Here's the story so far...I installed Mageia 8 RC. I had also installed NordVPN. Everything was working perfectly. I upgraded to Mageia 8 Final (I use Plasma) when it became available. So far, so good. Everything was working just fine. Over the last couple of days, it's been getting kind of flaky. I use Firefox and Chromium. It all worked fine. Now, we come to the problem. I start up NordVPN (exactly the same version I was using before) NordVPN starts up and says it's connected. All well and good. But now, Chromium and Firefox won't connect to any site at all. Chromium at least starts up...Firefox doesn't even do that. As soon as I disconnect the VPN, Firefox starts working immediately. So does Chromium. I thought it might be my router, but I'm pretty sure it isn't. I did the same test connected directly to my cablemodem. Exactly the same result.
For a test, I booted into Windows 10 and repeated the test. Edge, Firefox, and Chromium all connected with or without the VPN. So it must be Linux-related.
I am lost here. I have no idea what's going on, except that NordVPN and Firefox/Chromium aren't communicating with each other. I have no idea why. What is going on? Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you.