[SOLVED] Strange nonsense with my VPN - not sure if this is the right forum

A couple of days back my VPN quit working, for no apparent reason, I'd not made any changes.
Of course, I ranted like crazy at the VPN people, who tried, but couldn't get it working.
Horrible problems, resulting in name-calling and insults (just kidding) between client and VPN.

Now, keeping to "correlation is not causation" let me say that Opera, my usual interface, had just done an update.
Strangely, on 2 computers, that update turned ON the Opera VPN.

Do you know how hard the solution was to find?
Has anyone else experienced this kind of stuff, where software updates can throw everything out of whack? I've heard about it, but this is the first time for me.

You've submitted no information whatsoever that could help determine what might be causing the underlying issue here. How do you normally start your VPN? Are you using NetworkManager to manage your network connections? Distro? Version? Are you getting any error messages?

Consider adding your voice here...
https://forums.opera.com/topic/27171...ng-june-2018/5

For a couple of days I could not connect to my VPN through it's normal method - each attempt timed out. I had just had my email changed and I figured it had something to do with that. I ended up with a complete re-install of OpenVPN and the VPN connections, but it still wouldn't work.
Just kept timing out after about 30 seconds.

Then I noticed that Opera's built-in VPN was also turned on, after an update coincidental with the problem. I turned it off and that fixed the problem. It had never occurred to me to look there, just spotted it accidentally. wow.

So my question is really about the mechanics of the VPNs getting jammed up this way.