Problems logging into nVidia.com

Topic

New Reply

Since when did nVidia support, nVidia forums, and GeForce Experience begin requiring access to “google.com” be allowed?

I updated my nVidia driver tonight on Windows 10 1809 in preparation for upgrade to 1903 soon. Even though GeForce Experience was telling me there was a new driver available, I could not use it to update my nVidia driver like I have done in the past. I kept getting a “cannot connect to google.com” error in GeForce Experience. Well, of course! I have blocked access to anything Google.com since about 2003. Google is blocked for its addresses in my Host file.

I’ve not had problems using GeForce Experience or accessing nVidia forums, etc with Google blocked in the past. I had not updated the driver though in about a year and I did that update easily through GeForce Experience. Then about a week ago, I tried updating the nVidia driver using GeForce Experience and I didn’t have a problem with Google being blocked in my Hosts file but the driver update failed, to my surprise, and was automatically rolled back to the earlier driver. I now wonder if the failure had something to do with my blocking google.com.

So, when I tried using geForce Experience tonight to update the driver FOR THE FIRST TIME I saw “failure to connect” error messages and it appears one is no longer able to block google garbage and still use geForce Experience to update the nVidia driver! So, I went to nVidia’s Advanced Drivers download page and downloaded it from there and installed it with no problems. However, I still get errors about “failure to connect” when I try to use geForce Experience.

So, I tried to access nVidia forums (to ask about this) with various browsers and cannot do so. I think this is because I am blocking google in its various iterations in my hosts file but I used to be able to access nVidia forums with google blocked in my hosts file. So, I assume that nVidia has changed something ….probably is now using evil Google reCaptcha and I can’t see that on any browser (so I can’t type in the captcha or pick out all the buses). I also tried to access nVidia help/support and cannot on any browser. I can access my nVidia account which nVidia said was not finished in setting it up. To fully set it up, I had to fill in ALL fields not just “required” ones! EXTREMELY INVASIVE of my privacy so I fibbed my home address and some other fields and finally got my account fully set up. But that doesn’t help me get into their forums or have any ability to contact their support!

I’m disgusted. I have always bought nVidia cards since my second computer in 2003 and never had any problems with access to forums or use of geForce Experience, nvidia.com login, etc until now. I’m not a gamer but still I would like access to their forums, etc. Any help for a workaround (as I am NOT going to allow “google.com” direct connection in order to login to nvidia.com!) would be greatly appreciated. Plus, I also block Facebook and other login options for nVidia.com (all highly invasive of one’s privacy).

Reply | Quote

Replies

A lot has changed and many would call it progress and just roll with it; you’re now (ab)using the hosts file to block everything Google, Basilisk probably needs a refresh, too. Get a handle on what’s happening with nvidia.com from default OS/software/settings.

Start by temporarily bypassing your hosts file and check the site(s) and their default connections via the Private Browsing options in your browsers, see what’s altered since you began your anti-Google changes.

Use a more privacy-based Chromium-based build only for those sites that require Google ‘devices’ that are becoming difficult to avoid, fully exit it before resuming your preferred Google-free browsing.

Experiment with the settings/options/preferences that are built into your OS and 3rd-party software.

Reply | Quote

When I still used Windows, I had GeForce Experience installed for one reason only, and that was ShadowPlay.  That was in the days before nVidia started requiring signing in to use GFE, and before they had the telemetry client as a part of the whole thing.

I simply avoided any version of GFE newer than the one I had.  It was a strategy that was probably destined to fail eventually… while the version of GFE I was using didn’t need to “phone home” to get permission to run locally like the newer ones did, nVidia certainly had the ability to design their drivers in such a way to make older GFE versions stop working.  I never got to the point of discovering that, though, as I left the Windows world before that point, and now there’s no GFE one way or another. On the plus side, I get my drivers without ever having to touch a nVidia site.

I don’t remember what GFE version that was, but you might be able to find a reference to it.  No idea if it works with Windows 10, but it might.

In terms of avoiding Google… it’s nearly impossible if you are not willing to accept site breakage of the type you describe.  Lots of site owners use Google services to handle parts of the site, and cutting that off cuts off that functionality– no way around that.  I use uMatrix to block Google and other scripts by default, but when a site fails to work, I have to unblock the various scripts until it works, and that often involves letting Google connect.  Yes, they will try to track me, but the cookies they set will usually be rejected as third-party, and the first-party ones will be deleted very soon.  They can (and presumably do) record my IP address, but my ISP uses dynamic IP addresses, so that will change too. If they were doing browser fingerprinting, I think we’d have heard of it by now, but that’s just a guess.

There are often trade-offs between function and security and privacy.  With things the way they are, I think letting Google scripts run sometimes, but mitigating the damage they do to privacy, is the least bad of the options.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

1 user thanked author for this post.

Elly

Reply | Quote