System: Widows XP - SP2, Firefox 2.0, BitDefender AntiVirus v10

1. URL = http://rvparkreviews.com/search.php
2. Under 'General Search': Enter 'long branch' in the Search box
3. Uncheck 'Region Name' and 'City Name'. Leaving only 'Campground Name' checked.
4. Click on 'Search' button

All you get is a blank page. Using Internet Explorer you get an 'Unable to display webpage' error.

If I stop and restart the VSSERV service it will then work OK.
If I exit and restart Firefox I must also stop and restart VSSERV again.

This same problem occurs when using Hotmail.

Using the same senario as above but entering 'edgar evins' in step 2 works OK without stopping/restarting VSSERV.

Unchecking 'Scan http traffic' has no effect on this.
Unchecking 'Real-time protect' has no effect on this.

Does anyone have an explanation or a fix for this problem?

Thanks

This problem exists in BDv11 (2008) also. I cannot test if it gets corrected by restarting the vsserv service, because this service cannot be stopped in BDv11.

I'll try to contact someone to take a look at this topic.

Cris.

While I am not well versed in using the Fiddler HTTP Debugging Proxy I did some further testing on this using it.

I have found that changing anything in the search request will work OK. ie: 'lonj branch' works, whereas 'long branch' fails. The ONLY difference in the request header is the single character 'j' replacing 'g'.

There is no response received to the request that fails. I appears VSSERV might be blocking the request header from ever leaving the PC. This is only a guess. It is also possible that VSSERV blocks the response so even Fiddler does not see it.

I hope this may provide additional helpful information to resolve this bug.

Chris,

Did you get any information on this?

I have experienced several random occurrences of the described problem, all repeatable, where pages from websites would not display. Each time stopping VSSERV would allow the site to work properly.

I tried getting support from BitDefender directly. All they said was to upgrade to v2008.

No real help. Did not even acknowledge the problem. A reply back to them netted no response at all. I am getting that "Symantec" feeling all over again.

Chuck

Hi Chuck,

I'm so sorry, but I simply forgot about this issue.

However, there are also other pages that are blocked in some conditions. Try disabling the Identity Control and see if it works.

On the other hand, I tested right now the page and it works just fine (but I bumped into another bug, and I cannot enable the Identity Control to see if that is the module that blocks the page).


So: keep HTTP Scan disabled, disable the Identity Control and post if this fixed the issue. I'll see if I have time tomorrow to report this to TechSupport. Again, I'm sorry (I had tons of other stuff on my mind lately...).

Cris.

Thanks, Chris.

I, too, have found the example I provided now works.

It seems to be random sites, random pages that fail. I have a 2 Hotmail accounts. 1 works the other will not display any email contents unless I stop VSSERV.

I have tried disabling HTTP Scan, it has no effect. I have disabled Real-time protection, it has no effect. The only thing I have found that works is stopping VSSERV.

I must have missed something in the configuration somewhere. Where is the "Identity control"?

Thanks again for your help.
Chuck

Hi Chuck,

The Identity Control is is the Privacy Control tab.
You could also try disabling the Web Antiphishing feature. Something must be blocking the pages...we just have to find out what and in what conditions.

Cris.

Cris, (I finally gathered enough intelligence to spell your name right.)

I found the "Privacy Control" as a check box instead of a tab. I unchecked it. I tried the Hotmail. It had no effect on it.

I cannot locate the "Web Antiphishing" feature either. I hate to appear so dumb.

Thank you for sticking with this one.

Chuck

Hello Chuck

To disable antiphising open Internet Explorer go to the tools menu,manage add-ons select BitDefender Toolbar and click on disable and press on ok to confirm.

Best regards
Niels

Niels,

Good morning. I do not use Internet Explorer, I use Firefox 2.0. BitDefender is not in the AddOns list.

I did start up Internet Explorer just to look. BitDefender is not in its Add-On list either. My setup for IE is 100% default and totally cleaned after each use via CCleaner. No cookies, no history, no cache ever remain.

The only difference in the behavior for this problem is Firefox displays a blank page, IE displays a message "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage"

Thanks,
Chuck

Hello chuck

antiphising protection is only for Internet Explorer. What doesn't work exactly? I did what you entered as search details and I could see the website of long branch. I use Firefox 2.0.0.8. So I didn't receive a blank page. http traffic scanning is enabled on my computer. What add-on's do you have installed in Firefox? I didn't have to restart vsserv.

Best regards
Niels

Niels,

As stated a couple of messages ago, the example I provided works OK now. Cris did observe the problem though. He indicated it also occurred in v11.

It seems to be random sites, random pages that fail. I have a 2 Hotmail accounts. 1 works the other will not display any email contents unless I stop VSSERV.

I did ask BitDefender support if the VSSERV module was the same for v11 as v10 had. They won't even respond at all. (Ex-Symantec employees???)

The Hotmail account ALWAYS fails unless I stop VSSERV.

I will supply the specifics for the next website that fails as soon as I see the problem again.

Thanks,
Chuck

Hi Chuck,

Please try this link. Another user reported this link as blank page when HTTP scan and Identity Control are enabled. See if it works to you (to me, it still doesn't work).

About the Identity Control and Web Antiphishing... maybe BD 11 AV doesn't have these features (or they are only basic protection modules, which can't be configured). I'll check it out to see exactly (I only tested BD IS and BTS).

@Niels: when Chuck first reported this issue, I tested it and it didn't work at that time. Now it works. Maybe the BD Team is really working on this and is fixing the reported issues. If this is the case, the number of reported blank pages could drop and this can only be a good news.

Cris.

Cris,

The link you provided also produced a blank page for me.

I disabled "Behavioral Antispyware" and "Real-time protection". Neither of these had any effect.

However, when I stopped VSSERV the link worked fine.

I hope this helped. Does BitDefender tech support even acknowledge to you there is a problem?

More info: I did some more testing. Even though I had disabled "Real-time protection" and it had no effect, I tried again turning off "Scan HTTP traffic". The link then worked. It looks like HTTP scanning option does not honor the Real-time enabled option.

However, in my previous example the HTTP scanning did NOT make any difference.

Chuck

Cris and Niel,

More info: For the first time the Hotmail account is now responding to turning off the "Scan HTTP traffic" option.

I think this still need to be fixed as disabling this option is defeating one of the reasons the software exists in the first place.

Chuck

Hi Chuck,

By disabling that option, the overall security of your system is NOT affected in ANY way. See explanation.

I'll report this (again) tomorrow.

Cris.

Thanks Cris. The explanation was definitely appreciated.

Something has definitely changed since all this started.

Do you thing BitDefender corrected the problem without ever admitting there was a problem?

Thanks again,
Chuck

No, BitDefender didn't correct the problem (at least, not completely). The proof is the link I posted (which still doesn't work with HTTP scan enabled).

And there wouldn't be any reason why BD wouldn't admit that there was a problem (because, obviously, there is a problem). Just like they admitted the nForce network card incompatibility (and fixed this issue), they'll fix this one also.

Cris.

Cris,

Just thought I would let you know. I was playing with the link you provided this morning.

Now it does not matter if "Scan HTTP traffic" is on or off. The ONLY way I could get it to work was to stop the VSSERV service.

In addition the Hotmail account has stopped working again. Remember I said it worked yesterday for the the first time since BitDefender was installed.

Please keep me advised on what BitDefender tells you. This problem is serious enough for me to change to a different product if it is not fixed quickly.

Thanks,
Chuck

Hi Chuck,

I'm sorry about this. I talked to TechSupport and they assured me that the Team is making efforts to fix this issue. As far as I noticed, this issue is more related to Identity Control then to HTTP scan.


You must have seen this checkbox in the Security Center. What you probably un-checked was only module monitoring (so BD won't announce you when the module is disabled).

To disable the module, go to Settings (a small button from the lower right corner of Security Center) and you'll see, on the left side, a button called Privacy Control[b/]. Click on it, then on [b]Advanced settings on the right and, in the window that pops up, un-check the Identity Control module.

Close that window and, in the Settings window, move the slider of Privacy Control to Permissive. Now close the Settings window and the Security Center and try the pages. Normally, this should fix the problem (I've never found a page that didn't work with HTTP Scan Identity Control disabled. Also, other users confirmed that this fully fixes the issue).

Cris.

Cris,

More information: I have found that if the "Privacy control" is enabled it does not matter if the "Behavioral Antispyware" is enabled or disabled, the problem will persist.

This is the same characteristic that "Scan HTTP traffic" shows. If it is on then it does not matter if "Real-time protection" is enabled or disabled, the problem will persist.


It appears that enabling/disabling the Antispyware or Real-time areas has no real internal affect on what is operational and what is not. It only controls the ability to make changes in those areas.

This is getting complicated.

Chuck

Hmmm...we posted in exactly the same time a new post. The thing is that my post remained on the previous page (and you might have missed it). Please read it and try to see if it works.

Cris.

I cannot find "Security Center"

Are we talking about the same software? BitDefender Antivirus v10?

Chuck

PS: Yep, we posted at the same time. I rebooted, turned off "Privacy control", "Scan HTTP traffic". Things are working again. For now.

Thanks for your help.

Oops!! I simply forgot you were using BDv10... I was talking about BD AV v11. Sorry about that.

Umm... in this case, try to download a BD AV 2008 kit and make the upgrade. Licensing is free while you still have a valid license for BDv10.

Before installing BD2008, use the BD Uninstall Tool to completely remove BDv10 from your system. After that, reboot your system, install BD2008, reboot again and make a full update of BD2008. Reboot is also recommended after the first update of the product.

Then try the pages to see if they work. If they don't, do as I said above (disable Identity Control) and test again. It really should work.

Sorry for my mistake.
Cris.

Cris,


I have upgraded to v2008. The same problem still exist. I played around with the Privacy protection. A one point it would allow the test link you provided to work. However, at this point NOTHING I do will allow the link to work.

In addition, I did a manual FULL SYSTEM SCAN. It completed. However, automatic updates were being blocked. It indicated the scan was running. The scan log listed the scan completed 10 hours ago.

I had to use Task Manager to stop the scan module. Then update worked.


Will I encounter any licensing problems restoring v10? It had fewer problems than this upgrade.

Chuck

Cris,

Where did you go?

Additional information:

1. The scheduler does not seem to work
2. The log file counters and timer are always zero

I was waiting for a response from you or tech support as to any problem with licensing when I go back to v10. Tech support has not responded either.

In my opinion BitDefender Antivirus version 10, while not perfect, has less problems than version 11/2008.

Chuck

Hello Chuck,

Sorry for the late response. I was extremely busy the last few days and I never found time to read all the new topics on the forum (Unfortunately, this section is one of the last, so I never reached it).


This problem was reported before, but only on very rare occasions. Personally, I never found this bug. I'm sorry you are one of the users who found it.


This problem was already reported to TechSupport several times. However, I was always told that it is being worked on, but a time frame cannot be fixed. This is an universal problem (everyone experiences it)


If you still have the same license key as you had on BDv10, the no, there won't be any problems. Just use the same uninstall tool, remove BDv11, reinstall BDv10 and use the same key.


I'll see if I can find anything about the web-page issue sometime in the next few days.

Cris.

Thanks Cris. You have been very helpful.

UPDATE:

A problem report for the topic of this thread had been submitted to technical support on or about 10/15/2007. They advised to upgrade to v11. They said to email them back if the problem still existed. I did as they advised. I replied to their email on 10/29, 10/31, 11/05, and again today (11/08). They have ceased to acknowledge anything at all.

What started out as impressive tech support has dropped off to nothing.

I have restored v10. Things do work better now even with the defective VSSERV module. At least the scheduler works and I can stop VSSERV if needed.

At this point BitDefender is becoming a disappointing venture. If they fail to fix it by the time my subscription expires I will find another product.

Chuck

The problem is far more widespread than I think BD realizes. Lots of negative reviews on review boards all related to the VSSERV problem.

I am in an active discussion on the Vsserv Problem In Bitdefender Internet Security 2008 topic/board link is http://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?sho...=2501&st=60 but found this thread since my problem is with Antivirus 10. But its exactly the same problem folks report on 2008 and similar to what is being discussed here. With so many people with the VSSERV issue might be better to keep it all to the same thread but am posting here in case folks don't know of the wider ongoing issues.

In my case as with most of the reports on the Security 2008 topic when the VSSERV error message pops up we lose ALL (or virtually all) Internet connections and in my case have to hard reboot to get Internet access back. It started it seems with V10 since have dealt with it for a few months. Is random will occur even when I am not doing anything with the computer and averages about once a day.

Use Firefox mostly and sometimes IE6 - I avoid IE7 since so many reported problems with it.
Static IP, Windows XP SP2
WIndows firewall is disabled

BD was a fine well reviewed product but is being trashed by the inability to solve this issue that affects a large number of users.

Lots of bad reviews not only on CNET but also Amazon and other review sites. If BD works its about the best. The other highly reviewed AV Karp..... has many reports of a chkdisk problem that is far worse than BD for those infected...I mean affected... Seems to screw up object file even after program is removed! I don't need that! I'd rather just have to reboot about once a day - so I hope BD comes up with a fix for the zillions of us trying to be patient.

I do the send to BD error report thing every time with my e-mail. I wonder if anyone is actually doing anything with the reports the error message offers to send and I have been for months.

Again its not just in BD 2008 where its being widely report, I have been getting same situation for months using BD Antivirus v10 so its something in common which by the posts on this topic is also being confirmed.

On the other thread a supermoderating is asking for dump files when it occurs (this isn't what the auto send thing is doing?). Obviously is a hard problem to solve especialy if its random not liked to any particular program we do something with.

Since the BD 2008 Forum has more recent activity that may be best to use for any comments, clues or solutions. It obviously is an issue for both products.

Yesterday, 11/19, I finally called them on the phone. BD support failed to acknowledge my email reply to them even after sending it to them 6 times in a 2 week period. It took 20 minutes of waiting before a live person answered.

What really amazed me is they act like this is the first time they have heard of this problem and I must be the only one having it.

At any rate, he requested the files (sysdump, fileinfo, and screenshot). I sent them. Anyway, we'll see what happens now.

Charles M. Swartz