Closed Bug 91783 Opened 23 years ago Closed 8 years ago

duplicate all useful features from junkbuster/privoxy proxy [meta]

Categories

(Core :: Networking, enhancement)

enhancement
Not set
normal

Tracking

()

RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: jmd, Unassigned)

References

(Depends on 1 open bug)

Details

(Keywords: meta)

 
Depends on: 91784
Depends on: 91785
Depends on: 75915
I have to ask.  Why?

Isn't that the point of having a proxy server?  That you can get this stuff
implemented somewhere outside of the already-complicated browser?
I completly agree, Boris. The proxy *IS* the place for this. But, just as a
proxy is the place to do caching, the browser starts to add these features
itself. It certainly seems unreasonable for a novice user to have to set up
Squid or something similar just to have a cache. So the code got added to browsers.

IE, as well, is implementing similar features.

However:
  1) Mozilla, with its Image and Cookie Managers, is already 95% there. It only
     takes a line or two of code in certain places to give Mozilla a little
     more flexibility to the point where Junkbuster or similar aren't needed.
  2) The current Image and Cookie Managers, without extending their flexibility,
     are for the most part, useless. I am unable to configure Mozilla to work
     like the default setup of Junkbuster (which is the default, of course,
     because it's how the majority of users using these features want it).
  3) This integration with the browser has advantages. You can right-click an
     image to block it, rather then configure some external program. This makes 
     it a lot more feasable for regular users to control their privacy.
  4) Junkbuster is buggy and out of data with current standards and causes
     problems with HTTP/1.1. (In other words, there isn't any good software
     available to do this, right now)
  5) We *have* to do the similar privacy/security feature of javascript control
     in the browser, since a Proxy is *not* the place for that.
The main reason is number 1, though. The fix for bug 75915 should be just a few
lines in the right places (It's the same as accept with "show an alert", but you
act as if the user clicked to not accept.)

The fix for 91785 (subject to duping, but I couldn't find it either) shouldn't
be much more.

The UI for the cookie and image managers need a little bit of work, as well, but
this bug isn't tracking that (hey, I use "vi cookperm.txt", what do I care? ;)
After that, the outdated "junkbuster" isn't required. You're still free, of
course, to use it, and not configure Mozilla's features. Just as you can disable
Mozilla's cache and configure Squid, which for some situtations (multiple PCs)
is useful.
No longer depends on: 91784
Ah.  OK.  I din't realize that this was not necessarily a huge change. :)

And #4 is a pretty convincing point too.
Depends on: 55477
Depends on: 92716
Note: junkbuster is NOT HTTP 1.1 compliant.  This causes annoying things to
happen in mozilla unless you downgrade your HTTP version in debug->networking.
It also causes annoying things to happen in mozilla even IF you downgrade your
HTTP version in debug->networking. That's the purpose of this bug, to make sure
Mozilla's cookie/image/etc privacy functions can handle what junkbuster's did,
since the later is no longer usable.

Depends on: 78104
( ) "Classic" referrer
( ) Cloak referrer (always sets to base name of remote host)
( ) Specific referrer: __________ (blank or set)

That dialog + some code tweaks will replace the referer stuff in Moz :)
Get the version of Junkbusters at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/
The project is an open-source superset of the Junkbusters proxy.
It supports HTTP/1.1 without having to mess with the browser at all, and
works well with Mozilla.  It lets you control cookies, referer, images,
ads, content, etc.
Keywords: meta
A related suggestion, one growing rapidly in priority on my wildest hope list.

Those pop up windows are really, really, starting to get annoying.  But,
sometimes they are useful parts of the "web-ap" in question, so it isn't
reasonable to simply turn off pop-ups, pop-unders, pop-whatevers.  To make
things worse, there are ways other than javascript to accomplish the deed.

Something like "automatically close new windows that match the following RE"
would be most useful, I think.  Better would be "don't open windows who's
initial contents match the following RE", but I suspect that may not be so easy
to do.

Junkbusters, et al., return a intercept page that would function as the RE.
So there are some sites that can get around
"Preferences > Advanced > Script & Windows > Open Unrequested Windows"
being turned off?  Could you post some links?
nytimes.com does it (a simle search on bugs with "nytimes" in the url and "open"
in the summary should pop up a bunch of dups).
I think that there should be a whitelist of overrides for those sites which
absolutely require "auto-popups."  I'm happy with just making sure that any
webaps which require popups are also designed so that they popup when the user
clicks something, which would make in a requested window.

Unrequested windows should in no way be allowed in a blacklist situation.  Think
about all the spam you get.  It'd be the same for those popups.  Every new one
requires you fix your end.
I don't understand what this bug is about but its last comment is already 5 years and 11 months old. Is there still anything in it which needs fixing (and isn't yet fixed, either by plain-vanilla Firefox and SeaMonkey, or by Adblock Plus or similar)?
While there are some interesting features in junkbuster that haven't been duplicated (e.g. the cookie jar), and comment #2 is still relevant, it's probably a good idea to close this old bug and file new ones for specific RFEs.
reporter writes: "I haven't done anything with the project for a while, so have no position on the usefulness of the meta bug. However active developers want to organize it is fine by me." 

Moving to component networking with other proxy friends.  If anyone has a purpose for the bug to live on past the closeme date in status whiteboard, simply remove the closeme.

for reference purposes, these core bugs in networking+nwk:http reference either junkbuster or privoxy (the GPL update of junkbuster):

bug 43429 2006-06-21 enh Proxy: Support multiple proxy configurations (in one profile)
bug 180041 2007-10-08 enh 	A regular-expression based URL rewriter would be nice.
bug 182719 2006-06-23 nor Proxy: domain guessing of URLs doesn't work with proxy
bug 208287 2009-03-22 nor PAC: IsInNet can cause lengthy UI hangs
bug 280255 2006-06-23 maj www.websina.com/bugzero/jsp/home.jsp doesn't work well when cache option is set to "Every time I view the page".
bug 280661 2006-08-19 nor SOCKS proxy server connection timeout hard-coded
135399 2006-06-21 nor Still unable to send an attachment to bugzilla
bug 312999 2007-06-11 min sequential image retrieval when host is in 'no proxy' string 
bug 478021 2009-02-11 nor Extensions update at startup ignores network.http.max-connections
Assignee: jmd → nobody
Component: Tracking → Networking
QA Contact: chofmann → networking
Summary: duplicate all useful features from junkbuster proxy → duplicate all useful features from junkbuster/privoxy proxy [meta]
Whiteboard: closeme 2009-06-28
Whiteboard: closeme 2009-06-28
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 8 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.