I keep getting a BF popup msg (x is an unsafe wi-fi. Use bf vpn)?

I recently changed internet providers (Spectrum to Frontier). And now I keep getting this BF popup msg (x is an unsafe wi-fi. Use bf vpn)? You have tons of customers asking this same question none of you experts can give a valid answer other than "use VPN". Cant you give an answer that wont cost me more money? Or do you get kickbacks for upselling? And do you "community" folks get paid for giving these lame, short and useless answers? Does bitdefender have anyone thats qualified to answer technical questions? Or do they get random self proclaimed people to do their technical support for free? All I want to know is "Why is my wifi network UNSAFE?"

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Scott

Hello @bongo042

I'm just a blue collar worker who volunteers my time here, and will not try to sell you anything :)

Since your ISP provider changed, the VPN is probably just responding to this change as being a new, and possibly "unsafe" connection.

Have you tried going into the VPN settings and disabling the Allow notifications option?

Go to the top of the VPN UI → Settings. Then General and tick the Notifications arrow to disable notifications.

Also, in the VPN settings, Auto-connect, confirm that Device Startup is disabled.

I know it's a bit simplistic, but maybe that all it is?

Kind regards.

Alexandru_BD

Hello @bongo042,

First of all, I must say I find your post very rude towards the members of this community, who are helping other Bitdefender users such as yourself voluntarily, on their own time. Both I and the rest of the people here will appreciate it if you take this into account before posting hateful comments that will not be tolerated on these pages.

Each Bitdefender product comes with ways to setup your preferences, including notifications settings. In addition to those mentioned by @Scott, you can also check the Wi-Fi Security Advisor settings. This feature analyzes how secure a wireless network is, and when necessary, it recommends you use Bitdefender VPN. The Wi-Fi Security Advisor monitors the following networks: Home Wi-Fi, Office Wi-Fi, Public Wi-Fi. You can set it up or turn it OFF completely, depending on your preferences. Absolutely 'free of charge'. 😉
More information can be found here:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/40620/

TIP: you can use the forum search bar to look for answers in the community. A quick search may reveal several discussions on this topic.

I hope the information will be useful to you this time.

Regards,

Alex

bongo042

Hello Alex, sorry for the late reply, so is it correct that yourself and the other members of this community who try to answer complicated tech support questions for people like myself are unpaid regular people like myself that are not employees of BD ? If so why do you do that? Are there any perks for doing this? Does BD still charge you a yearly membership fee? Thanks in advance for a reply.

Alexandru_BD

You're back 🙂

To answer your question, some members are also working for Bitdefender, including myself.
But surely you've been on forums before and you know how they work. A forum brings together people with common interests, goals, or passions. It's true that the majority of posts come from Bitdefender users, whether we are talking about requests for assistance, or solutions and advice.

People engage in forums for various reasons. First, the communities are great places to gain expertise on a subject and learn from experienced members. Some contributors genuinely enjoy assisting others, especially in technical matters, because they like the challenge. The community gives people a real sense of contribution. And since we also use ranking systems (badges, ranks, leaderboards, etc.), some users enjoy the recognition they receive. We also have a gamification program called Defenders of the month, where we reward our top 10 contributors each month, by granting validity extensions for their Bitdefender antivirus. Socializing is also a good reason to stick around.
Furthermore, users seek forums to troubleshoot issues, so this community offers a comprehensive knowledge base for existing users, but also for potential customers.
I think that using a forum is also a good way to escape the social media algorithms, since a traditional community often provides deeper, more structured discussions than fast-moving social media feeds.

Is it so hard to believe that people enjoy helping others without expecting anything in return? 🙂

There's no fee to be part of this community, it's free for all and it costs nothing to lend a helping hand, if you can.

bongo042

Thats more of an answer than I expected. And for me it's wonderful for someone to lend a helping hand, except when it comes to providing me cust svc and tech support for a svc that I pay for so BD has people working for them unpaid. So then how can BD be in control of the svc quality these non employees provide. And what a deal for them to run a biz and have free labor. So then the quality of the service and support suffers. Mainly the support you get come 24 -48 hours later because you can't call an 800 to get help and I know many companies provide similar crappy svc. Now it's become the norm for Co's to provide half ****** svc to their customers while saving tons of $$ because of well meaning peeps like yourself allowing these Co's to get away with providing poor service and still make more $$ than they deserve. You actually provide a disservice unless you take phone calls. And yes it boggles my melon that you do this for free. It lessens the support quality of every co that takes advantage of people like you.

Alexandru_BD

@bongo042 you got it all wrong I'm afraid. 😂

Sorry to break your bubble, but there are dedicated Support teams in Bitdefender, and yes, those are paid employees. And you can call them anytime. Technical assistance is free of charge, and you can get in touch with the Support engineers by choosing one of the contact methods available here:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/

To connect to a Bitdefender representative, scroll down to the bottom of the Support Page and choose between the two live channels, chat or phone, or fill in the contact form which will create a ticket for the engineers and this will also provide you with a reference number. The usual response timeframe for an open case varies between 24 to 48 hours, depending on the workload and business hours.

This is Bitdefender's forum, it's separate from that. As explained above, this community is a place where Bitdefender users and fans can discuss on various topics and support each other, share their knowledge and tips about Bitdefender products and services.

This is not about labor since we're not punching the clock here. Instead of doomscrolling on social media, some of us engage on forums. Myself, I've been using forums since the early 00's, so I'm a bit oldschool. 😉

bongo042

Hello Alexandru_BD, thanks for making me feel like an idiot because your site makes it so difficult and confusing to get some tech support, so I send emails asking how and I get your sarcastic response that starts by telling me ;

@bongo042 you got it all wrong I'm afraid. 😂
Sorry to break your bubble,
Instead of doomscrolling on social media, some of us engage on forums. Myself, I've been using forums since the early 00's, so I'm a bit oldschool. 😉

I dont want to fight you mainly because fighting with someone you are asking for help from and that has control of whether or not you are able to use a product you paid for, would be dumb and unproductive and wont end in success. So please understand, I say this with respect and you may benefit from me taking the time and effort to enlighten you.
YOU ARENT OLD SCHOOL! If you were, you would expect any company like BD to provide quality service and real support to their customers to make their experience using their products pleasant. For example, have an 800# to call so you can converse with a human, in a reasonable amount of time to help solve your problem, without me having to read for hours trying to figure out how to get some help. That is old school! I must also mention, HAS AN 800# THAT DOESNT HIDE IT, LIKE BD DOES.

Here is another example that only true OS folk understand;

Whenever you respond to a msg, which is exactly what your msg below/above is,
you include the original text from the original email msg that initiated your response!!
Thats common sense and something called being considerate. Because it enables the originator of the msg (me in this case) who sees the response days or weeks later, to look over the contents of my original msg to remind me of what I wrote. And please dont say that I can easily go find that msg myself because many times my original msg to you is written on your site or on your forum which makes it impossible for me to refer to my original msg to you. Dont you think that would make sense???

So Alexandru_BD now that you broke my bubble by telling me BD has dedicated Support teams which remain elusive to me, thanks for enlightening me, that is great! Except the fact that they dont talk to people and it takes 24-48 hours to get whats often a vague response that says, maybe try this and you could try to do that. And for your information, its hidden! You cant get there until someone like yourself refers me there. That is a despicable way to do business and means that I have to scan your site in frustration for hours looking for something that BD purposely hides from me. BD makes it so hard to find help because obviously they'd rather have confused, old school customers like myself, who have endless amounts of time, to go to the forums and discuss various topics and support each other, share their knowledge and tips about Bitdefender products and services, to solve their problems and questions. Sound familiar Alexandru_BD ?

Now that I spent half my day responding to a technical issue that I cant recall what it was because you didnt include my original msg in your response, and attempt to enlighten you why I'm so incompetent about how to get technical help, please let me know if my frustrated fueled words at least helped you to understand things from a true old school perspective. And how it compares to the poor way BD provides support to paying customers and how they expect other paying customers (which I assume you are)to provide tech support to me (also a paying customer) on behalf of BD for frree. Which is always a sure fire recipe that gives customers top quality and accurate info, quickly. (previous sentence is sarcasm). I saw all the accolades you received for answering the most questions or defender of the month or whatever it was, I bet you're very proud. And I'm sure that BD employee's love you for the support you give them. And, or course, to their paying customers, like me!

Alexander_BD I am honestly not trying to be an ****** toward you, I just want quality virus protection and my questions answered quickly and without being forced to talk with a useless bot that dreams of being human someday. Thank you for your time.

Robb

On Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 10:00:10 AM CDT, Alexandru_BD <noreply_community+d100136-s6031943@bitdefender.com> wrote:

Alexandru_BD answered your question: I kee