Vivaldi won't sync except while using a VPN

Pathduck

@dcmargo54 said in Vivaldi won't sync except while using a VPN:

So, any software that I use is exactly what I've been using all along.

How do you know this software has not updated in the background, and its ruleset?

And you say you have tried in a clean profile, but profiles share any flags set, so its very important to check those as well. All flags should be reset to their defaults.

At least I'm able to connect occasionally with the VPN to sync.

What kind of VPN is this? Does it run in the browser as an extension (proxy) or does it run on the OS level for all network traffic?

dcmargo54

@Zalex108
I have no flags at all set in Vivaldi.
Also, no unusual setting in Privacy and Security.

dcmargo54

@Pathduck
The software I'm using shouldn't affect Vivaldi's ability to sync. The same software would also be involved with a VPN engaged. I use the standalone Proton VPN.
I've never set any flags on this 2024 MacBook Air I'm using right now.

dcmargo54

@Pathduck
Chrome net-export log:
https://wormhole.app/v7m0k#Q9SqUEPN8SDZ3S2Ebn2dxA

Pathduck

@dcmargo54 Thanks for the log, I had a quick look here, but didn't tell me much apart from that yes, it times out... It has the correct IP, it sends the SSL handshake but never receives anything back.

Using a lot of extensions here. I'm counting 33, of which 16 is enabled. You did try disabling all of them and restarting the browser? I guess you did...

I'm at a loss what's wrong. But then again I'm on Windows, so no idea where to look at the OS level for what's wrong.

I guess my next recommendation would be to try launching Vivaldi from the terminal command line with a completely clean test profile. Something like:
vivaldi --user-data-dir=$TMPDIR/testing1
Not sure if that works on MacOS, i.e. if Vivaldi is on the PATH.
Make sure to close Vivaldi first obviously.

Maybe @yngve has an idea from the netlog?

yngve

@Pathduck @dcmargo54 A time out on a connection will tend to happen because the network system blocked or dropped the packets for establishing the connection.

That may be due to a network firewall connecting to the ISP, or in the ISP network; unlikely due to this apparently working for Windows. (Another case is packets being routed into a black hole, due to a misconfiguration, or worse.)

Another, more probably possibility in this case is that the OS firewall has been somehow configured to block certain connections, and those filters can be application, network address, and port specific.

I suggest looking at the rules of your computer's firewall.

dcmargo54

@yngve
I have my MacOS firewall turned off. In fact, I never enabled it.
The only other firewall in my system is in my Synology NAS. I tried disabling that and still had the sync issues.

dcmargo54

@Pathduck
the command, vivaldi --user-data-dir=$TMPDIR/testing1, doesn't work in MacOS terminal.

yngve

@dcmargo54 Well, my best guess is that the packets to the sync server are being blocked or redirected to /dev/null , and the most likely possibility, especially if your other computer(s) also pass through the same network router, is that it happens on your machine, and that the packets never leave the machine (if you can debug on the external firewall it would be fairly easy to determine that)

dcmargo54

@yngve
Could you please clarify what you mean by: "if you can debug on the external firewall it would be fairly easy to determine that."

yngve

@dcmargo54 IIRC Some advanced routers/firewall allow you to debug the network connection, similar to wireshark; the alternative would be to connect your machine to a separate PC that works as a router (requires two network cards, and some serious hackery in the configuration).

The point is to see what network data (if anything) exits your computer and starts its journey across the network.

I don't see anything to indicate where the problem is in the log; I see that Vivaldi is sending out a TLS Handshake protocol message, but gets no response. As I said, this indicates that the protocol package is filtered out somehow, which would specially be the case if all other secure sites work.

The only thing that can do that is a firewall (I am excluding extensions since there were sockets established, and messages sent).

Hmmm, one possible other thing: External firewalls can filter on both source IP/Mac address and target IP addresses; it might be an idea to try forcibly changing the IP address of your machine.

espen

@dcmargo54

@dcmargo54 said in Vivaldi won't sync except while using a VPN:

@Pathduck
the command, vivaldi --user-data-dir=$TMPDIR/testing1, doesn't work in MacOS terminal.

You need to specify the full path to the browser binary. If it is has been installed to Applications it should be:

/Applications/Vivaldi.app/Contents/MacOS/Vivaldi --user-data-dir=$TMPDIR/testing1

dcmargo54

@espen
Thanks for that. Vivaldi launched as expected using terminal with that command. I entered the credentials for my distinct test profile and Vivaldi still doesn't sync. I didn't bother to try using my VPN. I'm really beginning to think that this is being caused by my internet provider. One thing I'd forgotten about is that a while back I connected to the internet by using my T-Mobile hotspot. While connected to the hotspot Vivaldi synced normally. So, when isolated from my provider, Vivaldi works as expected.

yojimbo274064400

@dcmargo54,

if this were an ISP issue then would it not also affect other OSes connecting over the same network, i.e. Windows in your case?

FWIW: does the issue still occur if Apples's Private Relay service is temporarily turned off?

dcmargo54

@yojimbo274064400
I was thinking that it could be something that's MacOS specific. Not intentional, but some sort of security related measure that may have been implemented. As far as Private Relay, I'm under the impression that that only affects Safari. In any event, Private Relay is switched off on my MacBooks.

Zalex108

Hi,
Check about this:
https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/101158/vivaldi-sync-wont-work-after-using-a-vpn-linux/7

DoctorG

Such issues can happen in a company environment when a hardware appliance/VPN/firewall (f.ex. from Cisco, SonicWall, Palo Alto) or router or client software has a issue with switching TLS protocol 1.3 to 1.2.

Open vivaldi://flags
Search the following setting:
"TLS 1.3 hybridized Kyber support"
Set to "Disable"
Restart Vivaldi

kju

Had the same issue on Windows with heavy duty corporate firewall.

Setting this flag to disabled solved it:

TLS 1.3 post-quantum key agreement
This option enables a post-quantum key agreement in TLS 1.3. The #use-ml-kem flag controls whether ML-KEM or Kyber is used. – Mac, Windows, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, Lacros

#enable-tls13-kyber

swainasish1

@kju @athosmoreno @chambon-pascal @DoctorG @Pathduck @yngve @yojimbo274064400 @Zalex108

I have a similar issue. My institute has blocked bifrost.vivaldi.com. To solve this problem, I added the Browsec extension. In its smart settings, I created a rule to route bifrost.vivaldi.com through the VPN. This way, my sync works perfectly without having to run the VPN for the entire browser.

nidhoggrr

I have this issue as well.

Connected to a vpn, boom, sync worked, disconnected and then nothing worked again. So I started debugging (arch linux system).

Tested tcp, https, dns to bifrost.vivaldi.com and it worked on a case by case basis in the cli.

Also, it seemed like the sync periodically worked and then stopped working for no good reason.

Then I tried letting mtr run for a bit. It comes down to a host in the route rejecting an extremely high amount of packages for the hostname "bifrost.vivaldi.com"
for some reason.

The server/provider which seems problematic
SE hbg-bb2-link.ip.twelve99.net (62.115.135.227)
SE ldn-bb2-link.ip.twelve99.net (62.115.122.161)

whois, (Arelion, swedish / american isp)

sits quite far from my local network setup and is located in Sweden (another country than mine).

Their servers have consistently high ping and jitter (indicating either overloaded servers, or other processing of packages), and frequently drops packages. I don't have this issue with other services and my traffic does not route through that provider in other cases it seems.

I guess that's the issue then? Or no?