Is Avast firewall good enough?

It doesn’t pass a leak test, period. comodo firewall does.
http://www.grc.com/lt/leaktest.htm

No offense meant, but apparently you don’t know what you are talking about. Also, HIPS != firewall. Tired by this GRC + Matousec nonsense. We need a proper firewall testing somewhere, not similar crap.

All right then, could you please explain me with simple words? i think you want to tell me that the leaktest app is not to trust right?

what do you mean with this?:
HIPS != firewall

why comodo firewall pass the leak test and avast doesn’t?

what about all this tests? they are all wrong?

http://www.pcflank.com/leaktests_info.htm

no, HIPS = Host Intrusion Prevention System and Comodo HIPS, aka Defense+, helps the firewall in leak tests :wink:

Thanks for your answer.

However i still don’t get it, all these app tests are wrong? i don’t think so.

http://www.pcflank.com/leaktests_info.htm

Avast IS has got a firewall, but it doesn’t have any HIPS, this should answer your question.

so can i conclude that avast firewall is not enough protection?, should i use comodo instead? well im using it right now. Altough im using avast as an antivirus too.

I think you should learn what a HIPS is and does first, and also compare what is comparable.

and where i can learn that in simple words? I don’t understand the link posted by doktornotor

As far as i know Avast firewall is not considered a good firewal out there. Comodo does. Please explain me if i am wrong.

A huge oversimplification: firewall = packet filtering. HIPS = a fuzzy term used for various junk that floods users with mostly unclear pop-up warnings about applications trying to do this or that or whatever else and asks them for permission and users always answer allow to get rid of the popup. If you answer deny to every message, you get Matousec rating of 100% in their tests. ::slight_smile:

basically, those tests ARE NOT FIREWALL tests, they are HIPS tests with misleading titles.

All right i understand. one thing is a firewall and another different is a HIPS. Avast has a firewall but no HIPS.

I’ve read somewhere that once the malware is IN the damage is done, however HIPS can’t be helpful in those situations? (no personal info leaking altough the malware is in?)

HIPS can be helpful in those situations IF the user selects the correct answer to the prompt. That IF is the main point of failure here. If you answer allow to all, it won’t help you. If you answer deny to all, you’ll kill your operating system sooner or later. And if you can choose a correct answer, you presumably don’t need any HIPS at all. ;D

So, IMNSHO better than HIPS are methods like using a limited user account with software restriction policies where you only allow users to execute stuff in %WINDIR% and %ProgramFiles% directories to which they lack write permissions, so they cannot save any files there, and hence cannot execute any malware they’ve downloaded, sandboxing browsers etc. etc. Those require almost no user intervention so this reduces the main point of failure (the user factor) to a great extent.

About the leak tests limitations: http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=29259.msg247460#msg247460

Agree. ;D
and they are very annoying too all those pop ups.

All right then uninstalling comodo and going back to avast firewall.

Enjoy… And - if you later on decide to reinstall Comodo or any other firewall/HIPS to get more pop-ups, make sure to uninstall AIS first and replace it with Avast Free or Pro. Never run two AVs or FWs at the same time. :wink:

yes i know two firewalls at the same time is not good, however i paid for 1 year of AIS that doesn’t include avast pro.

But when using avast firewall, the windows 7 firewall is still active…

Is it? Sounds like an install bug if it wasn’t automatically disabled on install. You should disable it manually meanwhile.

@ the OP: ;D if you got AIS you got the pro functions :wink: (i.e. virtualization and script shield)

adding Avast firewall doesn’t deactivate Windows firewall automatically at setup time, that’s not a bug. You must do that manually.