Sync works but only over VPN

andylarge

Hi. I hope you can help. I love Vivaldi Sync. Amazing feature.

I have a weird issue : When I connect my Android phone and Windows machine over VPN, the sync works great. No issues.

But when I have either machine connected using my home network (provided by BT in the UK), the sync is very unreliable and ends up failing in both up and down directions.

What could be the cause of this? I have tried switching DNS servers when connected via BT. That did not help at all. Used Google and Cloudflare public DNS. Issues arises just the same.

It is a baffling problem. Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

DoctorG

@andylarge Please try the troubleshooting steps, including testing in a clean profile and disabling adblocking/extensions:
https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/troubleshoot/troubleshooting-issues/

https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/troubleshoot/troubleshoot-sync-issues/#Having_trouble_syncing_your_data

Perhaps the route to Vivald's servers on Island is not very reliable from the UK over British Telecom.

Sometime Internet Security Tools or Antivirus block connections.
Connection is over LAN or WiFi to (V)DSL? Or is it a Mobile accesspoint?

DoctorG

@andylarge Welcome in our Vivaldi Community

Do not hesitate to ask, we are a community to help users.

Enjoy browsing with Vivaldi.

andylarge

@DoctorG Thanks for your reply.

Have done the trouble shooting stuff. No changes from that.

I think we have to rule out antivirus because I see the same issues on Android phone and Windows.

Both devices connected over Wifi to VDSL from BT.

I did not know Vivaldi servers are in Iceland... I suppose I was hoping someone with access to those server logs could see why the disconnects are happening..

andylarge

@andylarge PS - Using Proton VPN. With servers based in Netherlands and Japan there are no sync issues.

DoctorG

@andylarge And can you check on your router if your WiFi has some instability and many errors, perhaps switching automatically often between 2.4 and 5 GHz?

Can you set in router to get a new IP for the connection?

DoctorG

@andylarge What shows a traceroute?
Open Windows Terminal
Type command and hit Return
tracert bifrost.vivaldi.com

andylarge

@DoctorG said in Sync works but only over VPN:

tracert bifrost.vivaldi.com

1 4 ms 4 ms 4 ms VIGOR [192.168.1.1]
2 12 ms 7 ms 12 ms host-80-47-224-1.as13285.net [80.47.224.1]
3 8 ms 10 ms 11 ms ae51-ner002.irl.as13285.net [78.144.1.7]
4 14 ms 15 ms 16 ms ae51-scr101.loh.as13285.net [78.144.1.6]
5 24 ms 15 ms 17 ms siminn-linx-gw-1.isholf.is [195.66.225.26]
6 78 ms 59 ms 57 ms 157.157.69.221
7 57 ms 55 ms 56 ms 206-99-22-46.business.hringdu.is [46.22.99.206]
8 57 ms 55 ms 57 ms 31.209.137.10

DoctorG

@andylarge All nice.

andylarge

@DoctorG This suggestion about the router is interesting. I have not much looked at that. Please give me some time and I will investigate.

DoctorG

@andylarge I have much time, no hurry.
See you later here.

andylarge

@DoctorG Thanks for your help so far. I don't think it is a problem of flipping between 2.4Ghz and 5ghz. I have the setup fixed to 2.4ghz only. But I am starting to ponder whether there is something in the firewall setup of the router I am using that is causing the issue.

Router : Draytek 2862.

The puzzle is that there are no other internet issues on this router. Internet connection is blazing fast over FTTP. Downtime is practically zero. No content filtering set up on the router.

Any further ideas?

Pathduck

@andylarge Could be related to these:
https://forum.vivaldi.net/post/787594
https://forum.vivaldi.net/post/782378

Another router that does not handle TLS13/Kyber maybe?
Might need a router firmware upgrade.

andylarge

@Pathduck Thanks for those posts. Seems like this is the same kind of issue TBH.

Router is on latest firmware and that is quite a recent version after a Draytek security hole was found.

I tried forcing TLS12 but that has not helped. Running out of ideas. Such a strange situation : After switching to TLS12, the Sync works on the first sync. But then begins to fail on 2nd sync. Upload works, but download does not. And then for third sync both directions fail. Pattern is often repeated. But by switching in Proton VPN, voila the sync works.

Pathduck

@andylarge The posts mention a flag related to TLS13/Kyber, did you try that?

andylarge

@Pathduck Yep. Done that. No impact. Any other ideas? You have already been incredibly helpful... Thanks so much.

Pathduck

@andylarge Did you restart the browser after Disabling the flag? With the VPN disabled?

There's a Python script linked from https://tldr.fail:
https://forum.vivaldi.net/post/782469

You can use curl with TLS13 and Kyber/X25519 to see if it gets through.
https://forum.vivaldi.net/post/782478

Note that you need to use vivaldi.com as the Sync server bifrost.vivaldi.com does not support TLS13 anyway. But if your router is failing the connection these test should show it.

You could install Wireshark and do a capture or use tshark and then click "Trigger Updates" from chrome://sync-internals

λ tshark -i4 dst host bifrost.vivaldi.com
Capturing on 'Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (2) I218-V'
    1   0.000000 192.168.0.10 52936 31.209.137.10 443 TCP 54 52936 → 443 [RST, ACK] Seq=1 Ack=1 Win=0 Len=0
    2   0.000491 192.168.0.10 52939 31.209.137.10 443 TCP 66 52939 → 443 [SYN] Seq=0 Win=64240 Len=0 MSS=1460 WS=256 SACK_PERM
    3   0.057004 192.168.0.10 52939 31.209.137.10 443 TCP 54 52939 → 443 [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=1 Win=262144 Len=0
    4   0.058466 192.168.0.10 52939 31.209.137.10 443 TLSv1.2 571 Client Hello (SNI=bifrost.vivaldi.com)
    5   0.117178 192.168.0.10 52939 31.209.137.10 443 TCP 54 52939 → 443 [ACK] Seq=518 Ack=3004 Win=262144 Len=0
    6   0.120012 192.168.0.10 52939 31.209.137.10 443 TLSv1.2 180 Client Key Exchange, Change Cipher Spec, Encrypted Handshake Message
    7   0.182634 192.168.0.10 52939 31.209.137.10 443 TLSv1.2 1472
    8   0.182634 192.168.0.10 52939 31.209.137.10 443 TLSv1.2 632 Application Data
    9   0.183445 192.168.0.10 52939 31.209.137.10 443 TLSv1.2 412 Application Data
   10   0.281410 192.168.0.10 52939 31.209.137.10 443 TCP 54 52939 → 443 [ACK] Seq=2998 Ack=3747 Win=261376 Len=0
10 packets captured

andylarge

I did restart browser and connected with no VPN, flag disabled. No improvement,

Sadly the Python and Curl stuff is just out of my depth!!

I am tempted to have a go with wireshark but I have used it before and found the output to be HUGE and hard to navigate/troubleshoot.

Pathduck

@andylarge said in Sync works but only over VPN:

Sadly the Python and Curl stuff is just out of my depth!!

It's not that difficult really, you've already ran one command-line troubleshooting tool before

Python needs to be installed first of course, so that's a job...
Curl is easy to install: https://curl.se/windows/

Wireshark/Tshark does give a lot of data, but you need to specify exactly what you're looking for.

For Tshark you need to specify a capture filter like host bifrost.vivaldi.com - which will only show packets to/from the Sync server.

For the Wireshark UI you need to specify a display filter like
ip.host == bifrost.vivaldi.com
To only see those packets.

Yes, this is really advanced troubleshooting, but unfortunately I think there's no simple "click here to solve" solution to this problem. And BT is a big ISP, so we'd have more people saying Sync didn't work.

The single thing topics about Sync not working seems to have in common is that they are using some kind of VPN - or are behind a corporate network (or they are in China). And that again leads me to think people are not fully understanding their network setup, and using a VPN is per def advanced networking...

DoctorG

@andylarge Firmware of router up-to-date? → https://fw.draytek.com.tw/Vigor2862/Firmware/v3.9.9.8/