I can no longer access the internet when using a VPN (I've tried two different vpns and multiple web browsers and wireless networks). I've noticed that ping www.google.com doesn't work when connected to VPN (works when not connected) but ping 8.8.8.8 does (I know that has something to do with the DNS but I am also rather inexperienced with this stuff). I have tried resetting network settings (sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart) but that didn't work. The only issue I can think of is that I tried installing clamav (I run some Windows software through crossover linux and wanted to be safe) and I think it stopped working after that/around that time (but I'm not positive that the two are linked- I tried uninstalling clamav but it did nothing so if that is the issue I'm guessing it's because it changed a setting somewhere). If it helps, I am using Ubuntu 19.04 and also tried switching one of the VPN protocols from UDP to TCP to no avail.
1 Answer
Ended up figuring it out. The next day I couldn't access the internet at all (with or without VPN). The issue was definitely with the DNS, both based on the ping results in my question and because the chrome error was "DNS_PROBE_RESULT_BAD_CONFIG" (hadn't seen that before).
After looking a little bit more closely, I found some posts that recommended adjusting the resolv.conf or resolv.conf.d/head,tail files to correct the issue. There should have been a symbolic resolv.conf link in my /etc/ directory, but instead it was an immutable ASCII file (so I couldn't edit the file, and trying to use the resolv.conf package resulted in errors.
Eventually I figured out the solution through a combination of shots in the dark and guidance from entering terminal commands.
My solution was (not sure if all steps are necessary): 1: Remove resolvconf (sudo apt autoremove resolvconf) 2: Try reinstalling resolvconf (sudo apt-get install resolvconf) 3: Fix the immutable resolv.conf text file: (sudo chattr -i /etc/resolv.conf and then sudo dpkg --configure resolvconf) 4: Remove and reinstalled again for good measure
I also noticed that before, I had a resolv.conf.vpn file in the /etc/ directory that was removed when I completed the above steps, so I think that was my original issue. I'm not quite sure how I broke it in the first place (fairly confident it was my fault though as I was trying some commands I didn't fully understand), but that fix worked for me!