Comodo - Nice, FREE Firewall!

I had installed Kerio Personal Firewall several weeks ago.

While it started out fine, I began to have an error message pop-up each time I shut down.

While the error message didn't really affect anything (the computer would simply shut down after displaying the error message, even if I didn't tap "OK"), it still bothered me.

I decided to uninstall Kerio, and then try to reinstall. Well, the Windows uninstall program would freeze up when I attempted to uninstall Kerio, forcing me to do a forced shutdown (Holding down the power button until Windows shut down)

Contacted Sunbelt (new owners of Kerio), and was quickly put through to a tech support person. This was nice to know. He said that the error message was a known issue, and that they were working on a fix. He also said that I couldn't uninstall Kerio using Windows Uninstall Apps program, and that he would e-mail me instructions on how to manually uniinstall.

Followed instructions, and after needing to reboot, then further delete portions of the program, Kerio was removed from my PC (Had to go into Registry and remove items)

I now had an issue of which firewall to check out.

Well, I found Comono, read a review on PCMag.com ( http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1969262,00.asp) and decided to give it a try.

Very nice programs! While it does, initially, pop up numerous messages asking if this program or that program is allowed to access the internet, it has a feature where it will scan your hard drive and see which programs are installed on your PC.

Once you have it scan your hard drive, and create a list of installed apps, the pop ups drop off dramatically.

Read the review on PC Mag, and they say that this firewall is comparable to other paid Firewall services, including having features not found on Zone Alarm Free Firewall (but on their paid version)

Hope this might help others looking for a very nice Firewall.

Again, I only just installed it, and problems MAY come up in a few days, but so rar, it seems like an excellent program.

 

Well tx always nice to know about new/other free firewalls

 

I wonder if this is new, since I've never heard of it before when doing my exhaustive searching for free firewalls. Thanks for posting this!

I like my software to look as good as it functions, and the screenshots do seem attractive enough.

I'll give it a try when I get the chance, but how do you find the resource usage, especially compared to Kerio (if you remember)? Also, were you using Kerio 2.1.5 or 4?

Thanks!

 

I have heard that Windows Built-In firewall with SP2 is sufficient, but now I am re-considering that.

Could anyone comment?

 

My understanding is that Widows Firewall protects against incoming threats, but doesn't protect against outbound. If I understand correctly, if, say, you get a virus, and it scans your Outlook, then trys to send the virus to all contacts in your database, Windows Firewall won't catch that. Also, programs attempt to send info from your computer to a central server, to gather info on your activities. Again, (my understanding, if I"m wrong, someone please let me know) won't stop that type of activity.

Go to the link below, and you'll see a link to download FREE, Comodo. Provide your e-mail address and name, and they'll e-mail you a registration code which, when entered, gives you free lifetime service!

http://www.comodogroup.com/products/free_products.html

Yeah, this program looks great. Kerio, as far as I remember, didn't ask the user if certain programs should be allowed to access the internet or not. I know when I was using Zone Alarm, it certainly did this. While this feature, when you first install the program, gets annoying, with repeated pop-ups asking about all of your installed programs, once it's configured, it gives *me* a greater sense of sercurity. Also, as I mentioned, Comodo will automatically scan your hard drive (upon your request), and find the programs you're currently using, so this dramatically reduces the "annoyance" factor of this feature.

I found Kerio to use very little resources, and this wasn't an issue for me. However, my computer also has 2MB of ram, so probably even Norton wouldn't be a major issue.

Comodo launch pad tray (used to access Comodo Firewall, along with other free programs, such as Spam Blocker, a program to protect against phising, etc) is using 6236k of memory. Not sure which program to check for usage, as far as the actual Comodo Firewall, when I check my active processes. I believe it's cpf.exe, and if so, it's using 29,768k. Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure that's it...cpf probably stands for Comodo Personal Firewall.

Not sure how that compares with the usage of Kerio (I was using v2.1.5, I guess. It was the free Kerio version)

One last thing... Kerio was also causing another problem for me.

After about an hour of web surfing, I would have trouble with pages not loading. If I turned off Kerio, then activated Windows Firewall, pages would load again fine. I'd have to reboot to get Kerio back up and running, and allowing pages to load. Not sure why this was, but this is the major reason I decided not to try reinstalling Kerio, once I was able to remove it from my computer.

I know that a LOT of people love Kerio, and use it with no problems. I am *not* trying to bash Kerio, simply reporting probems which I had with my configuration.

 

I think I'll try it.

That's almost certainly it - the download I got from a 3rd-party site was called CPF_Setup_2.2.0.11.exe.

 

2Mb of ram You certainly needs an upgrade...

Zonealarm uses 3Mb which is pretty smalle amount imho

 

Kerio does indeed ask as well. Pretty much all firewalls of this type do.

That is correct. Connections originating from your computer are not stopped. There is also a dearth of configuration options for the power user.

Both 2.1.5 and 4 have free versions. 2.1.5 is special since it was when the software was not yet bloated. Version 4 gained significant weight.

I installed Comodo, and it seems to work well. Other threads indicate it passes GRC's ShieldsUP! test, as well as Sygate's SOS test. Seems like you found quite a gem, Shel!

 

I use it too.....it's a good one .

 

But does it hawk memory as much as I can read in here? I mean Zonealarm only uses 3.1 mb while Comodo uses 29 mb a lot more imho

 

I think that might be supposed to be 2.9 Mb of of RAM. Remember it is using 29 Mb of Ram on Shel's 2 Mb computer and performing well.

When I get around to installing it, I'll try to check for you.

 

Yeah, I that translates to 2.9 MB. Task Manager is showing that Firefox is using 107,000k, and there's no way it's using 100MB. I think I'm going to try this out. I've been looking for something to replace ZoneAlarm. It kills wireless use and has WAY too many pop-ups.

 

firefox probably *is* using 100 megs of ram. it's a bit memory-hungry.

 

He's right,

It probably is, hopefully 2.0 will fix this.

 

I installed Comodo a few days ago. It uses about 29,000K of ram.
BTW, I really like this firewall. Zone Alarm caused my computer to be way too slow during start up and shut down.

 

what about comodo's free anti-virus? im using avg right now, is it comodo good enough to switch over too?

 

hummm....

Didn't realize Comodo has an anti virus program that's free.

I'm currently using AVG and Comodo's fire wall.

If you end up trying out Comodo's anti-virus, please post here as to how you like it compared to AVG!

Thanks

 

i didnt like comodo firewall, caused alot of problems with my game hosting

 

I've heard the comodo firewall either works very very well, or causes alot of problems... Probably worth a try though.
The antivirus is apparently bloated, unstable, slow, and not very good either way from what I've heard; though I havn't personally tried either.