Help on settings to improve speed/browsing

Today I installed Bitdefender Premium for the first time.
It started off that sites could not be reached. Even Google reported : Hmmm... can't reach this page
It looks like w3.google.com closed the connection (where w3 stands for www)

A Google search may take up to some 10 seconds to show results. Usually I do not need to wait, having 1Gbps fibre Internet, results are there instantly. When clicking on whatever URL from the search results, again waiting…

Also something simple as launching an image viewer, takes quite a while. In fact after some waiting I try again and again and finally it will show up.

I wonder what can be done to improve this all.

For example: Bitdefender and Windows Security are both active. Could there be any conflicts there or unnecessary 'double' protections?

Thanks!

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Comments

Alexandru_BD

Hello,

I would look at the DNS settings first:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/87643/

Then check this article for more troubleshooting steps that may help in this scenario:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/3766/

Let me know if any of these instructions helped.

Regards

bdf75

Hello to you,
Many thanks for the reply.
First: after some period of time, there is no option anymore to delete my post. Regretfully so.
(Maybe it would be worthwhile considering to allow users to delete their post as long as there is no response. After all, it may be the case that a matter is solved and the post is of no use anymore. Other users may still spend time on responding though).

Anyway, that said, again, thanks for your reply. Probably, Bitdefender went thru some sort of 'learning' process or so. Scanning and all. I don't know. The next day things went much faster. Right now there is hardly any difference. BTW the DNS has already been set to 8888 a long time ago.

Regards

Alexandru_BD

Hi and thanks for getting back. Yeah, we do tend to leave the threads open for a while, simply because we wish to allow members to post even after the discussion is no longer 'fresh', especially if a topic hasn't been concluded or answered, someone may jump in at some point and share something that's valuable to others.
Of course, we won't keep all of them open indefinitely. There are obviously no guarantees that every single inquiry finds its solution on the forum, and the instructions and troubleshooting steps posted on these pages mostly come from the users' experience with the product, and the available support knowledge base.

Going back to the issue at hand, if the DNS was changed and you have also followed the guidelines from the second article I've shared, I think there could also be other possible reasons behind the slowdown you are experiencing. Usually, the first question asked is if there are any other security solutions installed on the same PC, because this will cause slowdown, incompatibility issues, and the normal action of either one of them is not guaranteed. If this is not the case, the next thing on the checkist is to make sure the minimum system requirements for running Bitdefender are met. If the machine does not meet the system requirements, the computer will become sluggish, especially when multiple applications are running at the same time.

Another possible reason for slowdown and degraded performance is if the computer has programs or applications that are not being used. Many unwanted programs may run in the background, taking up disk space and memory. If you do not use a program, uninstall it. This is also valid for any other pre-installed software or trial software you forgot to remove. I always say that if the health of the device is not optimal, any issues that were previously not that obvious may become more visible once an antivirus is installed.
Now, after installing a security software, the computer will slightly slow down, which to a certain degree is normal. The software does need some resources to operate effectively. But if you notice a significant slowdown after installing your Bitdefender protection, or other problems that were not there before, then there's obviously a checklist to follow and some troubleshooting steps, and in this regard I've shared the articles above.

I think it's also worth checking if there is any data corruption, or hard disk fragmentation. There could be too many invalid registry keys left in your Windows Registry or your hard disk drives are too fragmented. Cleaning the Windows Registry can improve the performance of your system. Also, file fragmentation slows down file access and decreases system performance. Running the Disk Defragmenter can improve the performance of your system.

Last but not least, there are cases where system speed and its general behavior can be affected by malware, but I don't think that's the case here, since the issue you reported is mostly related to the browsing experience.
Another thing to keep in mind: after installing Bitdefender on your device, you may notice that the first system scan might take longer to complete. But with every system scan, Bitdefender will index the files that have already been scanned, and the scan time will greatly decrease. There's a catch here as well. The speed of a system scan depends on many factors such as system specifications, large volumes of data, the computer resources in use by another software, it’s the first scan since installing Bitdefender, and most importantly, the number of archives and over-compressed files/backups. Like you noticed, the next day things moved faster. Generally speaking, after Bitdefender settles in, if there are no outstanding issues on that system, if the minimum system requirements are met and if resources are not a concern, if no other security solutions are installed there, and the device has proper hygiene, you shouldn't encounter any performance issues when using Bitdefender.

bdf75

Thank you so much for your elaborate reply. Truly appreciated.
Frankly, I am already quite keen on system performance, i.e. I do not have applications installed that I do not use. As for hardware I use SSD's (of course).
Personally I prefer to stay away from registry cleaners: many years ago (just checked, it was way back in 2007) I used them, but often ended up with having to 'fix' things that didn't work properly anymore and/or re-installing software. SSD's have own TRIM and 'garbage collection'.

Anyway, performance already improved significantly.

Thanks again.

Best regards.

Alexandru_BD

You are most welcome. 👍️
Alright, it's good to hear it's working better now. Yes, I understand the reluctancy to use registry cleaners..
Keep us posted, you can come back and chat with us anytime here.