PIA (Private Internet Access) Split Tunnel feature significantly slowing down Firefox specifically
So I've been using PIA for years (it's the only VPN I can find that has simple port forwarding and split tunnel/reverse split tunnel) and once they switched over to their… (read more)
So I've been using PIA for years (it's the only VPN I can find that has simple port forwarding and split tunnel/reverse split tunnel) and once they switched over to their app's 3.0 version, (like 3 or so years ago, I switched to Mullvad previously until they removed port forwarding recently) I noticed some extreme slowdowns. Specifically, just searching things takes 5-10 seconds to fully load the page. Opening a YouTube video has me sitting there for 15-60 seconds just watching the loading thing just spin and spin (once the video starts, I can load 4K60fps+ video perfectly fine), I can't even consistently access my bank account website because it's so incredibly slow. Most general websites take 10+ seconds to just load when they normally wouldn't. My internet is 400 down/10 up, in case you were wondering.
I've contacted PIA's support over the course of many many months, multiple times, and they are about as helpful as a cockroach you find upside down in the middle of your floor. I've tried messing with every setting on the app and have narrowed it down to the split tunnel feature of the app. Telling this to PIA support does nothing, they just go "glad you found what the issue is" without helping me fix it. I don't want my entire computer under the VPN, which is why split tunnel (and reverse split tunnel) is important to me. I specifically have Firefox (and Firefox Dev) as set to bypass the VPN, and that's how I get the aforementioned issues.
The reason I feel like this is a Firefox-specific issue is that this only happens with Firefox. (and Firefox Dev) I've tried Chrome, Edge, even (shudder) Opera GX, put them as bypass on the PIA app, and have no issues loading anything. Searches are instant, YT videos don't even load, they just start playing immediately, there are no issues.
Note that when I set Firefox to use the VPN instead of bypass it, it loads perfectly fine, just a bit slower than normal since the VPN server is in a different country, but it's still much faster than if it was bypassing it. I'm not sure what else to try at this point, I've been slowly using Chrome more and more solely so I don't have to wait so long for every web page to load, and I hate that. I would love for any ideas to be bounced around on what to do, cause I can't find anyone else with this specific issue, nor PIA support being any help. Any ideas would be greatly, greatly appreciated, I've been dealing with this issue for years now.