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So, I link in my sig, and often suggest you try out Proxomitron, but what is it? How do you use it? Simply put, it is a filtering proxy. It uses regular expressions arranged as filters to do a mass find and replace on HTML pages as they come onto your PC. Groups of filters are called filtersets. There are several maintained filtersets currently, the biggies are Sidki's, and Grypen's. I maintain an Opera focused modification of Grypen's set for forum members - or anyone really.

Get it here: See the last post I've made in the thread below

Watch for updates here: http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=76301&abc=&page=5&skip=200&show=&perscreen=50

I've figured out that straight links seem to work now to mediamax, even in Opera, so it's ok.

It's pretty simple really, all you do is set it as a proxy for Opera. To do this, go to tools -> preferences, advanced tab, network leaf, and click on proxy servers. In HTTP, put host as localhost and port as 8080. You can chain proxomitron to another proxy, to do so, double click on the tray icon (the green triangle) click proxy, and input the information in this form

host:port

ok out, and hit file -> save. Then that will be setup for you.

One thing is important, lots of things Proxomitron does uses text files called blocklists. They are accessable by right clicking on the tray icon, and selecting edit blockfile. To speed things up, you can add things via the add to blockfile choice.

The big thing is all the files are under the lists subdirectory in Grypen's set, and most of the things you would edit would be in the proxy\Lists\Grypen_Lists\User directory. Backing that up before an update might be a good idea, if you add any sites to a whitelist to allow cookies, or to bypass filters. Even better might be a compare between the old list and the new one. Specifically, look at the allowcookies list, it has what I consider to be sites I want cookies set from, you may want to change that, or clear it alltogether.


I try to update this filterset when I accumulate a few decent changes, but that means updates can be frequent or sporadic. Most updates aren't critical, so just grab a new one when you feel like it.

To update my filterset - just back up any blocklist entries you made (Mostly in User-Include-Exclude and Bypass), turn off proxomitron, and extract the proxy folder from the rar file over your install folder. Shortcuts should work unless you have changed the folder name. Dump in any saved enteries.

One word of caution with User-Include-Exclude. A specific site can only be listed ONCE.

Update (4/28/2006): More and more updates are actually additions to blocklists, so my previous suggestion of just saving the old lists can cause certain changelog entries to not actually happen, as you remove the changes. I highly recommend creating a section in any blocklist that you have edited to keep your edits in so you can easily copy them in on an update, and still get all the updates listed in the changelog.

To do this, just put something like this in:
#My Additions
entry1
entry2
entry3
#End My Additions

and put it at the end of the blocklist for easy copy/paste.

Lastly, feel free to ask questions or for help in the above Proxomitron thread.