Many applications can't connect to Internet when OpenVPN is activated

Greetings,

In the past few weeks I've started using OpenVPN most of the time when I
connect to the Internet. I'm connecting via FreeVPN.me.

I successfully connect, but then most of my applications don't work.
Particular concern is email client (Evolution). Some do continue to work
like Transmission (Torrent Client) and the Tor Browser, but my other web
browsers don't either (Abrowser, Konqueror, Elinks, etc.).

I suspect there is some system setting I need to change to get the rest
of my system to look in the right place, but I can't find anything.