Hello, I just signed in because I have a weird issue, so this is my first post here:
Recently I've noticed my internet connection suddenly was getting very slow, I thought it was some problem with my internet provider but the problem was getting very frequent. I use a program (a Win7 gadget) that helps me monitor my internet traffic, access and usage, and I noticed all my bandwidth was being used even if I had all programs closed. A couple of days later I discovered that each time I opened a streaming video from any site (not just YouTube), the problem was there, so everytime I watch a video I have to wait for it to load completely, even if I close its tab or the browser.
Another thing I noted is that if I try to find which program is accessing the internet with the Resource Monitor that comes with Windows 7, there's none. Let's say that I open a video, I check the Resource Monitor and there I can find Firefox is accessing the network as expected, then I close Firefox, the program disappears from the Resource Monitor list (again, as expected) but the bandwidth is still being accessed at full. I have a very slow connection (2 Mb), so you can tell how this becomes a very big problem for me.
I don't have the slightest idea how this problem started, all I know is that it started somewhere in the first days of December 2012. All the past year I've been using Bitdefender 2012 without any problems, but suddenly this issue started. I'm very careful about the software I install in my PC. I've searched all over the web trying to find a solution but to no avail, it seems a lot of other users have the same issue but with some variants: some people blame it on Bitdefender, other people blame it to using other browsers, etc., but I haven't found a solution yet. Today I've just updated to Bitdefender 2013, but the problem still persists!
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Now, watching videos is a big part of my internet experience, even YouTube is my homepage, and I sometimes like to watch very long videos (20+ min.), or open like four or five of them in different tabs so they can buffer and I can watch them later; you can tell this problem ruins a big part of my web usage. Let's say I open a video with 5:00 minutes of length, I watch like 20 seconds of it and then I decide to close it, now I must wait the whole five minutes for the video to stop buffering to be able to watch another one (or to do anything web related for that matter) or surf the web at the pace of a snail until the video stops loading.
The solutions I've tried (and have failed) so far are:
- Adding a new string and value using "regedit" in: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BitDefender as suggested in this thread.
- Cleaning the registry and junk files.
- Disabling all antivirus options in BitDefender 2012.
- Disabling and enabling again the network adapter.
- Doing a full system antivirus scan.
- Downgrading Firefox to version v.16.0.2 without success, and then to v.14.0.1 with the same results.
- Installing Google Chrome and trying to use it as my default browser.
- Restoring my system (System Restore) to December, 4th. 2012.
- Trying to tweak the various Flash Player options found in Control Panel (a.k.a. Global Settings).
- Trying to tweak the "Flash Player Settings" found by right clicking on a video.
- Uninstalling and updating all my Firefox extensions and Greasemonkey's scripts.
- Uninstalling my monitoring programs (Windows 7 gadgets).
- Updating Flash Player to the latest version.
- Updating the AMD VISION Engine Control Center (updating my video drivers, that is).
- Updating the DirectX software.
- Using Firefox in safe mode with all extensions disabled.
Of all the things I've tried, the only one that really worked was uninstalling Bitdefender, as someone suggested me in the Adobe forums, but not having it installed is even worse for me as I'm quite reluctant to visit any other site for fear of getting an infection.
I discovered that if I'm using Internet Explorer 9, the videos stop buffering as soon as I close their tabs or the browser. As I mentioned above, it happens only with Firefox and Google Chrome.
Well, that's all I have to say, thank you for reading and I really hope you can come with a solution, cya! 
Specs:
- Adobe Flash Player, ver. 11.5.502.135
- AMD Phenom II X6 1055T, 2.80GHz
- Firefox, ver. 17.0.1
- RAM 8 Gb
- Windows 7, 64-bit
Please, help me if you can! 