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I hate browsing the internet on my iPhone. I rarely get 3G, and even when I do the speeds are typically sub-DSL. But Safari (at least my version) doesn't give me many options to optimize my experience.

I want to set up a home HTTP proxy that

  • intercepts and strips images
  • minifies and gzips Javascript
  • intercepts downloads from known ad domains, using some publicly held blacklist that I don't have to update

Are there any recommended packages or pieces of software for this job? Has anyone had any luck with this sort of task previously?

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  • Yeah ... :/ on-the-fly image resizing? It's possible - anything is possible. But i doubt that in the home environment and based on the hardware that is available for regular user - something like this will only slow you down. You will wait and wait until the software intercept connection, wait untill the image is downloaded fully, resize it and send to you. I belive this could be done with squid as an interceptor and magic as a tool for resizing images, all setup on a Linux computer that reside inside your network and works like proxy. I would strongly advise against it.
    – mnmnc
    Dec 23, 2012 at 1:02
  • @mnmnc - Hmm, I see what you mean. It would probably be a net loss overall. Let's say the proxy just strips the images, then.
    – Jimmy Breck-McKye
    Dec 23, 2012 at 1:03
  • This is something that could properly work if big money in the project would be involved - some multi-processor PC with a lot of processing power for multiple users - maybe someone would see a demand for such solution. You should incorporate a reqular caching proxy with a Squid on Linux box.
    – mnmnc
    Dec 23, 2012 at 1:04
  • Stripping images that is something web browser is capable of doing. Chrome and Firefox have this option for sure. I'm not sure about apple software but i see no reason why developers from Apple would not include this. Still if you would like to use a browser that has no such option - squid is certainly capable of dropping the requests based on the url - if you specify the blocked url as *jpg - you will never see the jpg image again.
    – mnmnc
    Dec 23, 2012 at 1:07
  • @mnmnc - Hmm, Squid looks like it might be the solution. Why not add it as an answer?
    – Jimmy Breck-McKye
    Dec 23, 2012 at 1:11

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Based on the discussion in the comments I place my recommendation as Linux + Squid.

Squid is a caching proxy but is perfectly capable of intercepting the request matching to regular expression (*jpg) thus not allowing for image download.

Use a squid plugin called SquidGuard. Its capabilities:

  • limit the web access for some users to a list of accepted/well known web servers and/or URLs only.

  • block access to some listed or
    blacklisted web servers and/or URLs for some users.

  • block access to URLs matching a list of regular expressions or words for some users.

  • enforce the use of domainnames/prohibit the use of IP
    address in URLs

  • redirect blocked URLs to an "intelligent" CGI based info page.

  • redirect unregistered user to a registration form.

  • redirect popular downloads like Netscape, MSIE etc. to local copies.

  • redirect banners to an empty GIF.

  • have different access rules based on time of day, day of the week, date etc.

  • have different rules for different user groups. and much more..

Here you can find configuration guide for rules based on regular expression.

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