@craigsn Opera currently operates its own VPN servers; it used to use SurfEasy's when the VPN capability was first included in the browser. That change resulted in Opera offering only regional connections instead of country connections. In using a VPN, multiple steps (and factors) are involved. When you employ Opera's VPN option, the browser obtains proper credentials and talks to the IP of a specified Opera proxy server, using an https connection (which inherently includes https encryption). When a user makes connection to a website URL, Opera's browser VPN mode sends packets to the IP of the VPN server using proxy-authorization request headers over the https connection. The VPN server performs a DNS lookup of the URL to obtain the website's IP and contacts that site. Site data is received by the VPN server, encrypted by https, and sent to the user, who then views the site as if he were able to visit it directly.

Things that might block the VPN from functioning would include:

1. Defective/corrupted https certificates for the VPN server as accessed by the browser, or unavailability on the user's system of the necessary encryption protocols specified by the cert and/or VPN server.
2. Blockage by the ISP or regional Internet backbone of the IP of Opera's VPN server.
3. Interference by the ISP or regional Internet backbone with proxy-authorization request headers in general.
4. Problems with the VPN server's DNS lookup of the user-sought URL.
5. VPN server problems in general.
6. Problems with a site responding to a particular VPN's IP (either intentional or accidental).

@craigsn In accordance with @leocg's suggestion, if you have Opera
installed on a portable computer that has WiFi capability, try accessing an ordinary, mainstream website using its VPN at a public WiFi hotspot in an area that is likely to be served by a different ISP than your current one (if such exists, perhaps in another town or district).

@yanta said in Microsoft switches to Chromium:

This quasi-monoculture might threaten security and diversity.

The whole culture/system is cost-driven. Websites (of which there are now enormous numbers) operate by writing website code which interfaces with web browsers and their underlying rendering engines. Since there are different ways of doing the same things, there may be different forms of browser code that render the same website code into a screen display, but show it somewhat differently - which causes what's seen on-screen by the user to be different from what was intended by the site-code writer. Likewise, for certain other forms of embedded functionality (embedded video, pop-up buttons, page swapping, etc).

Consequently, to ensure their site-code looks and operates the same on different browser/engine designs, the site would have to test each browser design for compliance... continually retesting, since both website code and browser/engine code are changed constantly. That costs money, so many sites simply test against a few browsers and publicly declare the other ones "unsupported". The few browsers tested are simply the ones with most market share, hence the smaller market-share browsers are frequently ignored or rejected. Some sites go so far as to put in a few lines of site code that actively test (or "sniff") for the brand of visiting browser and actively block it from access. Their reasoning seems to be that it's cheaper to simply reject a small-marketshare browser than deal with the cost of support complaints over potential compatibility problems. Other websites don't even publish a list of supported browsers, but instead simply code for the big one or two browsers and ignore everything else.

Frankly, this channelization looks to only worsen in the current "free" universe of browsers and websites. Cost recovery is very difficult when the end product is being 'given away' and other income sources (ads, favored placements, paid-product tie-ins, etc) must underwrite the income. Diversity is indeed being threatened, as it always is in a monoculture - and that means innovation is being quenched. Insofar as innovation is being threatened, that implies security innovation is also being reduced, at least in the grand scheme of things.

@fat8893 said in Built-in adBlocker has turned off, but website claiming adBlocker in use:

...
To answer regarding extensions, I only have IDM Integration Module, Opera's Install Chrome Extensions and Windscribe, and that's all. But even so, Windscribe is not turned on at the time of this writing.

I wonder about the nature of Windscribe - whether it makes certain changes to the browser/system that are not fully "backed out" by merely turning it off. If those changes are detectable by website 'sniffing', then it could create an ad-blocking/user-location problem.

@mahmoudamir611 If Opera's VPN or related DNS lookup is being blocked regionally, it may be intentional or in error. If done in error, its future depends on whether the error gets recognized and corrected. If it's intentional, then blocking will probably remain until the circumstances driving the block decision eventually change. If the problem is blocking of DNS lookups, one could try an alternative DNS scheme (OpenDNS, etc) to see if that resolves things... but it's always possible that alternate DNS schemes could be blocked as well.

If it's safe to contact your ISP or national Internet authorities about the problem, then that should probably be tried - but only you can assess the personal risks in doing so. Another thing to try, of course, might be to employ other VPN services if they can be accessed there, in hopes that one of them isn't also blocked.

@fat8893 As noted by @lapsang, the KissAnime site they list also works without adblock complaint problems here (with my third-party cookies disabled and Windows Defender security). With the OnMSFT site, an adblock complaint does pop up after a few seconds in Opera; with an Edge browser, there's no adblock complaint for OnMSFT. In any case, the complaint popup offers a click-text to bypass the complaint popup, as well as suggesting whitelisting. I'm not sure what is causing your Opera to behave differently than ours with regard to the KissAnime site, unless you're seeing it at some subpage within the site that we haven't gone.

Are you using any extensions with Opera? If so, which ones?

@ancientfire1211 If there's intentional blocking of the IPs accessing Opera's VPN servers occurring, there's nothing 'weird' happening, it's simply censor-based prohibition of the VPN connection. This is often done as a means of preventing browser users from circumventing national censoring of Internet viewing of certain sites via a VPN. In such cases, the censors develop lists of IPs used by VPNs or proxy servers and block them at the national Internet level. If the VPN uses local DNS lookup of website IPs, blocking the local DNS server for certain URLs will effectively block them from being accessed over that kind of VPN as well. Censorship blocking can be dynamic, varying with the day's local political environment or even Internet traffic levels (sometimes heavy traffic triggers more or less extensive blocking, depending on the censorship algoriths being used). Blocking can also be performed by making local ISPs force-download block-lists into users' routers software/firmware.

@soheilcanopus Have you tried specifying a different Opera VPN server in Opera? If a different server produces the same result (a blue-symbol failure), try entering either of the following IP addresses directly into Opera's address box: 185.26.182.103 or 185.26.182.104 while running the VPN.

If either of these connects you to Opera's main website via the VPN, then there is some kind of DNS block existing at your locale or in your system that is interfering with looking up IP addresses for URLs. If neither of these IPs connects you to Opera's website, then there is indeed something interfering with the VPN communication itself... either in your installation or along the signal Internet path to Opera's VPN server. Finally, try visiting either of the IPs using Opera without its VPN.

@fat8893 1. Is there a particular site that can serve as an example of where you see the problem?

2. Have you disabled site cookies or 3rd-party cookies in Opera? (O > Settings > Advanced > Privacy & Security > Content Settings > Cookies > is "Allow sites to save and read cookie data..." enabled? Is "Block third-party cookies" disabled? Are there any sites listed under "Block"?)
3. Are you using any kind of custom hosts file in your Windows installation?
4. What anti-malware/antivirus programs are you using?

When using a VPN, your browser connects to the VPN's server via the VPN's IP address. Your access to websites thus is through the VPN server. If the Internet connection to the VPN server is being blocked by an ISP, national censor, or along the Internet backbone, Internet access through the VPN won't happen. Likewise, if the VPN server is overloaded, misconfigured, or "down", Internet access through the VPN also won't happen. It can be difficult for a user to discern just where the blockage is occurring. If a lot of users are complaining at one time, the odds are that it might be a VPN server issue; if users in only a particular region are complaining, it might be a censorship/local-blockage issue. If only a few users are complaining from different regions, it may be an Opera mis-configuration or individual ISP/DNS issue. Hence, in reporting VPN issues, it's ultimately important to note the geographic region/nation where the user is located (though admittedly, it's not always wise to do so from a 'closed' locale).