# Privoxy way to slow

## Shapeshifter

Hi.

I've been using Proxomitron on my windows machine for a long time and now I'm using privoxy on Arch. It actually works, but it's showing some annoying symptoms:

A) Random lockups while loading a page:

E.g. if I'm search for pictures on google, the first two pages load normally, but on the third it just locks up and doesn't continue loading for at least 30 seconds. Tried it with both FF and Opera - both browsers run very fast without the proxy enabled. See here for examples how the page looks in those cases: In FF, in Opera.

B) Random waiting times when clicking a link:

It happens on a regular basis - at least once in five times - that I click on a link and nothing happens for at least 10 seconds; sometimes I can let it run for a whole minute and then the page suddenly loads. But most of the time I just click on a link a couple of times if it doesn't load after 5-10 seconds and then it will occasionally load. It seems like the request just doesn't get through sometimes. Sometimes it also helps if I cancel a request and reload the page...

And it's soo annoying, I can't go without ad blocking, and at the same time I can't go with these long waiting times. I've also been using Proxomitron on Wine but that's not a real solution, and the built in ad functionalities of Opera don't really rule that much...

Does anyone know a solution to this problem?

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## nephros

 *Shapeshifter wrote:*   

> Does anyone know a solution to this problem?

 

Not right away, but you could try to increase the "buffer-limit" setting in /etc/privoxy/config.

Also increase logging verbosity and try if you can pin the problem down by looking at the logs.

Also, these long waiting times also could be caused by a DNS problem. Are you sure you are using a reliable DNS setup?

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## Konsti

I have the problem privoxy being updated today from 3.06 to 3.0.8 and it is very very slow now. When I open my usual porn bookmark group all (may be 5 to 7) tabs being completed lasts a couple of minutes (if ever) to be completed instead of the usual 20 seconds. Can this be some sort of the same problem?

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## Konsti

Also I realized now, privoxy starts to loads some pages but hangs after beginning after a while forever. I will try debugging this. But what a pity...

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## jlmcp

I concur ... I have the exact same problem after the 3.0.6 upgrade to 3.0.8. Random wait times, random hangups, etc. Sounds like there might be some bugs in the software ... 

Jake

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## nephros

Maybe you should just browse less porn sites.

SCNR. Really. CNR.

Does that slowdown happen generally, or on specific sites?

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## Konsti

I did not measure if the slowdown happens generally, I have the feeling that this is generally the case on bigger or more complex websites. Yes, indeed porn sites are triggering the problem, that loading the entire page (many thumbnails) lasts forever. But also the google images problem is known to me also.

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## jlmcp

Not too sure about porn sites ... 

But one thing I have tried is using some of those "speed test" sites such as: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/. Once the test kicks off, traffic will flow for a bit ... then pause ... then flow ... pause ... finish. I have noticed this with most sites I go to, including Gentoo Forums and Sourceforge as of this morning.

I was going to call and berate my ISP, but others that are not using Privoxy don't have the issues, so here I am.

Jake

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## jlmcp

... yep. Just downgraded to 3.0.6, and it's nice and fast again. I think they need to test 3.0.8 a little more before its ready for prime-time.

Jake

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## darklegion

I'm not having any noticeable speed issues with 3.0.8.However, I'm chaining with squid so that might be making a difference.

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## menotbug

3.0.8 was slower on my computer too, loading multiple pages at same time shows it clearly.

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## cprior

If you go to e.g. http://www.symfony-project.org/ it hangs at the paypal button (https src).

Also when I visit gmail.com via the https protocol it hangs quite a while.

Could it be that some compression thingy is responsible?

Maybe wrong config file updates?

Update: Yes, if I exclude the proxy for https connections all is fine.

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## corporate_gadfly

 *menotbug wrote:*   

> 3.0.8 was slower on my computer too, loading multiple pages at same time shows it clearly.

 I was experiencing the same problems. I ended up adding the following line to /etc/portage/package.use so that the threads use flag is enabled: 

```
net-proxy/privoxy threads
```

or you can use 

```
USE=threads emerge privoxy
```

Afterwards, things are a lot faster and there are no hangups. So, my explanation would be that threads support is off by default in 3.0.8. Perhaps the ebuild should recognize this and if threads support is off, then warn the user.Last edited by corporate_gadfly on Sat Jun 28, 2008 12:34 am; edited 1 time in total

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## jagdpanther

Here is a summary and my fix:

Privoxy 3.0.8 slow on a gentoo system:

Connections via privoxy 3.0.8 were very slow. (3.0.6 did not have this issue.)

The gentoo patches (added during "emerge privoxy") seem to be the culprit.  To  

fix on a gentoo system, assuming privoxy 3.0.8 is already emerged:

Compile privoxy by hand according to  the installation instructions provided

in the privoxy source code.  Do NOT 'make install'.  Instead after you 'make' just

copy the resulting privoxy binary over the emerged one at /usr/sbin/privoxy

Then restart privoxy.   (/etc/init.d/privoxy start)

Note:  you should be able to find the source at: 

 /usr/portage/distfiles/privoxy-3.0.8-stable-src.tar.gz

 on your system.

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## Konsti

Current Version 3.0.8 gets no patches applied by portage but the issue is still persistent. Which patches do you suspect to be applied? I fiddled with this a bit and recent version 3.0.6 gets also very unresponsive if penetrated. I suspect this belongs upstream...

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## jagdpanther

Although the 'work around' that I posted works, the real solution is to add the 'threads' use flag as corporate_gadfly mentions.  My 'work around' works because by default the source code compiles with threads by default.  However,  emerge privoxy does NOT compile with threads unless the 'threads' use flag is set.   There seems to be a couple of other packages that have this same 'issue.'  I just added 'threads' to /etc/make.conf then did an 'emerge -u -N --deep world -pv' and again without the '-p' to catch all of those 'threads' packages.

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## Fog_Watch

threads solved the problem for me too.

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## sundialsvc4

Until I added "threads" and reinstalled privoxy as suggested, many fundamental network things like "gmail" had become, for all intents and purposes, inoperative.

This resolved the problem.

Lots of us enlightened souls use privoxy to help keep the Internet a vaguely-sane place to be.  This issue needs to be resolved at once.

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## Smart1

I use Privoxy 3.0.9_beta, Tor 0.2.1.2_alpha, Proxomitron (Wine) and JonDo (JAP).

As Proxy Selector in Firefox I use Addons FoxyProxy

JonDo works good with Proxomitron.   :Very Happy: 

Tor works also good with Privoxy.   :Very Happy: 

I wish to use JonDo with Privoxy.

For this Combination in FoxyProxy i writed

127.0.0.1 and for Port 8118

In /etc/privoxy/config I have writed

forward   /  127.0.0.1:4001 .

Is this okay?   :Question: 

Bath this not works. JonDo not change IP Adress.   :Embarassed: 

Regards,

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## Smart1

Now works JonDo with Privoxy.

Use only Tabs in

/etc/privoxy/config-jap

# For Tor

#forward-socks4a<-->/<----->127.0.0.1:9050 .

# For JonDo

forward<--->/<----->127.0.0.1:4001

p-jap

#!/bin/sh

killall privoxy

ln -sf /etc/privoxy/config-jap /etc/privoxy/config

/etc/init.d/privoxy restart && /etc/init.d/tor restart

For Tor and Privoxy use "config-tor" and "p-tor".

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## sundialsvc4

In my experience, "threads" made the problem vanish.

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## slartibartfasz

 *sundialsvc4 wrote:*   

> In my experience, "threads" made the problem vanish.

 

problem occured for me with privoxy-3.0.10 - compiling with USE=threads still solves the problem. Maybe this flag should be forced for privoxy.

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## dj_farid

Thanks!

Threads fixed my problems too. I think this should be forced on, or at least suggested during emerge.

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## Massimo B.

Today this is also part of Privoxy-FAQ 5.23. I compiled Privoxy with Gentoo's portage and it appears to be very slow. Why?

Even though I read setting USE="threads" globally is not advised, this flag is mandatory for privoxy.

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