I am having some problems with Privoxy that I cannot resolve.
Privoxy is slow. Very slow. On its own and with Tor, but the problem is Privoxy.
Firstly, my config.txt file shows: listen-address 127.0.0.1:8118
My browser (Mozilla Firefox 1.0) uses this proxy for all connections.
I normally use ZoneAlarm but have tried turning it off when using Privoxy, to no avail. IOW, it cannot be ZA blocking connections to the localhost.
I constantly get the following error multiple times per website:
Jan 24 12:13:48 Privoxy(-2072989) Request:
According to the Privoxy FAQ: "5.11. My logs show many "Unable to get my own hostname" lines. Why?
Privoxy tries to get the hostname of the system its running on from the IP address of the system interface it is bound to (from the config file listen-address setting). If the system cannot supply this information, Privoxy logs this condition.
Typically, this would be considered a system configuration error. It is not a fatal error to Privoxy however, but may result in a much slower response from Privoxy due to DNS timeouts."
Now, I have no idea why Privoxy does not understand what my hostname is since the listen-address setting says it is 127.0.0.1
The problem manifests itself as follows: the computer receives information from the Internet, then stops for a few seconds then starts again. It is all the stopping that dramatically reduces the connection speed. I am no expert, but this might well be one of the "DNS timeouts".
Incidentally, in Mozilla Firefox there is an option under General / Connection Settings to choose "No Proxy For" a site or IP address. It said "localhost" at one point, but whether that is there or not, makes no difference to the slowness of Privoxy.
If it helps, I use a dial-up connection. I utilise ME.
Thanks for any advice offered. As stated, the slowness is down to Privoxy rather than Tor. The latter is fine on its own.