Child Item

Visiting the Dropbox web page breaks my PC's WiFi.

Application Affected
(Dropbox Paper, Dropbox Website)
Device
(Windows PC)
Operating System/Browser (if using the web)
(Windows 11, All Browsers)
Dropbox App Version (if using the app)
(232.4.5988)

ISP

Virgin Media

Issue:

Any time I visit Dropbox.com my Internet crashes on my PC. I can visit dropbox.com on my phone perfectly fine. Al other websites I visit are fine but the second I go to Dropbox it breaks.

What I've done

Gone to CMD prompt and done the following:

ipconfig /flushdns
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

Used the following DNS server addresses:

Preferred: 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare)

Alternate: 8.8.8.8 (Google)

When I visit Dropbox.com I have to restart my PC and there's no other way to recover my Internet connection. What could be causing this?

Thanks,

Keith

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Comments

Jay

Hi @Keith15, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Could you try using incognito/private browsing mode without any extensions running to see if you experience the same issue?

Do you have any proxy, VPN, firewall, security software, or even ISP/router settings that could be restricting traffic to the following Dropbox domains?

Let me know how it goes!

Keith15

Hi Jay,

Thanks for getting back.

I've tried incognito and a portable version of Firefox. Both fail.

I use a VPN (Proton) but I've tried with and without this switched on. There's also no ISP/router issues as then my phone would have the same issue when connecting. I made sure no cellular data was being used and just used wifi.

Nancy

Hi from me as well, Keith! Can you also test this after connecting to a completely different network/WiFi (if at all possible)?

This is quite odd indeed, so I’d like to gather as much info as possible.

Keith15

Hi,

I'll try later today when I get home.

Megan

Hey @Keith15!

Take all the time you need to test this out, and reply back to us with more info. 😇

Keith15

So I connected to my phone's hotspot for a different Wi-Fi and it worked no problem.

Switched back to my home WiFi and it breaks again.

Nancy

Thanks for keeping us in the loop, Keith, and for giving that a go!

In this case, you may need to check this with your ISP directly, to see why your connection keeps getting interrupted when accessing the Dropbox website.

Gara245

Hi Keith, what happens if you disable your firewall for a second then try to load a new page, then reenabling it? i had the same issue and that fixed it for me. i suspect its the ping for the dropbox app being rejected by the firewall breaking your wifi

Jay

Hi @Keith15, in this thread, this user stated that Norton Antivirus might've caused the issue on their device. Do you happen to that that installed on your machine as well?

Keith15

Hi,

This is most likely it as my work PC, which uses the same antivirus (Avast Business Antivirus) just had the same problem. The fact that two separate PCs on completely different networks has the same problem points to that. I'll investigate further and let you know.

Hannah

Thanks for checking that, @Keith15, and we'll wait for your update!

Keith15

Okay,

So I can confirm it was Avast. Switching it off and then accessing Dropbox works.

I've added the following exceptions to Avast now and it works so hopefully it stays that way.

https://www.dropbox.com/*

https://dropbox.com/*

Dropbox sync client path
C:\Program Files\Dropbox

Thanks everyone for helping.

Nancy

Hey @Keith15! Sorry for the nudge.

Did you perhaps find something more regarding your antivirus? Are you still having issues with the Dropbox website affecting your WiFi connection?

Hog Wild

Hello. There are many people having similar problems to Keith. Below is a Reddit thread on this issue. I will attempt the workaround Keith employed.

However, it might be helpful for the Dropbox engineers to contact Avast, Norton, and others because many people aren’t savvy enough to handle this themselves.

removed by moderator

Keith15

Hi,

Sorry took me over 20 minutes to access this forum to reply as avast still seems to be fighting with any Dropbox website.

Like @Hog Wild said contact is needed.

I've added the following to be full proof in exceptions. However, Avast after restarts or even updating gets rid of the exceptions at some point so the problem comes back:

https://www.dropboxbusiness.com
https://team.dropbox.com
https://accounts.dropbox.com
https://client.dropbox.com
https://www.dropboxstatic.com
https://edge.dropboxstatic.com
https://photos.dropbox.com
https://paper.dropbox.com
https://www.dropbox.com
https://dropbox.com
https://api.dropboxapi.com
https://content.dropboxapi.com
https://notify.dropboxapi.com
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com
https://dl.dropbox.com

I do not want to have to put all these exceptions back every time so a permanent solution is needed.

Megan

Hey all, thanks for the update!

Based on all the necessary info we've gathered, this issue seems to be stemming from Avast, and not us.

I'm afraid our hands are a bit tied here in regards to this.

If you need something else, please let me know and I will be more than happy to help every step of the way.

Hog Wild

Megan,

We are users of your product. We are alerting you to an issue that extends beyond one AV software as Norton was also mentioned on the Reddit thread I shared.

Dropbox has the resources to contact these companies and actually get somewhere. We do not.

Do you want people looking at alternatives such as ShareFile, MS Sharepoint, etc?

Ideally, Dropbox should want to build a moat with a great product and exceptional customer service.

This issue is sitting on a tee for you to knock it into next week.

Thanks,

Jeff

Keith15

Megan,

This is an unacceptable response as Jeff put well.

The community notified you about this problem, the community investigated the problem, the community then came up with a solution for you.

And when us paying customers, for a number of years, ask for you to just communicate to another company you say your hands are tied? Please elaborate on this.

Maybe my payment details for the next few months are tied up next time I decide to renew your product. Please respond ASAP with a valid reason .

Keith

Jay

Hi @Keith15, @Hog Wild, I've sent you emails individually, please could you reply to them when you get a chance?

shoethief

I'm having the same issue described, and am using Avast. It definitely should not be down to the user to make two separate companies talk to eachother. I'd sooner give my money to another product.

Neal

Hi everyone!

Thanks for reporting this to the Community. In the meantime,

I have actually been collecting all of the reports of this across the community and and Reddit as well, to put together a cohesive report for our internal team. This is now being looked into and hopefully we will have a fix soon.

In the meantime, here is the results of some of our investigations and steps you can take:

Avast

At this time, we are not certain of the feature causing the problem. We suspect Web Control, which includes a Business feature tier, although it might be the Firewall feature.

The Web Control feature enforces domain-level blocking across categories such as “Business,” “Cloud Storage,” or custom groups, per Avast. As Dropbox is a Cloud Storage provider, this suggests a whitelist for approved services in a Business environment is assumed by Avast.

Here are Dropbox’s official domains:What official domains does Dropbox use?

We have contacted Avast support, are investigating how we might reproduce this problem, and we’d appreciate any feedback on the results of this set of steps:

Troubleshooting Steps

Open the Avast dashboard and check the Notifications log for URL: entries.
Disable one protection component at a time to isolate the trigger (Web Shield, Real Site, Firewall).
Add the affected domain to Exceptions (enter the base domain, such as example.com, not just a page).
Restart your browser and re-test.

Additional items to check:

Firewall rules are managed under Protection → Firewall → Apps or Network Rules → Unblock or Allow connection.

Avast’s Real Site feature overrides your system DNS to prevent DNS hijacking attacks. Disabling or excluding the dropbox.com domain from Real Site may restore connectivity.

If the issue is primarily happening while working with the Desktop application, Avast documentation indicates that Behavior Shield can block background components of web-based apps if they install supplementary local services, and Email Shield can block webmail plug-ins or APIs invoked by desktop clients.

Norton

At this time, we are not certain of the feature causing the problem, but we suspect firewall related settings, or the Intrusion Prevention System features.

Norton's Smart Firewall feature actively filters all inbound and outbound network traffic and can block domains or disconnect Wi-Fi in certain configurations.

Norton 360 includes a VPN and Wi‑Fi inspection engine that monitors unsecured networks. These features can interrupt network sessions or override local DNS settings, mimicking a Wi-Fi disconnect symptom. Norton recommends whitelisting your trusted network under Settings → VPN → Split Tunneling → Add Trusted Network (link).

Norton provides some recommended steps here and also noting that “Internet Connection Sharing” setting defaults to “Block,” which can cause Wi-Fi disconnections or “no Internet access” errors until toggled to “Allow” (link included screenshots). Adjustments can be made under Settings → Firewall → Program Rules or Network Trust Configuration.

If you are experiencing issues primarily through the Dropbox Desktop application, Norton’s Intrusion Prevention System feature looks similar to a known issue with ESET’s HIPS feature (actively in progress to fix).

Norton performs deep packet inspection on HTTPS traffic, issuing its own root certificate to decrypt and inspect it. If you are seeing “Secure Connection Failed” or “Privacy Error” or ‘socket’ errors in your browser, this feature could be the issue. You can temporarily disable this feature to confirm under Web Protection → Encrypted Connections → Disable HTTPS Scanning.

We have contacted Norton support, are investigating how we might reproduce this problem, and we’d appreciate any feedback on the results of this set of steps:

Troubleshooting Steps

Open Norton Dashboard → Device Security → Settings → Firewall → Intrusion and Browser Protection.
Disable one module at a time (Firewall, SSL Scanning, Safe Web, VPN) and retry Dropbox.
Review the Security History logs under “Web Protection” for blocked domain events.
Add permanent exceptions under Web Protection → Exceptions → Add Web Address.

Here is a list of all domains used by Dropbox for reference: What official domains does Dropbox use?

Neal

Hi everyone!

As I mentioned earlier, we are actively investigating this and we need some follow up information.

Could you all reply to me and let me know if you are using Avast or Norton and specifically what version of each are you using.

Thanks!

Hog Wild

Avast ver 25.9.2866

Definitions just updated so I couldn’t tell you what they were when I had the problem before White Listing

Neal

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to chime in and let you all know we're still looking into this but one of the solutions we found for Norton users is to go to Security > Advanced > Smart Firewall and change the Default Rule: Action from Smart Mode to Allow (screenshot below).