I’m glad you are having good experiences with Comodo. I tried to change from Sygate to Comodo and had nothing but problems. Ages to boot and completely broken connection. Comodo couldn’t even connect to it’s own servers to verify my lisence.
I’ll try it next time I upgrade to a new machine, but for now thank god for system restore.
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=17001.msg144775#msg144775This was my first post using comodo if you haven’t seen it.So far I’m pleased with comodo. No slow boot up here.
Actually my computer has slowed down booting up after installing comodo firewall, avast’s starting up slower also. comodo does take a while to start on my computer, other than that, the firewall’s fine.
Firewall + antivirus always are due to startup delay… One interacts with the other… it’s not easy to solve…
Comodo may be accessing a lot of files on boot, which will be scanned by avast, if your standard shield setting is on high it will scan all these files. On Normal it will only scan certain files, this could improve boot times.
Few screenshots from my end… I have to say that I am unbelievable happy with this firewall so far… in combination with my new Linksys befw11s4 v4 wireless router/firewall it gives a wonderful protection. Also, no slow down after instaling Comodo firewall at all. On my other computer after complete uninstalling avast! and Kerio, boot time went down to unbelievable 8 seconds, like it was before… after installing Comodo (note, still no antivirus) booting time went up to 12 seconds which is still unbelievable good. I installed NOD32 on my other machine and boot time raised again to 20 to at most 25 seconds (from typing in my log-in to complete shut off of HD led) which is still unbelievable good and much better than with avast! installed. After latest few avast! program updates, it’s obvious that boot time for many people extended quite a bit… You can see it ONLY if you perform these tests I just did. You have to have your avast! completely uninstalled to be able to see the difference.
See some of many Comodo configuration pages:
Activation process:
http://img490.imageshack.us/img490/2089/untitled16xh.jpg
Activation process successful:
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/2599/untitled26xl.jpg
Task manager status:
http://img223.imageshack.us/img223/1641/untitled32gj.jpg
Configuration pages:
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/4729/untitled40qd.jpg
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3610/untitled56xe.jpg
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7581/untitled67uo.jpg
http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/6600/untitled70bg.jpg
http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/4028/untitled89bg.jpg
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/9736/untitled93zq.jpg
http://img290.imageshack.us/img290/4623/untitleda8ts.jpg
Tooleaky.exe test passed:
http://img330.imageshack.us/img330/5369/untitledb2ze.jpg
And Shields Up!! testing screenies…
File sharing:
http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/9220/untitledd7wt.jpg
Common ports:
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/5374/untitlede2jg.jpg
All Service Ports:
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/323/untitledf9rl.jpg
Cheers!
Can anyone tell me if Comodo Personal Firewall is better than ZoneAlarm (Free Version) and why please? Im using ZoneAlarm (Free) should i switch? ??? ???
As I already mentioned many times in the past… we don’t have to go further than tooleaky.exe
Just follow these instructions:
Download this file from that web page:
http://tooleaky.zensoft.com/tooleaky.exe
Do not worry, it’s nothing malicious, and you can be sure because no one normal in here would give you some malicious link to play with… 
Save that file somewhere on your local disk and run it from there. I’m 100% sure your firewall will fail that test. I am sure because I was using ZA free and I abandoned it right away (not just because of that though)…
Comodo will pass this test right away. It will give you a pop-up window asking you what do you want to do next (see one of those many screenshots I attached in my previous post, ok here it is again)…
Tooleaky.exe test passed:
http://img330.imageshack.us/img330/5369/untitledb2ze.jpg
…allow it or not… if your common sense is telling you not to allow it, of course you will not allow tooleaky.exe launch the IE. Of course in this case if you want your firewall to pass this test, you have to chose DENY. Otherwise it will fail… but it’s not gonna be firewall’s fault… it’s gonna be yours, because you consciously allowed that file to access the internet…
ZA free will not even ask you… it will immediately launch that application. Remember, it could have been some malicious code instead…
That’s why…
Oh yes… and no one can tell you which one is better… those are discussions for kids IMHO. Every firewall has something that makes it better or worse than others. You have to find what’s best for you and what gives you best possible protection.
You will never get straight answer on a question like that… why ? Because there is literally millions of users which uses different programs, and some of them works best for some, and some other works better for some other…
I just gave you one example and there are some others as well… you have to “play” with those things and then you can say what is serving you the best…
True, Very True. Thanks
No problems, if you have any questions or concerns just ask… we are here to help each other with advices. No one knows everything, but we all know something, and when we collect all those pieces, our knowledge database grows.
Cheers !
Ok. And yea one more question is Comodo Personal Firewall free forever. I heard its only free for one year than after you have to pay, is that true?
No that is absolutelly not true. I’m sure just because few hours ago I asked exactly the same question one of those technical support guys, and they answered to me immediatelly.
Product is free. It has one year valid licence… just like avast! free version, although avast! has 14 months registration period, but it doesn’t mean anything in this case…
After one year, you just have to re-register… just like with avast!. And your licence will be extended for another 365 days. Just statistic purpose, nothing else.
Otherwise, it would be against any logic… when their licence expires after 365 days, everyone could just register under different name and e-mail and get another free year… right ?
Different email? Are you saying that after one year is up in order to recieved another one year key we have to register another email account? :o ;D
P.S. Wow, I love this firewall’s design. Hey did you test it with Sygate SOS? From your screenshots, this firewall looks fairly simple for most users. I’m not exactly sure if everyone can follow through the configurations just yet.
I'm not exactly sure if everyone can follow through the configurations just yet. ;)If you think this one`s tough then dont try the jetico one.
I found it very taxing to get moving with whereas this one was set up to go in seconds.
I just wanted to add my experiences with this product. I downloaded it today, took the GRC test and got the same results as S.Z. did. I have it set to “custom” level. I uninstalled Kerio after downloading Comodo and I really like this program. On my computer there is only about 5 mbs difference in size between the two firewalls with Comodo being the larger one at about 15 mbs. But, that’s not a problem for me or my machine. It’s passed all the grc stealth etc tests so far. As far as some of the other tests mentioned in the thread I haven’t gone there with this F.W. yet as it’s time for me to go to bed.
Am very pleased with it so far. Appreciate the testing and discussion about it earlier. This was a great factor in helping me make the decision to give it a try. Oh, I got the full 1 year free license good through November of 2006. Thanks to all.
I tried out Comodo briefly, but it sees Firefox running under Drop My Rights as an ‘invisible application’ for which it cannot learn any rules.
Anybody using Comodo needs to understand TCP and UDP connections. There is nothing to highlight that TCP in is dangerous. (Unlike Kerio which gives them a red banner.)
All the connection pop-ups look the same and it’s easy to click yes without noticing that it’s a potentially dangerous connection.
The firewall seemed to be stable and secure, but a little bit difficult for users who don’t really understand internet connections. (Like me.)
It needs to be a little bit more user-friendly if it’s going to compete with ZA.
True, they could solve that a little bit better… but hey c’mon… firewall just kicked in, we all can contribute somehow. No one is saying we are not allowed to give them our suggestions so they can improve it for the one of upcoming releases. I’m sure they would listen some reasonable suggestions. I sent them 2 e-mails in just one day and I in next few hours I already got two answers… it tells something. It’s a freeware product and still there technical support completely free of charge. Similar to avast! Isn’t that what counts ?
That’s why we have some easy-to-use firewalls, as well as some rule based firewalls for more experienced users…
There is so many settings you can manually configure it’s just unbelievable… I would need to extend this thread at least 5 additional pages to post all screenshots. You can always add new banned/allowed application through the very first screen you see when you open Comodo firewall…
http://img480.imageshack.us/img480/8218/untitled19pf.jpg
Oh yes, it already competes with ZA freeware (we are talking about freeware class), as I mentioned ZA freeware doesn’t even try to warn you when tooleaky.exe is trying to execute, it just aloows it do it’s thing without even asking a user… And tooleaky.exe is just one of many of those…
Of course my friend, I know what you are talking about. And everybody should know that for a long time by now… we are in computer security related forums. I just thought it’s not needed to repeat that, I assumed everyone already knows how to test software firewalls.
Yes, of course, I bypassed my hardware router/firewall while doing these tests. I was in the middle of switching from my old D-Link DI-604 to Linksys BEFW11S4 v4 wireless router (got a brand new laptop as a present from my wife so I finally decided to move to wireless, although my primary desktop PC is still connected through wires… always playing on safe side ).
I thought that was also good idea to try some other software firewall, and Comodo looks so promising already. I think I’m gonna stick with it for a long time…
Yes I did those tests too… with IE as well as with Firefox 1.5, see here:
http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/7739/untitled26eu.jpg
Also, I have to say I’ve noticed a decrease in boot time (Windows startup goes faster)… I mean, from the point when you enter your Windows log-in to the point when HD LED is completely off after I removed Kerio and installed Comodo. Comodo and avast! works perfect and I’m surelly not going back to Kerio or ZA.