[BUG] Wisper doesn't work when using VPN app [unsure if vpn apps in general or specifically rethink]

[MinekPo1]

background

i use Rethink to bypass government censorship (context, article is in polish) and restrict which apps have access to the internet in lieu of having control over the existing android.permission.INTERNET which cannot be restricted on stock roms.

current behavior

after configuring rethink to allow whispar to connect to the internet (but still be controlled by it) and attempting to preform, seemingly, any action shows a vague error (ex, when searching by DOI Error: ClientException: Connection reset by peer, url=...). bypassing wispar in rethink, ie making it unaffected by it, or making rethink not apply any dns or firewall rules, makes the app appear to work fine. logcat does not appear to have any related messages.

steps taken to isolate the issue

• fetching the url (w/ curl in termux) while under rethink works
• rethink logs suggest that a response was sent by crossref and with the same size as when successfully ran with dns/firewall rules disabled

device info

• Motorola e22
• OS: Android 12, stock ASOP w/ oem modifications
• App version: 0.3.2 (build 20), from f-droid

speculation

this might be possibly caused by a insufficient timeout? the only mention of a timeout i could find in http is here and honestly feel like digging through sdk implementation of a language i know close to nothing about is a bad idea so i'm not gonna look further. also the time it takes curl to make the request is ~520 ms which should be fine? without rethink its ~460 ms (both measurements are from just one request so ±30 ms is likely within the margin of error and i dont feel more accurate measurements are necessary) so im not convinced thats it

[MinekPo1]

oh right, sorry for taking the liberty to format the issue differently than what the template has but this seemed better suited to the issue and what i know about it. also i dont need this issue to be addressed rapidly, i'm making this issue moreso to make it [impersonal] known that it [the issue] exists and to suggest a solution for others who might experience it [the issue again]

[Scriptbash]

Hi! Sorry for the delay. Thanks for reporting this issue and don't worry, I don't mind if you don't use the issue template. The template is mostly just to be sure that I get info like the app version, etc.

I tried using my VPN (Mullvad) and I haven't been able to reproduce this issue. I also just tried using rethink and I run into the same problem, as long as it's not excluded from their firewall (and possibly their DNS too). I really doubt it's a timeout issue however. There is probably a more aggressive privacy/security feature that causes the error.

Unfortunately I'm not very familiar with that VPN and networking in general. Maybe someone will see the issue and have a better idea on what's happening. Sorry I can't be more helpful about it for now 😬

[MinekPo1]

no worries! I'll try to contact the people at rethink for any ideas

[Scriptbash]

Hey, I found that issue celzero/rethink-app#1909 and it could potentially be similar to what you are experiencing. They also get a connection reset by peers. It might be worth following what happens with the issue!

[Scriptbash]

Hi! I tried rethink's latest pre-release version (v0.5.5t) on F-Droid and it seems like the issue has been fixed! I was able to search for journals and get their publications.