Help Fixing Google Play and default browser's internet

[OhanaUnited]

(long story, so please bear with me)

I'm using Galaxy S2 I9100OZS International (Hong Kong) version.

What happened:
1) Originally couldn't access the Play Store (was given the very common "no connection - retry" error). Followed some online/YouTube advice by clearing cache, checking date & time, and uninstall Google Play Store updates. Where Google Play icon used to be is now replaced by the green android logo with caption "com.android.vending". When I click on it, it shows the old Play Store with same "no connection - retry" error.
2) That last part (uninstalling Google Play Store) somehow broke the default browser's internet (but not other apps' internet connectivity because traffic was going in and out fine). So I followed some forum's advice by backing up contacts & such and do a factory reset (through the JellyBean's interface, Settings -> Backup & reset -> Factory data reset)
3) After bricking the phone and recovering it through Odin, browser's internet and Google Play Store are still not working yet other internet traffic works fine.

Any thoughts on why uninstalling Google Play Store broke the browser's internet? And are there solutions to fixing the Play Store and browser internet?

 

[ironass]

2 quick questions...

1. Did the Google Play Store and stock internet browser originally work on your Hong Kong, Galaxy S2?

2. If so, how long have these not worked for?

You have re-flashed the original Samsung stock firmware for your phone via Odin and I therefore suspect that the problem you are facing is not connected with your handset as such.

 

[OhanaUnited]

You're spot on. Turns out it was my Ad-block Plus relic configuration (port 2020) was blocking the browser's traffic. Things are now resolved once I remove the setting.