In praise of Privoxy

[elfs]

This weekend I discovered the joy and pleasure that is Privoxy. Privoxy is a web filter that is completely customizeable, runs in a very small amount of memory, and does what has to be the most important service I've known: it filters out <OBJECT> references. The only ones that get through are ones I deliberately double-click on. My computer isn't the slowest, but it can still get bogged down when I have ten or twenty tabs open on firefox and all of them have some kind of Flash or Java applet running on them.

If there are sites you need to have access to, there are custom URLs that you can type in that give you access to the configuration files. You can mark a site as "fragile" (meaning that it should not be filtered because it really, really needs all that javascript and stuff) and Privoxy lets it go through just fine. If you really need Privoxy to stand down, you can turn all filtering off for a while.

Privoxy makes that all the flash and junk spamvertising go away, making my web browsing a pleasant experience. Think of it as a spam filter for the web, and enjoy the web once more.

Comments

Alternate solution: NoScript

[datapacrat.livejournal.com]

If anyone reading this would like a similar way to block javascript by default, with the ability to permit it in sites you trust, or would simply prefer to use a Firefox extension rather than an external application, you may find it worthwhile to give "NoScript" a try, available from https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/722/ . (Also handy are Adblocker Plus and BugMeNot, but they solve different problems.)

Re: Alternate solution: NoScript

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I'll second the recommendation for Adblock Plus, particularly with the Filterset G. updater... pop on CNN or NBC and the page loads spam-free... loverly. And Adblock Plus/Filterset G has a beta whitelist function...

Same play, client side. It doesn't appear to use all that much, and it sure cuts down on the annoyance factor... works much better when somebody else is controlling the outbound proxy, e.g. at work.

Re: Alternate solution: NoScript

[elfs.livejournal.com]

While I like that as a solution, it doesn't really address my needs quite the way Privoxy does. Privoxy prevents the crap from reaching the browser at all, which makes it an excellent tool for things like RSS readers and non-Firefox browsers. I wanted a one-stop filter where I could keep crap off my system, and using a proxy filter does that.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

Wait … Elf, you only just now found out about Privoxy?!?!

I've been using the thing for nearly 8 years, since its early days
(back when it was still called "Internet Junkbuster"). I'dve thought a major Net personality such as yourself would've been using it for equally as long.

I assume, though, that you did redirect all port-80 traffic from your broadband router to your Privoxy host:port. ;)