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Can Proximitron possibly filter .gif files?
Nov. 03, 2007, 04:02 AM
Post: #1
Sad Can Proximitron possibly filter .gif files?
I'm having some trouble. Inflated animated .gif files are wreaking havoc on my bandwidth so I thought I'd come here for help.

Is it possible to filter these baddies out automatically or to prevent them from loading forever?

Thanks.
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Nov. 03, 2007, 08:26 AM
Post: #2
RE: Can Proximitron possibly filter .gif files?
If you open the Prox window, there is a checkbox in the first window that says "Freeze GIFs".
Checking that will prevent the GIF animation. I presume that it would stop all but the first frame from downloading (I have never tried it - I like animated GIFs). The help file says that that setting will save on image loading time.
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Nov. 04, 2007, 02:00 PM
Post: #3
RE: Can Proximitron possibly filter .gif files?
"foose-ball" (U.S. 'football') is about the ONLY thing I totally DESPISE more than freakin' eyesore mumbo-jumbo USELESS animated .gif's...

yes, the above mentioned setting will prevent the CURSED eyesore INSANELY distractive LUNACY from "animating", but it will have no effect on bandwidth...


to illustrate, "allow" the EYESORE animated .gif's and go to this site - http://www.citilink.com/~grizzly/anigifs/bars.htm

now CLEAR your cache, set Proxo to FREEZE .gif's (and even enable the filter .gif's filter in sidki's config)... watch the STUPID animations and note that they STOP animating after a small amount of time (an ETERNITY to those of us that HATE animated DISTRACTIONS)... that is to say, with sidki's filter .gif's filter, they will animate for a short time, with the FREEZE .gifs setting withOUT the sidki filter, they simply will NOT animate (but their file sizes remain the same)...


now go to your "What the Proxo is thinking" page - http://local.ptron/.pinfo/urls/

observe that Proxo will convert the TYPE of file from "image/gif" to "image/png" (again, the sidki filter)... but more importantly, the LENGTH of the cursed animation remains the same - ie, NO effect on bandwidth...


to regain your bandwidth, you need to NOT download them AT ALL...
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Aug. 05, 2008, 01:51 PM
Post: #4
RE: Can Proximitron possibly filter .gif files?
ProxRocks Wrote:observe that Proxo will convert the TYPE of file from "image/gif" to "image/png" (again, the sidki filter)... but more importantly, the LENGTH of the cursed animation remains the same - ie, NO effect on bandwidth...


to regain your bandwidth, you need to NOT download them AT ALL...

Aaaah - but there IS an effect on bandwidth! For example, the barmoveb.gif (34237 bytes) near the top of the page is cached as 4072 bytes, both in IE and FF. However, Proxomitron still records the full lenth in the Recent URLs list.
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Aug. 05, 2008, 03:59 PM
Post: #5
RE: Can Proximitron possibly filter .gif files?
did you CLEAR your cache?

animated or not, if you have to FETCH the image, the length is the FULL length that you are fetching (AND eating up bandwidth to download)...

if the animated OR non-animated is sitting in your cache, then who cares how big it is...
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Aug. 06, 2008, 12:35 PM
Post: #6
RE: Can Proximitron possibly filter .gif files?
You misunderstand - it's nothing to do with clearing the IE cache - I'm looking at the files IN the cache with Cache Explorer.

With animation unfrozen, the total size size in the cache is 314,136 bytes. With animation frozen it 's 48,034 bytes.

However, I've checked the actual data received, and this totals around 345,000 bytes unfrozen, but only 250,000 frozen, which represents a reasonable bandwidth saving, even though it's less than I'd thought (cache cleared between the tests).

Further checking with individual GIFs reveals that the reduction depends very much on the individual GIF. Data transmission is progressively reduced for GIFs larger than about 20,000 bytes. The larger the GIF, the greater the benefit. That'll do for me - apart from the obvious benefit of eliminating the distraction. Proxo sends the browser a GIF with a modified header and just one frame - the cached (frozen) files are just that.
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Aug. 06, 2008, 04:14 PM
Post: #7
RE: Can Proximitron possibly filter .gif files?
ah! i see what you're saying now! thanks for the explanation...

(i freeze .gif's via Proxo's setup, i don't allow them to animate even for a "little while", lol...)
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Aug. 06, 2008, 10:19 PM
Post: #8
RE: Can Proximitron possibly filter .gif files?
I've just experimented with a header filter to kill large GIFs - anything bigger than 18,000 bytes for a start. The browser just displays a blank space with an image placeholder. I never cease to be amazed just how versatile Proxomitron is!

I've stiil got a folder for version 3b, with configs and downloaded filters dating back to early 2000. I couldn't understand half of the functionality Scott had written in to the program then, and I'm only a little further on in getting to grips with some of the more complex functions of the last release.

Code:
[HTTP headers]
In = TRUE
Out = FALSE
Key = "Content-Length: Kill large GIFs"
URL = "*.gif"
Match = "[#18000:*]"
Replace = "1"
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