Instead of Proxomitron?

[Q Section]

Greetings Everyone

The Proxomitron site now says to try Privoxy, Muffin, Ad-Subtract or WebWasher as a replacement. Does anyone have an opinion regarding the best and second best out of the above 5?

Thank you so much.

[Pilli]

Hello QSection, WebWasher is based on the proximitron engine, is free and also easy to use but does not have the depth of adjustment that The Proximitron is capable of.

I have no experience with the others you have mentioned :)

Pilli

[sig]

There's no need for a replacement for Proxo. That site's owner shut his forum site down for whatever reason but Proxo is still available on the net, additional configuration files and filters are also still available and there is still a community of active users.

I don't know what happened but it appears IMO that this particular site owner is being a bit of a ..... well, let me just say there is no good reason to have that advisory just because he shut down his forum. His site is not the only site that provides proxo support and files. For example, here's another site where Proxo is available for download and it also has a Proxomitron forum, in addition to forums on other subjects:

http://www.computercops.biz/modules.php?name=Forums

Here's another site with helpful info on Proxo and links to other Proxo sites and resources: http://www.proxomitron.info/index.shtml

Fortunately the community of Proxo users did not and does not depend on the site the owner recently closed.

BTW Pilli, WebWasher is not based on the Proxo engine. AdSubtract Pro (not free) had and perhaps still has a licensing agreement with Proxo's author.

[Q Section]

Sig
Just to verify - Proxomitron is better/has more features than the others listed and any others in that category? We have never used such programs before and are just starting to pick this end up.

[Pilli]

Thanks Sig, My mind muddle again :)
I still use The Proxomitron on my main PC and as you say it is still well supported but not by the author.

QSection,
The Proxomitron is still the best by all accounts but to use all of the benefits there is a lot to learn, having said that it works well straight from the box :)

[peakaboo]

what a piece of work...

rant on

To think Scott was made to feel lack crap by this guy and then this guy closes his site not referencing other proxo sites but instead listing alternatives to proxomitron...

talk about ungrateful. >:(

Scott what ever you are doing kudos to you for what you have built with proxomitron. Too bad you let the whiners of this world dictate your departure. Looking at the "never satisfied no matter what you do group" it's a wonder you stayed in the game as long as you did, but here's one user who is glad you did. 8)

rant off

Anyway as others have stated proxo is still good till http is somehow altered or made obsolete.

I have tried privoxy (open source), and it is ok but I found it to be a bit clunky and slower than proxo... some neat ideas there though but I still prefer proxomitron.

discussion here:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=10791

the others I have not tried so no comment

[notageek]

Hi QSection, I use proxo it's a good tool. You can configure it to block web bugs, tracking links and other stuff. With Proxo you can make and use your own filter sets (if you know how to make them, whcich is easy if you go to the links that Sig supplied). If you ever get lost with Proxo there is always help out there. You can also download a filter set. As Pilli said Proxo is good even if you use it right out the box.

Web washer is easier to confure. It don't have no filter sets to configure for stuff. You block just the basic stuff, like web bugs and what web pahge and Os your'e using. I stoped using WebWasher when it wouldn't let me get my Email via OE.

I say try them and see which one suits your needs. :)

[sig]

QSection: I haven't used WebWasher in years, but I understand that it is still a user friendly app. I did like it very much but Proxo used fewer resources on W98 and that was important to me before I got a new PC with XP. WW is free for personal use so there's no issue with cost or a time limited trial.

Proxo does have greater flexibility and potentiality than WW based upon the filters one chooses to use, either out of the box or when using other's people configurations (filter sets). I use JD5000's configuration filter set and have found that new users of Proxo seem to like it since it provides more info than the out of the box setup, more filters are available and it contains several levels of filtering one can choose from (basic to advanced filter sets).

Other people I know are quite happy with AdSubtract Pro (the vendor no longer have a freeware version as far as I'm aware). It uses components of Proxo but has a more user friendly GUI. I believe a free trial version is available for people to try the product.

I'm not familiar with the other apps mentioned.

Whatever you find most to your liking and easiest to use is for you to decide. I just wanted to make clear that if you were happy with Proxo and wanted to continue using it there was no reason to dump it and other Proxo resources were readily available. :)

edited to add: BTW, just to clarify: while Proxo's author ceased development of Proxo in June the app is by no means out of date and won't be in the foreseeable future. The filters are the magic components and those are not hardwired into the app. With the use of various filters, block lists and bypass lists one can customize Proxo to suit one's needs and preferences. It can be as complex or as basic as one wants. For a new user I'd recommend using Proxo out of the box for a bit to get the feel for it, although some new users started out installing JD's configuration set and were happy with it.

[crockett]

Hi ;)

On WebWasher myself. Fits all my needs (I mean computer wise ;) ).

I also know JacK recommends WebWasher as main web filter on his own security site.

Nothing wrong with Proxo either, of course.

Rgds, Crockett 8)

[MickeyTheMan]

And yet NAVISCOPE fits my needs along with the pacfile and spyblocker

[Q Section]

Thank you one and all for all the very useful opinions. :D
We will try several but it sounds like we might in the end go with Proxomitron. Time will tell.

[MakoFusion]

How would one hide his OS from showing with a Proxomitron filter?

[Phant0m]

I’ve been perfectly satisfied with AdSubtract PRO, Free version was limited beyond my taste. AdSubtract Offers number of crucial Features and with user-friendly GUI it was like home for me. Thing is running web-filtering Systems normally means running Local proxy server, and as most people well aware that is a big security concern. I had recently visited the official Ad Muncher website and read up on-it and what caught my eye was

-{ Quote: " One of the main benefits of Ad Muncher is that it works on the system level of your operating system (as opposed to working as a local "proxy server"), and is the only advert removing software to our knowledge to do so. What does this mean? This means that there is no noticeable performance decrease, while other advert removers will introduce noticeable "lag", especially on pages with many images" }-

All good but what caught my eye the most was “One of the main benefits of Ad Muncher is that it works on the system level of your operating system (as opposed to working as a local "proxy server")”, now this may not make sense to majority but to those who it do this equal better security.

Because of how most Client Applications accessing HTTP Environments it goes through IE Proxy settings, and since IE proxy settings is used for most web-filtering systems to act as middle-man between you and the Internet, conflicts arises for most of our every-day Client Applications such like Updating Systems which goes through IE Proxy settings. When this happens, it’s the middle-man that is seen making connections and being so it’s nearly impossible to control which equals low security level.

[JayK]

Privoxy - open source program, in theory as flexible as proxomitron. I don't really like it , but there are some who like it.


Muffin - This one's interesting, but I havent tried it.

[libbo1]

No one has mentioned GUIDESCOPE. :P I've been using it for about a year . . . it werks good!

[JayK]

-{ Quote: " quoting: libbo1 link=board=20;threadid=16615;start=0#msg104916 date=1070034021]
No one has mentioned GUIDESCOPE. :P I've been using it for about a year . . . it werks good!
" }-

I've always being suspicious of schemes like Guidescope.