[SOLVED] Can't update the system - Weird internet behavior

[rand0MPrecisi0n]

I'm getting this message every time I try to update my system:



If I try to change repositories however, I get "unreachable" in all of them. If I try to update the cache I get this:



So I thought I would try to see if my router had some weird settings, and what I found out is I wasn't able to access it. So I installed a VPN chromium extension and voilà. I also noted that some sites, like my ISPs website, were not accessible:



So I reset the settings. Once the connection came back up the first few times I tried opening a website I got "Resolving host in proxy script" in the browsers status bar. Weird again. After disconnecting the ethernet cable and reconnecting it started working fine, and I was able to access my router and other websites that didn't work previously.

The repositories were still not reachable (and I can't use VPN to access them as I used a browser extension), so I did the "Fix MergeList Problems" solution and "sudo apt-get clean" to no avail. I also tried to unset http_proxy and ftp_proxy to no avail.

I suspect this extension may have changed something because when I disable it I can't access any repository URLs, but when I enable I can, however I don't know what could it be doing to the system that may be affecting everything else. I tested with my smartphone and it can access everything just fine.
Here's the link
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... fbpoekiipm

I'm currently trying sudo apt-get update but it's taking ages. I also tried to access my router from Firefox and got the same problem. What could it be?

[catweazel]

Turn the router off for 10 minutes.

[scjet45]

Turn the router off for 10 minutes.

It's obviously NOT his/her router, since I'm also getting the same issues against linuxmint/(ubuntu) main (sonya) package Mirrors !
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=257489
Canonical seems pooched as well... ?
from approx (UTC-5)EST-6:00 AM Nov.18, and still mint mirrors seem down. ?

[scjet45]

seems ok now.

[scjet45]

mirrors are back up now.

[rand0MPrecisi0n]

I don't think my problem was the same as the user scjet45 because I was experiencing this for quite some time now. I had my laptop run for almost a month straight and I thought it would be one of those 'restart to fix' problems. However I needed to install some software and found out I couldn't do it either, so I restarted but the problem persisted.

Another reason is because I was having problems in other websites, some of them had nothing to do with mint, and most importantly I was having problems accessing my router (192.168.0.1) from my computer, but from my smartphone it was fine. I reset my router's configs and it seemed fixed, however after a few minutes the problem came back, so it had to be some sort of malware in my computer that was infecting the router.

At this point I noticed that one of my chromium extensions would enable me to accesss everything only when I had it enabled (betternet free VPN). If I disabled or uninstalled it I couldn't access anything, even from different browsers. Now I'm well aware of the dangers of free VPN, and the amount of malware on google's extensions, but I wanted to download a country-limited video and figured if I just uninstalled the VPN right after it wouldn't be a big deal.

Next, I downloaded 18.2, made a pendrive and booted from it, just to find out that the problems persisted. At this point I reset my router's configs and voilà. Not only I'm able to update and access all websites, my internet is way faster as well. I had terrible lag on twitch and now it's mild (it's twitch after all).

Moral of the story, don't install 'Betternet Unlimited Free VPN proxy'

Bonus: In the middle of all of this I found a website reporting how fucked up that extension is:
https://restoreprivacy.com/betternet-review/

PS: Thank you Moem for editing my OP. I didn't know about rimg

[Moem]

PS: Thank you Moem for editing my OP. I didn't know about rimg

It's a neat feature, isn't it. You're welcome! Glad your problem is solved.