The other even weirder question is how did the backblaze b2 program work (that runs as a compiled linux executable) (b2 sync). It must not be accessing the server the same way (via f004 ?)
My guess would be that the Chromebook uses DNS-over-HTTP or DNS-over-TLS which makes it impossible to tamper with.
Judging from the B2 documentation, the f004 style hostnames are only necessary to download data. Uploading seems to use other hostnames.
This issue has now been resolved. It was not necessary to actually contact the Plume support staff. There is a phone app, homepass, that is available with the Plume service. Within this app, you can find a list of any web sites that have been blocked by the service on a per-device basis. I was able to find where backblazeb2.com had been blocked. Clicking that block notice allows the user to approve it for unblocking which is what I did. This is effectively a nice GUI for a firewall that comes with the Plume pod/service.
As to why the backblazeb2 web site was blocked in the first place, I have no idea. Plume does recommend notifying them if you think a site should not be blocked, which I will do. Another weird thing is that my same desktop linux computer was not blocked while browsing the backblaze web site itself using the chrome browser. So, still a few unanswered questions here, but the main issue I had has now been resolved, and the only change to the system I have is that the backblazeb2.com web site was added to a list of allowed sites to penetrate the Plume firewall.
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