Brave Browser Need Help: *This site can't be reached*

October 19, 2021 9:08 AM

Randomly. Some sites are ok, google searches are ok - but when I click on a link that's the message I receive. These are the things I've tried and done, with more info:

Removed firewall - nothing changed
Troubleshooted with windows (using win 7) - no change
Using Avast freeware - tried tweaking that - to no avail - don't even know how to do it properly
Went on Brave's forum - that was no help (!)
Nothing is running the background that is causing this afaik
Other browsers are fine - 100%
No proxy that I'm aware of


Adding - never had this problem before. It basically started when Avast updated itself. Something is awry and underway. Please help me figure this out so I can retain my sanity. Thank you.

posted by watercarrier to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Response by poster: Forgot to mention that I uninstalled and reinstalled Brave and did a restore on windows as well. Neither worked.
posted by watercarrier at 9:09 AM on October 19, 2021

Try disabling Avast temporarily and see if that fixes the problem. This should tell you whether Avast is really the source of the problem.
posted by alex1965 at 10:25 AM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: @alex1965 - disabled Avast. Some sites were accessible, others not. Basically the same situation as it was with Avast enabled. So Avast isn't the source. What else can be done?
posted by watercarrier at 10:46 AM on October 19, 2021

Sometimes browser extensions can cause odd behavior. Does this problem occur in private browsing mode when extensions are not being used?

(Sorry, but I feel obligated to mention … Windows 7 stopped receiving bug fixes and security patches back in January 2020. This issue may not be related to Windows 7 but you may experience other bugs in the future in addition to the increased security risk of not having 22+ months of security updates. You should still be able to update to Windows 10 for free.)
posted by mundo at 11:23 AM on October 19, 2021

Since you noticed the problem after Avast installed an upgrade, I guess I'd try un-installing Avast completely. You can always re-install it again later. Also, I wonder if there is some setting in Brave that is acting to block unencrypted sites (those sites that still use HTTP instead of HTTPS). Or, possibly, Brave is set to block all scripts, so it's blocking sites that require scripts in order to render properly.
posted by alex1965 at 11:26 AM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Brave pretty aggressively blocks scripts, but that should manifest as problems with a site or a different error from the website itself (like "disable your ad blocker and try again").

Perhaps it's the decentralized DNS feature?
posted by hankscorpio83 at 3:51 PM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yeah, Brave does some pretty big things to content and DNS. If just one of the services it uses was down or compromised, pages become unreachable. Do they have a dev/service twitter feed that might be showing this problem.

(I consider the things it does deeply reprehensible, but you didn't ask about that.)
posted by scruss at 5:52 PM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: @scruss - I had no idea. No newbie, I just don't get into it. If you prefer, you can memail me or just write it here. Could be pertinent to the issue at hand.
posted by watercarrier at 7:56 PM on October 19, 2021

Response by poster: @alex1965 - I don't think it's Avast. At the same time (roughly) Brave also updated itself. Could very well be DNS encription/blocking. How do I circumvent this? What a PITA, lol.
posted by watercarrier at 7:58 PM on October 19, 2021

Response by poster: @hankscorpio83 - this might be beyond my reach:


Open Brave using a fresh profile folder.
Enable Decentralized DNS feature flag if needed.
Visit brave.crypto and choose Proceed.



I hate to ask, but I need help.
posted by watercarrier at 8:00 PM on October 19, 2021