Bitdefender VPN - Google search engine times out / does not connect despite the browser process being excluded

VPN
1

Running Windows 10 + Chrome. Have had a subscription to BitDefender VPN for about a year. I use split tunneling where the chrome.exe process is exempted from the VPN tunnel. Confirmed this is working via various “what is my IP” site checks, but other processes on the system are caught in the tunnel as normal.

About 2 months ago after an update to the client - www.google.com no longer works - it just times out. GMail, Google Docs, etc load as normal. All other websites that I access work normally - it’s just the main Google search page. DuckDuckGo page loads normally and I’ve begun to either use that or just briefly disconnect the VPN.

DNS servers haven’t changed from my defaults that I’ve had for years. (8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1)

Has anyone else had a problem with accessing the main Google search engine since the VPN software update - even if the browser process is exempt / whitelisted - and if so did you manage to fix the issue?

Any help is appreciated. If I can’t find a way around it I’ll likely have to look for another provider, which sucks as I was perfectly happy with the speeds and endpoints until the recent update, but this is making my job a PITA.

Thanks in advance

BitDefender 27.1.2.1(b)

2

Hello! Thank you for sharing your experience with the VPN. We understand the frustration this has caused. To prevent this issue from happening again, please refer to this article: https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/1836/.

If the steps will not improve the situation, feel free to reach the technical team using [email protected], or https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/, to ensure you receive a solution.

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I have just had success with Wireguard protocol (Bitdefender VPN advanced settings). Although it didnt work until I removed split tunnelling for www.google.com that I had in place from an earlier attempted work around.