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…)

  • user28282912@piefed.social
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    15 hours ago

    If you are using a VPN app it may be intercepting and proxying web traffic for you (whether you realize it or not). This would explain why it works when you ‘turn off the vpn’.

    If your VPN provider requires an app, well, that sucks and you should consider using another provider that does not.