Walter Montego:

Thanks Miuek for that great tutorial!!

I am certainly not an expert when it comes to using Proxomitron, but here's a few things I learned that should help a Proxomitron newbie.

1. Adding Others' Filters
2. Adding Regular Sites to the Bypass List
3. Enabling/disabling Certain Filters
4. Save your settings!!
4. Helful link

1. Adding Others' Filters

I wasn't able to write my own Proxomitron filters, and found that using others' filters was much easier. Here's an easy one to start off with: JD5000's filters. I use Grypen's filters, which are pretty much JD5000's filters that Grypen modified (source).

2. Adding Regular Sites to the Bypass List

When first using Proxomitron (especially after installing someone else's filters), I found that some of my regular sites didn't work properly, or at all. Setting Proxomitron to Bypass didn't seem to help, so I added my regular sites to the Bypass list:

- Right-click on Proxomitron's icon in the taskbar, and choose Edit Blockfile, then from the sidemenu choose Bypass List.txt

- Notepad opens the Bypass list, then scroll to the bottom and add:
[^/]++brainking.com/

Each site gets added to a new line. To add other sites, I just change the 'brainking.com' area. Here's a sample of some of my blocklist sites:

[^/]++ebay.com/
[^/]++bloglines.com/

[^/]++brainking.com/
[^/]++itsyourturn.(net|c
om)/
[^/]++furl.net/
[^/]++linkfilter.net/

I can't explain most of the regex code, but I do know the pipe* means OR. I left in It's Your Turn in case one of your favorite sites has a .net and a .com (or .org, .edu, .uk ending) and need to include both endings. Sorry it's a competitor site, but it was the only one I had in my bypass that had more than one ending. I rarely play there anymore 8^)

* The pipe is the up/down character in between 'net' and 'com' on the itsyourturn line. You can find it on your (American) keyboard on the upper portion of the backslash key, and will need to use your shift (caps) key to use it.

Once you've added your site to the bypass list, save it from Notepad's menu, then reload the page to see if it's working properly. It took me a few days of adding sites before I could surf easily with Proxomitron.

3. Enabling/disabling Certain Filters

- Double-click on the Proxomitron icon in your taskbar

- Click the Web Pages button under the Edit Filters section (right side)

- When the new dialog box appears, hover your mouse over the right-edge until your cursor changes to double-arrows, then drag the edge of the box towards the right (so you will be able to see longer items without scrolling sideways)

- Look through the filters, the group-titles have arrows/brackets (>>), equal signs (==), or hypens (--). The enhanced 404 and Google groups are towards the bottom; I love them. Place a checkmark next to a filter to enable it, or uncheck a filter to disable it.

4. Save your settings!!

If you made changes to which filters are enabled/disabled, you'll need to click the Apply button (if it's not greyed out, if it is, choose OK button), then ***Exit Proxomitron completely*** by right-clicking on the Proxomitron icon in the taskbar, choosing Exit program. A new dialog box appears and asks: Do you want to save those changes to the current configuration file? Click on the Save Changes button on the left to save your new settings to the configuratin file.

Repopen Proxomitron before trying to browse again.

4. Helful link

CastleCops JD5000 Forum is the best forum I've found; it has lots of helpful members, including the filter writers themselves occasionally answering questions. It also seems the most current from what I've been able to find from the search engines.