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startpage.com blocking VPN? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
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edit: I changed my location and that seems to have worked for now. still a strange thing that it was localhost and not "site blocked" or something if my location was the issue. my VPN (ExpressVPN) was set to NJ. I switched to Toronto. ___ 🤷

hi all!!

has anyone else had this issue and been able to fix it? it happens on any browser (vivaldi, brave, lightning, vivandium...), phone or desktop, if I'm connected to my VPN.

I'm using startpage specifically because it's supposed to be privacy-focused... I don't want to keep disconnecting my VPN every time I have to make a search.

(internet connection is working perfectly and no issues with other sites)

(I have some other search engines I use for specific things, but looking to troubleshoot this if anyone knows the solution...)

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[–] 18 points 7 months ago (1 child)

I deleted what I wrote before. If it federated, ignore it.

Your browser is trying to find startpage.com on your local machine instead of the Internet.

While on the VPN, open a command window and ping startpage.com. Does it return localhost or the real IP address? If it returns the real IP address, then the problem is related to the browser. Try another browser to see if it's Vivaldi-related.

If it returns localhost then maybe it's a setting in protonVPN?

This is strange. Just try to find clues.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 7 months ago

    thank you! yea it's really weird that it was going to "localhost" that's what was tripping me up. I tried changing locations of the VPN and that seems to have worked for now, but I don't really get why. computers, man.

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