Privoxy

Today I thought to talk about Privoxy, so this will be my little presentation of it, which in my opinion is useful. I think you are fed up with all the ads on the Internet ? so called spam, banners, popups and other bullshit on the widely used Internet, I think you could continue living without it much better in this cruel world. Privoxy is the software that can help you, it is a web proxy which is capable of filtering the content to secure your privacy, to change the incoming content, even control the cookies and of course to get rid of all the ads and other bullshit which comes from the Internet.. Privoxy has a very customizable configuration, you can edit everything the way you need, but often for a regular user the default settings are alright. By the way, Privoxy can be used for personal usage and for all the network installing it on the main server.

So, where can you get this really good piece of software ? download the latest stable version from the main Privoxy website and install it in your computer. Privoxy is available for most of the Operating Systems, such as Windows, Amiga, Linux, Apple.. You should know how to install the software on your OS, for Windows there is a very easy to use installer.. After the installation you will need to use it as a regular Proxy in your browsers or whatever you want. If you're using Opera or Mozilla or maybe even the pathetic Internet Explorer, then find where the Proxy settings are. For Opera -> Menu: Tools -> Preferences; Advanced, Network -> Proxy Settings. For Firefox -> Menu: Tools -> Options; Connection Settings and for IE somewhere in Internet Options, search near the Connections.. Don't worry and don't give up, write 127.0.0.1 and change the Port to 8118 where you will see HTTP, SSL or HTTPS Proxy. I also recommend you to not use the Proxy for "localhost,127.0.0.1,*.lan" Well, now just save and try to access the Internet, a site which you know has lots of banners and enjoy the browsing again without any bullshit..

What to do if you're already using somekind of a Proxy and you want to use Privoxy too ? That is not a problem at all, you will only need to edit your Privoxy configuration a little bit by using forward command, just forward to your proxy, everything is clearly written in the configuration file. By the way, if sometimes you want to look at the ads, you can just temporally disable proxy, usually the setting is in your browser, choose Direct connection or disable proxy servers or something similar, if you're not stupid then you will find it. If you have any problems, please comment here or even better, try to find your answers on the main Privoxy website given above.