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Below is the error I receive in Firefox when accesing Gmail, Google Search and other websites owned by Google.

The site at https://mail.google.com/mail/gb/u/0/#inbox has experienced a network protocol violation that cannot be repaired. The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because an error in the data transmission was detected. Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem."

I am using public wifi with no VPN. Is this indicative of a hacking attempt, because the error doesn't exist when I use a VPN?

Could someone be wiretapping the internet traffic? Could there be spyware on the router?

Web browser extensions like Firesheep can be used to wiretap internet traffic from public wifi, and once news of that reached mainstream due to passwords being stolen in a widespread and common basis, websites started switching from http:// to https://. This also prevents man in the middle attacks.

So is this indicative of a hacking attempt? Could someone be putting spyware on the router?

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  • “I am using public wifi with no VPN. Is this indicative of a hacking attempt?” - It absolutely is not
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jan 7, 2021 at 10:46
  • So why does it work with the VPN on, but not when it's off? My web browser and its associated user profile stayed the same.
    – desbest
    Commented Jan 7, 2021 at 11:42
  • Google only used secured HTTP connections, to better understand what’s happening, we need information about the certificate you are being offered by the website.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jan 7, 2021 at 11:53
  • I am curious what happens if you visit a site that explicitly has no secure version. What happens if you browse to neverssl.com on your wifi without the VPN up?
    – Karu
    Commented Jan 7, 2021 at 21:01
  • Well the error doesn't happen all the time so it's hard for me to reproduce or commonly experience it.
    – desbest
    Commented Jan 16, 2021 at 0:50

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