After Win10 Update, cannot reach any web page

[jonwatson]

jonwatson last edited by

Your version of Windows: 10.0.19045 Build 19045

Your version of Opera: 107.0.5045.36
Extensions are Opera Ad Blocker and Opera Wallet, both disabled.

My firewall is Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security.
My anti-virus is Kaspersky Anti-Virus v21.3.10.391

Chrome has always run well on my desktop PC.
In 2021 I installed Brave and used it for several months until suddenly every web page gave the following error:
"This site can’t be reached The connection was reset."
Note that this is essentially the error that I now see with Opera. I tried every suggestion that I could find by googling but nothing helped. So I went back to Chrome.

On 3/2/2024 I installed Opera and it worked great. I kept several open Opera windows with multiple tabs.
On 3/15/2024 I ran Windows Update and restarted Windows. Immediately and since that time Opera cannot reach any web page.
Chrome and Edge still work fine.

For almost every web page, Opera displays:
This site can’t be reached
The connection was reset.
and also:
ERR_CONNECTION_RESET

One web page is different.
It may have been the last youtube that I had started watching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiogoWwpu3E
For this one Opera displays:
Connect to the internet
You're offline. Check your connection.

Another different message happened when I mistakenly typed "appdata" as the address in Windows Explorer (file not internet) and got a different error:
This site can’t be reached
Check if there is a typo in appdata.
Try:
Running Windows Network Diagnostics
Changing DNS over HTTPS settings
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN
So I enabled DNS over HTTPS in Opera using Cloudflare. No change.
So I ran:
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
No change.
I just uninstalled and reinstalled Opera. No improvement, for example:
This site can’t be reached
duckduckgo.com’s server IP address could not be found.
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_BAD_SECURE_CONFIG

Why post such a bug report? There is little that Opera developers can do except send me questions.
But maybe somebody somewhere has had a similar problem and found a workaround.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

As a test, temporarily create a new user account on Windows (local one not tied to a Microsoft account), log into it and try Opera there.

[jonwatson]

jonwatson @burnout426 last edited by

@burnout426 Thanks! I created a new user account and installed Opera. I had previously tried to uninstall and reinstall using my own account but that had failed.

In the new account I was able to browse successfully.
Returning to my own account I continue to have the same problem in Opera, DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_BAD_SECURE_CONFIG

[jonwatson]

jonwatson @jonwatson last edited by

@jonwatson I think the problem is related to DNS.
When "Use DNS-over-HTTPS instead of the system’s DNS settings" is OFF the error changes to: ERR_CONNECTION_RESET

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

You can try a bunch of things from https://lazyadmin.nl/it/dns-probe-finished-bad-config/ to see if they help. A lot of them you already tried though. Those are mostly system-wide though, which wouldn't explain why the new user account works fine, but you can try them anyway.

The one that's mentioned there that you can do in Opera is goto the URL opera://net-internals/#dns and clear the host cache to test if it helps.

You can scan your system with the free version of Malwarebytes too. Maybe your user account is infected with something (that your anti-virus is not catching).

You can also try in test standalone installation of Opera to test if there's any difference.

[jonwatson]

jonwatson last edited by

@burnout426 Thanks for the ideas!

1. I tried clearing the host cache at the URL opera://net-internals/#dns but see no change.
2. I scanned my system with the free version of Malwarebytes and fortunately found no problems.
3. Trying a test standalone installation of Opera does not work because it has no web access and so is stuck on the "Downloading..." splash screen progress bar forever.

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer last edited by

Download "Opera_108.0.5067.40_Setup_x64.exe" from https://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/desktop/108.0.5067.40/win/ using Chrome. You can then use that fully offline installer to upgrade your existing Opera. And, you can use that installer to make a test standalone installation.

[jonwatson]

jonwatson last edited by This post is deleted!

[jonwatson]

jonwatson last edited by

@burnout426 Thanks!
Meanwhile I had installed "Windows Firewall Control" and manually allowed programs as it blocked them.
It now says these are allowed:
C:\users\jon\desktop\opera.exe
C:\users\jon\appdata\local\programs\opera\opera.exe

Standalone install works perfectly, allows normal browsing.
But upgrading my existing installation returns for every web page:
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_BAD_SECURE_CONFIG

[burnout426]

burnout426 Volunteer @jonwatson last edited by

@jonwatson In "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software" and "C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Opera Software", rename the "Opera Stable" folder to "Opera Stable old". Then, start Opera to start with fresh data and test if it still has the error. When you're done testing, you can delete the new Opera Stable folders and rename the old ones back.