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### 3.1 Client connections

There are three fundamental values that control how Polipo speaks to clients. The variable `proxyAddress`, defines the IP address on which Polipo will listen; by default, its value is the loopback address `"127.0.0.1"`, meaning that Polipo will listen on the IPv4 loopback interface (the local host) only. By setting this variable to a global IP address or to one of the special values `"::"` or `"0.0.0.0"`, it is possible to allow Polipo to serve remote clients. This is likely to be a security hole unless you set `allowedClients` to a reasonable value (see Access control).

Note that the type of address that you specify for `proxyAddress` will determine whether Polipo listens to IPv4 or IPv6. Currently, the only way to have Polipo listen to both protocols is to specify the IPv6 unspecified address (`"::"`) for `proxyAddress`.

The variable `proxyPort`, by default 8123, defines the TCP port on which Polipo will listen.

The variable `proxyName`, which defaults to the host name of the machine on which Polipo is running, defines the name of the proxy. This can be an arbitrary string that should be unique among all instances of Polipo that you are running. Polipo uses it in error messages and optionally for detecting proxy loops (by using the ‘`Via`’ HTTP header, see Censoring headers). Finally, the `displayName` variable specifies the name used in user-visible error messages (default “Polipo”).

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