink
2387 url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">User Manual appendix,
2388 Troubleshooting: the Anatomy of an Action</ulink>.
2389 There is also an <ulink
2390 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions tutorial</ulink>
2391 with general configuration information and examples.
2394 As a last resort, you can always see if your browser has a setting that will
2395 bypass the proxy setting for selective sites. Modern browsers can do this.
2401 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2402 <sect2 id="dun" renderas="sect3">
2403 <title>After installing Privoxy, I have to log in
2404 every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
2407 This is a quirk that effects the installation of
2408 <application>Privoxy</application>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
2409 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
2410 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.
2414 When setting up an NT based Windows system with
2415 <application>Privoxy</application> you may find that things do not seem to be
2416 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
2417 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
2418 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
2419 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
2420 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
2421 configured for the kids.
2425 When setting up <application>Privoxy</application> in this environment you
2426 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
2427 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
2428 <application>Privoxy</application>. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
2429 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
2430 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
2431 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
2432 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
2433 you have to store the password under each different user!
2437 The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
2438 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
2439 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
2440 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
2441 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
2442 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.
2446 [Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
2451 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2452 <sect2 id="ftp" renderas="sect3">
2453 <title>I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy
2454 is blocking me.</title>
2456 <application>Privoxy</application> cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
2457 so do not configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
2458 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for <emphasis>any protocol other than HTTP
2459 or HTTPS (SSL)</emphasis>.
2462 Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
2463 a URL like <literal>ftp://ftp.example.com</literal>, your browser is making
2464 an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
2465 speak FTP, <application>Privoxy</application> does not, and cannot proxy
2469 To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <quote>proxy</quote>
2470 setting, which will enable various protocols, including
2471 <emphasis>both</emphasis> HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is possible to
2472 accidentally enable FTP proxying in these cases. And of course, if this
2473 happens, <application>Privoxy</application> will indeed cause problems since
2474 it does not know FTP. <![%p-newstuff;[Newer version will give a sane error
2475 message if a FTP connection is attempted.]]> Just disable the FTP setting
2476 and all will be well again.
2479 Will <application>Privoxy</application> ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely.
2480 There just is not much reason, and the work to make this happen is more than
2485 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2486 <sect2 id="macosxie" renderas="sect3">
2487 <title>In Mac OS X, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
2488 Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.</title>
2490 Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
2491 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
2492 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
2493 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
2494 is checked and enter <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> in the entry field.
2495 Enter <literal>8118</literal> in the Port field. The next time you start
2496 IE, it should reflect these values.
2500 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2501 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosxuninstall">
2502 <title>In Mac OS X, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
2503 uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
2504 empty the trash.</title>
2506 Note: This ONLY applies to privoxy 3.0.6 and earlier.
2509 Just dragging the <application>Privoxy</application> folder to the trash is
2510 not enough to delete it. <application>Privoxy</application> supplies an
2511 <application>uninstall.command</application> file that takes care of
2512 these details. Open the trash, drag the <application>uninstall.command</application>
2513 file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
2514 confirmation and the administration password.
2517 The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
2518 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
2523 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2524 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosximages">
2525 <title>In Mac OS X Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
2526 experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
2527 <literal>localhost</literal> as my browser's proxy setting.</title>
2529 We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in Mac OS X, but don't fully
2530 understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
2531 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> instead of <literal>localhost</literal>
2532 works around the problem.
2536 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2537 <!-- XXX: Is this still relevant now that we have gzip support? -->
2538 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blankpage">
2539 <title>I get a completely blank page at one site. <quote>View Source</quote>
2540 shows only: <markup><![CDATA[<html><body></body></html>]]></markup>. Without
2541 Privoxy the page loads fine.</title>
2543 Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
2544 <ulink url="http://www.php.net/"><application>PHP</application></ulink>,
2545 which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
2546 an uncompressed page, like <application>Privoxy</application> does.
2547 This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
2550 To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
2551 the site to a <literal>-prevent-compression</literal> section in
2552 <filename>user.action</filename>:
2555 # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
2557 {-prevent-compression}
2558 .example.com</screen>
2560 If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
2561 site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
2562 instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
2563 or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
2567 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nohostname">
2568 <title>My logs show many <quote>Unable to get my own hostname</quote> lines.
2571 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to get the hostname of the system
2572 its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to
2573 (from the <filename>config</filename> file
2574 <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> setting). If the system cannot supply
2575 this information, <application>Privoxy</application> logs this condition.
2578 Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration error. It is
2579 not a fatal error to <application>Privoxy</application> however, but may
2580 result in a much slower response from <application>Privoxy</application> on
2581 some platforms due to DNS timeouts.
2584 This can be caused by a problem with the local <filename>hosts</filename>
2585 file. If this file has been changed from the original, try reverting it to
2586 see if that helps. Make sure whatever name(s) are used for the local system,
2587 that they resolve both ways.
2590 You should also be able to work around the problem with the
2591 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#HOSTNAME">hostname option</ulink>.
2595 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="inuse">
2596 <title>When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an
2597 error message <quote>port 8118 is already in use</quote> (or similar wording).
2600 Port 8118 is <application>Privoxy's</application> default TCP
2601 <quote>listening</quote> port. Typically this message would mean that there
2602 is already one instance of <application>Privoxy</application> running, and
2603 your system is actually trying to start a second
2604 <application>Privoxy</application> on the same port, which will not work.
2605 (You can have multiple instances but they must be assigned different ports.)
2606 How and why this might happen varies from platform to platform, but you need
2607 to check your installation and start-up procedures.
2611 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer">
2613 Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.
2616 This is caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter. You should either
2617 upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or at least upgrade to the most
2618 recent <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
2619 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
2620 Or you can simply disable the demoronizer filter.
2624 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer2">
2626 Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy
2630 This may also be caused by the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter,
2631 in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting the content type. Binary
2632 files are exempted from <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering
2633 (unless the web server by mistake says the file is something else). Either
2634 upgrade <application>Privoxy</application>, or go to the most recent
2635 <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
2636 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>.
2640 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer3">
2642 What is the <quote>demoronizer</quote> and why is it there?
2645 The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
2646 were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
2647 to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages
2648 that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a
2649 standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
2650 displayed correctly. <application>Privoxy</application> borrowed from this
2651 script, introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
2652 correct these errors on the fly.
2655 But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in some
2659 If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
2660 pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will
2661 cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <emphasis>should not be on</emphasis>.
2664 On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
2665 notice weird characters on pages, you might want to try it.
2669 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="windowopen">
2671 Why do I keep seeing <quote>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</quote> in raw source code?
2674 <application>Privoxy</application> is attempting to disable malicious
2675 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink>
2676 in this case, with the <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal>
2677 filter. <application>Privoxy</application> cannot tell very well
2678 <quote>good</quote> code snippets from <quote>bad</quote> code snippets.
2681 If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
2682 this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this
2683 where it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file,
2684 then you should set an exception for this site or page such that the
2685 integrity of the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.
2689 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="dnserrors">
2691 I am getting too many DNS errors like <quote>404 No Such Domain</quote>. Why
2692 can't Privoxy do this better?
2695 There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS resolution
2696 is done by the underlying operating system -- not
2697 <application>Privoxy</application> itself. <application>Privoxy</application>
2698 merely initiates the process and hands it off, and then later reports
2699 whatever the outcome was and tries to give a coherent message if there seems
2700 to be a problem. In some cases, this might otherwise be mitigated by the
2701 browser itself which might try some work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g
2702 adding <quote>www.</quote> to the URL).
2705 In other cases, if <application>Privoxy</application> is being chained
2706 with another proxy, this could complicate the issue, and cause undue
2707 delays and timeouts. In the case of a <quote>socks4a</quote> proxy, the socks
2708 server handles all the DNS. <application>Privoxy</application> would just be
2709 the <quote>messenger</quote> which is reporting whatever problem occurred
2710 downstream, and not the root cause of the error.
2714 In any case, versions newer than 3.0.3 include various improvements to help
2715 <application>Privoxy</application> better handle these cases.
2719 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allcpu">
2721 At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking
2722 all CPU. Why is this?
2725 This is probably a manifestation of the <quote>100% cpu</quote> problem that
2726 occurs on pages containing many (thousands upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines
2727 are in the raw HTML source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the
2728 pattern matching in <application>Privoxy's</application> page filtering
2729 mechanism is trying to match against absurdly long strings and this becomes
2730 very CPU-intensive, taking a long, long time to complete.
2733 Until a better solution comes along, disable filtering on these pages,
2734 particularly the <literal>js-annoyances</literal> and
2735 <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal> filters. If you run into this problem
2736 with a recent &my-app; version, please send a problem report.
2740 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="slowcrawl">
2741 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and all my
2742 browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? </title>
2744 This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users world-wide,
2745 it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent interaction of software
2746 components such as anti-virus software, spyware protectors, personal
2747 firewalls or similar components. Try disabling (or uninstalling) these one
2748 at a time and see if that helps. Either way, if you are using a
2749 recent &my-app; version, please report the problem.
2753 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="preventcomp">
2754 <title>Why do my filters work on some sites but not on others? </title>
2756 It's probably due to compression. It is a common practice for web servers to
2757 send their content <quote>compressed</quote> in order to speed things up, and
2758 then let the browser <quote>uncompress</quote> them. When compiled with zlib support
2759 &my-app; can decompress content before filtering, otherwise you may want to enable
2761 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>.
2764 As of &my-app; 3.0.9, zlib support is enabled in the default builds.
2769 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ssl-warnings">
2770 <title>On some HTTPS sites my browser warns me about unauthenticated content,
2771 the URL bar doesn't get highlighted and the lock symbol appears to be broken.
2772 What's going on?</title>
2774 Probably the browser is requesting ads through HTTPS and &my-app;
2775 is blocking the requests. Privoxy's error messages are delivered
2776 unencrypted and while it's obvious for the browser that the HTTPS
2777 request is already blocked by the proxy, some warn about unauthenticated
2781 To work around the problem you can redirect those requests to an invalid
2782 local address instead of blocking them. While the redirects aren't
2783 encrypted either, many browsers don't care. They simply follow the
2784 redirect, fail to reach a server and display an error message instead
2788 To do that, enable logging to figure out which requests get blocked by
2789 &my-app; and add the hosts (no path patterns) to a section like this:
2794 {+redirect{http://127.0.0.1:0/} -block -limit-connect}
2800 Additionally you have to configure your browser to contact
2801 <quote>127.0.0.1:0</quote> directly (instead of through &my-app;).
2804 To add a proxy exception in <application>Mozilla Firefox</application>
2805 open the <quote>Preferences</quote>, click the <quote>Settings</quote>
2806 button located on the <quote>Network</quote> tab in the <quote>Advanced</quote>
2807 section, and add <quote>127.0.0.1:0</quote> in the <quote>No Proxy for:</quote>
2813 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="se-linux">
2814 <title>I get selinux error messages. How can I fix this?</title>
2816 Please report the problem to the creator of your selinux policies.
2819 The problem is that some selinux policy writers aren't familiar
2820 with the application they are trying to <quote>secure</quote> and
2821 thus create policies that make no sense.
2824 In <application>Privoxy's</application> case the problem usually
2825 is that the policy only allows outgoing connections for certain
2826 destination ports (e.g. 80 and 443). While this may cover the
2827 standard ports, websites occasionally use other ports as well.
2828 This isn't a security problem and therefore <application>Privoxy's</application>
2829 default configuration doesn't block these requests.
2832 If you really want to block these ports (and don't be able
2833 to load websites that don't use standard ports), you should
2834 configure Privoxy to block these ports as well, so it doesn't
2835 trigger the selinux warnings.
2840 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="gentoo-ricers">
2841 <title>I compiled &my-app; with Gentoo's portage and it appears to be very slow. Why?</title>
2843 Probably you unintentionally compiled &my-app; without threading support
2844 in which case requests have to be serialized and only one can be served
2848 Check your <quote>USE</quote> flags and make sure they include
2849 <quote>threads</quote>. If they don't, add the flag and rebuild &my-app;.
2852 If you compiled &my-app; with threading support (on POSIX-based systems),
2853 the <quote>Conditional #defines</quote> section on <ulink
2854 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2855 will list <quote>FEATURE_PTHREAD</quote> as <quote>enabled</quote>.
2862 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2863 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
2864 <!-- Include contacting.sgml -->
2866 <!-- end contacting -->
2869 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2870 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
2872 <!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
2878 Portions of this document are <quote>borrowed</quote> from the original
2879 <application>Junkbuster</application> (tm) FAQ, and modified as
2880 appropriate for <application>Privoxy</application>.
2883 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2884 <sect2><title>License</title>
2885 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
2887 <!-- end copyright -->
2889 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2891 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2892 <sect2><title>History</title>
2893 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
2899 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2902 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2904 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
2906 <!-- Include seealso.sgml -->
2917 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
2919 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
2920 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
2921 Public License as published by the Free Software
2922 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
2923 your option) any later version.
2925 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
2926 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
2927 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
2928 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
2929 License for more details.
2931 The GNU General Public License should be included with
2932 this file. If not, you can view it at
2933 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
2934 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
2935 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
2938 Revision 2.57 2009/03/19 19:07:49 fabiankeil
2939 First draft of a "Donating" entry. To be polished tomorrow.
2941 Revision 2.56 2009/02/19 17:05:05 fabiankeil
2942 Explain slowness when build with Gentoo's portage.
2944 Revision 2.55 2009/02/19 02:20:21 hal9
2945 Make some links in seealso conditional. Man page is now privoxy only links.
2947 Revision 2.54 2009/02/15 20:47:12 hal9
2950 Revision 2.53 2009/02/15 20:46:13 hal9
2951 Update Outlook HTML rendering engine comments re: Office 2007.
2953 Revision 2.52 2009/02/14 10:27:52 fabiankeil
2954 Finish last paragraph in the selinux entry which
2955 I unintentionally committed with the last commit.
2957 Revision 2.51 2009/02/12 16:08:26 fabiankeil
2958 Declare the code stable.
2960 Revision 2.50 2009/02/11 18:13:36 fabiankeil
2963 Revision 2.49 2009/02/10 16:30:20 fabiankeil
2964 Add a workaround for "unauthenticated content" warnings on HTTPS sites.
2966 Revision 2.48 2009/01/13 16:50:35 fabiankeil
2967 The standard.action file is gone.
2969 Revision 2.47 2008/11/24 18:29:39 fabiankeil
2970 Two changes suggested by Roger Dingledine:
2971 - Use https://www.torproject.org/ in section 4.7, too.
2972 - Replace the Tor wiki URL in section 4.10 with one
2973 with a more useful anchor name.
2975 Revision 2.46 2008/08/30 15:37:35 fabiankeil
2978 Revision 2.45 2008/08/16 08:51:28 fabiankeil
2979 Update version-related entities.
2981 Revision 2.44 2008/06/19 01:41:36 hal9
2982 Add short note about zlib being enabled in 3.0.9
2984 Revision 2.43 2008/06/14 13:21:25 fabiankeil
2985 Prepare for the upcoming 3.0.9 beta release.
2987 Revision 2.42 2008/06/07 13:11:15 fabiankeil
2988 - Note that the "100% cpu problem" is worth
2989 reporting if it happens with a recent release.
2990 - Mention the hostname option as a workaround for
2991 the "can't get my own hostname" issue.
2992 - The profile formerly known as "Adventuresome"
2993 is called "Advanced" now.
2994 - Some white-space fixes.
2996 Revision 2.41 2008/06/06 15:32:09 fabiankeil
2998 - Don't claim that all the old Junkbuster features remain.
2999 Some of them have been removed or replaced with better ones.
3001 Revision 2.40 2008/02/22 05:54:27 markm68k
3002 updates for mac os x
3004 Revision 2.39 2008/02/03 21:37:41 hal9
3005 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
3007 Revision 2.38 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
3008 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
3010 Revision 2.37 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
3011 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
3013 Revision 2.36 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
3014 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
3017 Revision 2.35 2007/11/19 17:57:59 fabiankeil
3018 A bunch of rewordings, minor updates and fixes.
3020 Revision 2.34 2007/11/19 02:38:11 hal9
3021 Minor revisions and rebuild
3023 Revision 2.33 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
3024 Results of spell check.
3026 Revision 2.32 2007/11/13 03:03:42 hal9
3027 Various changes to reflect new features and revised configuration for the
3030 Revision 2.31 2007/11/05 02:34:53 hal9
3031 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
3033 Revision 2.30 2007/11/04 15:16:40 hal9
3036 Revision 2.29 2007/11/04 15:12:47 hal9
3037 Various minor adjustments.
3039 Revision 2.28 2007/10/27 15:14:16 fabiankeil
3040 Change Tor links to use the new domain torproject.org.
3042 Revision 2.27 2007/10/22 19:47:05 fabiankeil
3043 - Bump version and copyright.
3044 - Adjust Tor section to make it clear that forward exceptions
3045 aren't required and may not even be desired.
3046 - A bunch of other minor rewordings.
3047 - Fix markup problems Roland noticed (hopefully without adding new ones).
3049 Revision 2.26 2007/08/05 15:37:55 fabiankeil
3050 - Don't claim that thousands of people read our code.
3051 - Specify the GPL version and link to GPLv2 instead of v3.
3052 - Note that configuration syntax may change between releases.
3053 - Mention zlib support.
3054 - Answer the "transparent proxy" question properly.
3055 - Add "intercepting proxy" entry.
3057 - Rephrase some other sentences for various reasons.
3059 Revision 2.25 2007/07/18 11:00:34 hal9
3060 Add misc note about valid mark-up in Privoxy.
3062 Revision 2.24 2006/11/14 01:57:46 hal9
3063 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
3066 Revision 2.23 2006/10/21 22:19:52 hal9
3067 Two new FAQs, a rewrite or two, and some touch ups.
3069 Revision 2.22 2006/10/14 20:33:10 hal9
3070 Three new FAQ's re: templates and blocking, and various minor touch-ups/improvements.
3072 Revision 2.21 2006/10/03 14:40:51 fabiankeil
3073 Added links from the Tor faq to the
3074 configuration chapter in the User Manual.
3076 Revision 2.20 2006/09/26 10:12:37 fabiankeil
3079 Revision 2.19 2006/09/22 10:54:32 hal9
3080 Change references to 3.0.4 to 3.0.5 and minor adjustments.
3082 Revision 2.18 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
3083 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
3084 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
3086 Revision 2.17 2006/09/17 14:56:32 hal9
3087 This includes yet several more new FAQs, some improved wording, enhanced
3088 mark-up, various hyper links to wikipedia to explain key terminology to the
3089 uninitiated, etc. This is ready for release IMO pending final tagging of cvs
3090 and Privoxy version stamping.
3092 Revision 2.16 2006/09/10 15:30:46 hal9
3095 Revision 2.15 2006/09/08 23:05:07 hal9
3096 Fix broken links. Add faq on hosts files. Move most of new windows service
3097 feature to user manual and reference in faq. Various other small changes.
3099 Revision 2.14 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
3100 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
3102 Revision 2.13 2006/09/04 19:20:33 fabiankeil
3103 Adjusted anonymity related sections to match reality.
3104 Added a section about using Privoxy with Tor.
3106 Revision 2.12 2006/09/03 14:15:30 hal9
3107 Various updates, including 7 or 8 new FAQs, and updates/changes to various
3108 other ones to better reflect improvements, additions and changes for the
3109 upcoming release. This is close to final form for 3.0.4 IMHO.
3111 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:50 david__schmidt
3112 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
3113 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
3115 Revision 1.61.2.41 2004/04/05 13:44:05 oes
3116 Fixed allow-all-cookies alias name; closes SR #929746
3118 Revision 1.61.2.40 2004/01/30 17:00:33 oes
3119 Added Mac OS X Panther problem
3121 Revision 1.61.2.39 2004/01/29 22:53:08 hal9
3122 Minor changes for exempting docs of text/plain. Change copyright date.
3124 Revision 1.61.2.38 2003/12/10 03:39:45 hal9
3125 Added FAQs for: demoronizer, related problems and why its included. Also,
3126 port 8118 already in use questions, and PrivoxyWindowOpen() questions. All in
3127 troubleshooting section.
3129 Revision 1.61.2.37 2003/10/17 11:01:50 oes
3130 Added Q&A for "not being used" page problem
3132 Revision 1.61.2.36 2003/06/26 23:49:20 hal9
3133 More on the filter/source code problem.
3135 Revision 1.61.2.35 2003/06/26 13:38:08 hal9
3136 Add FAQ on whether configuring Privoxy is necessary or not.
3138 Revision 1.61.2.34 2003/06/26 03:00:03 hal9
3139 Sorry, found another copyright date.
3141 Revision 1.61.2.33 2003/06/26 02:57:05 hal9
3142 Fix typo (finally!) and very minor modifications.
3144 Revision 1.61.2.32 2003/06/26 02:52:04 hal9
3147 Revision 1.61.2.31 2003/06/25 01:27:51 hal9
3148 Fix copyright, and a few nits.
3150 Revision 1.61.2.30 2003/06/25 01:13:52 hal9
3153 - FAQ on "Unable to get my own hostname"
3154 - Another one on filtering effects on text files.
3156 Revision 1.61.2.29 2003/06/15 21:32:58 hal9
3157 Add to the 4.17 (filtering effects on downloaded files).
3159 Revision 1.61.2.28 2003/03/18 19:37:21 oes
3160 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
3162 Revision 1.61.2.27 2002/12/01 06:31:58 hal9
3163 Add faq on win32 error 503 due to ZoneAlarm.
3165 Revision 1.61.2.26 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
3166 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
3169 Revision 1.61.2.25 2002/10/29 03:21:50 hal9
3170 Add 3 Q/A's relating to HTML in email. Other minor touchups.
3172 Revision 1.61.2.24 2002/10/15 12:50:22 oes
3173 s/Advanced/Radical/ (stupid me)
3175 Revision 1.61.2.23 2002/10/15 12:38:56 oes
3176 Added Microsuck faq; more detail for PHP problem
3178 Revision 1.61.2.22 2002/10/12 01:13:13 hal9
3179 Updates for demoronizer, more commentary on Radical profile, and update on
3180 the srvany.exe/icon fix.
3182 Revision 1.61.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
3183 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
3185 Revision 1.61.2.20 2002/09/26 01:22:45 hal9
3186 Small additions for LAN setup, content-cookies/SSL, and FTP non-support.
3188 Revision 1.61.2.19 2002/08/25 23:31:56 hal9
3189 Fix one grammatical error. Add brief FAQ relating to tranparent proxies (ie
3190 port 80 setting). Add FAQ on effects of Privoxy on downloaded files
3191 (especially filtering).
3193 Revision 1.61.2.18 2002/08/14 16:39:37 hal9
3194 Fix wrong tag on FAQ addition.
3196 Revision 1.61.2.17 2002/08/14 00:01:18 hal9
3199 Revision 1.61.2.16 2002/08/13 00:10:38 hal9
3200 Add faq to troubleshooting re: blank page syndrome, ie {-prevent-compression}.
3202 Revision 1.61.2.15 2002/08/10 11:34:22 oes
3203 Add disclaimer about probably being out-of-date
3205 Revision 1.61.2.14 2002/08/07 02:53:43 hal9
3206 Fix some minor markup errors, and move one Mac OS X Q/A to troubleshooting section.
3208 Revision 1.61.2.13 2002/08/06 11:55:32 oes
3209 Added missing close tag
3211 Revision 1.61.2.12 2002/08/06 11:43:46 david__schmidt
3212 Updated Mac OS X uninstall FAQ... we have an uninstall script now.
3214 Revision 1.61.2.11 2002/08/06 08:54:03 oes
3215 Style police: Fixed formatting details
3217 Revision 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 david__schmidt
3218 Made the Mac OS X removal commands far less dangerous
3220 Revision 1.61.2.9 2002/08/02 13:14:45 oes
3221 Added warning about sudo rm -r for Mac OS X deinstallation; moved this item to install section
3223 Revision 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt
3224 Add FAQ item for MSIE on Mac OS X HTTP proxy confusion
3226 Revision 1.61.2.7 2002/08/02 01:46:01 david__schmidt
3227 Added FAQ item for Mac OS X uninstall woes
3229 Revision 1.61.2.6 2002/07/30 20:04:56 hal9
3230 Fix typo: 'schould'.
3232 Revision 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes
3233 - Updated to reflect changes in standard.action
3234 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
3236 Revision 1.61.2.4 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
3237 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
3239 Revision 1.61.2.3 2002/06/09 16:36:33 hal9
3240 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
3242 Revision 1.61.2.2 2002/06/06 02:51:34 hal9
3243 Fix typo in URL http:/config.privoxy.org
3245 Revision 1.61.2.1 2002/06/05 23:10:43 hal9
3246 Add new FAQ re: DUN/IE. Change release date from May to June :)
3248 Revision 1.61 2002/05/25 12:37:25 hal9
3249 Various minor changes and edits.
3251 Revision 1.60 2002/05/22 17:17:48 oes
3252 Proofread & added more links into u-m
3254 Revision 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9
3255 Fix ulink -> link markup.
3257 Revision 1.58 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
3258 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
3259 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
3260 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
3262 Revision 1.57 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
3263 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
3265 Revision 1.56 2002/05/04 08:44:44 swa
3268 Revision 1.55 2002/05/04 00:41:56 hal9
3269 -Remove TOC/first page kludge in favor of proper handling via dsl file.
3271 Revision 1.54 2002/05/03 05:06:44 hal9
3272 Add brief Q/A on transparent proxies.
3274 Revision 1.53 2002/05/03 01:34:52 hal9
3275 Fix section numbering for new sections (due to TOC kludge).
3277 Revision 1.52 2002/04/29 03:08:43 hal9
3278 -Added new Q/A on new actions file set up (pointer to u-m)
3279 -Fixed a few broken links and converted old actions as a result of
3282 Revision 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa
3283 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
3285 Revision 1.50 2002/04/26 05:25:23 hal9
3286 Mass commit to catch a few scattered fixes.
3288 Revision 1.49 2002/04/12 10:10:18 swa
3291 Revision 1.48 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
3294 Revision 1.47 2002/04/10 04:05:32 hal9
3297 Revision 1.45 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
3298 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
3300 Revision 1.44 2002/04/07 21:24:29 hal9
3301 Touch up on name change.
3303 Revision 1.43 2002/04/04 21:59:53 hal9
3304 Added NT/W2K service/icon situation.
3306 Revision 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
3307 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
3309 Revision 1.41 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
3310 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
3311 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
3312 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
3313 eventually be set by Makefile.
3314 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
3316 Revision 1.40 2002/04/03 04:22:03 hal9
3317 Fixed several typos.
3319 Revision 1.39 2002/04/03 03:53:03 hal9
3320 Revert some changes, and then make some news, to layout, and appearance.
3322 Revision 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9
3323 Major changes to doc structure and layout. Sections are not automatically
3324 numbered now. TOC is on page by itself.
3326 Revision 1.37 2002/04/01 16:24:07 hal9
3327 -Rework of supported Q/A.
3328 -Set up entities to include boilerplate text.
3330 Revision 1.36 2002/03/31 23:18:47 hal9
3331 More on dealing with BLOCKED.
3333 Revision 1.35 2002/03/30 04:14:19 hal9
3334 Fix privoxy.org/config links.
3336 Revision 1.34 2002/03/29 04:35:56 hal9
3339 Revision 1.33 2002/03/29 01:31:48 hal9
3340 Several new Q/A's and other touch ups.
3342 Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
3343 Touch ups for name change.
3345 Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
3346 we have a new homepage!
3348 Revision 1.30 2002/03/25 16:39:22 hal9
3349 A few new sections. Made all links relative to user-manual.
3351 Revision 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9
3352 Moved section, and touch ups.
3354 Revision 1.28 2002/03/25 04:27:33 hal9
3355 New section related to name change.
3357 Revision 1.25 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
3358 we are too lazy to make a block-built
3359 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
3361 Revision 1.24 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
3362 name change related issue.
3364 Revision 1.23 2002/03/24 12:33:01 swa
3367 Revision 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
3368 name change. changed filenames.
3370 Revision 1.21 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
3373 Revision 1.20 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
3374 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
3375 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
3376 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
3377 comments and remarks to history untouched.
3379 Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
3382 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
3385 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
3388 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
3389 A few more additions.
3391 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
3392 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
3394 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
3395 A little more added ...
3397 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
3398 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
3400 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
3403 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
3406 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
3407 correct feedback channels
3409 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
3410 more info on not hiding ip address
3412 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
3413 added default config section
3415 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
3418 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
3419 Committing changes by Stefan
3421 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
3422 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
3424 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
3425 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
3426 will work - no other changes are needed.
3428 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
3429 upload process established. run make webserver and
3430 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
3431 are now linked correctly.
3433 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
3434 merged standards into developer manual
3436 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
3437 source files for junkbuster documentation
3439 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
3440 first proposal of a structure.
3442 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
3443 docs should have an author.
3445 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
3446 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.