Unable to load duckduckgo.com

whitecane

I'm having a weird problem reaching duckduckgo.com using Vivaldi. It just started this morning, I can't figure out a cause, and I need some help diagnosing and correcting.

I'm using Vivaldi 3.2.1967.47 (Stable channel) (64-bit) and when I try to reach duckduckgo.com I get:

This site can’t be reached

duckduckgo.com took too long to respond.

Note that this occurs with both search and just typing duckduckgo.com into the address bar.

Diagnostic steps taken so far:

I've been through the settings but I can't find anything I might have done in error to have blocked or otherwise confused access.
Using another browser on the same machine I can reach duckduckgo.com just fine (not a connection, hosts file, VPN, or DNS issue), so it's just Vivaldi that's having the issue and just on this machine, it seems: a synced Vivaldi on another machine seems to be fine.
I have disabled all extensions with the same result
Firewall settings were checked and Vivaldi has an open door to the 'net, no custom restrictions.
Private Window: same result
Standalone install: same result

No other sites seem to be affected.

Can anyone please point me in a direction? Is there a Vivaldi log file that might help? I'm out of ideas and this is a serious disruption.

whitecane

@Gwen-Dragon I leave Vivaldi on the default "Tracker and Ad Blocking" setting. When this started, I set it to "No Blocking" but the same result occurs.

I'm running on Win10 with Norton on top. I've removed the Vivaldi entry for the Norton firewall (it was set to Allow) and allowed it to auto-recreate it: same result. And, honestly, it wouldn't have been able to block a single site and allow others in any case, but you have to check all the bases.

My "Tracker Blocking Sources" is set only to "DuckDuckGo Tracker Radar" and nothing else.

If there is something else you're referring to, or some way that Vivaldi could be blocking something, please let me know.

Edit: And if it was 3rd party, that should nix it with Firefox, which has no trouble loading DuckDuckGo.com on the same machine at the same time.

whitecane

@Gwen-Dragon No, the Norton security software isn't. Vivaldi has and does work fine with Norton -- I'm using Vivaldi to reply to you.

It is a single site (duckduckgo.com) that was loading fine last night and isn't today and only in Vivaldi.

Every other site I've tried responds fine.
I've already rebuilt the entry for access in Norton for Vivaldi (just in case).

I know of no way to have Norton block a single site.

whitecane

@Gwen-Dragon Norton is up to date AND the problem still occurs when the firewall is disabled.

I have tried:

Reinstall of Vivaldi (w/o nixing account data)
Standalone install of Vivaldi (which should be the equivalent of deleting a profile)

Both respond as shown above.

Vivaldi accesses the 'net just fine in every other respect.

whitecane

@Gwen-Dragon It gives the following:

This site can’t be reached
duckduckgo.com took too long to respond.

whitecane

@Gwen-Dragon re: App URL Monitoring:

With App URL Monitoring turned on, Norton monitors all applications that are installed on your computer and block the malicious websites from accessing your computer. Norton alerts you when it blocks a malicious website and you can view the information about the attack using the Security History window.

This wouldn't appear to be a culprit; I added duckduckgo.com as a exception to App URL Monitoring and receive the same result from Vivaldi -- used duckduckgo.com via Firefox to look that up, which is a second confirmation that it isn't Norton. And, in any case, it'd be a straight-up block rather than a timeout.

If Norton was affecting this, it would be affecting all browsers on the system not just Vivaldi, same if this was any other issue in the transport layer (VPN, hosts file, etc, etc).

Edit: Note as said above: even with Norton disabled, DDG still times out in Vivaldi.

whitecane

@Gwen-Dragon If was blocking traffic from DDG, it would block it for all browsers not just Vivaldi?

iAN CooG

It's not the first time, and seems not even the last, that Norton AV interferes with Vivaldi. There were several threads in the past, just by searching Norton, one example:
https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/25495/vivaldi-will-not-open-web-pages-after-feb-27-update/12?_=1599254032047

Pesala

@whitecane Do you have any problem accessing Ecosia?

whitecane

@Gwen-Dragon Er...excuse me?

And if traffic to DDG was blocked, why should Vivaldi do that?
There is not such specific bug in Vivaldi

I never said it was a bug in Vivaldi. I'm trying to understand why Vivaldi isn't happy and Firefox is.

And, for the record: according to Norton Tech Support, disabling the Smart Firewall does stop the firewall from affecting traffic. So, according to them: not a Norton issue.

whitecane

@Pesala No problems accessing Ecosia. It's just duckduckgo.com that I've found so far -- which I'm rather reliant specifically as a search engine.

Pathduck

@whitecane said in Unable to load duckduckgo.com:

I'm trying to understand why Vivaldi isn't happy and Firefox is.

Some Security software have whitelists of known browsers and will let them through the firewall but might not have an exception for Vivaldi. But then again, it doesn't make sense that a single site would be blocked, so something else is going on.

Some things:

What is the actual error you get - below the main text on the page? In capitals, like "ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT" ?
Open a site (any site, even this page), press F12 to open DevTools. Click the Network tab at the top. Type in the DDG url and wait for the timeout. What do you see in the log? Click the failing (red) request and make a screenshot.
If you have telnet installed in your OS (not installed by default I think), open a command prompt and type in: telnet duckduckgo.com 80 and then telnet duckduckgo.com 443. Post the results here in a code block.

whitecane

@Pathduck You are my favorite person on the internet today! I dism'ed telnet in and that helped me isolate what was -- and wasn't -- going on. I have no idea why telnet slipped my mind but I am deeply grateful for the reminder. Many, many thanks.

Pathduck

@whitecane Good ol' Telnet eh, still has its uses after 50 years

Would you be able to give some information on what was causing the issue? It could help others with similar issues, and help us troubleshooters know what to ask for.

Many, many thanks.

Always happy to help - upvotes appreciated