The CAMELEON Project - Philippe Bourcier


		CAMELEON For an ads-free Internet... ________________________

[ I ] - What is CAMELEON and how does it work ?

CAMELEON is a free system that helps Internet users or administrators to blocks web-adverts.
There are a few reasons for which someone would like to do that :
- kill those annoying ads
- save bandwidth
- increase productivity
- other uses (static pages fast webserver)

It uses two technics to achieve this :
- a HTTP proxy server (squid) is used to divert all the traffic aimed at advertising companies
- a web server (the CAMELEON HTTPd) provides the user's browser a blank/transparent document

The CAMELEON HTTPd is a very optimised webserver which analyses the query sent by the HTTP client and returns a blank/transparent page or a blank/transparent image. It can sustain a very important number of simultaneous HTTP requests making it the best HTTP server for any kind of blacklist usage.

[ II ] - Which operating system is supported by the CAMELEON HTTPd ?

The CAMELEON HTTPd has been successfully compiled and tested under Linux, *BSD and Windows (thanks to cygwin)... It should compile and work on most UNIX-like systems : FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Apple Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, IBM AIX, HP-UX...

[ III ] - HOW TO...

1) - Compiling the CAMELEON HTTPd

# tar -zxvf libpeak.tar.gz
# cd libpeak-0.x.x
# ./configure (on linux : --with-engine=poll)
[on non-SMP/HT machines : --enable-uniprocessor-only]
# make && make test && make install
# cd ..
# tar -zxvf cameleon.tar.gz
# cd cameleon
# modify "#define PATH" in cameleon.c to modify the install path
(default is /usr/local/)
# make && make install

2) - Installing the pre-compiled Windows version of the CAMELEON HTTPd

# unzip cameleon.zip to a folder of your choice (ie: C:\Program Files\)
# launch create_launch.bat, a new file called launch.bat will be created

3) - Installing squid

# download and install Squid version 2.6 or more
(UNIX http://www.squid-cache.org/Versions/v2/2.6/
Windows http://squid.acmeconsulting.it/download/dl-squid.html)
# on a unix host you should use ./configure --disable-wccp --enable-kill-parent-hack --disable-snmp --disable-htcp --enable-poll --enable-underscore --with-dl --disable-hostname-checks --disable-unlinkd --enable-storeio=null # download the hosts or hosts.win file (depending on your OS)
# install the following squid.conf ([UNIX]/[Win32]) file
# launch the cameleon daemon
# launch the Squid HTTP proxy server
# configure your browser to use your new HTTP proxy server
# that's it, your network can now browse an ads-free Internet...

[ IV ] - Downloads

PEAK library
http://peak.sf.net
(required to build the CAMELEON HTTPd)
cameleon.tar.gz
(UNIX source code archive)
cameleon.zip
(Windows binary archive)
UNIX format hosts file [20569 entries]
(no more updated / DEPRECATED)
Windows format hosts file
(no more updated / DEPRECATED)

[ V ] - Authors

The CAMELEON project (concept and maintainer) : Philippe Bourcier (philippe_at_sysctl.org)
The CAMELEON HTTPd and PEAK library (coder) : Stéphane Thiell (mbuna_at_bugged.org)