Firefox and The Proxomitron

  • Thread starter Thread starter Richard Steinfeld
  • Start date Start date
R

Richard Steinfeld

When using Firefox, do we still need to protect our sanity with The
Proxomitron? Or does Firefox itself allow us to tame those damn
stupidly-programmed sites?

I haven't installed Firefox yet, so I realized that I don't know about
this -- gotta ask.

Richard
 
Richard said:
When using Firefox, do we still need to protect our sanity with The
Proxomitron? Or does Firefox itself allow us to tame those damn
stupidly-programmed sites?

I haven't installed Firefox yet, so I realized that I don't know about
this -- gotta ask.

Richard
Click to expand...
I would say use it. I still use proxomitron with firefox and mozilla
because it allows me to filter webpages without having to rely on the
web browser. Firefox is a great browser, to be sure, but it isn't
perfect and exploits do pop up. Its faster for me to write a filter for
proxomitron that handles these problems than it is to wait for an update
in firefox. Also, proxomitron lets me change aspects of a webpage that
no browser can do so it still comes in handy.
 
I would say use it. I still use proxomitron with firefox and mozilla
because it allows me to filter webpages without having to rely on the
web browser. Firefox is a great browser, to be sure, but it isn't
perfect and exploits do pop up. Its faster for me to write a filter for
proxomitron that handles these problems than it is to wait for an update
in firefox. Also, proxomitron lets me change aspects of a webpage that
no browser can do so it still comes in handy.
Click to expand...

I'm using both.
I've been trialling Firefox for a couple of weeks now, along with the
Adblock extension.
I think the two work hand in hand. Proxomitron is able to filter using
a range of complex expressions that will work wherever you surf to,
Adblock is handy for 'point and shoot' filtering - but between them
both they do a fine job.

Try browsing with Proxomitron set to bypass and see if you feel it
makes a difference. Might be worth popping onto one of those online
browser test sites to see what the difference is.

Regards,
 
When using Firefox, do we still need to protect our sanity
with The Proxomitron? Or does Firefox itself allow us to
tame those damn stupidly-programmed sites?

I haven't installed Firefox yet, so I realized that I don't
know about this -- gotta ask.

Richard
Click to expand...

Yes.
Of course, also depends on how you browse (eg, JS on/off), where
you go (sites), ...

Having Proxo is nice because one can "cutomize" (not)rendering
to one's need.

In some cases, Proxo can "kill" exploits before they're
discovered and patched in FX (e.g., malicious postscript,
spoofed URL's).

Filtering (killing) worthless HTML code (as defined by he user)
will speed up rendering on slower PC's.

J
 
When using Firefox, do we still need to protect our sanity with The
Proxomitron? Or does Firefox itself allow us to tame those damn
stupidly-programmed sites?
Click to expand...

I used to use Proxomitron: I haven't in months. Firefox with Adblock and a
HOSTS file fills the bill for me. YMMV.
 
When using Firefox, do we still need to protect our sanity with The
Proxomitron? Or does Firefox itself allow us to tame those damn
stupidly-programmed sites?

I haven't installed Firefox yet, so I realized that I don't know about
this -- gotta ask.

Richard
Click to expand...

I believe you can achieve what you want by using a couple of
FF extensions, adblock and "remove it permanently".
After you install FF, try those and see if you still need
Prox.
 
elaich said:
[email protected]:




I used to use Proxomitron: I haven't in months. Firefox with Adblock and a
HOSTS file fills the bill for me. YMMV.
Click to expand...
Elaich, you brought up an interesting issue.
I'm still using Internet Explorer. I once downloaded somebody's hosts
file and also added to it myself. Then later, I found that a site that I
wanted was blocked in the Hosts.

The problem is that within Internet Explorer, it's almost impossible to
edit a large hosts file -- the entries are positioned willie-nillie, in
no order -- there's no way to sort them.

I just found the hosts file itself in the Windows directory. I
discovered that Spybot Search and Destroy had put over 8,000 line items
in the file, also unsorted. When I wanted to remove a single entry in
the teenie window in Internet Explorer, finding that entry among the
8,000 others was a lost cause.

Anyone know a simple routine for rearranging and editing this beast?

How about Firefox? Does Firefox permit easy handling of its hosts?

Richard
 
Richard said:
When using Firefox, do we still need to protect our sanity with The
Proxomitron? Or does Firefox itself allow us to tame those damn
stupidly-programmed sites?

I haven't installed Firefox yet, so I realized that I don't know about
this -- gotta ask.

Richard
Click to expand...
As others have mentioned adblock is a good one as well as blockxxx and
flashblock.

I also have a nice adblock list that seems to work on most things. It uses
regexes mostly so you dont have a huge list of sites to block.

The blockxxx does what it says in that it will filter a page and if it finds
to many bad words then it will take all the pics off the page. Bad part
about it is that the page loads completely before the plugin kicks in so
that pics still show for a bit till the plugin blocks them all.

Flashblock is great in that it flat out blocks all flash objects on a page.
You can then click on them to turn them on if you want otherwire there is
only a placeholder that shows up.
 
Anyone know a simple routine for rearranging and editing this beast?
Click to expand...

HostsToggle makes turning the "Hosts" file "on" and "off" as easy as
clicking a button. The Hosts file can also be automatically restored
after a specified amount of time - great if you keep forgetting to turn
the Hosts back on! And finally, you can easily load alternate Hosts
files (saved with the extension .tgl) so that instead of completely
turning off the Hosts file, you can load one without the entries that
are causing you trouble.

http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/HostsToggle/
 
about host
Anyone know a simple routine for rearranging and editing this beast?
Click to expand...


fastnet99 is a nice freeware util to handle the Host file and speedup your
webbrowser
http://volftp.mondadori.com/cgi/scheda?en/fastnet99.exe


Description:
FastNet99 is a network utility that will speed up your web browser every
time you want to connect to a web site on the Internet, by avoiding time
consuming DNS lookups. It provides all the tools you need to help diagnose
network problems and get information about users, hosts and networks on the
Internet or on your Intranet. It combines DNS Lookup, Ping, TraceRoute,
WhoIs, Finger, Time Synchronizer, Keep Alive, Net Launcher and more...
 
I would say use it. I still use proxomitron with firefox and mozilla
because it allows me to filter webpages without having to rely on the
web browser. Firefox is a great browser, to be sure, but it isn't
perfect and exploits do pop up. Its faster for me to write a filter for
proxomitron that handles these problems than it is to wait for an update
in firefox. Also, proxomitron lets me change aspects of a webpage that
no browser can do so it still comes in handy.
Click to expand...

It depends on what aspects. With extensions like adblock,
Aardvark/paplyus/RIP, it becomes extremely trival to permanently, change
layout of webpages even if you don't know a thing about http/scripts and
whatnot.

And in greasemonkey, you have the ability to add scripts that run on
any/all/some webpages. It reminds me a lot of proxomitron since you can
do many of the same tricks, though I believe proxomitron is still more
powerful ?
 
I believe you can achieve what you want by using a couple of
FF extensions, adblock and "remove it permanently".
Click to expand...

I believe that RIP (remove it permanently) hides the content rather than
blocking it from download. The net effect is the same in many cases of
course.
 
I believe that RIP (remove it permanently) hides the content
rather than blocking it from download. The net effect is the same
in many cases of course.
Click to expand...

Yes, RIP hides content rather than blocking its downloading; the same
goes for any changes to a page made with Greasemonkey scripts, which
run after the page and its elements have downloaded. But AdBlock will
block anything from downloading, using regular expressions to match
URLs.
 
Yes, RIP hides content rather than blocking its downloading; the same
goes for any changes to a page made with Greasemonkey scripts, which
run after the page and its elements have downloaded. But AdBlock will
block anything from downloading, using regular expressions to match
URLs.
Click to expand...

Does Flashnot do the same?
 
Does Flashnot do the same?
Click to expand...

FlashBlock blocks all embedded Flash from downloading until the user
clicks to see it. Where the Flash would be in a page, FlashBlock puts
an image overlay, and clicking the image will start the Flash download.

It's possible to whitelist sites so that Flash from them is always
downloaded. Also, if you go directly to any .swf file (as opposed to a
page containing some .swf file), it will bypass FlashBlock.
 
FlashBlock blocks all embedded Flash from downloading until the user
clicks to see it. Where the Flash would be in a page, FlashBlock puts
an image overlay, and clicking the image will start the Flash download.

It's possible to whitelist sites so that Flash from them is always
downloaded. Also, if you go directly to any .swf file (as opposed to a
page containing some .swf file), it will bypass FlashBlock.
Click to expand...

It's great, thanks Q.
 
(e-mail address removed) wrote in
t:
Yes.
Of course, also depends on how you browse (eg, JS on/off),
where you go (sites), ...

Having Proxo is nice because one can "cutomize"
(not)rendering to one's need.

In some cases, Proxo can "kill" exploits before they're
discovered and patched in FX (e.g., malicious postscript,
spoofed URL's).

Filtering (killing) worthless HTML code (as defined by he
user) will speed up rendering on slower PC's.

J
Click to expand...

Also you might try Privoxy. It is similar to Proxomitron,
based on JunkBusters ad blocking rule sets. It is free
software released under the GPL:

http://www.privoxy.org

I think it's simpler than Proxomitron and easier to understand
and customize.
 
Anyone know a simple routine for rearranging and editing this beast?

How about Firefox? Does Firefox permit easy handling of its hosts?
Click to expand...

Hosts is just a text file. Open it in your favorite text editor, change
it and save it. Layout of the file couldn't be simpler.
 
fathom said:
I think it's simpler than Proxomitron and easier to understand
and customize.
Click to expand...

i downloaded it last year, but the setup looked too much trouble. proxo seems easier. but
if privoxy is easier to config and add filters, that's good.


proxo most needs a better dummy test dialog for user's filter testing.

currently, when you get the filter correctly, proxo's dialog shows what happened. when you
get the filter wrong, the diaog gives no hnits as to what went wrong. grrrrrrrr



someone else offers an attempt at a "happy interface" for proxo (not sure why it needs
that).



but, i think familiairty and unfamiliarity is just a matter of personal software experince.
 
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