5. Starting Privoxy

Before launching Privoxy for the first time, you will want to configure your browser(s) to use Privoxy as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!

Please note that Privoxy can only proxy HTTP and HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.

Figure 2. Proxy Configuration (Mozilla)

With Netscape (and Mozilla), this can be set under:

Edit
   |_
         Preferences
                |_
                        Advanced
                              |_
                                    Proxies
                                         |_
                                                HTTP Proxy

For Internet Explorer:

Tools
     |_
         Internet Properties
                            |_
                                      Connections
                                               |_
                                                            LAN Settings

Then, check "Use Proxy" and fill in the appropriate info (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS proxy support too.

After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using Privoxy!

Privoxy is typically started by specifying the main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration file is specified on the command line, Privoxy will look for a file named config in the current directory. Except on Win32 where it will try config.txt.