topic Re: Opera on mobile in Tech Help - Software/Hardware etc

Opera on mobile

pvmb — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 10:28:14 GMT

As of yesterday, I have suddenly been unable to contact this PN community website via the Opera browser on my recently acquired new mobile phone - but still OK on Google Chrome browser! I get the following:

403 ERROR
The request could not be satisfied.

"The Amazon CloudFront distribution is configured to block access from your country. etc."

I assume this is some DNS type issue (am currently using Cloudflare DNS on this PC). Anyone any knowledge?

TIA

P.S. Opera is a Norwegian (EU) company "with additional offices in Europe, China, and Africa", so perhaps there could be 'another' explanation...

P.P.S. Switching on the Opera VPN seems to overcome the issue.

Re: Opera on mobile

pvmb — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 11:19:04 GMT

..."Norway is not a member of the European Union (EU), but it is associated with the EU through its membership in the European Economic Area (EEA). This arrangement allows Norway to participate in the EU's single market while maintaining its independence."

Re: Opera on mobile

PhilipHeyes — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 12:47:24 GMT

Make sure the Opera VPN is Disabled.

Re: Opera on mobile

pvmb — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 13:00:06 GMT

...Err

It appears to be exactly the opposite. Enabling Opera VPN is what makes it work in this case. VPN was disabled by the default settings.

Re: Opera on mobile

jab1 — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 13:00:33 GMT

Surely, a VPN should only be active if specifically requested?

Re: Opera on mobile

pvmb — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 13:29:33 GMT

I'm sorry! I didn't realise I had been comunicating in Chinese, I had thoght I was posting in plain English.

It's very simple: Use Opera in normal, non VPN mode and try to reach this (PN Community) website and -

"The Amazon CloudFront distribution is configured to block access from your country. etc."

Switch ON Opera VPN, and presumably hide 'my' "country" from "Amazon CloudFront distribution", no problem!

Let's hope it is just some temporary network configuration issue. Maybe see next week?

Re: Opera on mobile

Dan_the_Van — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 13:36:56 GMT

What if you use mobile data on the phone, still get the issue?

Have you checked the DNS settings within the Opera app and tried different hosts?

Re: Opera on mobile

pvmb — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 13:54:00 GMT

...I'll give it a try, thanks.

Meanwhile, here may be a clue to things: Amazon CloudFront - Wikipedia

Honestly, since I recently got my first ever smart phone, the questions have been breeding like rabbits. 🤣

Re: Opera on mobile

PhilipHeyes — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:06:40 GMT

Perhaps there is another VPN like product on your device E.g.
Cloudflare WARP or Apple Relay or a DNS changer app or Norton Security Suite etc.

To help diagnose the issue, the link below will report where you appear to be
and also who appears to be your ISP for your public IP.

https://whatismyipaddress.com/

Re: Opera on mobile

pvmb — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:59:10 GMT

...Thanks for reminding me of that IP checker. To tell you the truth, in all this excitement, it kinda slipped my mind.

So where am I? Well, with the VPN on it doesn't know - but it knows where the VPNs are. It returns two IP addresses. The IPv6 VPN is in Sweden, the IPv4 VPN is in Ashburn, Virginia, USA. So that's OK then.

With the VPN off again I am on a single IPv4 address and appear to be in Amsterdam, The Netherlands - and still blocked from this site. Though what they have against The Netherlands I couldn't say.

It's something to do with this Amazon CloudFront network speedup thing. But it was working OK before Saturday...

Oh, what fun it all is. 😀

Re: Opera on mobile

Dan_the_Van — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 15:01:25 GMT

Did you mentioned google chrome working with no issues, where does that think you are using the same link?

Re: Opera on mobile

pvmb — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 15:45:26 GMT

OK, it seems 'I' (82.145.212.198) am Blacklisted. BAD!

Zones: all.s5h.net

But that is not my home (PN Hub 2) IP address. Must be something to do with Opera/Network speedup hosts.

...Automatic RBL removal

"IP address 82.145.212.198 removed successfully. Please allow up to one hour for database propagation"

We shall see...

Re: Opera on mobile

Dan_the_Van — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 15:52:34 GMT

It is

Resolve-DnsName -Name 82.145.212.198 Name Type TTL Section NameHost ---- ---- --- ------- -------- 198.212.145.82.in-addr.arpa PTR 3853 Answer h08-09.opera-mini.net

Re: Opera on mobile

PhilipHeyes — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 15:52:47 GMT

Opera is the problem :

> nslookup 82.145.212.198 1.1.1.1
Server: one.one.one.one
Address: 1.1.1.1

Name: h08-09.opera-mini.net
Address: 82.145.212.198 ( this is not a Plusnet Public IP )

Re: Opera on mobile

pvmb — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 17:42:55 GMT

Two hours later...

No Opera VPN: "The Amazon CloudFront distribution is configured to block access from your country. etc."

So much for that! Thought it was too easy.

Meanwhile, some possible good news. I think I may have cracked my separate "Incoming Wi-Fi call" issue (phone won't 'pick up' call). I've changed all my 'Contacts' phone numbers to correct, full International format. We shall see.

Re: Opera on mobile

PhilipHeyes — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 18:58:41 GMT

Opera can alter your IP using two tools:

1) the free VPN

2) and Opera Turbo (now part of data savings settings)

Both need to be disabled.

Re: Opera on mobile

pvmb — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 21:07:02 GMT

Only 'Data Saver' needs to be off, as that is the cause of the problem. Presumably from the Amazon CloudFront speedup system. With 'Data Saver' off you don't need the VPN on - in fact, the VPN can't be on with 'Data Saver' on, as they are mutually exclusive.

Re: Opera on mobile

pvmb — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 09:24:57 GMT

@pvmb wrote:

Meanwhile, some possible good news. I think I may have cracked my separate "Incoming Wi-Fi call" issue (phone won't 'pick up' call). I've changed all my 'Contacts' phone numbers to correct, full International format. We shall see.

🤣

Not then, but later. I eventually - after about three weeks! - learned, as much by luck as judgement, how to (mostly) reliably answer an incoming phone call on an Android based smartphone. Like most things, obvious when you know how. But, so I would maintain, very far from obvious when you don't know. How very different from my old, trusty Nokia 1100.

But I am well on top of it all by now. 🙂