Bonjour causing problems

[innocent_lex]

Since it's taken me a while to get to the bottom of this problem and fix it, I figured I'd post for anyone else out there with the same problem. I'm running Win7 64bit and in the last few weeks have had repeated problems with the internet dropping out on me. It's pretty regular, really annoying, and not the router or anything hardware related. I went through a load of forums, sites, updated drivers, tested this, switched off that, etc.

Anyhoo, it's the Apply bonjour service that's the culprit. It gets installed with iTunes in stealth mode (i.e. it doesn't tell you it's happening) but unless you run speakers over the network or connect your iphone or something else fancy over the wifi, you don't need it. So I've uninstalled it. Blissfully, my internet connection is now fine, the browser and email are running faster, etc. Took way too long to track down the problem and I'm really unimpressed. It's apparently causing problems in Win7 and Vista, so if you find yourself getting this issue, try bonjour first.

This public service announcement was brought to you by a very irritated tech user.

Comments

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, those wonderful Apple installs. At least mine asks me if I want that, and Safari updated (NONONONO!). Phew. Dodged that bullet. Thanks for letting me know about that, though. I'll keep it in mind when I see it pop up again.

*grits teeth*

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

The number of possible solutions was vast, and I tried various of them that made no difference at all. Troubleshooting and pinning down the issue is so frigging complicated these days, though.

[readerjane]

Hmmm, wonder if that could explain our wifi problems? Will pass on to Hub: thanks for the alert!

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

I knew it had to be something on my computer because I could connect fine on my phone via wifi - so not the internet itself, not my ISP, not my router, etc.

I think my mum might be having the same problems, as she mentioned something odd to me the other day. I'll check it for her. But for me, the bonjour service said it had last updated about mid June, which corresponds with problems I've been having. It's been an issue for other people for years, though, according to my google search.

[khek.livejournal.com]

Interesting...I wonder if that has anything to do with my system slowing down so much.

I hate those automatic downloads. Yahoo toolbar is the worst, but at least they give you the option of saying no.

[innocent-lex.livejournal.com]

It's odd - I expected my browser and email to speed up, but some of the other things that are now much more responsive than they used to be have no network connectivity that I'm aware of (sony ereader software, for example), so I have no clue why they'd have been affected by this. But uninstalling that one thing has made quite a difference.