Bitdefender Home Network Helper Process Uses 60GB+ Of RAM. Any Help?

Will332211
Will332211
edited February 2023 in Protection - Malware/ Firmware/etc.
Screenshot_2.jpg

I booted up my computer and after a 1-2 minutes it started becoming very sluggish(which was very surprising) so i opened task manager to see the network helper processes using 60GB + (50here plus another 15+ commited on the disk). how? Why? like seriously why? what could it possibly be the reason for that?

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  • Alexandru_BD
    Alexandru_BD admin
    edited February 2023

    Hello @Will332211,

    I've seen this behaviour in the past and we do have a couple of similar reports on the forum as well, however, it's difficult to pinpoint the exact culprit by just looking at the screenshot and without analyzing some logs from the device, to find out precisely what is causing this, because the possible reasons behind the high CPU/RAM usage might be multiple. So, my recommendation would also be to contact our Support engineers, to gather the required logs for troubleshooting, because in most cases, they will reveal the cause. You can follow the steps described by Flexx above and please do let us know what was the culprit in your case, after receiving feedback from the Support Teams.

    You can reach our engineers by choosing one of the available contact channels at the link below:

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

    Regards

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • Dudescu Dude
    Dudescu Dude ✭✭✭

    Hello, what is the setting passive DHCP (on or off)? You can see it in Firewall - Settings - Use passive detection mode

  • Alexandru_BD
    Alexandru_BD admin

    Hello @Will332211,

    This is a message from Cristian @camarie, one of our developers from desktop team.

    This is - correct me if I'm wrong - the process hntwhlpr.exe, which is a process used internally for scanning devices and networks when home network is changing, connect/disconnect from networks occurs etc.

    Normally this is not executing often, and to take such a large amount of memory it can mean these things (at least I can think of):

    - you really hit a bug in hntwhlpr.exe process (that we are not aware/did not encounter it)

    - a network scan was triggered for detecting devices, and the network is one with a very large number of candidate IP addresses (for example 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255) - normally we should scan only 3 segments (previous, current, and next, so if the network IP is 10.2.x.y it should scan 10.1.0.0-10.3.255.255, so 10.1.0.0 to 10.3.255.254).

    - a device on your network is sending an unusual number of network packets intercepted by us, and thus triggering a high number of scan operations.

    Can you share some more details regarding your particular setup?

    I mean, a description of what happens during the startup process, if you connect (manually or automatically) to a network, what type is that network (Wireless, WWAN, VPN, LAN etc.) and, if possible, details about the network adapters.

    Please be as verbose as you see fit, this can only help us to track down the cause.

    In order to do that, you can open a command prompt (cmd(.)exe) and run the following command (you can use instead of bd_ipconfig.txt another filename), preferably when the network conditions are identical or at least similar with the moment when you noted this unusual behavior:

      ipconfig /all > %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\bd_ipconfig.txt

    This will produce a bd_ipconfig.txt text file on your desktop which will describe the network adapters present on your computer.

    (I'm not sure if sharing a file with these details on a forum is 100% ok - if not, PM me or another one of our guys).

    Waiting for more details from you.

    Thanks

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • CMHstudio
    CMHstudio

    Hi @Alexandru_BD , jumping in on this thread as I have the exact same issue as @Will332211

    What makes things difficult is that when this issue occurs with the Network Home Network Helper process, as Ram utilization is maxed out at 100% (I have 48GB installed), it is not possible to start the logging programs or in my case, even take a screenshot. The system is completely unresponsive and the only solution is to physically power off and power-up the computer again.

    I have sent you a private message with my bd_ipconfig file - maybe it helps to track down this issue also for others.

    Best Regards

    Christian

  • Alexandru_BD
    Alexandru_BD admin

    Hello @CMHstudio,

    Thank you for joining the conversation and for sharing your findings with us. I have replied to your private message with further instructions.

    Regards

    Premium Security & Bitdefender Endpoint Security Tools user

  • tomat85
    tomat85

    Please, have you come to any conclusion on this topic? I have run to same issue and I wonder if it can be fixed somehow? Strangely enough - I have this issue only on my laptop... my desktop PC does not encounter that issue. Would be grateful for any help.

  • ghostli
    ghostli

    What was the fix ?

    Ive had this for the past 6 weeks atleast now, and its so random. Rebooting fixes the issue but I dont want to have to reboot everytime this occurs.

  • CMHstudio
    CMHstudio

    @ghostli @tomat85 I think this occuring on such a seemingly random basis makes it so hard to track down, even for the devs. You can help them by opening a support ticket and sending log files directly after this issue occurs for you the next time (so in my case, after reboot). I myself am now "waiting" for it to occur again, so I can send the logs. 👍️

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