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 "3.0.22">
12 <!entity p-status "UNRELEASED">
13 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
14 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
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 2.102 2014/10/06 10:20:09 fabiankeil Exp $
32 Copyright (C) 2001-2014 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; 2001-2014 by
77 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
81 <pubdate>$Id: faq.sgml,v 2.102 2014/10/06 10:20:09 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, Junkbusters Corporation continued to offer their original
244 version of the <application>Internet Junkbuster</application> for a while,
245 so publishing our <application> Junkbuster</application>-derived software
246 under the same name would have led to confusion.
249 There were also potential legal reasons not to use the
250 <application>Junkbuster</application> name, as it was (and maybe still is)
251 a registered trademark of Junkbusters Corporation.
252 There were, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
253 <application>Privoxy</application> project itself, and they, in fact,
254 shared our ideals and goals.
257 The Privoxy developers also believed that there were so many improvements
258 over the original code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past
259 and make a name in their own right.
262 <application>Privoxy</application> is the
263 <quote><emphasis>Privacy Enhancing Proxy</emphasis></quote>. Also, its content
264 modification and junk suppression gives <emphasis>you</emphasis>, the user, more
265 control, more freedom, and allows you to browse your personal and
266 <quote><emphasis>private</emphasis> edition</quote> of the web.
270 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="differs"><title>How does Privoxy differ
271 from the old Junkbuster?</title>
273 <application>Privoxy</application> picks up where
274 <application>Junkbuster</application> left off.
275 <application>Privoxy</application> still blocks ads and banners,
277 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>, and still
278 helps protect your privacy. But, most of these features have been enhanced,
279 and many new ones have been added, all in the same vein.
282 <application>Privoxy</application>'s new features include:
285 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml: -->
291 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whatsanad">
292 <title id="knows">How does Privoxy know what is
293 an ad, and what is not?</title>
295 <application>Privoxy</application>'s approach to blocking ads is twofold:
298 First, there are certain patterns in the <emphasis>locations</emphasis> (URLs)
299 of banner images. This applies to both the path (you wouldn't guess how many
300 web sites serve their banners from a directory called <quote>banners</quote>!)
301 and the host (blocking the big banner hosting services like doublecklick.net
302 already helps a lot). <application>Privoxy</application> takes advantage of this
303 fact by using <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL
304 patterns</ulink> to sort out and block the requests for things that sound
305 like they would be ads or banners.
308 Second, banners tend to come in certain <emphasis>sizes</emphasis>. But you
309 can't tell the size of an image by its URL without downloading it, and if you
310 do, it's too late to save bandwidth. Therefore, <application>Privoxy</application>
311 also inspects the HTML sources of web pages while they are loaded, and replaces
312 references to images with standard banner sizes by dummy references, so that
313 your browser doesn't request them anymore in the first place.
316 Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
317 and readily configurable.
321 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
322 <title id="mistakes">Can Privoxy make mistakes?
323 This does not sound very scientific.</title>
325 Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
326 rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. You will almost surely
327 run into such situations at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
328 cover every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
332 But this should not be a big concern since the
333 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is very flexible, and
334 includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
335 addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
336 (<link linkend="badsite">See the Troubleshooting section below</link>.)
341 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
342 <title id="configornot">Will I have to configure Privoxy
343 before I can use it?</title>
345 That depends on your expectations.
346 The default installation should give you a good starting
347 point, and block <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads and unwanted content,
348 but many of the more advanced features are off by default, and require
349 you to activate them.
352 You do have to set up your browser to use
353 <application>Privoxy</application> (see the <link
354 linkend="firststep">Installation section below</link>).
357 And you will certainly run into situations where there are false positives,
358 or ads not being blocked that you may not want to see. In these cases, you
359 would certainly benefit by customizing <application>Privoxy's</application>
360 configuration to more closely match your individual situation. And we
361 encourage you to do this. This is where the real power of
362 <application>Privoxy</application> lies!
367 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="lan">
368 <title>Can Privoxy run as a server on a network?</title>
370 Yes, &my-app; runs as a server already, and can easily be configured to
371 <quote>serve</quote> more than one client. See <link linkend="lanconfig">
372 How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my LAN</link> below.
376 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browsers2"><title>My browser does the same things as
377 Privoxy. Why should I use Privoxy at all?</title>
379 Modern browsers do indeed have <emphasis>some</emphasis> of the same
380 functionality as <application>Privoxy</application>. Maybe this is
381 adequate for you. But <application>Privoxy</application> is very
382 versatile and powerful, and can probably do a number of things
383 your browser just can't.
386 In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
387 have a LAN with multiple computers since &my-app; can run as a server
388 application. This way all the configuration is in one place, and you don't
389 have to maintain a similar configuration for possibly many browsers or
393 Note, however, that it's recommended to leverage both your browser's
394 and <application>Privoxy's</application> privacy enhancing features
395 at the same time. While your browser probably lacks some features
396 &my-app; offers, it should also be able to do some things more
397 reliably, for example restricting and suppressing JavaScript.
401 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whytrust"><title>Why should I trust Privoxy?</title>
403 The most important reason is because you have access to
404 <emphasis>everything</emphasis>, and you can control everything. You can
405 check every line of every configuration file yourself. You can check every
406 last bit of source code should you desire. And even if you can't read code,
407 there should be some comfort in knowing that <!-- thousands of -->other people can,
408 and do read it. You can build the software from scratch, if you want,
409 so that you know the executable is clean, and that it is
410 <emphasis>yours</emphasis>. In fact, we encourage this level of scrutiny. It
411 is one reason we use &my-app; ourselves.
415 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="license"><title>Is there is a license or fee? What about a
416 warranty? Registration?</title>
418 <application>Privoxy</application> is free software and licensed under the <ulink
419 url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html">GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2</ulink>.
420 It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this
421 license. Please see the <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> section for more
422 information on the license and copyright. Or the <filename>LICENSE</filename> file
423 that should be included.
426 There is <emphasis>no warranty</emphasis> of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
427 That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
432 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="spyware">
433 <title>Can Privoxy remove spyware? Adware? Viruses?</title>
435 No, at least not reliably enough to trust it. &my-app; is not designed to be
436 a malware removal tool and the default configuration doesn't even try to
437 filter out any malware.
440 &my-app; could help prevent contact from (known) sites that use such
441 tactics with appropriate configuration rules, and thus could conceivably
442 prevent contamination from such sites. However, keeping such a configuration
443 up to date would require a lot of time and effort that would be better spend
444 on keeping your software itself up to date so it doesn't have known
450 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherads">
451 <title>Can I use Privoxy with other ad-blocking software?</title>
453 &my-app; should work fine with other proxies and other software in general.
456 But it is probably not necessary to use &my-app; in conjunction with other
457 ad-blocking products, and this could conceivably cause undesirable results.
458 It might be better to choose one software or the other and work a little to
459 tweak its configuration to your liking.
462 Note that this is an advice specific to ad blocking.
466 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="help-the-developers"><title id="jointeam">I would like to help you, what can I do?</title>
468 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="participate"><title id="jointeam-work">Would you like to participate?</title>
470 Well, we <emphasis>always</emphasis> need help. There is something for
471 everybody who wants to help us. We welcome new developers, packagers,
472 testers, documentation writers or really anyone with a desire to help in
473 any way. You <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> need to be a
474 <quote>programmer</quote>. There are many other tasks available. In fact,
475 the programmers often can't spend as much time programming because of some
476 of the other, more mundane things that need to be done, like checking the
477 Tracker feedback sections or responding to user questions on the mailing
481 So first thing, subscribe to the <ulink
482 url="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-users">Privoxy Users</ulink>
483 or the <ulink url="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-developers">Privoxy
484 Developers</ulink> mailing list, join the discussion, help out other users, provide general
485 feedback or report problems you noticed.
488 If you intend to help out with the trackers, you also might want to <ulink
489 url="https://sourceforge.net/user/registration">get an account on SourceForge.net</ulink>
490 so we don't confuse you with the other name-less users.
493 We also have a <ulink
494 url="../developer-manual/index.html">Developer's Manual</ulink>.
495 While it is partly out of date, it's still worth reading.
498 Our <ulink url="http://ijbswa.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ijbswa/current/TODO?view=markup">TODO list</ulink>
499 may be of interest to you as well.
500 Please let us know if you want to work on one of the items listed.
504 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="donate"><title>Would you like to donate?</title>
506 Donations are welcome. Our
507 <ulink url="http://ijbswa.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ijbswa/current/TODO">TODO list</ulink>
508 is rather long and being able to pay one (or more) developers to work on Privoxy
509 a couple of weeks in a row would make a huge difference.
513 <application>Privoxy</application> is an associated
514 project of <ulink url="http://www.spi-inc.org/">Software
515 in the Public Interest (SPI)</ulink>, which allows us to receive
516 tax-deductible donations in the United States. If you want to donate through
517 SPI, please use <ulink url="http://www.spi-inc.org/donations">SPI's donation page</ulink>
518 to see what the options are.
522 You can also donate to Privoxy using a bank account managed by
523 <ulink url="https://www.zwiebelfreunde.de/">Zwiebelfreunde e.V.</ulink>:
526 Name on Account: Zwiebelfreunde e.V.
527 IBAN: DE95430609671126825604
532 Donations made through Zwiebelfreunde e.V. are tax-deductible in Germany
533 and other countries that recognize German charitable clubs. Feel free to
534 use the Subject field to provide a name to be credited and a list of TODO
535 list items you are interested in the most. For example: Max Mustermann: #16, #1, #14.
539 If you have any questions regarding donations please mail to either the
540 public user mailing list or, if it's a private matter, to
541 <ulink url="mailto:fk@fabiankeil.de">Fabian Keil</ulink> (Privoxy's SPI liason)
550 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
552 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
554 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichbrowsers">
555 <title>Which browsers are supported by Privoxy?</title>
557 Any browser that can be configured to use a proxy, which
558 should be virtually all browsers, including
559 <application>Firefox</application>, <application>Internet
560 Explorer</application>, <application>Opera</application>, and
561 <application>Safari</application> among others.
562 Direct browser support is not an absolute requirement since
563 <application>Privoxy</application> runs as a separate application and talks
564 to the browser in the standardized HTTP protocol, just like a web server
569 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whichos">
570 <title>Which operating systems are supported?</title>
572 Include supported.sgml here:
577 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="email-client">
578 <title>Can I use Privoxy with my email client?</title>
580 As long as there is some way to set a HTTP proxy for the client, then yes,
581 any application can be used, whether it is strictly speaking a
582 <quote>browser</quote> or not. Though this may not be the best approach for
583 dealing with some of the common abuses of HTML in email. See <link
584 linkend="outlook">How can I configure <application>Privoxy</application>
585 with <application>Outlook</application>?</link> below for more on
589 Be aware that HTML email presents a number of unique security and privacy
590 related issues, that can require advanced skills to overcome. The developers
591 recommend using email clients that can be configured to convert HTML to plain
592 text for these reasons.
596 <!-- Nobody is going to still be doing this!
597 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newinstall"><title>Can I install
598 Privoxy over Junkbuster?</title>
600 We recommend you un-install <application>Junkbuster</application>
601 first to minimize conflicts and confusion. You may want to
602 save your old configuration files for future reference. The configuration
603 files and syntax have substantially changed, so you will need to manually
604 port your old patterns. See the <ulink url="../user-manual/upgradersnote.html">note
605 to upgraders</ulink> and <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">installation
606 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink>
610 Note: Some installers may automatically un-install
611 <application>Junkbuster</application>, if present!
617 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="firststep">
618 <title>I just installed Privoxy. Is there anything
619 special I have to do now?</title>
622 All browsers should be told to use <application>Privoxy</application>
623 as a proxy by specifying the correct proxy address and port number
624 in the appropriate configuration area for the browser. It's possible
625 to combine &my-app; with a packet filter to intercept HTTP requests
626 even if the client isn't explicitly configured to use &my-app;,
627 but where possible, configuring the client is recommended. See
628 <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">the User Manual for more
629 details</ulink>. You should also flush your browser's memory and disk
630 cache to get rid of any cached junk items, and remove any stored
631 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>.
637 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="localhost"><title>What is the proxy address of Privoxy?</title>
639 If you set up the <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
640 the computer you browse from (rather than your ISP's server or some
641 networked computer on a LAN), the proxy will be on <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>
642 (sometimes referred to as <quote>localhost</quote>,
643 which is the special name used by every computer on the Internet to refer
644 to itself) and the port will be 8118 (unless you used the <ulink
645 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink>
646 config option to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to run on
650 When configuring your browser's proxy settings you typically enter
651 the word <quote>localhost</quote> or the IP address <quote>127.0.0.1</quote>
652 in the boxes next to <quote>HTTP</quote> and <quote>Secure</quote> (HTTPS) and
653 then the number <quote>8118</quote> for <quote>port</quote>.
654 This tells your browser to send all web requests to <application>Privoxy</application>
655 instead of directly to the Internet.
658 <application>Privoxy</application> can also be used to proxy for
659 a Local Area Network. In this case, your would enter either the IP
660 address of the LAN host where <application>Privoxy</application>
661 is running, or the equivalent hostname, e.g. <literal>192.168.1.1</literal>.
662 Port assignment would be same as above. Note that
663 <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't listen on any LAN interfaces by
667 <application>Privoxy</application> does not currently handle
668 any other protocols such as FTP, SMTP, IM, IRC, ICQ, etc.
672 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nothing">
673 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening.
674 All the ads are there. What's wrong?</title>
677 Did you configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
678 as a proxy? It does not sound like it. See above. You might also try flushing
679 the browser's caches to force a full re-reading of pages. You can verify
680 that <application>Privoxy</application> is running, and your browser
681 is correctly configured by entering the special URL:
682 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>.
683 <!-- Use http://p.p/ instead of http://config.privoxy.org/ here because
684 of potential redirect caching problem (see next Q). -->
685 This should take you to a page titled <quote>This is Privoxy..</quote> with
686 access to <application>Privoxy's</application> internal configuration.
687 If you see this, then you are good to go. If you receive a page saying
688 <quote>Privoxy is not running</quote>, then the browser is not set up to use
689 your <application>Privoxy</application> installation.
690 If you receive anything else (probably nothing at all), it could either
691 be that the browser is not set up correctly, or that
692 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running at all. Check the <ulink
693 url="../user-manual/config.html#LOGFILE">log file</ulink>. For instructions
694 on starting <application>Privoxy</application> and browser configuration,
695 see the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
696 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
697 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
702 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="notused">
703 <title>I get a <quote>Privoxy is not being used</quote> dummy page although
704 Privoxy is running and being used.</title>
707 First, make sure that Privoxy is <emphasis>really</emphasis> running and
708 being used by visiting <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>. You
709 should see the <application>Privoxy</application> main page. If not, see
710 the <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/startup.html">chapter
711 on starting <application>Privoxy</application></ulink> in the
712 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">User Manual</ulink>.
716 Now if <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> works for you, but
717 other parts of <application>Privoxy</application>'s web interface show
718 the dummy page, your browser has cached a redirection it encountered before
719 <application>Privoxy</application> was being used. You need to clear your
720 browser's cache. Note that shift-reloading the dummy page won't help, since
721 that'll only refresh the dummy page, not the redirection that lead you there.
725 The procedure for clearing the cache varies from browser to browser. For
726 example, <application>Mozilla/Netscape</application> users would click
727 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -->
728 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
729 then click both <quote><guibutton>Clear Memory Cache</guibutton></quote>
730 and <quote><guibutton>Clear Disk Cache</guibutton></quote>.
731 In some <application>Firefox</application> versions it's
732 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -->
733 <guibutton>Privacy</guibutton> --> <guibutton>Cache</guibutton> and
734 then click <quote><guibutton>Clear Cache Now</guibutton></quote>.
735 <!-- In my Firefox versions it's the Netscape way. fk 2007-11-19-->
742 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
744 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Configuration</title>
745 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
746 <title id="actionsfile">What exactly is an <quote>actions</quote> file?</title>
749 &my-app; utilizes the concept of <quote>
750 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink></quote>
751 that are used to manipulate and control web page data.
752 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">Actions files</ulink>
753 are where these <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</ulink>
754 that <application>Privoxy</application> could take while processing a certain
755 request, are configured. Typically, you would define a set of default actions
756 that apply globally to all URLs, then add exceptions to these defaults where needed.
757 There is a wide array of actions available that give the user a high degree
758 of control and flexibility on how to process each and every web page.
762 Actions can be defined on a <ulink
763 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS">URL pattern</ulink> basis, i.e.
764 for single URLs, whole web sites, groups or parts thereof etc. Actions can also be
765 grouped together and then applied to requests matching one or more patterns.
766 There are many possible actions that might apply to any given site. As an example,
767 if you are blocking <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
768 as one of your default actions, but need to accept cookies from a given site,
769 you would need to define an exception for this site in one of your actions
770 files, preferably in <filename>user.action</filename>.
775 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="actionss">
776 <title>The <quote>actions</quote> concept confuses me. Please list
777 some of these <quote>actions</quote>.</title>
779 For a comprehensive discussion of the actions concept, please refer
780 to the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions file
781 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User
782 Manual</ulink>. It includes a <ulink
783 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACTIONS">list of all actions</ulink>
784 and an <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions
785 file tutorial</ulink> to get you started.
790 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
791 <title id="actconfig">How are actions files configured? What is the easiest
792 way to do this?</title>
795 Actions files are just text files in a special syntax and can be edited
796 with a text editor. But probably the easiest way is to access
797 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface with your web browser
798 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
799 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and then select
800 <quote><ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View &
801 change the current configuration</ulink></quote> from the menu. Note
802 that this feature must be explicitly enabled in the main config file
804 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>).
809 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
810 <title>There are several different <quote>actions</quote> files. What are
811 the differences?</title>
813 Please have a look at the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">the actions chapter</ulink>
814 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> for a detailed explanation.
819 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="getupdates"><title>Where can I get updated Actions Files?</title>
821 Based on your feedback and the continuing development, updates of
822 <filename>default.action</filename> will be
823 made available from time to time on the <ulink
824 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">files section</ulink> of
825 our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project page</ulink>.
829 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
830 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
831 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
832 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
837 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newconfig"><title>Can I use my old config files?</title>
839 The syntax and purpose of configuration files has remained roughly the
840 same throughout the 3.x series, but backwards compatibility is not guaranteed.
841 Also each release contains updated, <quote>improved</quote> versions and it is
842 therefore strongly recommended to install the newer configuration files
843 and merge back your modifications.
847 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="difficult">
848 <title>Why is the configuration so complicated?</title>
850 <quote>Complicated</quote> is in the eye of the beholder.
853 Privoxy is currently mainly written by and for people who are already
854 familiar with the underlying concepts like regular expressions, HTTP and HTML,
855 or are willing to become familiar with them to be able to get the most
856 out of a powerful and flexible tool such as Privoxy.
859 While everybody is expected to be able to get a Privoxy default installation
860 up and running, fine-tuning requires a certain amount of background
861 information and Privoxy's documentation mainly concentrates on the
862 Privoxy-specific parts while only providing references to the rest.
865 If you or anyone you know has the skills, time and energy to
866 reduce the barrier of entry, please <link linkend="participate">get involved</link>.
870 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="yahoo"><title>How can I make my Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail account work?</title>
872 The default configuration shouldn't impact the usability of any of these services.
873 It may, however, make all <ulink
874 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>
875 temporary, so that your browser will forget your
876 login credentials in between browser sessions. If you would like not to have to log
877 in manually each time you access those websites, simply turn off all cookie handling
878 for them in the <filename>user.action</filename> file. An example for yahoo might
882 <screen># Allow all cookies for Yahoo login:
884 { -<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> }
885 .login.yahoo.com</screen>
888 These kinds of sites are often quite complex and heavy with
889 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> and
890 thus <quote>fragile</quote>. So if <emphasis>still</emphasis> a problem,
892 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> just for such
896 <screen># Gmail is a _fragile_ site:
898 { <literal>fragile</literal> }
900 mail.google.com</screen>
903 Be sure to flush your browser's caches whenever making these kinds of
904 changes, just to make sure the changes <quote>take</quote>.
907 Make sure the domain, host and path are appropriate as well. Your browser can
908 tell you where you are specifically and you should use that information for
909 your configuration settings. Note that above it is not referenced as
910 <literal>gmail.com</literal>, which is a valid domain name.
915 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configfiles"> <title>What's the difference between the
916 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> and <quote>Advanced</quote> defaults?</title>
918 Configuring <application>Privoxy</application> is not entirely trivial. To
919 help you get started, we provide you with three different default action
920 <quote>profiles</quote> in the web based actions file editor at <ulink
921 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
922 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html"><citetitle>User
923 Manual</citetitle></ulink> for a list of actions, and how the default
928 Where the defaults are likely to break some sites, exceptions for
929 known popular <quote>problem</quote> sites are included, but in
930 general, the more aggressive your default settings are, the more exceptions
931 you will have to make later. New users are best to start off in
932 <quote>Cautious</quote> setting. This is safest and will have the fewest
933 problems. See the <ulink
934 url="../user-manual/index.html"><citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink>
935 for a more detailed discussion.
939 It should be noted that the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile (formerly known
940 as the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> profile) is more
941 aggressive, and will make use of some of
942 <application>Privoxy's</application> advanced features. Use at your own risk!
947 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="browseconfig"> <title>Why can I change the configuration
948 with a browser? Does that not raise security issues?</title>
950 It may seem strange that regular users can edit the config files with their
951 browsers, although the whole <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> hierarchy
952 belongs to the user <quote>privoxy</quote>, with only 644 permissions.
955 When you use the browser-based editor, <application>Privoxy</application>
956 itself is writing to the config files. Because
957 <application>Privoxy</application> is running as the user <quote>privoxy</quote>,
958 it can update its own config files.
961 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> for multiple untrusted users (e.g. in
962 a LAN) or aren't entirely in control of your own browser, you will probably want
963 to make sure that the web-based editor and remote toggle features are
964 <quote>off</quote> by setting <quote><literal><ulink
965 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>
966 0</literal></quote> and <quote><literal><ulink
967 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-REMOTE-TOGGLE">enable-remote-toggle</ulink>
968 0</literal></quote> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>.
971 As of &my-app; 3.0.7 these options are disabled by default.
976 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
977 <title id="filterfile">What is the <filename>default.filter</filename> file? What is a <quote>filter</quote>?</title>
979 The <ulink url="../user-manual/filter-file.html"><filename>default.filter</filename></ulink>
980 file is where <emphasis>filters</emphasis> as supplied by the developers are defined.
981 Filters are a special subset of actions that can be used to modify or
982 remove web page content or headers on the fly. Content filters can
983 be applied to <emphasis>anything</emphasis> in the page source,
984 header filters can be applied to either server or client headers.
985 Regular expressions are used to accomplish this.
988 There are a number of pre-defined filters to deal with common annoyances. The
989 filters are only defined here, to invoke them, you need to use the
991 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"><literal>filter</literal>
992 action</ulink> in one of the actions files. Content filtering is automatically
993 disabled for inappropriate MIME types, but if you know better than Privoxy
994 what should or should not be filtered you can filter any content you like.
998 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be confused with <ulink
999 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK"><literal>blocks</literal></ulink>, which
1000 is a completely different action, and is more typically used to block ads and
1005 If you are familiar with regular expressions, and HTML, you can look at
1006 the provided <filename>default.filter</filename> with a text editor and define
1007 your own filters. This is potentially a very powerful feature, but
1008 requires some expertise in both regular expressions and HTML/HTTP.
1009 <![%p-newstuff;[ You should
1010 place any modifications to the default filters, or any new ones you create
1011 in a separate file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>, so they won't
1012 be overwritten during upgrades.
1013 The ability to define multiple filter files
1014 in <filename>config</filename> is a new feature as of v. 3.0.5.]]>
1018 There is no GUI editor option for this part of the configuration,
1019 but you can disable/enable the various pre-defined filters of the included
1020 <filename>default.filter</filename> file with the <ulink
1021 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
1022 Note that the custom actions editor must be explicitly enabled in
1023 the main config file (see <ulink
1024 url="../user-manual/config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions</ulink>).
1028 If you intend to develop your own filters, you might want to have a look at
1030 url="http://www.fabiankeil.de/sourcecode/pft/">Privoxy-Filter-Test</ulink>.
1035 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="lanconfig">
1036 <title>How can I set up Privoxy to act as a proxy for my
1039 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only responds to requests
1040 from <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> (localhost). To have it act as a server for
1041 a network, this needs to be changed in the <ulink
1042 url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>. Look for
1044 url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink></literal>
1045 option, which may be commented out with a <quote>#</quote> symbol. Make sure
1046 it is uncommented, and assign it the address of the LAN gateway interface,
1047 and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address is 192.168.1.1 and you
1048 wish to run <application>Privoxy</application> on port 8118, this line
1054 listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118</screen>
1058 Save the file, and restart <application>Privoxy</application>. Configure
1059 all browsers on the network then to use this address and port number.
1063 Alternately, you can have <application>Privoxy</application> listen on
1064 all available interfaces:
1069 listen-address :8118</screen>
1073 And then use <application>Privoxy's</application>
1075 url="../user-manual/config.html#PERMIT-ACCESS">permit-access</ulink>
1076 feature to limit connections. A firewall in this situation is recommended
1081 The above steps should be the same for any TCP network, regardless of
1086 If you run <application>Privoxy</application> on a LAN with untrusted users,
1087 we recommend that you double-check the <ulink
1088 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security</ulink>
1095 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1096 <title id="noseeum">Instead of ads, now I get a checkerboard pattern. I don't want to see anything.</title>
1098 The replacement for blocked images can be controlled with the <ulink
1099 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1100 action</ulink>. You have the choice of a checkerboard pattern, a transparent 1x1 GIF
1101 image (aka <quote>blank</quote>), or a redirect to a custom image of your choice.
1102 Note that this choice only has effect for images which are blocked as images, i.e.
1103 whose URLs match both a <literal><ulink
1104 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink></literal>
1105 <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><ulink
1106 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> action.
1109 If you want to see nothing, then change the <ulink
1110 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><literal>set-image-blocker</literal>
1111 action</ulink> to <quote>blank</quote>. This can be done by editing the
1112 <filename>user.action</filename> file, or through the <ulink
1113 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions file editor</ulink>.
1118 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1119 <title id="whyseeum">Why would anybody want to see a checkerboard pattern?</title>
1121 Remember that <link linkend="whatsanad">telling which image is an ad and which
1122 isn't</link>, is an educated guess. While we hope that the standard configuration
1123 is rather smart, it will make occasional mistakes. The checkerboard image is visually
1124 decent, and it shows you where images have been blocked, which can be very
1125 helpful in case some navigation aid or otherwise innocent image was
1126 erroneously blocked. It is recommended for new users so they can
1127 <quote>see</quote> what is happening. Some people might also enjoy seeing how
1128 many banners they <emphasis>don't</emphasis> have to see.
1133 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1134 <title id="blockedbytext">I see some images being replaced with text
1135 instead of the checkerboard image. Why and how do I get rid of this?</title>
1137 This happens when the banners are not embedded in the HTML code of the
1138 page itself, but in separate HTML (sub)documents that are loaded into (i)frames
1139 or (i)layers, and these external HTML documents are blocked. Being non-images
1140 they get replaced by a substitute HTML page rather than a substitute image,
1141 which wouldn't work out technically, since the browser expects and accepts
1142 only HTML when it has requested an HTML document.
1145 The substitute page adapts to the available space and shows itself as a
1146 miniature two-liner if loaded into small frames, or full-blown with a
1147 large red "BLOCKED" banner if space allows.
1150 If you prefer the banners to be blocked by images, you must see to it that
1151 the HTML documents in which they are embedded are not blocked. Clicking
1152 the <quote>See why</quote> link offered in the substitute page will show
1153 you which rule blocked the page. After changing the rule and un-blocking
1154 the HTML documents, the browser will try to load the actual banner images
1155 and the usual image blocking will (hopefully!) kick in.
1160 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="srvany">
1161 <title>Can Privoxy run as a service
1162 on Win2K/NT/XP?</title>
1165 Yes. Version 3.0.5 introduces full <application>Windows</application> service
1166 functionality. See <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html#installation-pack-win">
1167 the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle></ulink> for details on how to install and configure
1168 <application>Privoxy</application> as a service.
1171 Earlier ]]>3.x versions could run as a system service using <command>srvany.exe</command>.
1172 See the discussion at <ulink
1173 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>,
1174 for details, and a sample configuration.
1179 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="otherproxy">
1180 <title>How can I make Privoxy work with other proxies?</title>
1182 This can be done and is often useful to combine the benefits of
1183 <application>Privoxy</application> with those of a another proxy,
1184 for example to cache content.
1186 url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding chapter</ulink>
1187 in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">User Manual</ulink> which
1188 describes how to do this. If you intend to use Privoxy with Tor,
1189 please also have a look at
1190 <link linkend="TOR">How do I use Privoxy together with Tor</link>.
1194 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="port-80">
1195 <title>Can I just set Privoxy to use port 80
1196 and thus avoid individual browser configuration?</title>
1199 No, its more complicated than that. This only works with special kinds
1200 of proxies known as <quote>intercepting</quote> proxies
1201 (<link linkend="INTERCEPTING">see below</link>).
1206 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="transparent">
1207 <title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>transparent
1208 </quote> proxy?</title>
1210 The whole idea of Privoxy is to modify client requests
1211 and server responses in all sorts of ways and therefore
1212 it's not a transparent proxy as described in
1213 <ulink url="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616">RFC 2616</ulink>.
1216 However, some people say <quote>transparent proxy</quote> when they
1217 mean <quote>intercepting proxy</quote>. If you are one of them,
1218 please read the <link linkend="INTERCEPTING">next entry</link>.
1223 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="intercepting">
1224 <title>Can Privoxy run as a <quote>intercepting</quote> proxy?</title>
1226 <application>Privoxy</application> can't intercept traffic itself,
1227 but it can handle requests that where intercepted and redirected
1228 with a packet filter (like <application>PF</application> or
1229 <application>iptables</application>), as long as the <literal>Host</literal>
1233 As the <literal>Host</literal> header is required by HTTP/1.1 and as most
1234 web sites rely on it anyway, this limitation shouldn't be a problem.
1237 Please refer to your packet filter's documentation to learn how to
1238 intercept and redirect traffic into <application>Privoxy</application>.
1239 Afterward you just have to configure <application>Privoxy</application> to
1240 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCEPT-INTERCEPTED-REQUESTS">accept
1241 intercepted requests</ulink>.
1246 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook">
1247 <title>How can I configure Privoxy for use with Outlook?</title>
1249 Versions of <application>Outlook</application> prior to Office 2007, use
1250 <application>Internet Explorer</application> components to both render HTML,
1251 and fetch any HTTP requests that may be embedded in an HTML email. So however
1252 you have <application>Privoxy</application> configured to work with IE, this
1253 configuration should automatically be shared, at least with older version of
1257 Starting with Office 2007, Microsoft is instead using the MS-Word rendering
1258 engine with Outlook. It is unknown whether this can be configured to use a
1260 <!-- FIXME HB 2009-02-15 -->
1264 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="outlook-more">
1265 <title>How can I have separate rules just for HTML mail?</title>
1267 The short answer is, you can't. <application>Privoxy</application> has no way
1268 of knowing which particular application makes a request, so there is no way to
1269 distinguish between web pages and HTML mail.
1270 <application>Privoxy</application> just blindly proxies all requests. In the
1271 case of <application>Outlook Express</application> (see above), OE uses
1272 IE anyway, and there is no way for <application>Privoxy</application> to ever
1273 be able to distinguish between them (nor could any other proxy type application for
1277 For a good discussion of some of the issues involved (including privacy and
1278 security issues), see
1279 <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>.
1283 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="sneaky-cookies">
1284 <title>I sometimes notice cookies sneaking through. How?</title>
1287 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Cookies</ulink> can be
1288 set in several ways. The classic method is via the
1289 <literal>Set-Cookie</literal> HTTP header. This is straightforward, and an
1290 easy one to manipulate, such as the &my-app; concept of
1291 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</ulink>.
1292 There is also the possibility of using
1293 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink> to
1294 set cookies (&my-app; calls these <literal>content-cookies</literal>). This
1295 is trickier because the syntax can vary widely, and thus requires a certain
1296 amount of guesswork. It is not realistic to catch all of these short of
1297 disabling Javascript, which would break many sites. And lastly, if the
1298 cookies are embedded in a HTTPS/SSL secure session via Javascript, they are beyond
1299 <application>Privoxy's</application> reach.
1302 All in all, &my-app; can help manage cookies in general, can help minimize
1303 the loss of privacy posed by cookies, but can't realistically stop all
1308 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="evil-cookies">
1309 <title>Are all cookies bad? Why?</title>
1311 No, in fact there are many beneficial uses of
1313 url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>. Cookies are just a
1314 method that browsers can use to store data between pages, or between browser
1315 sessions. Sometimes there is a good reason for this, and the user's life is a
1316 bit easier as a result. But there is a long history of some websites taking
1317 advantage of this layer of trust, and using the data they glean from you and
1318 your browsing habits for their own purposes, and maybe to your potential
1319 detriment. Such sites are using you and storing their data on your system.
1320 That is why the privacy conscious watch from whom those cookies come, and why
1321 they really <emphasis>need</emphasis> to be there.
1325 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">Wikipedia cookie
1326 definition</ulink> for more.
1330 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allow-cookies">
1331 <title>How can I allow permanent cookies for my trusted sites?</title>
1334 There are several actions that relate to cookies. The default behavior is to
1335 allow only <quote>session cookies</quote>, which means the cookies only last
1336 for the current browser session. This eliminates most kinds of abuse related
1337 to cookies. But there may be cases where you want cookies to last.
1340 To disable all cookie actions, so that cookies are allowed unrestricted,
1341 both in and out, for <literal>example.com</literal>:
1345 { -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies -session-cookies-only -filter{content-cookies} }
1346 .example.com</screen>
1349 Place the above in <filename>user.action</filename>. Note that some of these may
1350 be off by default anyway, so this might be redundant, but there is no harm
1351 being explicit in what you want to happen. <filename>user.action</filename>
1352 includes an alias for this situation, called
1353 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal>.
1357 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="multiples">
1358 <title>Can I have separate configurations for different users?</title>
1360 Each instance of <application>Privoxy</application> has its own
1361 configuration, including such attributes as the TCP port that it listens on.
1362 What you can do is run multiple instances of <application>Privoxy</application>, each with
1364 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#LISTEN-ADDRESS">listen-address</ulink>
1365 configuration setting, and configuration path, and then
1366 each of these can have their own configurations. Think of it as per-port
1370 Simple enough for a few users, but for large installations, consider having
1371 groups of users that might share like configurations.
1375 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="whitelists">
1376 <title>Can I set-up Privoxy as a whitelist of
1377 <quote>good</quote> sites?</title>
1379 Sure. There are a couple of things you can do for simple white-listing.
1380 Here's one real easy one:
1383 ############################################################
1385 ############################################################
1386 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
1387 / # Block *all* URLs
1389 ############################################################
1391 ############################################################
1392 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
1395 games.example.com</screen>
1397 This allows access to only those three sites by first blocking all URLs, and
1398 then subsequently allowing three specific exceptions.
1401 Another approach is <application>Privoxy's</application>
1402 <literal>trustfile</literal> concept, which incorporates the notion of
1403 <quote>trusted referrers</quote>. See the <ulink
1404 url="../user-manual/config.html#TRUSTFILE">Trust documentation</ulink>
1408 These are fairly simple approaches and are not completely foolproof. There
1409 are various other configuration options that should be disabled (described
1410 elsewhere here and in <ulink url="../user-manual/">the User Manual</ulink>)
1411 so that users can't modify their own configuration and easily circumvent the
1416 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="no-adblock">
1417 <title>How can I turn off ad-blocking?</title>
1419 Ad blocking is achieved through a complex application of various &my-app;
1420 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions</ulink>. These
1421 actions are deployed against simple images, banners, flash animations,
1422 text pages, JavaScript, pop-ups and pop-unders, etc., so its not as simple as
1423 just turning one or two actions off. The various actions that make up
1424 &my-app; ad blocking are hard-coded into the default configuration files. It
1425 has been assumed that everyone using &my-app; is interested in this
1429 If you want to do without this, there are several approaches you can take:
1430 You can manually undo the many block rules in
1431 <filename>default.action</filename>. Or even easier, just create your own
1432 <filename>default.action</filename> file from scratch without the many ad
1433 blocking rules, and corresponding exceptions. Or lastly, if you are not
1434 concerned about the additional blocks that are done for privacy reasons, you
1435 can very easily over-ride <emphasis>all</emphasis> blocking with the
1436 following very simple rule in your <filename>user.action</filename>:
1440 # Unblock everybody, everywhere
1441 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
1442 / # UN-Block *all* URLs</screen>
1445 Or even a more comprehensive reversing of various ad related actions:
1449 # Unblock everybody, everywhere, and turn off appropriate filtering, etc
1450 { <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> \
1451 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">-filter{banners-by-size}</ulink> \
1452 <ulink url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">-filter{banners-by-link}</ulink> \
1453 <literal>allow-popups</literal> \
1455 / # UN-Block *all* URLs and allow ads</screen>
1458 This last <quote>action</quote> in this compound statement,
1459 <literal>allow-popups</literal>, is an <ulink
1460 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ALIASES">alias</ulink> that disables
1461 various pop-up blocking features.
1465 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="templates">
1466 <title>How can I have custom template pages, like the
1467 <emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
1469 &my-app; <quote>templates</quote> are specialized text files utilized by
1470 &my-app; for various purposes and can easily be modified using any text
1471 editor. All the template pages are installed in a sub-directory appropriately
1472 named: <filename>templates</filename>. Knowing something about HTML syntax
1473 will of course be helpful.
1476 Be forewarned that the default templates are subject to being overwritten
1477 during upgrades. You can, however, create completely new templates,
1478 place them in another directory and specify the alternate path in the main
1479 <filename>config</filename>. For details, have a look at the <ulink
1480 url="../user-manual/config.html#templdir">templdir</ulink> option.
1484 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blockall">
1485 <title>How can I remove the <quote>Go There Anyway</quote> link from
1486 the <emphasis>BLOCKED</emphasis> page?</title>
1488 There is more than one way to do it (although Perl is not involved).
1491 Editing the BLOCKED template page (see above) may dissuade some users, but
1492 this method is easily circumvented. Where you need this level of control, you
1493 might want to build &my-app; from source, and disable various features that are
1494 available as compile-time options. You should
1495 <command>configure</command> the sources as follows:
1499 ./configure --disable-toggle --disable-editor --disable-force</screen>
1502 This will create an executable with hard-coded security features so that
1503 &my-app; does not allow easy bypassing of blocked sites, or changing the
1504 current configuration via any connected user's web browser.
1507 Finally, all of these features can also be toggled on/off via options in
1508 <application>Privoxy's</application> main <ulink
1509 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">config</ulink> file which
1510 means you don't have to recompile anything.
1516 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1519 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1521 <sect1 id="misc"><title>Miscellaneous</title>
1523 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1524 <title id="slowsme">How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This
1525 has to add extra time to browsing.</title>
1527 How much of an impact depends on many things, including the CPU of the host
1528 system, how aggressive the configuration is, which specific actions are being triggered,
1529 the size of the page, the bandwidth of the connection, etc.
1532 Overall, it should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
1533 speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not typically being
1534 retrieved and displayed. The actual processing time required by
1535 <application>Privoxy</application> itself for each page, is relatively small
1536 in the overall scheme of things, and happens very quickly. This is typically
1537 more than offset by time saved not downloading and rendering ad images and
1538 other junk content (if ad blocking is being used).
1542 <quote>Filtering</quote> content via the <literal><ulink
1543 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> or
1545 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1546 actions may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document
1547 needs to be buffered before displaying. And on very large documents,
1548 filtering may have some measurable impact. How much depends on the page size,
1549 the actual definition of the filter(s), etc. See below. Most other actions
1550 have little to no impact on speed.
1553 Also, when filtering is enabled but zlib support isn't available, compression
1554 is often disabled (see <ulink
1555 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>).
1556 This can have an impact on speed as well, although it's probably smaller than
1557 you might think. Again, the page size, etc. will determine how much of an impact.
1563 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="loadingtimes"><title>I notice considerable
1564 delays in page requests. What's wrong?</title>
1566 If you use any <literal><ulink
1567 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER">filter</ulink></literal> action,
1568 such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <literal><ulink
1569 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</ulink></literal>
1570 action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
1571 mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time.
1574 The loading time typically does not really change much in real numbers, but
1575 the feeling is different, because most browsers are able to start rendering
1576 incomplete content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is
1577 more noticeable on slower dialup connections. Extremely large documents
1578 may have some impact on the time to load the page where there is filtering
1579 being done. But overall, the difference should be very minimal. If there is a
1580 big impact, then probably some other situation is contributing (like
1581 anti-virus software).
1584 Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types. But note
1585 that if the web server mis-reports the MIME type, then content that should
1586 not be filtered, could be. <application>Privoxy</application> only knows how
1587 to differentiate filterable content because of the MIME type as reported by
1588 the server, or because of some configuration setting that enables/disables
1593 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="configurl"><title>What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
1594 "http://p.p/"?</title>
1596 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink> is the
1597 address of <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in user interface, and
1598 <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> is a shortcut for it.
1601 Since <application>Privoxy</application> sits between your web browser and the Internet,
1602 it can simply intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in
1603 <quote>web server</quote>.
1606 This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
1607 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1608 takes you to a page saying <quote>This is Privoxy ...</quote>, everything is OK.
1609 If you get a page saying <quote>Privoxy is not working</quote> instead, then
1610 your browser didn't use <application>Privoxy</application> for the request,
1611 hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <emphasis>real</emphasis>
1612 web site at config.privoxy.org.
1618 out of date 09/02/06 HB
1619 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blocklist"><title>Do you still maintain the blocklists?</title>
1621 No. The patterns for blocking now reside (among other things) in the <ulink
1622 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html">actions files</ulink>, which are
1623 actively maintained instead. See next question ...
1627 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads"><title>How can I submit new ads, or report
1630 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> for
1631 various ways to interact with the developers.
1636 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="newads2"><title>If I do submit missed ads, will
1637 they be included in future updates?</title>
1639 Whether such submissions are eventually included in the
1640 <filename>default.action</filename> configuration file depends on how
1641 significant the issue is. We of course want to address any potential
1642 problem with major, high-profile sites such as <citetitle>Google</citetitle>,
1643 <citetitle>Yahoo</citetitle>, etc. Any site with global or regional reach,
1644 has a good chance of being a candidate. But at the other end of the spectrum
1645 are any number of smaller, low-profile sites such as for local clubs or
1646 schools. Since their reach and impact are much less, they are best handled by
1647 inclusion in the user's <filename>user.action</filename>, and thus would be
1648 unlikely to be included.
1654 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="noonecares"><title>Why doesn't anyone answer my support
1657 Rest assured that it has been read and considered. Why it is not answered,
1658 could be for various reasons, including no one has a good answer for it, no
1659 one has had time to yet investigate it thoroughly, it has been reported
1660 numerous times already, or because not enough information was provided to help
1661 us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.
1667 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ip"><title>How can I hide my IP address?</title>
1669 If you run both the browser and &my-app; locally, you cannot hide your IP
1670 address with <application>Privoxy</application> or ultimately any other
1671 software alone. The server needs to know your IP address so that it knows
1672 where to send the responses back.
1675 There are many publicly usable "anonymous" proxies out there, which
1676 provide a further level of indirection between you and the web server.
1679 However, these proxies are called "anonymous" because you don't need
1680 to authenticate, not because they would offer any real anonymity.
1681 Most of them will log your IP address and make it available to the
1682 authorities in case you violate the law of the country they run in. In fact
1683 you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
1684 on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.
1687 If you want to hide your IP address from most adversaries,
1688 you should consider chaining <application>Privoxy</application>
1689 with <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</ulink>.
1690 The configuration details can be found in
1691 <ulink url="#TOR">How do I use <application>Privoxy</application> together
1692 with <application>Tor</application> section</ulink>
1697 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1698 <title id="anonforsure">Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?</title>
1700 No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are improved, but unless you
1701 <ulink url="#TOR">chain <application>Privoxy</application> with <application>Tor</application></ulink>
1702 or a similar proxy and know what you're doing when it comes to configuring
1703 the rest of your system, you should assume that everything you do
1704 on the Web can be traced back to you.
1707 <application>Privoxy</application> can remove various information about you,
1708 and allows <emphasis>you</emphasis> more freedom to decide which sites
1709 you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it neither
1710 hides your IP address, nor can it guarantee that the rest of the system
1711 behaves correctly. There are several possibilities how a web sites can find
1712 out who you are, even if you are using a strict <application>Privoxy</application>
1713 configuration and chained it with <application>Tor</application>.
1716 Most of <application>Privoxy's</application> privacy-enhancing features can be easily subverted
1717 by an insecure browser configuration, therefore you should use a browser that can
1718 be configured to only execute code from trusted sites, and be careful which sites you trust.
1719 For example there is no point in having <application>Privoxy</application>
1720 modify the User-Agent header, if websites can get all the information they want
1721 through JavaScript, ActiveX, Flash, Java etc.
1724 A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
1725 as when transferring a file by FTP. <application>Privoxy</application>
1726 does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
1727 mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
1728 consider products such as <application>NSClean</application>.
1731 Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
1732 out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
1733 agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
1734 that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
1735 source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
1741 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1742 <title id="proxytest">A test site says I am not using a Proxy.</title>
1744 Good! Actually, they are probably testing for some other kinds of proxies.
1745 Hiding yourself completely would require additional steps.
1749 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="tor"><title>How do I use Privoxy
1750 together with Tor?</title>
1752 Before you configure <application>Privoxy</application> to use
1753 <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</ulink>,
1754 please follow the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> chapters
1755 <ulink url="../user-manual/installation.html">2. Installation</ulink> and
1756 <ulink url="../user-manual/startup.html">5. Startup</ulink> to make sure
1757 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is setup correctly.
1760 If it is, refer to <ulink url="https://www.torproject.org/documentation.html">Tor's
1761 extensive documentation</ulink> to learn how to install <application>Tor</application>,
1762 and make sure <application>Tor</application>'s logfile says that
1763 <quote>Tor has successfully opened a circuit</quote> and it
1764 <quote>looks like client functionality is working</quote>.
1767 If either <application>Tor</application> or <application>Privoxy</application>
1768 isn't working, their combination most likely will neither. Testing them on their
1769 own will also help you to direct problem reports to the right audience.
1770 If <application>Privoxy</application> isn't working, don't bother the
1771 <application>Tor</application> developers. If <application>Tor</application>
1772 isn't working, don't send bug reports to the <application>Privoxy</application> Team.
1775 If you verified that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>Tor</application>
1776 are working, it is time to connect them. As far as <application>Privoxy</application>
1777 is concerned, <application>Tor</application> is just another proxy that can be reached
1778 by socks4, socks4a and socks5. Most likely you are interested in <application>Tor</application>
1779 to increase your anonymity level, therefore you should use socks5, to make sure DNS
1780 requests are done through <application>Tor</application> and thus invisible to your
1781 local network. Using socks4a would work too, but with socks5 you get more precise error
1786 <application>Privoxy's</application>
1787 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html">main configuration file</ulink>
1788 is already prepared for <application>Tor</application>, if you are using a
1789 default <application>Tor</application> configuration and run it on the same
1790 system as &my-app;, you just have to edit the
1791 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding section</ulink>
1792 and uncomment the line:
1796 # forward-socks5t / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
1800 This is enough to reach the Internet, but additionally you might want to
1801 uncomment the following forward rules, to make sure your local network is still
1802 reachable through Privoxy:
1806 # forward 192.168.*.*/ .
1807 # forward 10.*.*.*/ .
1808 # forward 127.*.*.*/ .
1812 Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will
1813 be as (un)secure as the local network is, but the alternative is
1814 that your browser can't reach the network at all. Then again,
1815 that may actually be desired and if you don't know for sure
1816 that your browser has to be able to reach the local network,
1817 there's no reason to allow it.
1820 If you want your browser to be able to reach servers in your local
1821 network by using their names, you will need additional exceptions
1822 that look like this:
1826 # forward localhost/ .
1830 Save the modified configuration file and open
1831 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1832 in your browser, confirm that <application>Privoxy</application> has reloaded its configuration
1833 and that there are no other forward lines, unless you know that you need them. If everything looks good,
1835 <ulink url="https://wiki.torproject.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ#IsMyConnectionPrivate">Tor
1836 Faq 4.2</ulink> to learn how to verify that you are really using <application>Tor</application>.
1839 Afterward, please take the time to at least skim through the rest
1840 of <application>Tor's</application> documentation. Make sure you understand
1841 what <application>Tor</application> does, why it is no replacement for
1842 application level security, and why you probably don't want to
1843 use it for unencrypted logins.
1847 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1848 <title id="sitebreak">Might some things break because header information or
1849 content is being altered?</title>
1852 Definitely. It is common for sites to use browser type, browser version,
1853 HTTP header content, and various other techniques in order to dynamically
1854 decide what to display and how to display it. What you see, and what I see,
1855 might be very different. There are many, many ways that this can be handled,
1856 so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.
1860 The <quote>User-Agent</quote> is sometimes used in this way to identify
1861 the browser, and adjust content accordingly.
1865 Also, different browsers use different encodings of non-English
1866 characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
1867 User Agent header. Giving a <quote>User Agent</quote> with the wrong
1868 operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
1869 to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
1870 something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
1871 <quote>Referer</quote> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
1872 weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
1873 <quote>Referer</quote> or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
1874 can forge both headers without giving information away). There are
1875 many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server. The
1876 results of which could inadvertently cause pages to load incorrectly,
1877 partially, or even not at all. And there may be no obvious clues as to just
1878 what went wrong, or why. Nowhere will there be a message that says
1879 <quote><emphasis>Turn off <literal>fast-redirects</literal> or else!</emphasis>
1884 Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree,
1889 If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
1890 accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
1891 be required, but by no means the only one.
1897 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1898 <title id="caching">Can Privoxy act as a <quote>caching</quote> proxy to
1899 speed up web browsing?</title>
1901 No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
1902 <ulink url="http://www.squid-cache.org/">Squid</ulink> or
1903 <ulink url="http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/polipo/">Polipo</ulink> for this.
1904 And, yes, before you ask, <application>Privoxy</application> can co-exist
1905 with other kinds of proxies like <application>Squid</application>.
1906 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING">forwarding
1907 chapter</ulink> in the <ulink url="../user-manual/index.html">user
1908 manual</ulink> for details.
1912 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1913 <title id="firewall">What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?</title>
1915 Not in the way you mean, or in the way some firewall vendors claim they can.
1916 <application>Privoxy</application> can help protect your privacy, but can't
1917 protect your system from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
1918 to use <emphasis>both</emphasis>.
1922 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1923 <title id="wasted">I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
1924 ads used to be. Why?</title>
1926 It is technically possible to eliminate banners and ads in a way that frees
1927 their allocated page space. This could easily be done by blocking with
1928 <application>Privoxy's</application> filters,
1929 and eliminating the <emphasis>entire</emphasis> image references from the
1933 But, this would consume considerably more CPU resources (IOW, slow things
1934 down), would likely destroy the layout of some web pages which rely on the
1935 banners utilizing a certain amount of page space, and might fail in other
1936 cases, where the screen space is reserved (e.g. by HTML tables for instance).
1937 Also, making ads and banners disappear without any trace complicates
1938 troubleshooting, and would sooner or later be problematic.
1941 The better alternative is to instead let them stay, and block the resulting
1942 requests for the banners themselves as is now the case. This leaves either
1943 empty space, or the familiar checkerboard pattern.
1946 So the developers won't support this in the default configuration, but you
1947 can of course define appropriate filters yourself to achieve this.
1951 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1952 <title id="ssl">How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</title>
1954 Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
1955 and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably <emphasis>secure</emphasis>,
1956 there is little that <application>Privoxy</application> can do but hand the raw
1957 gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed.
1960 The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs
1961 to tell <application>Privoxy</application> the name of the remote server,
1962 so that <application>Privoxy</application> can establish the connection.
1963 If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.
1966 As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
1967 seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often
1968 the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless
1969 for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
1970 <application>Privoxy</application>'s ad blocking.
1973 <quote>Content cookies</quote> (those that are embedded in the actual HTML or
1974 JS page content, see <literal><ulink
1975 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</ulink></literal>),
1976 in an SSL transaction will be impossible to block under these conditions.
1977 Fortunately, this does not seem to be a very common scenario since most
1978 cookies come by traditional means.
1983 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
1984 <title id="secure">Privoxy runs as a <quote>server</quote>. How
1985 secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</title>
1987 On Unix-like systems, <application>Privoxy</application> can run as a non-privileged
1988 user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
1989 <application>Privoxy</application> listens to requests from <quote>localhost</quote>
1993 The server aspect of <application>Privoxy</application> is not itself directly
1994 exposed to the Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
1995 <application>Privoxy</application> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
1996 be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
1997 you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
1998 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration file and check all <ulink
1999 url="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL">access control and security
2000 options</ulink>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address
2001 in the browser proxy configuration, but <application>Privoxy</application>
2002 will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in addition,
2003 and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.
2008 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff">
2009 <title>Can I temporarily disable Privoxy?</title>
2011 &my-app; doesn't have a transparent proxy mode,
2012 but you can toggle off blocking and content filtering.
2015 The easiest way to do that is to point your browser
2016 to the remote toggle URL: <ulink
2017 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>.
2020 See the <ulink url="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS">Bookmarklets section</ulink>
2021 of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> for an easy way to access this
2022 feature. Note that this is a feature that may need to be enabled in the main
2023 <filename>config</filename> file.
2028 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="reallyoff">
2029 <title>When <quote>disabled</quote> is Privoxy totally
2030 out of the picture?</title>
2032 No, this just means all optional filtering and actions are disabled.
2033 <application>Privoxy</application> is still acting as a proxy, but just
2034 doing less of the things that <application>Privoxy</application> would
2035 normally be expected to do. It is still a <quote>middle-man</quote> in
2036 the interaction between your browser and web sites. See below to bypass
2041 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="turnoff2">
2042 <title>How can I tell Privoxy to totally ignore certain sites?</title>
2044 Bypassing a proxy, or proxying based on arbitrary criteria, is purely a browser
2045 configuration issue, not a &my-app; issue. Modern browsers typically do have
2046 settings for not proxying certain sites. Check your browser's help files.
2051 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="crunch">
2052 <title>My logs show Privoxy <quote>crunches</quote>
2053 ads, but also its own internal CGI pages. What is a <quote>crunch</quote>?</title>
2055 A <quote>crunch</quote> simply means <application>Privoxy</application> intercepted
2056 <emphasis>something</emphasis>, nothing more. Often this is indeed ads or
2057 banners, but <application>Privoxy</application> uses the same mechanism for
2058 trapping requests for its own internal pages. For instance, a request for
2059 <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration page at: <ulink
2060 url="http://config.privoxy.org">http://config.privoxy.org</ulink>, is
2061 intercepted (i.e. it does not go out to the 'net), and the familiar CGI
2062 configuration is returned to the browser, and the log consequently will show
2063 a <quote>crunch</quote>.
2066 Since version 3.0.7, Privoxy will also log the crunch reason.
2067 If you are using an older version you might want to upgrade.
2071 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads">
2072 <title>Can Privoxy effect files that I download
2073 from a webserver? FTP server?</title>
2075 From the webserver's perspective, there is no difference between
2076 viewing a document (i.e. a page), and downloading a file. The same is true of
2077 <application>Privoxy</application>. If there is a match for a <literal><ulink
2078 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink></literal> pattern,
2079 it will still be blocked, and of course this is obvious.
2082 Filtering is potentially more of a concern since the results are not always
2083 so obvious, and the effects of filtering are there whether the file is simply
2084 viewed, or downloaded. And potentially whether the content is some obnoxious
2085 advertisement, or Mr. Jimmy's latest/greatest source code jewel. Of course,
2086 one of these presumably is <quote>bad</quote> content that we don't want, and
2087 the other is <quote>good</quote> content that we do want.
2088 <application>Privoxy</application> is blind to the differences, and can only
2089 distinguish <quote>good from bad</quote> by the configuration parameters
2090 <emphasis>we</emphasis> give it.
2093 <application>Privoxy</application> knows the differences in files according
2094 to the <quote>Content Type</quote> as reported by the webserver. If this is
2095 reported accurately (e.g. <quote>application/zip</quote> for a zip archive),
2096 then <application>Privoxy</application> knows to ignore these where
2097 appropriate. <application>Privoxy</application> potentially can filter HTML
2098 as well as plain text documents, subject to configuration parameters of
2099 course. Also, documents that are of an unknown type (generally assumed to be
2100 <quote>text/plain</quote>) can be filtered, as will those that might be
2101 incorrectly reported by the webserver. If such a file is a downloaded file
2102 that is intended to be saved to disk, then any content that might have been
2103 altered by filtering, will be saved too, for these (probably rare) cases.
2106 Note that versions later than 3.0.2 do NOT filter document types reported as
2107 <quote>text/plain</quote>. Prior to this, <application>Privoxy</application>
2108 did filter this document type.
2111 In short, filtering is <quote>ON</quote> if a) the content type as reported
2112 by the webserver is appropriate <emphasis>and</emphasis> b) the configuration
2113 allows it (or at least does not disallow it). That's it. There is no magic
2114 cookie anywhere to say this is <quote>good</quote> and this is
2115 <quote>bad</quote>. It's the configuration that lets it all happen or not.
2118 If you download text files, you probably do not want these to be filtered,
2119 particularly if the content is source code, or other critical content. Source
2120 code sometimes might be mistaken for Javascript (i.e. the kind that might
2121 open a pop-up window). It is recommended to turn off filtering for download
2122 sites (particularly if the content may be plain text files and you are using
2123 version 3.0.2 or earlier) in your <filename>user.action</filename> file. And
2124 also, for any site or page where making <emphasis>any</emphasis> changes at
2125 all to the content is to be avoided.
2128 <application>Privoxy</application> does not do FTP at all, only HTTP
2129 and HTTPS (SSL) protocols.
2133 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="downloads2">
2134 <title>I just downloaded a Perl script, and Privoxy
2135 altered it! Yikes, what is wrong!</title>
2141 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="hostsfile">
2142 <title>Should I continue to use a <quote>HOSTS</quote> file for ad-blocking?</title>
2144 One time-tested technique to defeat common ads is to trick the local DNS
2145 system by giving a phony IP address for the ad generator in the local
2146 <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, typically using <literal>127.0.0.1</literal>, aka
2147 <literal>localhost</literal>. This effectively blocks the ad.
2150 There is no reason to use this technique in conjunction with
2151 <application>Privoxy</application>. <application>Privoxy</application>
2152 does essentially the same thing, much more elegantly and with much more
2153 flexibility. A large <filename>HOSTS</filename> file, in fact, not only
2154 duplicates effort, but may get in the way and seriously slow down your system.
2155 It is recommended to remove such entries from your <filename>HOSTS</filename> file. If you think
2156 your hosts list is neglected by <application>Privoxy's </application>
2157 configuration, consider adding your list to your <filename>user.action</filename> file:
2164 ads.galore.example.com
2165 etc.example.com</screen>
2169 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="seealso">
2170 <title>Where can I find more information about Privoxy
2171 and related issues?</title>
2172 <!-- Include seealso.sgml boilerplate: -->
2174 <!-- end boilerplate -->
2179 <ulink url="../user-manual/seealso.html">user-manual</ulink> for
2185 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="microsuck">
2186 <title>I've noticed that Privoxy changes <quote>Microsoft</quote> to
2187 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>! Why are you manipulating my browsing?</title>
2190 We're not. The text substitutions that you are seeing are disabled
2191 in the default configuration as shipped. You have either manually
2192 activated the <quote><literal>fun</literal></quote> filter which
2193 is clearly labeled <quote>Text replacements for subversive browsing
2194 fun!</quote> or you are using an older Privoxy version and have implicitly
2195 activated it by choosing the <quote>Advanced</quote> profile in the
2196 web-based editor. Please upgrade.
2200 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="valid">
2201 <title>Does Privoxy produce <quote>valid</quote> HTML (or XHTML)?</title>
2204 Privoxy generates HTML in both its own <quote>templates</quote>, and possibly
2205 whenever there are text substitutions via a &my-app; filter. While this
2206 should always conform to the HTML 4.01 specifications, it has not been
2207 validated against this or any other standard.
2211 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="surprise-privoxy">
2212 <title>How did you manage to get Privoxy on my computer without my consent?</title>
2215 We didn't. We make Privoxy available for download, but we don't go
2216 around installing it on other people's systems behind their back.
2217 If you discover Privoxy running on your system and are sure you didn't
2218 install it yourself, somebody else did. You may not even be running
2219 the real Privoxy, but maybe something else that only pretends to be
2220 Privoxy, or maybe something that is based on the real Privoxy,
2221 but has been modified.
2224 Lately there have been reports of problems with some kind of
2225 Privoxy versions that come preinstalled on some Netbooks.
2226 Some of the problems described are inconsistent with the behaviour
2227 of official Privoxy versions, which suggests that the preinstalled
2228 software may contain vendor modifications that we don't know about
2229 and thus can't debug.
2232 Privoxy's <link linkend="copyright">license</link> allows vendor
2233 modifications, but the vendor has to comply with the license,
2234 which involves informing the user about the changes and to make
2235 the changes available under the same license as Privoxy itself.
2238 If you are having trouble with a modified Privoxy version,
2239 please try to talk to whoever made the modifications before
2240 reporting the problem to us. Please also try to convince
2241 whoever made the modifications to talk to us. If you think
2242 somebody gave you a modified Privoxy version without complying
2243 to the license, please let us know.
2251 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2253 <sect1 id="trouble">
2254 <title>Troubleshooting</title>
2256 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
2257 <title id="refused">I cannot connect to any websites. Or, I am getting
2258 <quote>connection refused</quote> message with every web page. Why?</title>
2260 There are several possibilities:
2265 <application>Privoxy</application> is not running. Solution: verify
2266 that &my-app; is installed correctly, has not crashed, and is indeed running.
2267 Turn on <application>Privoxy's</application> logging, and look at the logs to see what they say.
2269 <listitem><para>Or your browser is configured for a different port than what
2270 <application>Privoxy</application> is using. Solution: verify that &my-app;
2271 and your browser are set to the same port (<literal>listen-address</literal>).
2273 <listitem><para>Or if using a forwarding rule, you have a configuration problem or a
2274 problem with a host in the forwarding chain. Solution: temporarily alter your
2275 configuration and take the forwarders out of the equation.
2278 Or you have a firewall that is interfering and blocking you. Solution:
2279 try disabling or removing the firewall as a simple test.
2286 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2287 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="error503">
2288 <title>Why am I getting a 503 Error (WSAECONNREFUSED) on every page?</title>
2290 More than likely this is a problem with your TCP/IP networking. ZoneAlarm has
2291 been reported to cause this symptom -- even if not running! The solution is
2292 to either fight the ZA configuration, or uninstall ZoneAlarm, and then find
2293 something better behaved in its place. Other personal firewall type products
2294 may cause similar type problems if not configured correctly.
2298 <sect2 renderas="sect3">
2299 <title id="flushit">I just added a new rule, but the steenkin ad is
2300 still getting through. How?</title>
2302 If the ad had been displayed before you added its URL, it will probably be
2303 held in the browser's cache for some time, so it will be displayed without
2304 the need for any request to the server, and <application>Privoxy</application>
2305 will not be involved. Flush the browser's caches, and then try again.
2309 If this doesn't help, you probably have an error in the rule you
2310 applied. Try pasting the full URL of the offending ad into <ulink
2311 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
2312 and see if it really matches your new rule. Blocking ads is like blocking
2313 spam: a lot of tinkering is required to stay ahead of the game. And
2314 remember you need to block the URL of the ad in question, which may be
2315 entirely different from the site URL itself. Most ads are hosted on different
2316 servers than the main site itself. If you right-click on the ad, you should
2317 be able to get all the relevant information you need. Alternately, you can
2318 find the correct URL by looking at <application>Privoxy's</application> logs
2319 (you may need to enable logging in the main config file if its disabled).
2322 Below is a slightly modified real-life log snippet that originates with one
2323 requested URL: <literal>www.example.com</literal> (name of site was changed
2324 for this example, the number of requests is real). You can see in this the
2325 complexity of what goes into making up this one <quote>page</quote>. There
2326 are eight different domains involved here, with thirty two separate URLs
2327 requested in all, making up all manner of images, Shockwave Flash,
2328 JavaScript, CSS stylesheets, scripts, and other related content. Some of this
2329 content is obviously <quote>good</quote> or <quote>bad</quote>, but not all.
2330 Many of the more questionable looking requests, are going to outside domains
2331 that seem to be identifying themselves with suspicious looking names, making
2332 our job a little easier. &my-app; has <quote>crunched</quote> (meaning caught
2333 and BLOCKED) quite a few items in this example, but perhaps missed a few as well.
2338 Request: www.example.com/
2339 Request: www.example.com/favicon.ico
2340 Request: img.example.com/main.css
2341 Request: img.example.com/sr.js
2342 Request: example.betamarker.com/example.html
2343 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/bestsellers/skyscraper.php?likref=BSellers
2344 Request: img.example.com/pb.png
2345 Request: www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js crunch! (Blocked)
2346 Request: www.advertising-department.com/ats/switch.ps.php?26856 crunch! (Blocked)
2347 Request: img.example.com/p.gif
2348 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example&mode=behind crunch! (Blocked)
2349 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=5c3cf&tmpl=PBa.tmpl crunch! (Blocked)
2350 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/assign.php?l=example crunch! (Blocked)
2351 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/best_sellers.css
2352 Request: www.adtrak.net/adx.js crunch! (Blocked)
2353 Request: img.example.com/hbg.gif
2354 Request: img.example.com/example.jpg
2355 Request: img.example.com/mt.png
2356 Request: img.example.com/mm.png
2357 Request: img.example.com/mb.png
2358 Request: www.popuptraffic.com/scripts/popup.php?hid=a71b91fa5&tmpl=Ua.tmp crunch! (Blocked)
2359 Request: www.example.com/tracker.js
2360 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/lsi_head.gif
2361 Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=020548130&what=zone:61 crunch! (Blocked)
2362 Request: www.adtrak.net/adjs.php?n=463594413&what=zone:58&source=Ua crunch! (Blocked)
2363 Request: www.lik-sang.com/Banners/best_sellers/bottomani.swf
2364 Request: mmm.elitemediagroup.net/install.php?allowpop=no&popupmincook=0&allowsp2=1 crunch! (Blocked)
2365 Request: www.example.com/tracker.js?screen=1400x1050&win=962x693
2366 Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=61 crunch! (Blocked)
2367 Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=5c3cf599a9efd0320d26&si
2368 Request: 66.70.21.80/img/pixel.gif
2369 Request: www.adtrak.net/adlog.php?bannerid=1309&clientid=439&zoneid=58&source=Ua&block=86400 crunch! (Blocked)
2370 Request: 66.70.21.80/scripts/click.php?hid=a71b9f6504b0c5681fa5&si=Ua
2375 Despite 12 out of 32 requests being blocked, the page looked, and seemed to
2376 behave perfectly <quote>normal</quote> (minus some ads, of course).
2381 <sect2 id="badsite" renderas="sect3">
2382 <title >One of my favorite sites does not work with Privoxy.
2383 What can I do?</title>
2386 First verify that it is indeed a <application>Privoxy</application> problem,
2387 by toggling off <application>Privoxy</application> through <ulink
2388 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
2389 (the toggle feature may need to be enabled in the main
2390 <filename>config</filename>),
2391 and then shift-reloading the problem page (i.e. holding down the shift key
2392 while clicking reload. Alternatively, flush your browser's disk and memory
2397 If the problem went away, we know we have a configuration related problem.
2399 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
2400 and paste the full URL of the page in question into the prompt. See which
2401 actions are being applied to the URL, and which matches in which actions
2402 files are responsible for that. It might be helpful also to look at your logs
2403 for this site too, to see what else might be happening (note: logging may need
2404 to be enabled in the main config file). Many sites are
2405 complex and require a number of related pages to help present their content.
2406 Look at what else might be used by the page in question, and what of that
2407 might be <emphasis>required</emphasis>.
2408 Now, armed with this information, go to
2410 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2411 and select the appropriate actions files for editing. </para>
2413 You can now either look for a section which disables the actions that
2414 you suspect to cause the problem and add a pattern for your site there,
2415 or make up a completely new section for your site. In any case, the recommended
2416 way is to disable only the prime suspect, reload the problem page, and only
2417 if the problem persists, disable more and more actions until you have
2418 identified the culprit. You may or may not want to turn the other actions
2419 on again. Remember to flush your browser's caches in between any such changes!
2422 Alternately, if you are comfortable with a text editor, you can accomplish
2423 the same thing by editing the appropriate actions file. Probably the easiest
2424 way to deal with such problems when editing by hand is to add your
2425 site to a <literal>{ fragile }</literal> section in <filename>user.action</filename>,
2426 which is an alias that turns off most <quote>dangerous</quote>
2427 actions, but is also likely to turn off more actions then needed, and thus lower
2428 your privacy and protection more than necessary,
2431 Troubleshooting actions is discussed in more detail in the <ulink
2432 url="../user-manual/appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">User Manual appendix,
2433 Troubleshooting: the Anatomy of an Action</ulink>.
2434 There is also an <ulink
2435 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#ACT-EXAMPLES">actions tutorial</ulink>
2436 with general configuration information and examples.
2439 As a last resort, you can always see if your browser has a setting that will
2440 bypass the proxy setting for selective sites. Modern browsers can do this.
2446 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2447 <sect2 id="dun" renderas="sect3">
2448 <title>After installing Privoxy, I have to log in
2449 every time I start IE. What gives?</title>
2452 This is a quirk that effects the installation of
2453 <application>Privoxy</application>, in conjunction with Internet Explorer and
2454 Internet Connection Sharing on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The symptoms may
2455 appear to be corrupted or invalid DUN settings, or passwords.
2459 When setting up an NT based Windows system with
2460 <application>Privoxy</application> you may find that things do not seem to be
2461 doing what you expect. When you set your system up you will probably have set
2462 up Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with Dial up Networking (DUN) when
2463 logged in with administrator privileges. You will probably have made this DUN
2464 connection available to other accounts that you may have set-up on your
2465 system. E.g. Mum or Dad sets up the system and makes accounts suitably
2466 configured for the kids.
2470 When setting up <application>Privoxy</application> in this environment you
2471 will have to alter the proxy set-up of Internet Explorer (IE) for the
2472 specific DUN connection on which you wish to use
2473 <application>Privoxy</application>. When you do this the ICS DUN set-up
2474 becomes user specific. In this instance you will see no difference if you
2475 change the DUN connection under the account used to set-up the connection.
2476 However when you do this from another user you will notice that the DUN
2477 connection changes to make available to "Me only". You will also find that
2478 you have to store the password under each different user!
2482 The reason for this is that each user's set-up for IE is user specific. Each
2483 set-up DUN connection and each LAN connection in IE store the settings for
2484 each user individually. As such this enforces individual configurations
2485 rather than common ones. Hence the first time you use a DUN connection after
2486 re-booting your system it may not perform as you expect, and prompt you for
2487 the password. Just set and save the password again and all should be OK.
2491 [Thanks to Ray Griffith for this submission.]
2496 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2497 <sect2 id="ftp" renderas="sect3">
2498 <title>I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy
2499 is blocking me.</title>
2501 <application>Privoxy</application> cannot act as a proxy for FTP traffic,
2502 so do not configure your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application>
2503 as an FTP proxy. The same is true for <emphasis>any protocol other than HTTP
2504 or HTTPS (SSL)</emphasis>.
2507 Most browsers understand FTP as well as HTTP. If you connect to a site, with
2508 a URL like <literal>ftp://ftp.example.com</literal>, your browser is making
2509 an FTP connection, and not a HTTP connection. So while your browser may
2510 speak FTP, <application>Privoxy</application> does not, and cannot proxy
2514 To complicate matters, some systems may have a generic <quote>proxy</quote>
2515 setting, which will enable various protocols, including
2516 <emphasis>both</emphasis> HTTP and FTP proxying! So it is possible to
2517 accidentally enable FTP proxying in these cases. And of course, if this
2518 happens, <application>Privoxy</application> will indeed cause problems since
2519 it does not know FTP. <![%p-newstuff;[Newer version will give a sane error
2520 message if a FTP connection is attempted.]]> Just disable the FTP setting
2521 and all will be well again.
2524 Will <application>Privoxy</application> ever proxy FTP traffic? Unlikely.
2525 There just is not much reason, and the work to make this happen is more than
2530 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2531 <sect2 id="macosxie" renderas="sect3">
2532 <title>In Mac OS X, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
2533 Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.</title>
2535 Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide
2536 network settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System
2537 Preferences, and click on the Network icon. In the settings pane that
2538 comes up, click on the Proxies tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox
2539 is checked and enter <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> in the entry field.
2540 Enter <literal>8118</literal> in the Port field. The next time you start
2541 IE, it should reflect these values.
2545 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2546 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosxuninstall">
2547 <title>In Mac OS X, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
2548 uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
2549 empty the trash.</title>
2551 Note: This ONLY applies to privoxy 3.0.6 and earlier.
2554 Just dragging the <application>Privoxy</application> folder to the trash is
2555 not enough to delete it. <application>Privoxy</application> supplies an
2556 <application>uninstall.command</application> file that takes care of
2557 these details. Open the trash, drag the <application>uninstall.command</application>
2558 file out of the trash and double-click on it. You will be prompted for
2559 confirmation and the administration password.
2562 The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash
2563 from the desktop should make it appear empty again.
2567 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2568 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosximages">
2569 <title>In Mac OS X Panther (10.3), images often fail to load and/or I
2570 experience random delays in page loading. I'm using
2571 <literal>localhost</literal> as my browser's proxy setting.</title>
2573 We believe this is due to an IPv6-related bug in Mac OS X, but don't fully
2574 understand the issue yet. In any case, changing the proxy setting to
2575 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> instead of <literal>localhost</literal>
2576 works around the problem.
2580 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2581 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="macosxaccountdeletion">
2582 <title>I just upgraded to Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and now &my-app; has stopped
2585 The upgrade process to Mac OS X Mavericks (10.9) from an earlier version of OS
2586 X deletes all user accounts that are either not part of OS X itself or are
2587 not interactive user accounts (ones you log in with). Since, for the sake of
2588 security, &my-app; runs as a non-privileged user that is created by its
2589 installer (_privoxy), it can no longer start up once that account gets deleted.
2590 The solution is to perform a complete uninstall using the supplied
2591 <application>uninstall.command</application> script (either back up your
2592 configuration files or select to not have the uninstaller remove them when it
2593 prompts you) and then reinstall &my-app; using the installer package and merge
2594 in your configuration.
2598 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2599 <!-- XXX: Is this still relevant now that we have gzip support? -->
2600 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="blankpage">
2601 <title>I get a completely blank page at one site. <quote>View Source</quote>
2602 shows only: <markup><![CDATA[<html><body></body></html>]]></markup>. Without
2603 Privoxy the page loads fine.</title>
2605 Chances are that the site suffers from a bug in
2606 <ulink url="http://www.php.net/"><application>PHP</application></ulink>,
2607 which results in empty pages being sent if the client explicitly requests
2608 an uncompressed page, like <application>Privoxy</application> does.
2609 This bug has been fixed in PHP 4.2.3.
2612 To find out if this is in fact the source of the problem, try adding
2613 the site to a <literal>-prevent-compression</literal> section in
2614 <filename>user.action</filename>:
2617 # Make exceptions for ill-behaved sites:
2619 {-prevent-compression}
2620 .example.com</screen>
2622 If that works, you may also want to report the problem to the
2623 site's webmasters, telling them to use zlib.output_compression
2624 instead of ob_gzhandler in their PHP applications (workaround)
2625 or upgrade to PHP 4.2.3 or later (fix).
2629 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="nohostname">
2630 <title>My logs show many <quote>Unable to get my own hostname</quote> lines.
2633 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to get the hostname of the system
2634 its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to
2635 (from the <filename>config</filename> file
2636 <emphasis>listen-address</emphasis> setting). If the system cannot supply
2637 this information, <application>Privoxy</application> logs this condition.
2640 Typically, this would be considered a minor system configuration error. It is
2641 not a fatal error to <application>Privoxy</application> however, but may
2642 result in a much slower response from <application>Privoxy</application> on
2643 some platforms due to DNS timeouts.
2646 This can be caused by a problem with the local <filename>hosts</filename>
2647 file. If this file has been changed from the original, try reverting it to
2648 see if that helps. Make sure whatever name(s) are used for the local system,
2649 that they resolve both ways.
2652 You should also be able to work around the problem with the
2653 <ulink url="../user-manual/config.html#HOSTNAME">hostname option</ulink>.
2657 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="inuse">
2658 <title>When I try to launch Privoxy, I get an
2659 error message <quote>port 8118 is already in use</quote> (or similar wording).
2662 Port 8118 is <application>Privoxy's</application> default TCP
2663 <quote>listening</quote> port. Typically this message would mean that there
2664 is already one instance of <application>Privoxy</application> running, and
2665 your system is actually trying to start a second
2666 <application>Privoxy</application> on the same port, which will not work.
2667 (You can have multiple instances but they must be assigned different ports.)
2668 How and why this might happen varies from platform to platform, but you need
2669 to check your installation and start-up procedures.
2673 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer">
2675 Pages with UTF-8 fonts are garbled.
2678 This may be the result of an overly aggressive filter. The filters that
2679 are enabled in the default configuration aren't expected to cause problems
2680 like this. If you enabled the <quote>demoronizer</quote> filter, please
2681 try temporarily disabling it.
2684 If that doesn't help, temporarily disable all filters to see if another
2685 filter could be the culprit. If the problem disappears, enable the filters
2686 one by one, until the problem reappears and the offending filter is found.
2689 Once the problem-causing filter is known, it can be fixed or disabled.
2692 Upgrading <application>Privoxy</application>, or going to the most recent
2693 <filename>default.action</filename> file available from <ulink
2694 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">SourceForge</ulink>
2695 might be worth a try, too.
2699 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer2">
2701 Why are binary files (such as images) corrupted when Privoxy
2705 This may also be caused by an (<link linkend="DEMORONIZER">overly aggressive
2706 filter</link> in conjunction with a web server that is misreporting the content
2707 type. By default binary files are exempted from
2708 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering
2709 (unless the web server by mistake says the file is something else).
2713 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="demoronizer3">
2715 What is the <quote>demoronizer</quote> and why is it there?
2718 The original demoronizer was a Perl script that cleaned up HTML pages which
2719 were created with certain Microsoft products. MS has used proprietary extensions
2720 to standardized font encodings (ISO 8859-1), which has caused problems for pages
2721 that are viewed with non-Microsoft products (and are expecting to see a
2722 standard set of fonts). The demoronizer corrected these errors so the pages
2723 displayed correctly. <application>Privoxy</application> borrowed from this
2724 script, introducing a filter based on the original demoronizer, which in turn could
2725 correct these errors on the fly.
2728 But this is only needed in some situations, and will cause serious problems in some
2732 If you are using Microsoft products, you do not need it. If you need to view
2733 pages with UTF-8 characters (such as Cyrillic or Chinese), then it will
2734 cause corruption of the fonts, and thus <emphasis>should not be on</emphasis>.
2737 On the other hand, if you use non-Microsoft products, and you occasionally
2738 notice weird characters on pages, you might want to try it.
2742 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="windowopen">
2744 Why do I keep seeing <quote>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</quote> in raw source code?
2747 <application>Privoxy</application> is attempting to disable malicious
2748 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript">Javascript</ulink>
2749 in this case, with the <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal>
2750 filter. <application>Privoxy</application> cannot tell very well
2751 <quote>good</quote> code snippets from <quote>bad</quote> code snippets.
2754 If you see this in HTML source, and the page displays without problems, then
2755 this is good, and likely some pop-up window was disabled. If you see this
2756 where it is causing a problem, such as a downloaded program source code file,
2757 then you should set an exception for this site or page such that the
2758 integrity of the page stays in tact by disabling all filtering.
2762 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="dnserrors">
2764 I am getting too many DNS errors like <quote>404 No Such Domain</quote>. Why
2765 can't Privoxy do this better?
2768 There are potentially several factors here. First of all, the DNS resolution
2769 is done by the underlying operating system -- not
2770 <application>Privoxy</application> itself. <application>Privoxy</application>
2771 merely initiates the process and hands it off, and then later reports
2772 whatever the outcome was and tries to give a coherent message if there seems
2773 to be a problem. In some cases, this might otherwise be mitigated by the
2774 browser itself which might try some work-arounds and alternate approaches (e.g
2775 adding <quote>www.</quote> to the URL).
2778 In other cases, if <application>Privoxy</application> is being chained
2779 with another proxy, this could complicate the issue, and cause undue
2780 delays and timeouts. In the case of a <quote>socks4a</quote> proxy, the socks
2781 server handles all the DNS. <application>Privoxy</application> would just be
2782 the <quote>messenger</quote> which is reporting whatever problem occurred
2783 downstream, and not the root cause of the error.
2787 In any case, versions newer than 3.0.3 include various improvements to help
2788 <application>Privoxy</application> better handle these cases.
2792 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="allcpu">
2794 At one site Privoxy just hangs, and starts taking
2795 all CPU. Why is this?
2798 This is probably a manifestation of the <quote>100% cpu</quote> problem that
2799 occurs on pages containing many (thousands upon thousands) of blank lines. The blank lines
2800 are in the raw HTML source of the page, and the browser just ignores them. But the
2801 pattern matching in <application>Privoxy's</application> page filtering
2802 mechanism is trying to match against absurdly long strings and this becomes
2803 very CPU-intensive, taking a long, long time to complete.
2806 Until a better solution comes along, disable filtering on these pages,
2807 particularly the <literal>js-annoyances</literal> and
2808 <literal>unsolicited-popups</literal> filters. If you run into this problem
2809 with a recent &my-app; version, please send a problem report.
2813 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="slowcrawl">
2814 <title>I just installed Privoxy, and all my
2815 browsing has slowed to a crawl. What gives? </title>
2817 This should not happen, and for the overwhelming number of users world-wide,
2818 it does not happen. I would suspect some inadvertent interaction of software
2819 components such as anti-virus software, spyware protectors, personal
2820 firewalls or similar components. Try disabling (or uninstalling) these one
2821 at a time and see if that helps. Either way, if you are using a
2822 recent &my-app; version, please report the problem.
2826 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="preventcomp">
2827 <title>Why do my filters work on some sites but not on others? </title>
2829 It's probably due to compression. It is a common practice for web servers to
2830 send their content <quote>compressed</quote> in order to speed things up, and
2831 then let the browser <quote>uncompress</quote> them. When compiled with zlib support
2832 &my-app; can decompress content before filtering, otherwise you may want to enable
2834 url="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</ulink>.
2837 As of &my-app; 3.0.9, zlib support is enabled in the default builds.
2842 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="ssl-warnings">
2843 <title>On some HTTPS sites my browser warns me about unauthenticated content,
2844 the URL bar doesn't get highlighted and the lock symbol appears to be broken.
2845 What's going on?</title>
2847 Probably the browser is requesting ads through HTTPS and &my-app;
2848 is blocking the requests. Privoxy's error messages are delivered
2849 unencrypted and while it's obvious for the browser that the HTTPS
2850 request is already blocked by the proxy, some warn about unauthenticated
2854 To work around the problem you can redirect those requests to an invalid
2855 local address instead of blocking them. While the redirects aren't
2856 encrypted either, many browsers don't care. They simply follow the
2857 redirect, fail to reach a server and display an error message instead
2861 To do that, enable logging to figure out which requests get blocked by
2862 &my-app; and add the hosts (no path patterns) to a section like this:
2867 {+redirect{http://127.0.0.1:0/} -block -limit-connect}
2873 Additionally you have to configure your browser to contact
2874 <quote>127.0.0.1:0</quote> directly (instead of through &my-app;).
2877 To add a proxy exception in <application>Mozilla Firefox</application>
2878 open the <quote>Preferences</quote>, click the <quote>Settings</quote>
2879 button located on the <quote>Network</quote> tab in the <quote>Advanced</quote>
2880 section, and add <quote>127.0.0.1:0</quote> in the <quote>No Proxy for:</quote>
2886 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="se-linux">
2887 <title>I get selinux error messages. How can I fix this?</title>
2889 Please report the problem to the creator of your selinux policies.
2892 The problem is that some selinux policy writers aren't familiar
2893 with the application they are trying to <quote>secure</quote> and
2894 thus create policies that make no sense.
2897 In <application>Privoxy's</application> case the problem usually
2898 is that the policy only allows outgoing connections for certain
2899 destination ports (e.g. 80 and 443). While this may cover the
2900 standard ports, websites occasionally use other ports as well.
2901 This isn't a security problem and therefore <application>Privoxy's</application>
2902 default configuration doesn't block these requests.
2905 If you really want to block these ports (and don't be able
2906 to load websites that don't use standard ports), you should
2907 configure Privoxy to block these ports as well, so it doesn't
2908 trigger the selinux warnings.
2913 <sect2 renderas="sect3" id="gentoo-ricers">
2914 <title>I compiled &my-app; with Gentoo's portage and it appears to be very slow. Why?</title>
2916 Probably you unintentionally compiled &my-app; without threading support
2917 in which case requests have to be serialized and only one can be served
2921 Check your <quote>USE</quote> flags and make sure they include
2922 <quote>threads</quote>. If they don't, add the flag and rebuild &my-app;.
2925 If you compiled &my-app; with threading support (on POSIX-based systems),
2926 the <quote>Conditional #defines</quote> section on <ulink
2927 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2928 will list <quote>FEATURE_PTHREAD</quote> as <quote>enabled</quote>.
2935 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2936 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests</title>
2937 <!-- Include contacting.sgml -->
2939 <!-- end contacting -->
2942 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2943 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
2945 <!-- Include copyright.sgml -->
2951 Portions of this document are <quote>borrowed</quote> from the original
2952 <application>Junkbuster</application> (tm) FAQ, and modified as
2953 appropriate for <application>Privoxy</application>.
2956 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2957 <sect2><title>License</title>
2958 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
2960 <!-- end copyright -->
2962 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2964 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2965 <sect2><title>History</title>
2966 <!-- Include history.sgml -->
2972 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2975 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2977 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See also</title>
2979 <!-- Include seealso.sgml -->
2990 Tue 09/11/01 06:38:14 PM EST: Test SGML doc by Hal Burgiss.
2992 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
2993 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
2994 Public License as published by the Free Software
2995 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
2996 your option) any later version.
2998 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
2999 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
3000 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
3001 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
3002 License for more details.
3004 The GNU General Public License should be included with
3005 this file. If not, you can view it at
3006 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
3007 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
3008 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
3011 Revision 2.102 2014/10/06 10:20:09 fabiankeil
3012 Update the 'Would you like to donate?' section
3014 Mention that donations will be used to get TODO list
3015 items done and add the Zwiebelfreunde e.V. bank
3018 Revision 2.101 2014/05/26 10:48:39 fabiankeil
3019 Bump entities for 3.0.22 UNRELEASED
3021 Revision 2.100 2014/05/05 09:59:30 fabiankeil
3022 Recommend forward-socks5t when using Tor
3024 It seems to work fine and modifying the Tor configuration
3025 to profit from it hasn't been necessary for a while now.
3027 Revision 2.99 2014/02/10 14:43:46 fabiankeil
3028 Make 'demoronizer' FAQ entries more generic
3030 Revision 2.98 2013/12/16 11:20:14 fabiankeil
3031 Spell 'more reliably' more correctly
3033 Reported by Reuben Thomas in #3615276.
3035 Revision 2.97 2013/11/07 14:42:02 fabiankeil
3036 White-space adjustments for the previous commit
3038 Revision 2.96 2013/11/06 19:24:18 diem
3039 Added an entry for the _privoxy user account deletion issue when upgrading to OS X 10.9
3041 Revision 2.95 2013/11/06 16:28:58 fabiankeil
3042 Rephrase the 'Why is the configuration so complicated?' answer
3044 .. to be slightly less condescending.
3046 Anonymously suggested in #3615122.
3048 Revision 2.94 2013/06/21 14:46:46 fabiankeil
3049 Link to the SPI homepage instead of the "About SPI" page which no longer exists
3051 Reported by Mark Nelson in #3614557.
3053 Revision 2.93 2013/06/21 14:46:09 fabiankeil
3054 Update link to the SF registration form
3056 Reported by Mark Nelson in #3614557.
3058 Revision 2.92 2013/03/01 17:44:24 fabiankeil
3059 Bump entities for 3.0.21 stable
3061 Revision 2.91 2013/02/26 15:09:35 fabiankeil
3062 Bump entities for 3.0.21 UNRELEASED
3064 Revision 2.90 2013/01/06 11:25:52 fabiankeil
3065 Set entities to 3.0.20 beta
3067 Revision 2.89 2012/06/19 12:49:48 fabiankeil
3068 Update Junkbuster-related FAQ sections
3070 Remove the dead links and use the past tense as
3071 the fork happened years ago.
3073 Revision 2.88 2012/04/22 12:16:24 fabiankeil
3074 Remove an obsolete newstuff marker
3076 Revision 2.87 2012/04/22 12:16:09 fabiankeil
3077 Fix an URL in the "Privoxy with Tor" FAQ
3079 Revision 2.86 2012/03/18 15:41:49 fabiankeil
3080 Bump entities to 3.0.20 UNRELEASED
3082 Revision 2.85 2011/12/26 17:05:40 fabiankeil
3083 Bump entities for 3.0.19
3085 Revision 2.84 2011/11/13 17:03:54 fabiankeil
3086 Bump entities for 3.0.18 stable
3088 Revision 2.83 2011/11/13 16:53:24 fabiankeil
3089 Rephrase the donations section some more
3091 Mention that the domain is now sponsored by Mythic Beasts Ltd
3092 and make it clear that asking questions about donations is
3095 Revision 2.82 2011/11/13 16:50:34 fabiankeil
3096 Note that donations for Privoxy are currently only tax-deductible in the US
3098 As it turns out tax-deductible donations in a few other western
3099 countries are theoretically possible through partner organizations
3100 but aren't available out of the box.
3102 Revision 2.81 2011/09/04 11:10:12 fabiankeil
3103 Ditch trailing whitespace
3105 Revision 2.80 2011/08/18 11:42:50 fabiankeil
3106 Bump some more documentation copyright ranges.
3108 Revision 2.79 2011/08/17 10:40:07 fabiankeil
3109 Update the entities.
3111 This commit is chronological out of order.
3113 Revision 2.78 2011/04/19 13:14:10 fabiankeil
3114 Fix spelling errors in the documentation. Found with codespell.
3116 Revision 2.77 2011/03/03 14:22:12 fabiankeil
3117 Remove duplicated 'the'
3119 Revision 2.76 2010/11/22 10:35:02 fabiankeil
3120 Mention socks5 in another part of the Tor section.
3122 Revision 2.75 2010/11/13 10:08:00 fabiankeil
3123 Fix a link to the 'intercepting' entry and add another one
3125 Revision 2.74 2010/11/13 10:07:46 fabiankeil
3126 Remove the product names in the 'otherproxy' entry's title.
3128 I'm tired of getting the 'otherproxy' entry as first hit
3129 when searching the index for the Tor FAQ.
3131 Revision 2.73 2010/11/06 12:55:48 fabiankeil
3132 Set p-version to 3.0.17
3134 Revision 2.72 2010/02/27 12:13:17 fabiankeil
3137 Revision 2.71 2010/02/27 12:12:13 fabiankeil
3138 Consistently recommending socks5 in the Tor entry and mention its advantage compared to socks4a.
3139 Reported by David in #2960129.
3141 Revision 2.70 2010/02/20 18:08:31 ler762
3144 Revision 2.69 2010/02/13 17:38:27 fabiankeil
3145 Update entities for 3.0.16 stable.
3147 Revision 2.68 2010/01/30 19:51:28 fabiankeil
3148 New FAQ entry: How did you manage to get Privoxy on my computer without my consent?
3150 Also bump copyright.
3152 Revision 2.67 2009/11/15 14:24:12 fabiankeil
3153 Prepare to generate docs for 3.0.16 UNRELEASED.
3155 Revision 2.66 2009/10/10 05:48:55 fabiankeil
3156 Prepare for 3.0.15 beta.
3158 Revision 2.65 2009/07/18 16:24:39 fabiankeil
3159 Bump entities for 3.0.14 beta.
3161 Revision 2.64 2009/07/18 12:18:52 fabiankeil
3162 Don't describe the action files in the FAQ when we can simply link to the description in the User Manual.
3164 Revision 2.63 2009/06/15 15:08:03 fabiankeil
3165 Patch #2806626 from Frédéric Crozat to fix a closing tag.
3167 Revision 2.62 2009/06/12 14:30:58 fabiankeil
3168 Update entities for 3.0.13 beta.
3170 Revision 2.61 2009/06/12 11:52:33 fabiankeil
3171 Mention the TODO list in the participate entry.
3173 Revision 2.60 2009/04/07 12:25:05 fabiankeil
3174 In the "I would like to help ..." entry:
3175 - Change the ids to more general ones as helping out doesn't require
3176 joining the team (and joining the team requires significantly helping
3178 - Add links to the subscription pages for the main mailing lists.
3180 Revision 2.59 2009/03/28 15:33:41 fabiankeil
3181 Recommend the use of forward-socks5 when forwarding to Tor.
3182 The error messages are more detailed than with forward-socks4a.
3184 Revision 2.58 2009/03/21 12:27:44 fabiankeil
3185 Turn the donation entry title into a question,
3186 also rephrase the content a bit.
3188 Revision 2.57 2009/03/19 19:07:49 fabiankeil
3189 First draft of a "Donating" entry. To be polished tomorrow.
3191 Revision 2.56 2009/02/19 17:05:05 fabiankeil
3192 Explain slowness when build with Gentoo's portage.
3194 Revision 2.55 2009/02/19 02:20:21 hal9
3195 Make some links in seealso conditional. Man page is now privoxy only links.
3197 Revision 2.54 2009/02/15 20:47:12 hal9
3200 Revision 2.53 2009/02/15 20:46:13 hal9
3201 Update Outlook HTML rendering engine comments re: Office 2007.
3203 Revision 2.52 2009/02/14 10:27:52 fabiankeil
3204 Finish last paragraph in the selinux entry which
3205 I unintentionally committed with the last commit.
3207 Revision 2.51 2009/02/12 16:08:26 fabiankeil
3208 Declare the code stable.
3210 Revision 2.50 2009/02/11 18:13:36 fabiankeil
3213 Revision 2.49 2009/02/10 16:30:20 fabiankeil
3214 Add a workaround for "unauthenticated content" warnings on HTTPS sites.
3216 Revision 2.48 2009/01/13 16:50:35 fabiankeil
3217 The standard.action file is gone.
3219 Revision 2.47 2008/11/24 18:29:39 fabiankeil
3220 Two changes suggested by Roger Dingledine:
3221 - Use https://www.torproject.org/ in section 4.7, too.
3222 - Replace the Tor wiki URL in section 4.10 with one
3223 with a more useful anchor name.
3225 Revision 2.46 2008/08/30 15:37:35 fabiankeil
3228 Revision 2.45 2008/08/16 08:51:28 fabiankeil
3229 Update version-related entities.
3231 Revision 2.44 2008/06/19 01:41:36 hal9
3232 Add short note about zlib being enabled in 3.0.9
3234 Revision 2.43 2008/06/14 13:21:25 fabiankeil
3235 Prepare for the upcoming 3.0.9 beta release.
3237 Revision 2.42 2008/06/07 13:11:15 fabiankeil
3238 - Note that the "100% cpu problem" is worth
3239 reporting if it happens with a recent release.
3240 - Mention the hostname option as a workaround for
3241 the "can't get my own hostname" issue.
3242 - The profile formerly known as "Adventuresome"
3243 is called "Advanced" now.
3244 - Some white-space fixes.
3246 Revision 2.41 2008/06/06 15:32:09 fabiankeil
3248 - Don't claim that all the old Junkbuster features remain.
3249 Some of them have been removed or replaced with better ones.
3251 Revision 2.40 2008/02/22 05:54:27 markm68k
3252 updates for mac os x
3254 Revision 2.39 2008/02/03 21:37:41 hal9
3255 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
3257 Revision 2.38 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
3258 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
3260 Revision 2.37 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
3261 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
3263 Revision 2.36 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
3264 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
3267 Revision 2.35 2007/11/19 17:57:59 fabiankeil
3268 A bunch of rewordings, minor updates and fixes.
3270 Revision 2.34 2007/11/19 02:38:11 hal9
3271 Minor revisions and rebuild
3273 Revision 2.33 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
3274 Results of spell check.
3276 Revision 2.32 2007/11/13 03:03:42 hal9
3277 Various changes to reflect new features and revised configuration for the
3280 Revision 2.31 2007/11/05 02:34:53 hal9
3281 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
3283 Revision 2.30 2007/11/04 15:16:40 hal9
3286 Revision 2.29 2007/11/04 15:12:47 hal9
3287 Various minor adjustments.
3289 Revision 2.28 2007/10/27 15:14:16 fabiankeil
3290 Change Tor links to use the new domain torproject.org.
3292 Revision 2.27 2007/10/22 19:47:05 fabiankeil
3293 - Bump version and copyright.
3294 - Adjust Tor section to make it clear that forward exceptions
3295 aren't required and may not even be desired.
3296 - A bunch of other minor rewordings.
3297 - Fix markup problems Roland noticed (hopefully without adding new ones).
3299 Revision 2.26 2007/08/05 15:37:55 fabiankeil
3300 - Don't claim that thousands of people read our code.
3301 - Specify the GPL version and link to GPLv2 instead of v3.
3302 - Note that configuration syntax may change between releases.
3303 - Mention zlib support.
3304 - Answer the "transparent proxy" question properly.
3305 - Add "intercepting proxy" entry.
3307 - Rephrase some other sentences for various reasons.
3309 Revision 2.25 2007/07/18 11:00:34 hal9
3310 Add misc note about valid mark-up in Privoxy.
3312 Revision 2.24 2006/11/14 01:57:46 hal9
3313 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
3316 Revision 2.23 2006/10/21 22:19:52 hal9
3317 Two new FAQs, a rewrite or two, and some touch ups.
3319 Revision 2.22 2006/10/14 20:33:10 hal9
3320 Three new FAQ's re: templates and blocking, and various minor touch-ups/improvements.
3322 Revision 2.21 2006/10/03 14:40:51 fabiankeil
3323 Added links from the Tor faq to the
3324 configuration chapter in the User Manual.
3326 Revision 2.20 2006/09/26 10:12:37 fabiankeil
3329 Revision 2.19 2006/09/22 10:54:32 hal9
3330 Change references to 3.0.4 to 3.0.5 and minor adjustments.
3332 Revision 2.18 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
3333 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
3334 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
3336 Revision 2.17 2006/09/17 14:56:32 hal9
3337 This includes yet several more new FAQs, some improved wording, enhanced
3338 mark-up, various hyper links to wikipedia to explain key terminology to the
3339 uninitiated, etc. This is ready for release IMO pending final tagging of cvs
3340 and Privoxy version stamping.
3342 Revision 2.16 2006/09/10 15:30:46 hal9
3345 Revision 2.15 2006/09/08 23:05:07 hal9
3346 Fix broken links. Add faq on hosts files. Move most of new windows service
3347 feature to user manual and reference in faq. Various other small changes.
3349 Revision 2.14 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
3350 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
3352 Revision 2.13 2006/09/04 19:20:33 fabiankeil
3353 Adjusted anonymity related sections to match reality.
3354 Added a section about using Privoxy with Tor.
3356 Revision 2.12 2006/09/03 14:15:30 hal9
3357 Various updates, including 7 or 8 new FAQs, and updates/changes to various
3358 other ones to better reflect improvements, additions and changes for the
3359 upcoming release. This is close to final form for 3.0.4 IMHO.
3361 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:50 david__schmidt
3362 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
3363 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
3365 Revision 1.61.2.41 2004/04/05 13:44:05 oes
3366 Fixed allow-all-cookies alias name; closes SR #929746
3368 Revision 1.61.2.40 2004/01/30 17:00:33 oes
3369 Added Mac OS X Panther problem
3371 Revision 1.61.2.39 2004/01/29 22:53:08 hal9
3372 Minor changes for exempting docs of text/plain. Change copyright date.
3374 Revision 1.61.2.38 2003/12/10 03:39:45 hal9
3375 Added FAQs for: demoronizer, related problems and why its included. Also,
3376 port 8118 already in use questions, and PrivoxyWindowOpen() questions. All in
3377 troubleshooting section.
3379 Revision 1.61.2.37 2003/10/17 11:01:50 oes
3380 Added Q&A for "not being used" page problem
3382 Revision 1.61.2.36 2003/06/26 23:49:20 hal9
3383 More on the filter/source code problem.
3385 Revision 1.61.2.35 2003/06/26 13:38:08 hal9
3386 Add FAQ on whether configuring Privoxy is necessary or not.
3388 Revision 1.61.2.34 2003/06/26 03:00:03 hal9
3389 Sorry, found another copyright date.
3391 Revision 1.61.2.33 2003/06/26 02:57:05 hal9
3392 Fix typo (finally!) and very minor modifications.
3394 Revision 1.61.2.32 2003/06/26 02:52:04 hal9
3397 Revision 1.61.2.31 2003/06/25 01:27:51 hal9
3398 Fix copyright, and a few nits.
3400 Revision 1.61.2.30 2003/06/25 01:13:52 hal9
3403 - FAQ on "Unable to get my own hostname"
3404 - Another one on filtering effects on text files.
3406 Revision 1.61.2.29 2003/06/15 21:32:58 hal9
3407 Add to the 4.17 (filtering effects on downloaded files).
3409 Revision 1.61.2.28 2003/03/18 19:37:21 oes
3410 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
3412 Revision 1.61.2.27 2002/12/01 06:31:58 hal9
3413 Add faq on win32 error 503 due to ZoneAlarm.
3415 Revision 1.61.2.26 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
3416 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
3419 Revision 1.61.2.25 2002/10/29 03:21:50 hal9
3420 Add 3 Q/A's relating to HTML in email. Other minor touchups.
3422 Revision 1.61.2.24 2002/10/15 12:50:22 oes
3423 s/Advanced/Radical/ (stupid me)
3425 Revision 1.61.2.23 2002/10/15 12:38:56 oes
3426 Added Microsuck faq; more detail for PHP problem
3428 Revision 1.61.2.22 2002/10/12 01:13:13 hal9
3429 Updates for demoronizer, more commentary on Radical profile, and update on
3430 the srvany.exe/icon fix.
3432 Revision 1.61.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
3433 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
3435 Revision 1.61.2.20 2002/09/26 01:22:45 hal9
3436 Small additions for LAN setup, content-cookies/SSL, and FTP non-support.
3438 Revision 1.61.2.19 2002/08/25 23:31:56 hal9
3439 Fix one grammatical error. Add brief FAQ relating to tranparent proxies (ie
3440 port 80 setting). Add FAQ on effects of Privoxy on downloaded files
3441 (especially filtering).
3443 Revision 1.61.2.18 2002/08/14 16:39:37 hal9
3444 Fix wrong tag on FAQ addition.
3446 Revision 1.61.2.17 2002/08/14 00:01:18 hal9
3449 Revision 1.61.2.16 2002/08/13 00:10:38 hal9
3450 Add faq to troubleshooting re: blank page syndrome, ie {-prevent-compression}.
3452 Revision 1.61.2.15 2002/08/10 11:34:22 oes
3453 Add disclaimer about probably being out-of-date
3455 Revision 1.61.2.14 2002/08/07 02:53:43 hal9
3456 Fix some minor markup errors, and move one Mac OS X Q/A to troubleshooting section.
3458 Revision 1.61.2.13 2002/08/06 11:55:32 oes
3459 Added missing close tag
3461 Revision 1.61.2.12 2002/08/06 11:43:46 david__schmidt
3462 Updated Mac OS X uninstall FAQ... we have an uninstall script now.
3464 Revision 1.61.2.11 2002/08/06 08:54:03 oes
3465 Style police: Fixed formatting details
3467 Revision 1.61.2.10 2002/08/02 14:00:25 david__schmidt
3468 Made the Mac OS X removal commands far less dangerous
3470 Revision 1.61.2.9 2002/08/02 13:14:45 oes
3471 Added warning about sudo rm -r for Mac OS X deinstallation; moved this item to install section
3473 Revision 1.61.2.8 2002/08/02 02:01:42 david__schmidt
3474 Add FAQ item for MSIE on Mac OS X HTTP proxy confusion
3476 Revision 1.61.2.7 2002/08/02 01:46:01 david__schmidt
3477 Added FAQ item for Mac OS X uninstall woes
3479 Revision 1.61.2.6 2002/07/30 20:04:56 hal9
3480 Fix typo: 'schould'.
3482 Revision 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes
3483 - Updated to reflect changes in standard.action
3484 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
3486 Revision 1.61.2.4 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
3487 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
3489 Revision 1.61.2.3 2002/06/09 16:36:33 hal9
3490 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
3492 Revision 1.61.2.2 2002/06/06 02:51:34 hal9
3493 Fix typo in URL http:/config.privoxy.org
3495 Revision 1.61.2.1 2002/06/05 23:10:43 hal9
3496 Add new FAQ re: DUN/IE. Change release date from May to June :)
3498 Revision 1.61 2002/05/25 12:37:25 hal9
3499 Various minor changes and edits.
3501 Revision 1.60 2002/05/22 17:17:48 oes
3502 Proofread & added more links into u-m
3504 Revision 1.59 2002/05/15 04:03:30 hal9
3505 Fix ulink -> link markup.
3507 Revision 1.58 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
3508 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
3509 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
3510 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
3512 Revision 1.57 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
3513 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
3515 Revision 1.56 2002/05/04 08:44:44 swa
3518 Revision 1.55 2002/05/04 00:41:56 hal9
3519 -Remove TOC/first page kludge in favor of proper handling via dsl file.
3521 Revision 1.54 2002/05/03 05:06:44 hal9
3522 Add brief Q/A on transparent proxies.
3524 Revision 1.53 2002/05/03 01:34:52 hal9
3525 Fix section numbering for new sections (due to TOC kludge).
3527 Revision 1.52 2002/04/29 03:08:43 hal9
3528 -Added new Q/A on new actions file set up (pointer to u-m)
3529 -Fixed a few broken links and converted old actions as a result of
3532 Revision 1.51 2002/04/26 17:24:31 swa
3533 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
3535 Revision 1.50 2002/04/26 05:25:23 hal9
3536 Mass commit to catch a few scattered fixes.
3538 Revision 1.49 2002/04/12 10:10:18 swa
3541 Revision 1.48 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
3544 Revision 1.47 2002/04/10 04:05:32 hal9
3547 Revision 1.45 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
3548 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
3550 Revision 1.44 2002/04/07 21:24:29 hal9
3551 Touch up on name change.
3553 Revision 1.43 2002/04/04 21:59:53 hal9
3554 Added NT/W2K service/icon situation.
3556 Revision 1.42 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
3557 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
3559 Revision 1.41 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
3560 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
3561 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
3562 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
3563 eventually be set by Makefile.
3564 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
3566 Revision 1.40 2002/04/03 04:22:03 hal9
3567 Fixed several typos.
3569 Revision 1.39 2002/04/03 03:53:03 hal9
3570 Revert some changes, and then make some news, to layout, and appearance.
3572 Revision 1.38 2002/04/02 03:49:10 hal9
3573 Major changes to doc structure and layout. Sections are not automatically
3574 numbered now. TOC is on page by itself.
3576 Revision 1.37 2002/04/01 16:24:07 hal9
3577 -Rework of supported Q/A.
3578 -Set up entities to include boilerplate text.
3580 Revision 1.36 2002/03/31 23:18:47 hal9
3581 More on dealing with BLOCKED.
3583 Revision 1.35 2002/03/30 04:14:19 hal9
3584 Fix privoxy.org/config links.
3586 Revision 1.34 2002/03/29 04:35:56 hal9
3589 Revision 1.33 2002/03/29 01:31:48 hal9
3590 Several new Q/A's and other touch ups.
3592 Revision 1.32 2002/03/27 00:57:03 hal9
3593 Touch ups for name change.
3595 Revision 1.31 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
3596 we have a new homepage!
3598 Revision 1.30 2002/03/25 16:39:22 hal9
3599 A few new sections. Made all links relative to user-manual.
3601 Revision 1.29 2002/03/25 05:23:57 hal9
3602 Moved section, and touch ups.
3604 Revision 1.28 2002/03/25 04:27:33 hal9
3605 New section related to name change.
3607 Revision 1.25 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
3608 we are too lazy to make a block-built
3609 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
3611 Revision 1.24 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
3612 name change related issue.
3614 Revision 1.23 2002/03/24 12:33:01 swa
3617 Revision 1.22 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
3618 name change. changed filenames.
3620 Revision 1.21 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
3623 Revision 1.20 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
3624 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
3625 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
3626 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
3627 comments and remarks to history untouched.
3629 Revision 1.19 2002/03/21 17:01:54 hal9
3632 Revision 1.18 2002/03/18 16:40:31 hal9
3635 Revision 1.17 2002/03/18 03:53:53 hal9
3638 Revision 1.16 2002/03/17 21:32:56 hal9
3639 A few more additions.
3641 Revision 1.15 2002/03/17 07:25:59 hal9
3642 Correcting some of my typos, and some additions.
3644 Revision 1.14 2002/03/17 02:39:13 hal9
3645 A little more added ...
3647 Revision 1.13 2002/03/17 00:22:20 hal9
3648 Adding new stuff, and trying to incorporate stuff from old faq.
3650 Revision 1.12 2002/03/11 20:13:21 swa
3653 Revision 1.11 2002/03/11 18:42:27 swa
3656 Revision 1.10 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
3657 correct feedback channels
3659 Revision 1.9 2002/03/10 23:34:04 swa
3660 more info on not hiding ip address
3662 Revision 1.8 2002/03/09 15:55:48 swa
3663 added default config section
3665 Revision 1.7 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
3668 Revision 1.6 2002/03/07 13:16:31 oes
3669 Committing changes by Stefan
3671 Revision 1.5 2002/03/02 15:50:04 swa
3672 2.9.11 version. more input for docs.
3674 Revision 1.4 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
3675 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
3676 will work - no other changes are needed.
3678 Revision 1.3 2001/09/23 10:13:48 swa
3679 upload process established. run make webserver and
3680 the documentation is moved to the webserver. documents
3681 are now linked correctly.
3683 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:20:17 swa
3684 merged standards into developer manual
3686 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
3687 source files for junkbuster documentation
3689 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
3690 first proposal of a structure.
3692 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
3693 docs should have an author.
3695 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
3696 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.