amires 9 Posted ... Hi, Recently whenever I am connected to an AirVPN server google search does not work and gives out error 403. I tried several servers and most of the them have this problem. I have attached a screenshot of the error. Is there any way to fix it? Quote Share this post Link to post
Staff 9185 Posted ... @amires Hello! It looks like Google Search blocks our VPN servers in Dallas (403: Forbidden). Not a big deal anyway, as Google Search should never be used by anyone. By the way, if you want to use it, you can consider to access it through startpage.com (which will proxy your query and the reply, adding a precious privacy layer), or connect to Google Search from other USA servers (not in Dallas). One of the favorite, privacy aware search engines here around is https://search.brave.com/ - it's also quite accurate. We are curious to know from everybody their favorite web search engines. Kind regards Quote Share this post Link to post
amires 9 Posted ... 16 minutes ago, Staff said: @amires Hello! It looks like Google Search block our VPN servers in Dallas (403: Forbidden). Not a big deal anyway, as Google Search should never be used by anyone. By the way, if you want to use it, you can consider to access it through startpage.com (which will proxy your query and the reply, adding a precious privacy layer), or connect to Google Search from other USA servers (not in Dallas). One of the favorite, privacy aware search engines here around is https://search.brave.com/ - it's also quite accurate. We are curious to know from everybody their favorite web search engines. Kind regards Thank you very much for your reply. Kindly note that this is not limited to Dallas server, it happens with other USA servers as well and some Germany servers too. Sometimes it works at first but after a while I get the error message. Thank you for search engine suggestions. I hope this blocking by google gets resolved soon. Quote Share this post Link to post
DawnTurnage 1 Posted ... (edited) On 1/18/2023 at 8:57 PM, amires said: Hi, Recently whenever I am connected to an AirVPN server google search does not work and gives out error 403. I tried several servers and most of the them have this problem. I have attached a screenshot of the error. Is there any way to fix it? It happened to me sometimes, but if you try it again. You won't face it. Let me know if you resolve it or not. Edited ... by DawnTurnage 1 amires reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post
species8472 3 Posted ... i'm having the same issue with several USA servers. I need to be able to search with google in some cases (like for shopping). it's a pain to have to turn off the VPN to do a search. 1 amires reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post
Staff 9185 Posted ... 8 hours ago, species8472 said: i'm having the same issue with several USA servers. I need to be able to search with google in some cases (like for shopping). it's a pain to have to turn off the VPN to do a search. Use https://www.startpage.com - it will query Google Search and return to you the exact Google Search reply. Kind regards 1 amires reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post
nexsteppe 23 Posted ... On 1/18/2023 at 12:27 PM, Staff said: One of the favorite, privacy aware search engines here around is https://search.brave.com/ - it's also quite accurate. We are curious to know from everybody their favorite web search engines. I mostly use Kagi, nowadays, so now I pay for search just as I pay for my email and VPN. I don't feel I can trust free search engines any longer—maybe this was always the case, and I was just gullible or dumb before? I'll confess to actually being satisfied with DuckDuckGo for years, using only using Yandex Images occasionally to fill in that gap. I still occasionally use DDG's HTML or Lite (no JS) sites on my mobile and in Tor Browser. But their conduct increasingly bothers me, and I'll admit they've never seemed particularly competent. Now that DDG's results have become much worse and the engine mostly ignores quoted search keywords ("verbatim" searches) while making ads more prominent and almost visually indistinct from results, it's hard for me to even take them seriously. I was honestly less bothered by their compromise with Microsoft than I was their lack of transparency about this and other matters before being confronted by journalists. Screw that. Startpage has a long history of hostility toward VPN and especially Tor users, and they've never been particularly forthcoming about their relationship with their now owner, System1. They probably mean well, but I can't help but feel they're not better than DuckDuckGo. 1 1 amires and OpenSourcerer reacted to this Quote Share this post Link to post