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CLASS="SECT1"
><H1
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
NAME="MISC"
>4. Miscellaneous</A
></H1
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN729"
>4.1. How much does Privoxy slow my browsing down? This
has to add extra time to browsing.</A
></H3
><P
> How much of an impact depends on many things, including the CPU of the host
system, how aggressive the configuration is, which specific actions are being triggered,
the size of the page, the bandwidth of the connection, etc.</P
><P
> Overall, it should not slow you down any in real terms, and may actually help
speed things up since ads, banners and other junk are not typically being
retrieved and displayed. The actual processing time required by
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> itself for each page, is relatively small
in the overall scheme of things, and happens very quickly. This is typically
more than offset by time saved not downloading and rendering ad images and
other junk content (if ad blocking is being used).</P
><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Filtering"</SPAN
> content via the <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
><A
HREF="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"
TARGET="_top"
>filter</A
></TT
> or
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
><A
HREF="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS"
TARGET="_top"
>deanimate-gifs</A
></TT
>
actions may cause a perceived slowdown, since the entire document
needs to be buffered before displaying. And on very large documents,
filtering may have some measurable impact. How much depends on the page size,
the actual definition of the filter(s), etc. See below. Most other actions
have little to no impact on speed.</P
><P
> Also, when filtering is enabled but zlib support isn't available, compression
is often disabled (see <A
HREF="../user-manual/actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION"
TARGET="_top"
>prevent-compression</A
>).
This can have an impact on speed as well, although it's probably smaller than
you might think. Again, the page size, etc. will determine how much of an impact.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="LOADINGTIMES"
>4.2. I notice considerable
delays in page requests. What's wrong?</A
></H3
><P
> If you use any <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
><A
HREF="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER"
TARGET="_top"
>filter</A
></TT
> action,
such as filtering banners by size, web-bugs etc, or the <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
><A
HREF="../user-manual/actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS"
TARGET="_top"
>deanimate-gifs</A
></TT
>
action, the entire document must be loaded into memory in order for the filtering
mechanism to work, and nothing is sent to the browser during this time.</P
><P
> The loading time typically does not really change much in real numbers, but
the feeling is different, because most browsers are able to start rendering
incomplete content, giving the user a feeling of "it works". This effect is
more noticeable on slower dialup connections. Extremely large documents
may have some impact on the time to load the page where there is filtering
being done. But overall, the difference should be very minimal. If there is a
big impact, then probably some other situation is contributing (like
anti-virus software).
</P
><P
> Filtering is automatically disabled for inappropriate MIME types. But note
that if the web server mis-reports the MIME type, then content that should
not be filtered, could be. <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> only knows how
to differentiate filterable content because of the MIME type as reported by
the server, or because of some configuration setting that enables/disables
filtering.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="CONFIGURL"
>4.3. What are "http://config.privoxy.org/" and
"http://p.p/"?</A
></H3
><P
> <A
HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>http://config.privoxy.org/</A
> is the
address of <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>'s built-in user interface, and
<A
HREF="http://p.p/"
TARGET="_top"
>http://p.p/</A
> is a shortcut for it.</P
><P
> Since <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> sits between your web browser and the Internet,
it can simply intercept requests for these addresses and answer them with its built-in
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"web server"</SPAN
>.</P
><P
> This also makes for a good test for your browser configuration: If entering the
URL <A
HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>http://config.privoxy.org/</A
>
takes you to a page saying <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"This is Privoxy ..."</SPAN
>, everything is OK.
If you get a page saying <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Privoxy is not working"</SPAN
> instead, then
your browser didn't use <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> for the request,
hence it could not be intercepted, and you have accessed the <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>real</I
></SPAN
>
web site at config.privoxy.org.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="NEWADS"
>4.4. How can I submit new ads, or report
problems?</A
></H3
><P
>Please see the <A
HREF="contact.html"
>Contact section</A
> for
various ways to interact with the developers.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="NEWADS2"
>4.5. If I do submit missed ads, will
they be included in future updates?</A
></H3
><P
> Whether such submissions are eventually included in the
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>default.action</TT
> configuration file depends on how
significant the issue is. We of course want to address any potential
problem with major, high-profile sites such as <I
CLASS="CITETITLE"
>Google</I
>,
<I
CLASS="CITETITLE"
>Yahoo</I
>, etc. Any site with global or regional reach,
has a good chance of being a candidate. But at the other end of the spectrum
are any number of smaller, low-profile sites such as for local clubs or
schools. Since their reach and impact are much less, they are best handled by
inclusion in the user's <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>user.action</TT
>, and thus would be
unlikely to be included. </P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="NOONECARES"
>4.6. Why doesn't anyone answer my support
request?</A
></H3
><P
>Rest assured that it has been read and considered. Why it is not answered,
could be for various reasons, including no one has a good answer for it, no
one has had time to yet investigate it thoroughly, it has been reported
numerous times already, or because not enough information was provided to help
us help you. Your efforts are not wasted, and we do appreciate them.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="IP"
>4.7. How can I hide my IP address?</A
></H3
><P
> If you run both the browser and <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> locally, you cannot hide your IP
address with <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> or ultimately any other
software alone. The server needs to know your IP address so that it knows
where to send the responses back. </P
><P
> There are many publicly usable "anonymous" proxies out there, which
provide a further level of indirection between you and the web server.</P
><P
> However, these proxies are called "anonymous" because you don't need
to authenticate, not because they would offer any real anonymity.
Most of them will log your IP address and make it available to the
authorities in case you violate the law of the country they run in. In fact
you can't even rule out that some of them only exist to *collect* information
on (those suspicious) people with a more than average preference for privacy.</P
><P
> If you want to hide your IP address from most adversaries,
you should consider chaining <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>
with <A
HREF="https://www.torproject.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Tor</A
>.
The configuration details can be found in
<A
HREF="#TOR"
TARGET="_top"
>How do I use <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> together
with <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
> section</A
>
just below.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN794"
>4.8. Can Privoxy guarantee I am anonymous?</A
></H3
><P
> No. Your chances of remaining anonymous are improved, but unless you
<A
HREF="#TOR"
TARGET="_top"
>chain <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> with <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
></A
>
or a similar proxy and know what you're doing when it comes to configuring
the rest of your system, you should assume that everything you do
on the Web can be traced back to you.</P
><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> can remove various information about you,
and allows <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>you</I
></SPAN
> more freedom to decide which sites
you can trust, and what details you want to reveal. But it neither
hides your IP address, nor can it guarantee that the rest of the system
behaves correctly. There are several possibilities how a web sites can find
out who you are, even if you are using a strict <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>
configuration and chained it with <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
>.</P
><P
> Most of <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy's</SPAN
> privacy-enhancing features can be easily subverted
by an insecure browser configuration, therefore you should use a browser that can
be configured to only execute code from trusted sites, and be careful which sites you trust.
For example there is no point in having <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>
modify the User-Agent header, if websites can get all the information they want
through JavaScript, ActiveX, Flash, Java etc.</P
><P
> A few browsers disclose the user's email address in certain situations, such
as when transferring a file by FTP. <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>
does not filter FTP. If you need this feature, or are concerned about the
mail handler of your browser disclosing your email address, you might
consider products such as <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>NSClean</SPAN
>.</P
><P
> Browsers available only as binaries could use non-standard headers to give
out any information they can have access to: see the manufacturer's license
agreement. It's impossible to anticipate and prevent every breach of privacy
that might occur. The professionally paranoid prefer browsers available as
source code, because anticipating their behavior is easier. Trust the source,
Luke!</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN812"
>4.9. A test site says I am not using a Proxy.</A
></H3
><P
> Good! Actually, they are probably testing for some other kinds of proxies.
Hiding yourself completely would require additional steps.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="TOR"
>4.10. How do I use Privoxy
together with Tor?</A
></H3
><P
> Before you configure <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> to use
<A
HREF="https://www.torproject.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Tor</A
>,
please follow the <I
CLASS="CITETITLE"
>User Manual</I
> chapters
<A
HREF="../user-manual/installation.html"
TARGET="_top"
>2. Installation</A
> and
<A
HREF="../user-manual/startup.html"
TARGET="_top"
>5. Startup</A
> to make sure
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> itself is setup correctly.</P
><P
>
If it is, refer to <A
HREF="https://www.torproject.org/documentation.html"
TARGET="_top"
>Tor's
extensive documentation</A
> to learn how to install <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
>,
and make sure <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
>'s logfile says that
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Tor has successfully opened a circuit"</SPAN
> and it
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"looks like client functionality is working"</SPAN
>.</P
><P
> If either <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
> or <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>
isn't working, their combination most likely will neither. Testing them on their
own will also help you to direct problem reports to the right audience.
If <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> isn't working, don't bother the
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
> developers. If <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
>
isn't working, don't send bug reports to the <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> Team.</P
><P
> If you verified that <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> and <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
>
are working, it is time to connect them. As far as <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>
is concerned, <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
> is just another proxy that can be reached
by socks4 or socks4a. Most likely you are interested in <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
>
to increase your anonymity level, therefore you should use socks4a, to make sure DNS requests are
done through <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
> and thus invisible to your local network.</P
><P
> Since <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> 3.0.5, its
<A
HREF="../user-manual/config.html"
TARGET="_top"
>main configuration file</A
>
is already prepared for <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
>, if you are using a
default <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
> configuration and run it on the same
system as <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>, you just have to edit the
<A
HREF="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING"
TARGET="_top"
>forwarding section</A
>
and uncomment the line:</P
><P
> <TABLE
BORDER="0"
BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
WIDTH="100%"
><TR
><TD
><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
># forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
</PRE
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
></P
><P
> This is enough to reach the Internet, but additionally you might want to
uncomment the following forward rules, to make sure your local network is still
reachable through Privoxy:</P
><P
> <TABLE
BORDER="0"
BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
WIDTH="100%"
><TR
><TD
><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
># forward 192.168.*.*/ .
# forward 10.*.*.*/ .
# forward 127.*.*.*/ .
</PRE
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
></P
><P
> Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will
be as (un)secure as the local network is, but the alternative is
that your browser can't reach the network at all. Then again,
that may actually be desired and if you don't know for sure
that your browser has to be able to reach the local network,
there's no reason to allow it.</P
><P
> If you want your browser to be able to reach servers in your local
network by using their names, you will need additional exceptions
that look like this:</P
><P
> <TABLE
BORDER="0"
BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
WIDTH="100%"
><TR
><TD
><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
># forward localhost/ .
</PRE
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
></P
><P
> Save the modified configuration file and open
<A
HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status"
TARGET="_top"
>http://config.privoxy.org/show-status/</A
>
in your browser, confirm that <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> has reloaded its configuration
and that there are no other forward lines, unless you know that you need them. If everything looks good,
refer to
<A
HREF="https://wiki.torproject.org/noreply/TheOnionRouter/TorFAQ#IsMyConnectionPrivate"
TARGET="_top"
>Tor
Faq 4.2</A
> to learn how to verify that you are really using <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
>.</P
><P
> Afterward, please take the time to at least skim through the rest
of <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor's</SPAN
> documentation. Make sure you understand
what <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
> does, why it is no replacement for
application level security, and why you probably don't want to
use it for unencrypted logins.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN868"
>4.11. Might some things break because header information or
content is being altered?</A
></H3
><P
> Definitely. It is common for sites to use browser type, browser version,
HTTP header content, and various other techniques in order to dynamically
decide what to display and how to display it. What you see, and what I see,
might be very different. There are many, many ways that this can be handled,
so having hard and fast rules, is tricky.</P
><P
> The <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"User-Agent"</SPAN
> is sometimes used in this way to identify
the browser, and adjust content accordingly.</P
><P
> Also, different browsers use different encodings of non-English
characters, certain web servers convert pages on-the-fly according to the
User Agent header. Giving a <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"User Agent"</SPAN
> with the wrong
operating system or browser manufacturer causes some sites in these languages
to be garbled; Surfers to Eastern European sites should change it to
something closer. And then some page access counters work by looking at the
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Referer"</SPAN
> header; they may fail or break if unavailable. The
weather maps of Intellicast have been blocked by their server when no
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Referer"</SPAN
> or cookie is provided, is another example. (But you
can forge both headers without giving information away). There are
many other ways things can go wrong when trying to fool a web server. The
results of which could inadvertently cause pages to load incorrectly,
partially, or even not at all. And there may be no obvious clues as to just
what went wrong, or why. Nowhere will there be a message that says
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"<SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>Turn off <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>fast-redirects</TT
> or else!</I
></SPAN
>
"</SPAN
></P
><P
> Similar thoughts apply to modifying JavaScript, and, to a lesser degree,
HTML elements.</P
><P
> If you have problems with a site, you will have to adjust your configuration
accordingly. Cookies are probably the most likely adjustment that may
be required, but by no means the only one.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN882"
>4.12. Can Privoxy act as a <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"caching"</SPAN
> proxy to
speed up web browsing?</A
></H3
><P
> No, it does not have this ability at all. You want something like
<A
HREF="http://www.squid-cache.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Squid</A
> or
<A
HREF="http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/polipo/"
TARGET="_top"
>Polipo</A
> for this.
And, yes, before you ask, <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> can co-exist
with other kinds of proxies like <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Squid</SPAN
>.
See the <A
HREF="../user-manual/config.html#FORWARDING"
TARGET="_top"
>forwarding
chapter</A
> in the <A
HREF="../user-manual/index.html"
TARGET="_top"
>user
manual</A
> for details.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN892"
>4.13. What about as a firewall? Can Privoxy protect me?</A
></H3
><P
> Not in the way you mean, or in the way some firewall vendors claim they can.
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> can help protect your privacy, but can't
protect your system from intrusion attempts. It is, of course, perfectly possible
to use <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>both</I
></SPAN
>.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN897"
>4.14. I have large empty spaces / a checkerboard pattern now where
ads used to be. Why?</A
></H3
><P
> It is technically possible to eliminate banners and ads in a way that frees
their allocated page space. This could easily be done by blocking with
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy's</SPAN
> filters,
and eliminating the <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>entire</I
></SPAN
> image references from the
HTML page source. </P
><P
> But, this would consume considerably more CPU resources (IOW, slow things
down), would likely destroy the layout of some web pages which rely on the
banners utilizing a certain amount of page space, and might fail in other
cases, where the screen space is reserved (e.g. by HTML tables for instance).
Also, making ads and banners disappear without any trace complicates
troubleshooting, and would sooner or later be problematic.</P
><P
> The better alternative is to instead let them stay, and block the resulting
requests for the banners themselves as is now the case. This leaves either
empty space, or the familiar checkerboard pattern.</P
><P
> So the developers won't support this in the default configuration, but you
can of course define appropriate filters yourself to achieve this.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN905"
>4.15. How can Privoxy filter Secure (HTTPS) URLs?</A
></H3
><P
> Since secure HTTP connections are encrypted SSL sessions between your browser
and the secure site, and are meant to be reliably <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>secure</I
></SPAN
>,
there is little that <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> can do but hand the raw
gibberish data though from one end to the other unprocessed.</P
><P
> The only exception to this is blocking by host patterns, as the client needs
to tell <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> the name of the remote server,
so that <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> can establish the connection.
If that name matches a host-only pattern, the connection will be blocked.</P
><P
> As far as ad blocking is concerned, this is less of a restriction than it may
seem, since ad sources are often identifiable by the host name, and often
the banners to be placed in an encrypted page come unencrypted nonetheless
for efficiency reasons, which exposes them to the full power of
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>'s ad blocking.</P
><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Content cookies"</SPAN
> (those that are embedded in the actual HTML or
JS page content, see <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
><A
HREF="../user-manual/actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES"
TARGET="_top"
>filter{content-cookies}</A
></TT
>),
in an SSL transaction will be impossible to block under these conditions.
Fortunately, this does not seem to be a very common scenario since most
cookies come by traditional means.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN919"
>4.16. Privoxy runs as a <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"server"</SPAN
>. How
secure is it? Do I need to take any special precautions?</A
></H3
><P
> On Unix-like systems, <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> can run as a non-privileged
user, which is how we recommend it be run. Also, by default
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> listens to requests from <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"localhost"</SPAN
>
only.</P
><P
> The server aspect of <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> is not itself directly
exposed to the Internet in this configuration. If you want to have
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> serve as a LAN proxy, this will have to
be opened up to allow for LAN requests. In this case, we'd recommend
you specify only the LAN gateway address, e.g. 192.168.1.1, in the main
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> configuration file and check all <A
HREF="../user-manual/config.html#ACCESS-CONTROL"
TARGET="_top"
>access control and security
options</A
>. All LAN hosts can then use this as their proxy address
in the browser proxy configuration, but <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>
will not listen on any external interfaces. ACLs can be defined in addition,
and using a firewall is always good too. Better safe than sorry.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="TURNOFF"
>4.17. Can I temporarily disable Privoxy?</A
></H3
><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> doesn't have a transparent proxy mode,
but you can toggle off blocking and content filtering.</P
><P
> The easiest way to do that is to point your browser
to the remote toggle URL: <A
HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle"
TARGET="_top"
>http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</A
>.</P
><P
> See the <A
HREF="../user-manual/appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS"
TARGET="_top"
>Bookmarklets section</A
>
of the <I
CLASS="CITETITLE"
>User Manual</I
> for an easy way to access this
feature. Note that this is a feature that may need to be enabled in the main
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>config</TT
> file.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="REALLYOFF"
>4.18. When <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"disabled"</SPAN
> is Privoxy totally
out of the picture?</A
></H3
><P
> No, this just means all optional filtering and actions are disabled.
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> is still acting as a proxy, but just
doing less of the things that <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> would
normally be expected to do. It is still a <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"middle-man"</SPAN
> in
the interaction between your browser and web sites. See below to bypass
the proxy.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="TURNOFF2"
>4.19. How can I tell Privoxy to totally ignore certain sites?</A
></H3
><P
> Bypassing a proxy, or proxying based on arbitrary criteria, is purely a browser
configuration issue, not a <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> issue. Modern browsers typically do have
settings for not proxying certain sites. Check your browser's help files.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="CRUNCH"
>4.20. My logs show Privoxy <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"crunches"</SPAN
>
ads, but also its own internal CGI pages. What is a <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"crunch"</SPAN
>?</A
></H3
><P
> A <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"crunch"</SPAN
> simply means <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> intercepted
<SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>something</I
></SPAN
>, nothing more. Often this is indeed ads or
banners, but <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> uses the same mechanism for
trapping requests for its own internal pages. For instance, a request for
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy's</SPAN
> configuration page at: <A
HREF="http://config.privoxy.org"
TARGET="_top"
>http://config.privoxy.org</A
>, is
intercepted (i.e. it does not go out to the 'net), and the familiar CGI
configuration is returned to the browser, and the log consequently will show
a <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"crunch"</SPAN
>.</P
><P
> Since version 3.0.7, Privoxy will also log the crunch reason.
If you are using an older version you might want to upgrade.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="DOWNLOADS"
>4.21. Can Privoxy effect files that I download
from a webserver? FTP server?</A
></H3
><P
> From the webserver's perspective, there is no difference between
viewing a document (i.e. a page), and downloading a file. The same is true of
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>. If there is a match for a <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
><A
HREF="../user-manual/actions-file.html#BLOCK"
TARGET="_top"
>block</A
></TT
> pattern,
it will still be blocked, and of course this is obvious.
</P
><P
> Filtering is potentially more of a concern since the results are not always
so obvious, and the effects of filtering are there whether the file is simply
viewed, or downloaded. And potentially whether the content is some obnoxious
advertisement, or Mr. Jimmy's latest/greatest source code jewel. Of course,
one of these presumably is <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"bad"</SPAN
> content that we don't want, and
the other is <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"good"</SPAN
> content that we do want.
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> is blind to the differences, and can only
distinguish <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"good from bad"</SPAN
> by the configuration parameters
<SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>we</I
></SPAN
> give it.</P
><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> knows the differences in files according
to the <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Content Type"</SPAN
> as reported by the webserver. If this is
reported accurately (e.g. <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"application/zip"</SPAN
> for a zip archive),
then <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> knows to ignore these where
appropriate. <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> potentially can filter HTML
as well as plain text documents, subject to configuration parameters of
course. Also, documents that are of an unknown type (generally assumed to be
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"text/plain"</SPAN
>) can be filtered, as will those that might be
incorrectly reported by the webserver. If such a file is a downloaded file
that is intended to be saved to disk, then any content that might have been
altered by filtering, will be saved too, for these (probably rare) cases.</P
><P
> Note that versions later than 3.0.2 do NOT filter document types reported as
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"text/plain"</SPAN
>. Prior to this, <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>
did filter this document type.</P
><P
> In short, filtering is <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"ON"</SPAN
> if a) the content type as reported
by the webserver is appropriate <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>and</I
></SPAN
> b) the configuration
allows it (or at least does not disallow it). That's it. There is no magic
cookie anywhere to say this is <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"good"</SPAN
> and this is
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"bad"</SPAN
>. It's the configuration that lets it all happen or not.</P
><P
> If you download text files, you probably do not want these to be filtered,
particularly if the content is source code, or other critical content. Source
code sometimes might be mistaken for Javascript (i.e. the kind that might
open a pop-up window). It is recommended to turn off filtering for download
sites (particularly if the content may be plain text files and you are using
version 3.0.2 or earlier) in your <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>user.action</TT
> file. And
also, for any site or page where making <SPAN
CLASS="emphasis"
><I
CLASS="EMPHASIS"
>any</I
></SPAN
> changes at
all to the content is to be avoided.</P
><P
> <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> does not do FTP at all, only HTTP
and HTTPS (SSL) protocols.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="DOWNLOADS2"
>4.22. I just downloaded a Perl script, and Privoxy
altered it! Yikes, what is wrong!</A
></H3
><P
> Please read above.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="HOSTSFILE"
>4.23. Should I continue to use a <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"HOSTS"</SPAN
> file for ad-blocking?</A
></H3
><P
> One time-tested technique to defeat common ads is to trick the local DNS
system by giving a phony IP address for the ad generator in the local
<TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>HOSTS</TT
> file, typically using <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>127.0.0.1</TT
>, aka
<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>localhost</TT
>. This effectively blocks the ad.</P
><P
> There is no reason to use this technique in conjunction with
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>. <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>
does essentially the same thing, much more elegantly and with much more
flexibility. A large <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>HOSTS</TT
> file, in fact, not only
duplicates effort, but may get in the way and seriously slow down your system.
It is recommended to remove such entries from your <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>HOSTS</TT
> file. If you think
your hosts list is neglected by <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy's </SPAN
>
configuration, consider adding your list to your <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>user.action</TT
> file:</P
><P
> <TABLE
BORDER="0"
BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
WIDTH="100%"
><TR
><TD
><PRE
CLASS="SCREEN"
> { +block }
www.ad.example1.com
ad.example2.com
ads.galore.example.com
etc.example.com</PRE
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
></P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="SEEALSO"
>4.24. Where can I find more information about Privoxy
and related issues?</A
></H3
><P
> Other references and sites of interest to <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>
users:</P
><P
> <P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
> <A
HREF="http://www.privoxy.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>http://www.privoxy.org/</A
>,
the <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> Home page.
</TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
<P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
> <A
HREF="http://www.privoxy.org/faq/"
TARGET="_top"
>http://www.privoxy.org/faq/</A
>,
the <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> FAQ.
</TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
<P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
> <A
HREF="http://www.privoxy.org/developer-manual/"
TARGET="_top"
>http://www.privoxy.org/developer-manual/</A
>,
the <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> developer manual.
</TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
<P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
> <A
HREF="https://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/"
TARGET="_top"
>https://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/</A
>,
the Project Page for <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> on
<A
HREF="http://sourceforge.net"
TARGET="_top"
>SourceForge</A
>.
</TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
<P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
> <A
HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>http://config.privoxy.org/</A
>,
the web-based user interface. <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> must be
running for this to work. Shortcut: <A
HREF="http://p.p/"
TARGET="_top"
>http://p.p/</A
>
</TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
<P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
> <A
HREF="https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288"
TARGET="_top"
>https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288</A
>, to submit <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"misses"</SPAN
> and other
configuration related suggestions to the developers.
</TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
<P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
> <A
HREF="http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html"
TARGET="_top"
>http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html</A
>,
an explanation how cookies are used to track web users.
</TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
<P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
> <A
HREF="http://www.junkbusters.com/ijb.html"
TARGET="_top"
>http://www.junkbusters.com/ijb.html</A
>,
the original Internet Junkbuster.
</TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
<P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
> <A
HREF="http://www.squid-cache.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>http://www.squid-cache.org/</A
>, a popular
caching proxy, which is often used together with <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
>.
</TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
<P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
> <A
HREF="http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/polipo/"
TARGET="_top"
>http://www.pps.jussieu.fr/~jch/software/polipo/</A
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Polipo</SPAN
> is a caching proxy with advanced features
like pipelining, multiplexing and caching of partial instances. In many setups
it can be used as <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Squid</SPAN
> replacement.
</TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
<P
></P
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
><TBODY
><TR
><TD
> <A
HREF="https://www.torproject.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>https://www.torproject.org/</A
>,
<SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Tor</SPAN
> can help anonymize web browsing,
web publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications.
</TD
></TR
></TBODY
></TABLE
><P
></P
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="MICROSUCK"
>4.25. I've noticed that Privoxy changes <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Microsoft"</SPAN
> to
<SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"MicroSuck"</SPAN
>! Why are you manipulating my browsing?</A
></H3
><P
> We're not. The text substitutions that you are seeing are disabled
in the default configuration as shipped. You have either manually
activated the <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>fun</TT
>"</SPAN
> filter which
is clearly labeled <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Text replacements for subversive browsing
fun!"</SPAN
> or you are using an older Privoxy version and have implicitly
activated it by choosing the <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"Advanced"</SPAN
> profile in the
web-based editor. Please upgrade.</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H3
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="VALID"
>4.26. Does Privoxy produce <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"valid"</SPAN
> HTML (or XHTML)?</A
></H3
><P
> Privoxy generates HTML in both its own <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"templates"</SPAN
>, and possibly
whenever there are text substitutions via a <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>Privoxy</SPAN
> filter. While this
should always conform to the HTML 4.01 specifications, it has not been
validated against this or any other standard. </P
></DIV
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