Getting A Little Fed Up With Slow Video Streaming

Hi all

I have searched for this problem on the forum and have seen references to it but as yet have not found a succinct solution - in fact the discussions seem to fade into theories and no actual simple solution is offered.

I have been using BitDefender Internet Security 2013 for about 9 months now. I generally like it but one thing is increasingly annoying me, to the point where, if I cannot change a setting or something, I feel that I might have to stop using BitDefender (which would be a last resort and I really don't want to have to do that).

The problem is that sometimes if I am playing a video on a website it can start to stop/start as if I have a poor internet connection speed. The speed of my internet broadband is not the problem. I have noticed that when this problem develops I can see that the Firewall Activity on the BitDefender widget sits with the blue activity indicator at the half-way position. It will often remain at this level even when I have left the webpage & video that seemed to be causing BitDefender a problem. It gets to the stage where I cannot successfully play the videos. It's very frustrating and is, if anything, getting worse.

It can happen on any website that has video content - I have seen it on Vimeo for example. I am sure that it's BitDefender causing the slow streaming.

I have not made many changes to the basic settings for BitDefender Internet Security 2013 and I must confess that I look at the various settings for the Firewall etc but don't really understand what a lot of them mean (or the effect that incorrect settings might have - I don't want to make myself any more vulnerable than necessary).

I can see that other people have this problem - surely there must be a setting that would solve the issue? I should mention that this problem occurs in both Windows 7 and Windows XP.

Any advice from someone who has managed to get around this BitDefender interference would be most appreciated.

Many thanks

TomTime

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Captain Obvious

Hi all

I have searched for this problem on the forum and have seen references to it but as yet have not found a succinct solution - in fact the discussions seem to fade into theories and no actual simple solution is offered.

Of course the discussions are nothing but theories with little or no solutions offered. This is a public forum you know.

I have been using BitDefender Internet Security 2013 for about 9 months now. I generally like it but one thing is increasingly annoying me, to the point where, if I cannot change a setting or something, I feel that I might have to stop using BitDefender (which would be a last resort and I really don't want to have to do that).

The problem is that sometimes if I am playing a video on a website it can start to stop/start as if I have a poor internet connection speed. The speed of my internet broadband is not the problem. I have noticed that when this problem develops I can see that the Firewall Activity on the BitDefender widget sits with the blue activity indicator at the half-way position. It will often remain at this level even when I have left the webpage & video that seemed to be causing BitDefender a problem. It gets to the stage where I cannot successfully play the videos. It's very frustrating and is, if anything, getting worse.

It can happen on any website that has video content - I have seen it on Vimeo for example. I am sure that it's BitDefender causing the slow streaming.

I have not made many changes to the basic settings for BitDefender Internet Security 2013 and I must confess that I look at the various settings for the Firewall etc but don't really understand what a lot of them mean (or the effect that incorrect settings might have - I don't want to make myself any more vulnerable than necessary).

I can see that other people have this problem - surely there must be a setting that would solve the issue? I should mention that this problem occurs in both Windows 7 and Windows XP.

Any advice from someone who has managed to get around this BitDefender interference would be most appreciated.

Many thanks

TomTime

First question I would like to ask is are you using a router or a direct wired connection? Second, have you tried turning the Firewall off completely to see if the problem goes away? If it doesn't, then you know that it is not a Bitdefender caused problem

TomTime

Hi Captain Obvious

Many thanks for taking time to reply to my post. I take your point about theories and solutions. I guess that I was thinking that as I have seen several postings with what appears to be the same problem (i.e. slow/stalling video playback on websites) there must be a setting within BitDefender that needs changing, and therefore a solution would have surfaced. I understand that it probably isn't as simple as that though and appreciate your comment.

Regarding your question. I am using a PC that is direct-wired into the router. I have not actually tried turning off the firewall off completely as yet - I am concerned that if I do that I have technically opened up my computer to all kind of nasties (even if only for a short time). I am not sure of the risks I would be taking - but if you think it's not too high a risk I could give that a go?

The only other comment I will make is that my wife's computer (which has used both the paid and free version of AVG) has never exhibited the video problem that my "BitDefendered PC" has. That pointed me to thinking it was a setting in BitDefender that was causing the issue. Add to that the fact that it doesn't happen all the time - I can tell when things are working okay when the BitDefender Widget's blue Firewall indicator is only occasionally flashing up in the Widget's meter window. However, when I see the BitDefender Widget's blue Firewall indicator get 'stuck' at the half-way point in the meter window I know that I am going to have problems with playing the video. Also, the firewall indicator then seems to often just stay there at the half-way position until I reboot the PC (not every time admittedly - but it does seem to get 'sticky' most times once the problem has initiated).

Regards

TomTime

Captain Obvious

Hi Captain Obvious

Regarding your question. I am using a PC that is direct-wired into the router. I have not actually tried turning off the firewall off completely as yet - I am concerned that if I do that I have technically opened up my computer to all kind of nasties (even if only for a short time). I am not sure of the risks I would be taking - but if you think it's not too high a risk I could give that a go?

Sure. I doubt you will get any "nasties". Unless you're scouring The Pirate Bay for downloads or spending hours watching pr0n, chances are you won't get any viruses. Especially if it's common sites like YouTube, Google, Yahoo, or other big name sites like that. It's usually the little "backwoods" sites, or even Christian websites; that are especially subject to attacks as they can't afford multi-million dollar security like Yahoo or Google.

Many thanks for taking time to reply to my post. I take your point about theories and solutions. I guess that I was thinking that as I have seen several postings with what appears to be the same problem (i.e. slow/stalling video playback on websites) there must be a setting within BitDefender that needs changing, and therefore a solution would have surfaced. I understand that it probably isn't as simple as that though and appreciate your comment.

Well, the thing is, I don't have this specific problem. Although a few other people might have experienced it for some reason or another, it's probably not very common to the point of it being hundreds of people posting about the problem and collectively coming up with a solution. It's just one guy here, and maybe one more guy there. The rest aren't have any problems at all, you know?

The only other comment I will make is that my wife's computer (which has used both the paid and free version of AVG) has never exhibited the video problem that my "BitDefendered PC" has. That pointed me to thinking it was a setting in BitDefender that was causing the issue. Add to that the fact that it doesn't happen all the time - I can tell when things are working okay when the BitDefender Widget's blue Firewall indicator is only occasionally flashing up in the Widget's meter window. However, when I see the BitDefender Widget's blue Firewall indicator get 'stuck' at the half-way point in the meter window I know that I am going to have problems with playing the video. Also, the firewall indicator then seems to often just stay there at the half-way position until I reboot the PC (not every time admittedly - but it does seem to get 'sticky' most times once the problem has initiated).

True enough observation, but don't forget in the world of software; nothing is perfect. I came here from Avira Internet Security because of all the problems I've been having with them (specifically, they don't want to rebuild their legacy firewall for Windows 8, so they're scrapping their firewall all together and just using Windows Firewall with the configuration settings in their GUI). In my specific case, Bitdefender was the best choice to go from there, and I currently am not having any problems with it. My brother switched to Bitdefender from Avast. Each and every anti-virus product will have something wrong with it, or something that causes problems for some people.

I mean you could always, "spy for the enemy" and see for yourself. And what I mean is pop over to AVG's forums and see what kinds of problems those people deal with (http://forums.avg.com/us-en/avg-forums?sec...show&id=277). As you can see by the 2,000+ problem forum threads, it isn't Candy Land over there either.

I will continue to help you here on the forums as long as you'd like, but another thing you can do (because two heads are better than one) is open an email ticket with technical support (http://www.bitdefender.com/support/consumer.html). They're professionals who know their own product, and may be able to help you with this problem a little better than what you can find on a forum. But hey, I'm glad to help however I can.

TomTime

Sorry for the delay in replying - have been away. I did try disabling the firewall in BitDefender but noticed that the video streaming was still slow at first (as if turning the firewall off had little effect). However I have noticed on previous occasions that once the slow video streaming has 'kicked in' then BitDefender's blue Firewall Activity meter tends to hang at the halfway position even when I close my browser. The BitDefender firewall doesn't actually seem to reset until I reboot the computer - or if BitDefender does reset, then it can take a long time to settle back down again to normal activity.

I therefore tried rebooting and not 'angering' the BitDefender Firewall by streaming video, turned the firewall off and I then didn't seem to have any problems with the video streaming. It still kinda points to BitDefender's (overly sensitive?) firewall?

I have also noticed something else which may be significant. If an online video is played and allowed to play without interruption I must admit things seem okay. I have a hunch that it's when I might click on the video's timeline to 'jump/skip' further along the video that that's when BitDefender's firewall seems to get twitchy. Hmmm.

I was wondering what the implications of permanently having BitDefender's Firewall turned off and instead using the Windows one? Do you think that would be safe to do?

Regards

Tom

Rohugh

I was wondering what the implications of permanently having BitDefender's Firewall turned off and instead using the Windows one? Do you think that would be safe to do?

It is better to have the extra protection of the BD firewall but if you need to turn it off because of your video streaming problems then the Widows firewall should be sufficient, and of course you still have the web and file shields to protect you. Before using BDTS my only firewall was the Windows 7 one and it worked well.

Captain Obvious

It is better to have the extra protection of the BD firewall but if you need to turn it off because of your video streaming problems then the Widows firewall should be sufficient, and of course you still have the web and file shields to protect you. Before using BDTS my only firewall was the Windows 7 one and it worked well.

So-so. The reason the Windows 7 firewall works so great is because it lets in every other threat and its mother. So it's kind of a trade off. Which would you rather have, better performance? Or better security? Choose wisely...

TomTime

Hi there

Many thanks again for taking the time to reply to my posts. I have heeded Capt. Obvious's comment and have decided not to use Windows firewall as a replacement to the Bitdefender one. I can put up with the occasional slow streaming of videos I guess.

I have also been mooching through the various settings/rules within Bitdefender firewall but frankly don't understand enough about what some of them mean to want to risk making changes to any of them in case I unwittingly reduce the security effectiveness of the firewall module.

However, I do very much appreciate the information that has been given to me for my posting.

Many thanks

Tom

SkiWheel

"Well add me to the list with this problem. It's not just when playing videos -- But, it's been happening to me when I'm on a Live Streaming Feed. I kept getting booted out of the program every 2 or 3 minutes today!! Rather annoying when you're on a multi-day live boot camp about "live streaming"!!! -- With Dotto Tech by the way!
So after turning off every other device in the house to ensure there was NO other internet draw.. and working from a PC connected to the router by an Ethernet cable, closed down every background program or app and closed any open file AND closed each and every tab except the one with the live stream... I opened my Task Manager to see that BitDefender virus scan was maxing out my CPU!!
Terminated the tab and the CPU usage went from 90% to 60% - I mean REALLY???? How are we supposed to operate when your virus scan uses up 30% of our system's resources!!
I've been using BitDefender for a number of years now on various devices and computers and just renewed for another year and am wondering if I've just wasted my money. BitDefender has really become a resource Hog!