Hello.Special thanks to everyone at Avast for all their hard work. Have used Avast free for years and never let me down. This is why I do not understand the low reviews at Matousec et al.Recently decided Avast deserved some support and purchased AIS and the newest version is fantastic-- everything working.The improvements Avast has made are great. Now my quesion-- does anyone know if mamutu and geswall have conflict problems-- am using this combo now and comp is flying. ;D
Ignore Matousec, as the test is somewhat skewed concentrating on one area only and by all accounts crippled the AIS version by running only the firewall element, when it is designed to be run as a suite with the avast antivirus and other elements.
I have zero experience of Mamutu:
Monitors live all active programs for dangerous behavior (Behavior Blocking).
Given the above description I wouldn’t have though it would have much of an interaction with a firewall than say avast or MBAM, etc.
That said obviously you wouldn’t be using either of these with AIS ?
The major reason is that Matousec reviews HIPS applications and not firewall ones.
avast firewall is not, and will never be, a HIPS tool.
But also, Gizmo criticizes the Matousec’s tests. It’s a technical reading, but seems fair (http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/matousec-personal-firewall-tests-analyzed.htm).
Others point to an interest conflict on Matousec’s tests, reducing their independence (?) (http://smokeys.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/matousecs-firewall-challenge-wrinkle-conflict-of-interests/).
Leak tests are popular mainly because they are very easy to perform: you simply run a program, and it tells you if it passed or failed the test. However, life is not that simple, unfortunately.
The primary goal of a firewall is to keep hackers out of your system, that is, prevent inbound attacks in the first place. It’s astonishing that many firewaller “testers” only focus on outbound protection, completely ignoring the inbound part (which is absolutely vital). It’s like they assumed it worked flawlessly in case of all the products, which, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to be the case, really.
Next, outbound protection is of course also important, but so called leak tests are not everything. There’s a myriad of other things that a decent firewall should do, and which are usually not assesed by these tests. All I’m saying is that testing a firewall is a very complex task and focusing on leak tests is a gross (and inappropriate) simplification.
dave,i agree that any security suite should be tested as such,rather than testing certain aspects separately.
tech,i agree with you also,as tests should not be performed by lazy persons,and should be carried out manually,even if certain parts or aspects are automatic.