Possible Conflict Between BD Total Security And NordVPN. Any Help?

Muskoka_Joe

I have Bitdefender Total Security installed on my pc running Windows 11 and am not using Bitdefender's vpn. I also have NordVPN installed.

I have struggled with NordVPN disconnect issues. When NordVPN disconnects, I lose my internet. It may stay connected for one hour or one day and then disconnect. Please note NordVPN support has been great and very patient with my issue.

I noticed there is a post in this community which states the Bitdefender web protection and Bitdefender VPN will not run at the same time. One shuts down when the other is enabled and that's the way it has to be.

Question 1: Is Bitdefender causing my NordVPN disconnect issues?

Question 2: When I was using Bitdefender VPN, I did not have any notification that my web protection was going down for the sake of vpn. Why is that?

Thank you in advance for the help.

Scott

Hi @Muskoka_Joe

I'm ending my 30-day "trial" of Nord, and will probably keep it. So here's what I've found....

Question 1) Nord has been pretty stable on my Windows 11 notebook, with no real disconnect issues, probably because I added it into AV and Advanced Threat Exceptions. For Advanced Threat, you're adding the .exe file, as that module scans running .exe processes.

Adding to AV Exclusions:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/13427/

Adding to Advanced Threat Defense:

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/2393/

Question 2) You may have been led a bit astray, as those threads had to do with iOS smartphone devices, and not Windows or Android. So we're fine in that regard.

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/34181/

I've found that Bitdefender VPN on PC is very nice, but Nord's is better for download speeds, without having to tweak things with the 7 tips to make BD VPN faster, article.

On Android, Bitdefender is the winner for me, as it has a better UI, and also, the speeds are just as good as Nord's if not a little better at times. Where BD VPN wins on both devices, is the ability to Split-Tunnel individual websites, which Nord (and some of the others) don't offer.

I hope this helped, and especially adding the exceptions.

Scott

Muskoka_Joe

Thank you very much for your answer Scott.

That certainly cleared the grey areas. NordVPN support had me creating exceptions in Bitdefender firewall.

Based on my consistent disconnect issues, NordVPN support moved me over to the manual IKEv2 connection (IKEv2 is apparently better) https://support.nordvpn.com/1047410092

I still had disconnect issues so they then put me onto the manual OpenVPN connection https://support.nordvpn.com/1047409832 . I just set that up this evening.

As a bonus, NordVPN has there own dns servers (103.86.96.100 and 103.86.99.100). I entered them into the TCP/IPv4 properties for my wifi adapter. This is to prevent dns leaks. If you are curious about your setup, try https://dnsleaktest.com/ and https://nordvpn.com/what-is-my-ip/ Careful, some other dns leak test websites only work accurately on their own vpn software giving you the wrong impression.

Thx again for the help and I will add a comment if I run into any more problems.

Scott

https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/comment/321920#Comment_321920

Very informative post, Muskoka_Joe; I think I learned more from you than you did from me :) :)

In my case, I never had to add anything to the Firewall, as I pretty much added the Exceptions right up-front, maybe that helped right off the bat? It's also reassuring to hear the level of support you're getting, just in case I run into some issues myself. So thank you for also taking the time to provide the links in your post :)

Scott

Muskoka_Joe

You are most welcome Scott and thank you for yours.

Muskoka_Joe

Here I am again still having issues.

-I have an exception for the program files\Nordvpn folder in the Antivirus section

-I have exceptions for all the .exe files in the program files\Nordvpn and subfolders in the Advanced Threat Defense, Online Threat Protection and the Firewall settings

NordVPN is not stable for me on my Dell Windows 11 netbook. NordVPN support responds very quickly but I think they are running out of solutions.

Other users claim they have no issues with NordVPN and Bitdefender.

Any thoughts from the Bitdefender community would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

Sorry that I'm of no help, as it has been working very well for me, even now. I may get a slight pause on a webpage 2? times a day, but I just refresh the webpage and I'm fine. I used the same DNS server numbers in the app (only) as you previously mentioned.

Ciuy

hey mate, i had similar issues with NordVPN and Bitdefender because of Nords Threat Protection being ON. Make sure it is OFF. BD has a threat protection system as well, where I add exceptions like online apps that might give me issues but besides the conflicting protecting services, they work good between them.

Had some issues with the Threat protection with games using anti-cheat systems like EasyCheat, BD threat flagged it and caused crashes or other weird stuff, solution was exceptions for all the exe files. I still do it preemptively with some games. I keep Nords threat OFF (using Lite only).

Muskoka_Joe

Thank you for your response Ciuy.

I have all the extras in NordVPN turned off including Lite and I still have disconnect issues. NordVPN will most often disconnect after 10 mins of a video and after waking up from sleep mode.

I'm supposed to uninstall my current version, install an older version and use that for 2 weeks and then update to the current version. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse with this one.

ntman1

I am having similar problems. When I run each by themselves they run flawlessly. When I run NordVPN and Bitdefender Total Security together. It's problematic. I have been getting disconnects of NordVPN just like you have. At first I thought it was my Kill Switch but now I think there is a problem running them together. I'm not sure what it is. Now I think it might be Bitdefender using high memory but I don't have anything to cause me to think that. Anway, I'm having the same problem.

anomartini

Bitdefender doesnt kick me out of malicious website, i suspect its conflicted with NordVPN. I also turned off Nordvpn's online thread feature.

Scott

At this point, the only thing I can think of is going to YouTube, and start watching a longer video, or free movie, having disabled all of Nord's extras and disabling all of Bitdefender's protection modules, and see if it works without pauses. or disconnection. If so, start re-enabling BD modules 2 at a time, and try the video again until you maybe find out what the culprit may be.

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/28557/

Just me, shooting in the dark at this point.

anomartini

I think all antivirus programs, including Bitdefender, should have a feature that allows them to integrate with any VPN, not just their own. This would prevent conflicts between the antivirus and VPN software, eliminating unnecessary problems.

Boba_fettt

Thank you yo post this Muskoka_joe!

You are not alone!!!

I'm fighting since one week to find out Bitdefender was the problem of my disconnections.

It work flawlessly since months and BAAM, diconnect, disconnect, disconnect...

Linux version of vpn are #1 (got 5 linux vm) but my Windows 11 vm is... not stable at all.

I will try to add the exclusions and test it out.

Muskoka_Joe

I eventually purchased an ASUS RT-AX88u router which has a descent cpu and enabled OpenVPN. OpenVPN is running 24/7 and protects the traffic of selected devices between the router and the internet only (not your wifi connection). Beware though because VPN uses a lot of cpu power and I am only able to achieve 250 Mbps with this router and 60 Mbps with an ASUS RT-AX58u. So if you need faster, you must run the VPN on your PC instead.

You can also enable OpenVPN for your smart devices and not your PC if you wish.

Something to think about.