How to install and configure Privoxy on CentOS 6
To install and configure Privoxy on CentOS 6
Privoxy is an open source non-caching web proxy server like Squid proxy, which allows some advanced features like ad blocking, web content filtering, modifying web page data and HTTP access, controlling access and blocking unwanted site’ s etc. It is so simple to install Privoxy on CentOS and this tutorial covers the ground on the same process.
To Install and Configure Privoxy
Fist make sure you Install epel repository by making use of the following command.
[root@proxy ~]# yum install epel-release -y
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit, security
Setting up Install Process
Determining fastest mirrors
* base: mirror.vbctv.in
* extras: mirror.vbctv.in
* updates: mirror.vbctv.in
base | 3.7 kB 00:00
extras | 3.4 kB 00:00
updates | 3.4 kB 00:00
updates/primary_db | 6.4 MB 00:00
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package epel-release.noarch 0:6-8 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
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Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing : epel-release-6-8.noarch 1/1
Verifying : epel-release-6-8.noarch 1/1
Installed:
epel-release.noarch 0:6-8
Complete!
Now make sure you install Privoxy by executing the following command.
[root@proxy ~]# yum install privoxy -y
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, refresh-packagekit, security
Setting up Install Process
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: mirror.vbctv.in
* epel: epel.scopesky.iq
* extras: mirror.vbctv.in
* updates: mirror.vbctv.in
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package privoxy.x86_64 0:3.0.24-2.el6 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
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Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing : privoxy-3.0.24-2.el6.x86_64 1/1
Verifying : privoxy-3.0.24-2.el6.x86_64 1/1
Installed:
privoxy.x86_64 0:3.0.24-2.el6
Complete!
After installing we can find Privoxy configuration in /etc/privoxy directory.
root@proxy ~]# cd /etc/privoxy/
[root@proxy privoxy]# ll
total 260
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 62305 Jun 21 2016 config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 91347 Jun 21 2016 default.action
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 40438 Oct 17 2014 default.filter
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 627 Mar 28 2010 match-all.action
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39009 Nov 20 2014 regression-tests.action
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 12 15:24 templates
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3761 Jun 22 2009 trust
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8794 Nov 6 2011 user.action
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jun 21 2016 user.filter
Here the main configuration file is config, and it has 2 categories of configurations like action files and filter files. Action files have match-all.action, default.action & user.action and then filter files has default.filter & user.filter.
So we need to use the above configurations in-order to configure your own proxy setup. Now let’ s configure the basic proxy setup, now open your main configuration file and do the steps as shown below.
[root@proxy privoxy]# vim config
Change the value as mentioned below with your IP address of the proxy server.
listen-address 192.168.7.222:8118 (Line No: 783)
Next, you need to configure the log file path, the default path is /var/log/privoxy, it will be mentioned in your config file as shown below.
logdir /var/log/privoxy (Line No: 348)
You can modify the above-mentioned line if you want, and below the line, you can change the log file name in your configuration file also.
logfile logfile (Line No: 481)
Now look for debug levels and there you can find the below levels for debugging. We need to enable this option for logging.
debug 1 # Log the destination for each request Privoxy let through. (line no: 571) debug 2 # show each connection status debug 4 # show I/O status debug 8 # show header parsing debug 16 # log all data written to the network debug 32 # debug force feature debug 64 # debug regular expression filters debug 128 # debug redirects debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation debug 512 # Common Log Format debug 1024 # Log the destination for requests Privoxy didn' t let through, and the reason why. debug 2048 # CGI user interface debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings. debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors debug 32768 # log all data read from the network debug 65536 # Log the applying actions
After all the configuration is done in your config file, start the privoxy service.
[root@proxy privoxy]# service privoxy start
Now the proxy is setup, go to your browser and change network proxy settings with your IP address.
Now the proxy is set with default ad-blocking you can check with access any advertising website then you may find the blocked page like shown below.
With this, the method to install and configure on CentOS 6.