Bitdefender has a BIG Problem: ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED

VPN
1

Hi everyone! I recently discovered my elephant in the room: >!Bitdefender!<.

For months, some of my University’s Official Web Pages wouldn’t load and kept returning the “ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED” error, even when trying multiple browsers.

I won’t go over all the troubleshooting steps I tried, as that would take forever! Long story short, Bitdefender was inexplicably blocking access to those URLs with No Notification and No Log.

It turns out that Bitdefender’s web protection feature has a BIG issue, but thankfully, there’s a simple fix: add the site URL to the Exceptions List.

How to do it:

  1. Open Bitdefender.
  2. Click on “Protection”.
  3. In the “Antivirus” section, click “Open”.
  4. Go to “Settings”.
  5. Click “Manage Exceptions”.
  6. Click “Add an Exception”.
  7. Add the URL and select “Online Threat Prevention”.
  8. Click “Save.”
  9. Exit and reopen your browser.

Of course, this is the solution I found for my issue, but your situation might be a bit different.

I hope this helps as many people as possible. Happy browsing, everyone!

2

Wait i had the ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED problem, but I thought that something was wrong with my local network / VPN / browser.
So it’s a Bitdefender thing? Might have to try your solution, thanks.

3

I solved it this way a few hours ago after trying everything. Let me know if it works for you too.

4

Yeah, I will try it, next time it comes up.
For me, it was a bit weird because it doesn’t always happen on the same pages.
So I never thought that it might be Bitdefender that is blocking the connection.
Thank you for sharing your experience.