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 p-version "2.9.14">
11 <!entity p-status "beta">
12 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
13 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
14 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
15 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
16 <!entity % p-supp-userman "INCLUDE"> <!-- Include all from supported.sgml -->
19 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/faq.sgml,v $
22 This file belongs into
23 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
25 $Id: faq.sgml,v 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa Exp $
27 Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
28 Privoxy team. http://www.privoxy.org/
30 Based on the Internet Junkbuster originally written
31 by and Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and
32 Junkbusters Corporation. http://www.junkbusters.com
34 <Qandaset defaultlabel='qanda'>
49 ========================================================================
50 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
51 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation. You have been warned!
52 Failure to abide by this rule will result in the revocation of your license
53 to live a peaceful existence!
54 ========================================================================
59 <article id="index" class="faq">
61 <title>Privoxy Frequently Asked Questions</title>
63 <pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa Exp $</pubdate>
68 <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
77 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
78 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
79 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
84 This FAQ gives users and developers alike answers to frequently asked
85 questions about <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org">Privoxy</ulink>
86 <![%p-stable;[ v.&p-version]]>.
93 Test of text doc only.
99 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
101 <!-- end boilerplate -->
104 You can find the latest version of the document at <ulink
105 url="http://www.privoxy.org/faq/">http://www.privoxy.org/faq/</ulink>.
106 Please see the Contact section if you want to contact the developers.
110 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
115 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
116 <sect1 id="intro" label=""><title></title>
117 <!-- dummy section to force TOC on page by itself -->
118 <!-- DO NOT REMOVE! please ;) -->
122 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
124 <sect1 label="1" id="general"><title>General Information</title>
126 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newjb"><title>What is this new version of <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
128 The original <application><trademark>Internet
129 Junkbuster</trademark></application> (tm) is a copyrighted product of <ulink
130 url="http://www.junkbusters.com">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>.
131 Development of this effort stopped some time ago as of version 2.0.2. Stefan
132 Waldherr started the ijbswa project on <ulink
133 url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Sourceforge</ulink> to
134 rekindle development. Other developers subsequently joined with Stefan, and
135 have since added many new features, refinements and enhancements. The result
136 of this effort is <application>Privoxy</application>.
139 <application>Privoxy</application> has evolved from the
140 <application>Junkbuster 2.0.2</application> code base, and has advanced
141 significantly at this point.
144 Please see the <link linkend="copyright">History section</link> for more
145 information on the history of <application>Junkbuster</application> and
146 <application>Privoxy</application>.
152 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
153 <title id="whyprivoxy">Why <quote>Privoxy</quote>? Why a name change at all?</title>
155 <application>Privoxy</application> is the
156 <quote><emphasis>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</emphasis></quote>.
159 There are potential legal complications from the continued use of the
160 <application>Junkbuster</application> name, which is a registered trademark of
161 <ulink url="http://junkbusters.com">Junkbusters Corporation</ulink>.
162 And thus they <quote>own</quote> the rights to the name.
163 (There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
164 <application>Privoxy</application> project itself, and they, in fact, still
165 share our ideals and goals.)
169 The developers also believed that there are so many changes from the original
170 code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
171 a name in their own right<![%p-not-stable;[, especially now with the pending
172 release of version 3.0]]>.
177 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="differs"><title>How does <application>Privoxy</application> differ
178 from the old <application>Junkbuster?</application></title>
180 <application>Privoxy</application> picks up where
181 <application>Junkbuster</application> left off. All the old features remain.
182 The new <application>Privoxy</application> still blocks ads and banners,
183 still manages cookies, and still helps protect your privacy. But, these are
184 all enhanced, and many new features have been added, all in the same vein.
187 The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
188 users will notice right off the bat if you are upgrading from
189 <application>Junkbuster</application> 2.0.x. The <quote>blocklist</quote>
190 file does not exist any more. This is replaced by <quote>actions</quote>
191 files, such as <filename>default.actions</filename>. This is where most of
192 the per site configuration is now.
196 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="features"><title>What are some of the new features?</title>
197 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml: -->
203 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="proxymoron"><title>What is a <quote>proxy</quote>? How does
204 <application>Privoxy</application> work? </title>
206 When you connect to a web site with <application>Privoxy</application>,
207 you are really connecting to your locally running version of
208 <application>Privoxy</application>. <application>Privoxy</application>
209 intercepts your requests for the web page, and relays that to the
210 <quote>real</quote> web site. The web site sends the HTTP data stream
211 back to <application>Privoxy</application>, where
212 <application>Privoxy</application> can work its magic before it
213 relays this data back to your web browser.
217 Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between you and the
218 WWW, it is in a position to intercept and completely manage all web traffic and
219 HTTP content before it gets to your browser.
220 <application>Privoxy</application> uses various programming methods to do
221 this, all of which is under your control via the various configuration
226 There are many kinds of proxies. <application>Privoxy</application> best
227 fits the <quote>filtering proxy</quote> category.
233 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
234 <title id="knows">How does <application>Privoxy</application> know what is
235 an ad, and what is not?</title>
237 <application>Privoxy</application> processes all the raw content of every
238 web page. So it reads everything on each page. It then compares this to the
239 rules as set up in the configuration files, and looks for any matches to
240 these rules. <application>Privoxy</application> makes heavy use of
241 <quote>regular expressions</quote>. (If you are not familiar with regular
242 expressions, it is explained briefly in <ulink
243 url="../user-manual/appendix.html">the user manual</ulink>.) Regular
244 expressions facilitate matching of one text string against another, using
245 wildcards to build complex patterns. So <application>Privoxy</application>
246 will typically look for URLs and other content that match certain key words
247 and expressions as defined in the configuration files. For instance a URL
248 that contains <quote>/banners</quote>, has a high probability of containing
249 ad banners, and thus would be a prime candidate to have a matching rule.
252 So <application>Privoxy</application> will look for these kinds of obvious
253 looking culprits. And also, will use lists of known organizations that
254 specialize in ads. Again, using complex patterns to match as many potential
255 combinations as possible since there tend to be many, many variations used by
256 advertisers, and new ones are being introduced all the time.
260 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
261 <title id="mistakes">Can <application>Privoxy</application> make mistakes?
262 This does not sound very scientific.</title>
264 Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad rule
265 accidentally block something by mistake. There is a good chance you may run
266 into such a situation at some point. It is tricky writing rules to cover
267 every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
271 But this should not be a big concern since the
272 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is very flexible, and
273 includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
274 addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
275 (<link linkend="badsite">See the Troubleshooting section below</link>.)
281 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
282 <application>Privoxy</application>. Why should I use
283 <application>Privoxy</application> at all?</title>
285 Modern browsers do indeed have <emphasis>some</emphasis> of the same
286 functionality as <application>Privoxy</application>. Maybe this is
287 adequate for you. But <application>Privoxy</application> is much more
288 versatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
291 In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
292 have a LAN with multiple computers. This way all the configuration
293 is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar configuration
294 for possibly many browsers.
301 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
302 warranty? Registration?</title>
304 <application>Privoxy</application> is licensed under the GNU General Public
305 License (GPL). It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish
306 under the terms of this license. Please see the Copyright section for more
307 information on the license and copyright.
311 There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise. That is
312 something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
313 <application>Privoxy</application> really is <emphasis>free</emphasis>
320 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="jointeam"><title>I would like to help you, what do I do?</title>
322 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-money"><title>Money Money Money</title>
324 We, of course, welcome donations and use the money for domain registering,
325 regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). Anyway, we'll soon describe the
326 process how to donate money to the team.
330 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jointeam-work"><title>You want to work with us?</title>
332 Well, helping the team is always a good idea. We welcome new developers,
333 RPM gurus or documentation makers. Simply get an account on sourceforge.net
334 and mail your id to the developer mailing list. Then read the
335 section Quickstart in the <ulink url="../developer-manual/quickstart.html">
336 Developer's Manual</ulink>.
339 Once we have added you to the team, you'll have write access to the CVS
340 repository, and together we'll find a suitable task for you.
349 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
351 <sect1 label="2" id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
353 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichbrowsers">
354 <title>Which browsers are supported by <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
356 Any browser that can be configured to use a <quote>proxy</quote>, which
357 should be virtually all browsers. Direct browser support is not necessary
358 since <application>Privoxy</application> runs as a separate application and
359 just exchanges standard HTML data with your browser, just like a web server
364 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichos">
365 <title>Which operating systems are supported?</title>
367 Include supported.sgml here:
372 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
373 <application>Privoxy</application> over <application>Junkbuster</application>?</title>
375 We recommend you uninstall <application>Junkbuster</application>
376 first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
377 save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
378 is substantially changed.
382 url="../user-manual/index.html">user-manual</ulink> for
383 platform specific installation instructions.
386 Note: Some installers may automatically uninstall
387 <application>Junkbuster</application>, if present!
392 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
393 <title id="firststep">I just installed <application>Privoxy</application>. Is there anything
394 special I have to do now?</title>
397 All browsers must be told to use <application>Privoxy</application>
398 as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
399 in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. See below.
400 Also, you should flush your browser's memory and disk cache to get rid of any
408 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
410 If you set up the <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
411 the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
412 networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <quote>localhost</quote>
413 (which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
414 to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you have <application>Privoxy</application> to run on a different port with the
415 <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> config option).
418 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
419 the word <quote>localhost</quote> in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote>
420 and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and then the number <quote>8118</quote>
421 for <quote>port</quote>. This tells your browser to send all web
422 requests to <application>Privoxy</application> instead of directly to the
426 <application>Privoxy</application> can also be used to proxy for
427 a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
428 address of the LAN host where <application>Privoxy</application>
429 is running, or the equivalent hostname. Port assignment would be
433 <application>Privoxy</application> does not currently handle
434 protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, or other Internet
439 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
440 <title id="nothing">I just installed <application>Privoxy</application>, and nothing is happening.
441 All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
444 Did you configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
445 as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
446 the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
447 that <application>Privoxy</application> is running, and your browser
448 is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
449 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. This should give you
450 a banner that says <quote>This is Privoxy</quote> and
451 access to <application>Privoxy's</application> internal configuration.
452 If you see this, then you are good to go. If not, the browser or
453 <application>Privoxy</application> are not set up correctly.
462 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
464 <sect1 label="3" id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
466 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
468 There are major changes to <application>Junkbuster</application>/
469 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration from version 2.0.x to
470 2.9.x and later. Most of the older files will not work at all. This is
471 especially true of <filename>blocklist</filename>. If this is the case, you
472 will need to re-enter your old data into the new configuration structure.
473 This is probably also a good recommendation even if upgrading from 2.9.x to
474 3.x since there were many minor changes along the way.
478 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
479 <title id="actionsfile">What is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
482 <quote>actions</quote> files are where various actions that
483 <application>Privoxy</application> might take, are configured.
484 Typically, you would define a set of default actions that apply
485 to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
489 Actions can be defined on a per site basis, or for groups of sites. Actions
490 can also be grouped together and then applied to one or more sites. There
491 are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
492 if we are blocking cookies as one of our default
493 <application>actions</application>, but need to accept cookies from a given
494 site, we would define this in our <quote>actions</quote> file.
498 No longer appropriate 04/28/02 hal.
501 <application>Privoxy</application> comes with several default
502 <application>actions</application> files, with varying degrees
503 of filtering and blocking, as starting points for your own
504 configuration (see below).
509 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionss">
510 <title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
511 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
513 These are all explained in the
514 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">user-manual</ulink>.
515 Please refer to that.
520 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
521 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
522 way to do this?</title>
525 The easiest way to do this, is to access <application>Privoxy</application>
526 with your web browser at <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>,
528 "<ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org">View & change the current configuration</ulink>"
529 from the selection list. You can also do this by editing the appropriate
530 file with a text editor.
536 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">user-manual</ulink> for a
537 detailed explanation of these and other configuration files, and their
538 various options and syntax.
543 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
544 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
545 <title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
546 the differences?</title>
548 As of <application>Privoxy</application> v2.9.15, three actions files
549 are being included, to be used for
550 different purposes. These are
551 <filename>default.action</filename>, <filename>standard.action</filename>,
552 and <filename>user.action</filename>. Please see
553 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">the User Manual</ulink>
554 for an explanation of each.
558 Earlier versions included three different versions
559 <filename>default.action</filename> files. The new scheme allows for
560 greater flexibility of local configuration, and for browser based
567 FIXME: Commenting these out until we have some data there. HB 03/17/02.
569 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo account work?</title>
575 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="hotmail"> <title>How can I make my Hotmail account work?</title>
581 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="gmx"> <title>How can I make my GMX account work?</title>
589 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What are the differences between
590 intermediate.action, basic.action, etc.?</title>
592 Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not easy. To help you get
593 started, we provide you with three different default configurations. The
594 following table shows you, which features are enabled in each configuration.
597 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
598 <tgroup cols=5 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
606 <entry>Feature</entry>
607 <entry>default.action</entry>
608 <entry>basic.action</entry>
609 <entry>intermediate.action</entry>
610 <entry>advanced.action</entry>
616 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
617 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
618 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
619 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
620 <!-- <entry>f5</entry> -->
627 <entry>ad-filtering</entry>
635 <entry>blank image</entry>
643 <entry>de-animate GIFs</entry>
651 <entry>referer forging</entry>
659 <entry>jon's +no-cookies-keep (i.e. session cookies only)</entry>
667 <entry>no-popup windows</entry>
675 <entry>fast redirects</entry>
683 <entry>hide-referrer</entry>
691 <entry>hide-useragent</entry>
699 <entry>content-modification</entry>
707 <entry>feature-x</entry>
715 <entry>feature-y</entry>
723 <entry>feature-z</entry>
738 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration with a
739 browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
741 What I don't understand, is how I can browser edit the config file as a
742 regular user, while the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
743 belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
746 When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
747 itself is writing to the config files. Because
748 <application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, it can
749 update the config files.
752 If you don't like this, setting <quote>enable-edit-actions 0</quote> in the
753 config file will disable the browser-based editor. If you're that paranoid,
754 you should also consider setting <quote>enable-remote-toggle 0</quote> to prevent
755 browser-based enabling/disabling of <application>Privoxy</application>.
758 Note that normally only local users can connect to
759 <application>Privoxy</application>, so this is not (normally) a security
765 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
766 <title id="filterfile">What is <quote>default.filter</quote>?</title>
768 The <quote>default.filter</quote> file is where <quote>filters</quote>
769 are defined, which are used to <quote>filter</quote> any
770 web page content. By <quote>filtering</quote> we mean it can modify, remove,
771 or change <emphasis>anything</emphasis> on the page, including HTML tags, and
772 JavaScript. Regular expressions are used to accomplish this, and operate
773 on a line by line basis. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
774 requires some expertise.
778 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
779 the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and see
780 some of things it can be used for.
784 Presently, there is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
785 but you can disable/enable various sections of the included default
786 file with the <quote>View & change the current configuration</quote> from
792 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
793 <title id="lanconfig">How can I set up <application>Privoxy</application> to act as a proxy for my
796 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
797 from localhost. To have it act as a server for a network, this needs to be
798 changed in the main config file where the <application>Privoxy</application>
799 configuration is located. In that file is a <quote>listen-address</quote>
800 option. It may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
801 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
802 and port number to use:
807 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118
812 Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
813 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
819 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
820 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
822 This is a configuration option for images that
823 <application>Privoxy</application> is stopping. You have the choice of a
824 checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF image (aka <quote>blank</quote>),
825 or a custom URL of your choice. Note that to fit this category, the URL must
826 match both the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>
827 <emphasis>and</emphasis>
828 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> actions.
831 If you want to see nothing, then change the
832 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></ulink>
833 action to <quote>+image-blocker{blank}</quote>. This can be done from the
834 <quote>View & change the current configuration</quote> selection at <ulink
835 url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. Or by hand editing the appropriate
836 actions file. This will only effect what is defined as <quote>images</quote>
837 though. Also, some URLs that generate the bright red <quote>Blocked</quote>
838 banner, can be moved to the <quote>+set-image-blocker</quote> section for the
839 same reason, but there are some limits and risks to this (see below).
845 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
846 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
848 This can be helpful for troubleshooting problems. It might also be good
849 for anyone new to <application>Privoxy</application> so that they can
850 see if their favorite pages are displaying correctly, and
851 <application>Privoxy</application> is not inadvertently removing something
857 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
858 <title id="blockedisugly">I see large red banners on some pages that say
859 <quote>Blocked</quote>. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
861 These are URLs that match something in one of
862 <application>Privoxy's</application> block actions
864 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink>).
865 It is meant to be a warning so that you know something has been blocked and
866 an easy way for you to see why. These are handled differently than what has
867 been defined explicitly as <quote>images</quote> (e.g. ads that are GIF image
868 files). Depending on the URL itself, it is sometimes hard for
869 <application>Privoxy</application> to really know whether there is indeed an
870 ad image there or not. And there are limitations as to what
871 <application>Privoxy</application> can do to <quote>fool</quote> the
876 For instance, if the ad is in a frame, then it is embedded in the separate
877 HTML page used for the frame. In this case, you cannot just substitute an
878 aribitrary image (like we would for a <quote>blank</quote> image), for an HTML
879 page. The browser is expecting an HTML page, and that is what it must have
880 for frames. Such situations can be a little trickier to deal with, and
881 <application>Privoxy</application> may show the <quote>Blocked</quote> page,
882 despite your best efforts.
886 If you want these to be treated as if they were images, so that they can be
887 made invisible, you can try moving the offending URL from the
888 <quote>+block</quote> section to the <quote>+imageblock</quote> section of
889 your actions file. Just be forewarned, if any URL is made
890 <quote>invisible</quote>, you may not have any inkling that something has
891 been removed from that page, or why. If this approach does not work, then you are
892 probably dealing with a frame (or <quote>ilayer</quote>), and the only thing
893 that can go there is an HTML page of some sort.
896 To deal with this situation, you could modify the
897 <quote><filename>block</filename></quote> HTML template that is used by
898 <application>Privoxy</application> to display this, and make it something
899 more to your liking. Currently, there is no configuration option for this.
900 You will have to modify, or create your own page, and use this to replace
901 <filename>templates/blocked</filename>, which is what
902 <application>Privoxy</application> uses to display the <quote>Blocked</quote>
906 Another way to deal with this is find why and where
907 <application>Privoxy</application> is blocking the frame, and
908 diable this. Then let the <quote>+set-image-blocker</quote> action
909 handle the ad that is embedded in the frame's HTML page.
914 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="alliseeisred">
915 <title>I cannot see all of the <quote>Blocked</quote> page banner. Help.</title>
917 There is not enough available space to fit the entire Blocked page. Try right
918 clicking on the visible portion, and select <quote>Show Frame</quote>,
919 or equivalent. This will usually allow you to see the entire Privoxy
920 <quote>Blocked</quote> page, and from there you can see just what is being
924 As of Privoxy 2.9.14, the Blocked banner page is re-sizeable, and tries
925 to adjust to the allotted space. There may be occassions where there
926 just isn't enough room to display much of anything useful though.
931 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="srvany">
932 <title>Can <application>Privoxy</application> run as a service
935 Yes, it can run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
936 The only catch is that this will effectively disable the
937 <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the taskbar. You can have
938 one or the other, but not both at this time :(
941 There is a pending feature request for this functionality. See
943 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>,
944 for details, and a sample configuration.
950 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherproxy">
951 <title>How can I make <application>Privoxy</application> work with other
952 proxies like <application>Squid</application>?</title>
954 This can be done. See the <ulink
955 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">user manual</ulink>,
956 which describes how to do this.
964 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
966 <sect1 label="4"id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
968 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
969 <title id="slowsme">How much does <application>Privoxy</application> slow my browsing down? This
970 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
972 It should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
973 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not being displayed.
974 The actual processing time required by <application>Privoxy</application>
975 itself for each page, is relatively small in the overall scheme of things,
976 and happens very quickly. This is typically more than offset by time saved
977 not downloading and rendering ad images.
981 <quote>Filtering</quote> via the <filename>filterfile</filename>
982 mechanism may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire page is buffered
983 before displaying. See below.
990 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I noticed considerable
991 delays in page requests compared to the old Junkbuster. What's wrong?</title>
993 The entire page content must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
994 mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time. The
995 loading time does not really change in real numbers, but the feeling is
996 different, because most browsers are able to start rendering incomplete
997 content, giving the user a feeling of "it works".
1000 To modify the content of a page (i.e. make frames resizeable again, etc.) and
1001 not just replace ads, <application>Privoxy</application> needs to download
1002 the entire page first, do its content magic and then send the page to the
1008 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What is the "http://p.p/"?</title>
1010 Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet, it can be
1011 programmed to handle certain pages specially.
1015 With recent versions of <application>Privoxy</application> (version 2.9.x and
1016 greater), you can get some information about
1017 <application>Privoxy</application> and change some settings by going to
1018 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> or, equivalently, <ulink
1019 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> (Note
1020 that p.p is far easier to type but may not work in some configurations. With
1021 the name change to <application>Privoxy</application>, this is changed from
1022 the previous http://i.j.b/ and earlier 2.9.x versions).
1026 These pages are <emphasis>not</emphasis> forwarded to a server on the
1027 Internet - instead they are handled by a special web server which is built in to
1028 <application>Privoxy</application>.
1032 If you are not running <application>Privoxy</application>, then <ulink
1033 url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> will fail, and <ulink
1034 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> will
1035 return a web page telling you you're not running
1036 <application>Privoxy</application>.
1040 If you have version 2.0.2, then the equivalent is
1041 http://example.com/show-proxy-args (but you get far less information, and
1042 you should really consider upgrading to &p-version;).
1047 FIXME: commented out until we have data. HB 03/18/02.
1049 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="badfiledesc"><title>I get the message 'Bad File Descriptor', why?</title>
1057 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
1059 No, not by this name. The format of the blocklists has changed
1060 significantly in versions 2.9.x and later. This functionality
1061 is done by the <quote>actions</quote> file now. See next question ...
1065 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads?</title>
1067 Please see the <ulink url="contact.html">Contact section</ulink>.
1071 This process does not work with earlier versions of <application>Privoxy</application>
1072 or <application>Junkbuster</application>.
1077 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
1079 You cannot hide your IP address with <application>Privoxy</application> or any other software, since
1080 the server needs to know your IP address to send the answers back to you.
1083 Fortunately there are many publicly usable anonymous proxies out there, which
1084 solve the problem by providing a further level of indirection between you and
1085 the web server, shared by many people and thus letting your requests "drown"
1086 in white noise of unrelated requests as far as user tracking is concerned.
1089 Most of them will, however, log your IP address and make it available to the
1090 authorities in case you abuse that anonymity for criminal purposes. In fact
1091 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
1092 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
1095 You can find a list of anonymous public proxies at <ulink
1096 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">multiproxy.org</ulink> and many
1097 more through Google.
1101 <!-- <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="image"><title>What is the imagefile (simage.ini, etc.) for?</title> -->
1103 <!-- Anytime <application>Privoxy</application> determines (with the help of the blocklist) that a URL -->
1104 <!-- contains an advertisement, it has to decide whether this advertisement is an -->
1105 <!-- image or not. <application>Privoxy</application> uses the imagefile for that purpose. -->
1109 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1110 <title id="anonforsure">Can <application>Privoxy</application> guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
1112 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are greatly improved, but unless you
1113 are an expert on Internet security it would be safest to assume that
1114 everything you do on the Web can be traced back to you.
1117 <application>Privoxy</application> can remove various information about you,
1118 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
1119 you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it's still possible
1120 that web sites can find out who you are. Here's one way this can happen.
1123 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
1124 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Privoxy</application>
1125 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
1126 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
1127 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
1130 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
1131 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
1132 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
1133 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
1134 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
1140 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1141 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information is
1142 being altered?</title>
1145 Definitely. More and more sites use HTTP header content to decide what to
1146 display and how to display it. There is many ways that this can be handled,
1147 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
1151 <quote>USER AGENT</quote> in particular is often used in this way to identify
1152 the browser, and adjust content accordingly. Changing this now is not
1153 recommended, since so many sites do look for this. You may get undesirable
1154 results by changing this.
1158 For instance, different browsers use different encodings of Russian and Czech
1159 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
1160 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
1161 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
1162 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
1163 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
1164 <quote>REFERER</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
1165 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
1166 <quote>REFERER</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. There are
1167 many, many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server.
1171 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
1172 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
1173 be required, but by no means the only one.
1179 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1180 <title id="caching">Can <application>Privoxy</application> act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
1181 speed up web browsing?</title>
1183 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
1184 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> for this. And, yes,
1185 before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
1186 with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
1190 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1191 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can <application>Privoxy</application> protect me?</title>
1193 Not in the way you mean, or in the way a true firewall can, or a proxy that
1194 has this specific capability. <application>Privoxy</application> can help
1195 protect your privacy, but not really protect you from intrusion attempts.
1200 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1201 <title id="logo">The <application>Privoxy</application> logo that replaces ads is very blocky
1202 and ugly looking. Can't a better font be used?</title>
1205 This is not a font problem. The logo is an image that is created by
1206 <application>Privoxy</application> on the fly. So as to not waste
1207 memory, the image is rather small. The blockiness comes when the
1208 image is scaled to fill a largish area. There is not much to be done
1209 about this, other than to use one of the other
1210 <quote>imageblock</quote> directives: <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>,
1211 <emphasis>blank</emphasis>, or a URL of your choosing.
1214 Given the above problem, we have decided to remove the logo option entirely
1220 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1221 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces now where ads used to be.
1224 It would be easy enough to just eliminate this space altogether, rather than
1225 fill it with blank space. But, this would create problems with many pages
1226 that use the overall size of the ad to help organize the page layout and
1227 position the various components of the page where they were intended to be.
1228 It is best left this way.
1233 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1234 <title id="ssl">How can <application>Privoxy</application> filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1236 This is a limitation since HTTPS transactions are encrypted SSL sessions
1237 between your browser and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably
1238 <emphasis>secure</emphasis> and private. This means that all cookies and HTTP
1239 header information are also encrypted from the time they leave your browser,
1240 to the site, and vice versa. <application>Privoxy</application> does not
1241 try to unencrypt this information, so it just passes through as is.
1242 <application>Privoxy</application> can still catch images and ads that
1243 are embedded in the SSL stream though.
1249 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1250 <title id="secure"><application>Privoxy</application> runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1251 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1253 There are no known exploits that might effect
1254 <application>Privoxy</application>. On Unix-like systems,
1255 <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
1256 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1257 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens to requests
1258 from <quote>localhost</quote>. The server aspect of
1259 <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly exposed to the
1260 Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1261 <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1262 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1263 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
1264 <application>Privoxy</application> config file. All LAN hosts can then use
1265 this as their proxy address in the browser proxy configuration. In this way,
1266 <application>Privoxy</application> will not listen on any external ports.
1267 Of course, a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
1272 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
1273 <title>How can I temporarily disable <application>Privoxy</application>?</title>
1275 The easiest way is to access <application>Privoxy</application> with your
1276 browser by using the special URL: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>
1277 and select "Toggle Privoxy on or off" from that page.
1282 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
1283 <title>Where can I find more information about <application>Privoxy</application>
1284 and related issues?</title>
1285 <!-- Include seealso.sgml boilerplate: -->
1287 <!-- end boilerplate -->
1292 <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
1301 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1303 <sect1 label="5" id="trouble">
1304 <title>Troubleshooting</title>
1306 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1307 <title id="refused">I just upgraded and am getting <quote>connection refused</quote>
1308 with every web page?</title>
1310 Either <application>Privoxy</application> is not running, or your
1311 browser is configured for a different port than what
1312 <application>Privoxy</application> is using.
1316 The old <application>Privoxy</application> (and also
1317 <application>Junkbuster</application>) used port 8000 by
1318 default. This has been changed to port 8118 now, due to a conflict
1319 with NAS (Network Audio Service), which uses port 8000. If you haven't,
1320 you need to change your browser to the new port number, or alternately
1321 change <application>Privoxy's</application> <quote>listen-address</quote>
1322 setting in the <filename>config</filename> file used to start
1323 <application>Privoxy</application>.
1328 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1329 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
1330 still getting through. How?</title>
1332 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
1333 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
1334 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Privoxy</application>
1335 will not be in the picture. The best thing to do is try flushing the browser's
1336 caches. And then try again.
1340 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
1341 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
1342 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
1343 and see if any actions match your new rule.
1348 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1349 <title id="badsite">One of my favorite sites does not work with <application>Privoxy</application>.
1350 What can I do?</title>
1353 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
1354 by disabling <application>Privoxy</application> filtering and blocking.
1355 Go to <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> and click on
1356 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote>, then disable it. Now try that
1357 page again. It's probably a good idea to flush the browser cache as well
1358 with <literal>Shift+Reload</literal> to flush caches.
1362 If still a problem, go to <quote>Show which actions apply to a URL and
1363 why</quote> from <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> and paste
1364 the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which actions are
1365 being applied to the URL. Now, armed with this information, go to
1366 <quote>View & change the current configuration</quote>. Here you should see various sections that have
1367 various <application>Privoxy</application> features disabled for specific
1368 sites. Most disabled <quote>actions</quote> will have a <quote>-</quote> (minus
1369 sign) in front of them. Some aliases are used just to disable other actions,
1370 e.g. <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote>, and won't necessarily
1371 use a <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign. Add your problem page
1372 URL to one of these sections that looks like it is disabling the feature that
1373 is causing the problem. Rember to flush your browser's caches when making
1374 such changes! As a last resort, try <quote>fragile</quote> which
1375 disables most actions. Now re-try the page. There might be some trial and
1376 error involved. This is discussed in more detail in the <ulink
1377 url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">user-manual appendix</ulink>.
1382 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
1383 the same thing by editing the appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file.
1393 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1395 FIXME: Commented out until we have something to put here. HB 03/18/02.
1396 <sect1 id="knownissues"><title>Known Issues</title>
1403 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1404 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
1405 <!-- Include contacting.sgml -->
1407 <!-- end contacting -->
1410 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1411 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Copyright and History</title>
1413 <sect2><title>Copyright</title>
1414 <!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
1419 <sect2><title>History</title>
1420 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
1427 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1429 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
1431 <!-- Include seealso.sgml -->
1442 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
1444 Last modified: Mon Sep 10 19:22:09 CEST 2001
1446 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
1447 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
1448 Public License as published by the Free Software
1449 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
1450 your option) any later version.
1452 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
1453 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
1454 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
1455 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
1456 License for more details.
1458 The GNU General Public License should be included with
1459 this file. If not, you can view it at
1460 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
1461 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
1462 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
1465 Revision 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa
1466 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
1468 Revision 1.50 2002/04/26 05:25:23 hal9
1469 Mass commit to catch a few scattered fixes.
1471 Revision 1.49 2002/04/12 10:10:18 swa
1474 Revision 1.48 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
1477 Revision 1.47 2002/04/10 04:05:32 hal9
1480 Revision 1.45 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
1481 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
1483 Revision 1.44 2002/04/07 21:24:29 hal9
1484 Touch up on name change.
1486 Revision 1.43 2002/04/04 21:59:53 hal9
1487 Added NT/W2K service/icon situation.
1489 Revision 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
1490 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
1492 Revision 1.41 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
1493 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
1494 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
1495 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
1496 eventually be set by Makefile.
1497 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
1499 Revision 1.40 2002/04/03 04:22:03 hal9
1500 Fixed several typos.
1502 Revision 1.39 2002/04/03 03:53:03 hal9
1503 Revert some changes, and then make some news, to layout, and appearance.
1505 Revision 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9
1506 Major changes to doc structure and layout. Sections are not automatically
1507 numbered now. TOC is on page by itself.
1509 Revision 1.37 2002/04/01 16:24:07 hal9
1510 -Rework of supported Q/A.
1511 -Set up entities to include boilerplate text.
1513 Revision 1.36 2002/03/31 23:18:47 hal9
1514 More on dealing with BLOCKED.
1516 Revision 1.35 2002/03/30 04:14:19 hal9
1517 Fix privoxy.org/config links.
1519 Revision 1.34 2002/03/29 04:35:56 hal9
1522 Revision 1.33 2002/03/29 01:31:48 hal9
1523 Several new Q/A's and other touch ups.
1525 Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
1526 Touch ups for name change.
1528 Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
1529 we have a new homepage!
1531 Revision 1.30 2002/03/25 16:39:22 hal9
1532 A few new sections. Made all links relative to user-manual.
1534 Revision 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9
1535 Moved section, and touch ups.
1537 Revision 1.28 2002/03/25 04:27:33 hal9
1538 New section related to name change.
1540 Revision 1.25 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
1541 we are too lazy to make a block-built
1542 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
1544 Revision 1.24 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
1545 name change related issue.
1547 Revision 1.23 2002/03/24 12:33:01 swa
1550 Revision 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
1551 name change. changed filenames.
1553 Revision 1.21 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
1556 Revision 1.20 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
1557 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
1558 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
1559 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
1560 comments and remarks to history untouched.
1562 Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
1565 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
1568 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
1571 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
1572 A few more additions.
1574 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
1575 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
1577 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
1578 A little more added ...
1580 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
1581 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
1583 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
1586 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
1589 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
1590 correct feedback channels
1592 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
1593 more info on not hiding ip address
1595 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
1596 added default config section
1598 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
1601 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
1602 Committing changes by Stefan
1604 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
1605 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
1607 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
1608 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
1609 will work - no other changes are needed.
1611 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
1612 upload process established. run make webserver and
1613 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
1614 are now linked correctly.
1616 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
1617 merged standards into developer manual
1619 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
1620 source files for junkbuster documentation
1622 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
1623 first proposal of a structure.
1625 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
1626 docs should have an author.
1628 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
1629 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.