Am I Hacked?

[JT Strickland]

Recently my firefox browser acts like I'm on a different continent, and my search engine defaults to UK. I don't have any of the "normal" holes open, like no web access from the WAN, or port forwarding, etc. I did set up a vpn server about a week ago, but I've shut it down, and it keeps on doing it. I've cleared my firefox cache and no difference.

Anyone have any thoughts or advice?

 

[AndreiV]

The first question you need to address is whether this is a router or PC problem.
On a Windows device you could reset the network adapter and see if that works.

RKill is a small utility no Windows user should be without That will tell you if any malicious processes are running.
If the issue is still present reboot the router and test , if it is still an issue then a factory reset is the only other choice.

 

[kernol]

Recently my firefox browser acts like I'm on a different continent, and my search engine defaults to UK. I don't have any of the "normal" holes open, like no web access from the WAN, or port forwarding, etc. I did set up a vpn server about a week ago, but I've shut it down, and it keeps on doing it. I've cleared my firefox cache and no difference.

Anyone have any thoughts or advice?

I know this sounds really obvious - but re-check your Firefox settings ... especially security - and ensure it is not implementing DoH / assigning its own DNS servers and/or invoking its latest VPN services ... ...


Unlikely to be a hack problem ... but not impossible ,

 

[joomlafab]

Have you checked your IP address from firefox ( https://www.google.fr/search?q=what+is+my+ip ) and verified it's not an IP localized in UK ? If it is, well either your VPN is still on, or your IP is badly localized...

Also check firefox preferences. In general settings, you can "Choose your preferred language for displaying pages". Is it not set to English (UK) ? You might try to choose English (US), English (Australia), or English (without any country attached), if you don't find your country...

 

[JT Strickland]

Well, I think it is a vpn issue that I was not aware of.
I followed each of your advice.
I downloaded rkill, rechecked my firefox settings again, and verified my ip, which shows to be in England, and I am in the US.
I have a vpn app installed that was supposedly off but must have been taking a hop across the big pond.
Disabling it put me in the right corner of the globe.
Thanks to all of you for the help and advice.

 

[BreakingDad]

Get off our google

 

[RangerZ]

Open your adapter settings in control panel => Network and Sharing => Change Adapter Settings => Choose your adapters (check all) => Properties => Internet Protocol Version 4 => Properties
Confirm that it's set to Obtain IP address automatically (unless YOU have hard set it) and Obtain DNS servers is set similar. Click Advanced and make sure all is empty (default)

 

[JT Strickland]

Get off our google

I'm a duck-duck-go man myself.
I had a quack attack.

 

[JT Strickland]

Open your adapter settings in control panel => Network and Sharing => Change Adapter Settings => Choose your adapters (check all) => Properties => Internet Protocol Version 4 => Properties
Confirm that it's set to Obtain IP address automatically (unless YOU have hard set it) and Obtain DNS servers is set similar. Click Advanced and make sure all is empty (default)

Yes, obtain IP automatically. I don't look at this very often, depend on the router to handle it, but should check it more often.

 

[rn170uk]

If you use a VPN you need to also take care if 'they' change. IPVanish 'upgraded' their service a couple of months back and I moved from UK to US. Caused no end of havoc. Facebook expired all my accounts for example as they said I had mysteriously moved across the pond. It took about two weeks for all the geolocation providers to update their databases.

 

[heysoundude]

Doesn't setting DDNS on your WAN address take care of all this craziness? and then only route LAN IPs that absolutely need the VPN through that for busting geofencing or security.
DDNS and iptables...isn't that the easiest?

 

[The PyroPath]

Well, I've been on vacation to Italy this summer and logged in trough the instant guard VPN to sync photo's. For a few weeks after returning every service on the web thought I was in Italy. Was a rather weird experience. Maybe you are experiencing something similar?

 

[BreakingDad]

I'm a duck-duck-go man myself.
I had a quack attack.

I tried duck duck, for a month, I like its ethos. Unfortunately its look and performance is way behind googles. I went back.