Comodo love/hate?

Discussion in 'other firewalls' started by pipspeak, Nov 4, 2010.

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  1. pipspeak

    pipspeak Registered Member

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    I'm after a new free firewall and have noticed that people here either seem to love Comodo (best features etc.) or hate it ("will never install again" and other such comments). Why such extreme views, and what is it that makes people hate Comodo?!

    I've used Outpost Pro for years but had a love/hate relationship with it (v6.5 and 7.0) so am now looking for a new, free, firewall (with HIPS) that plays nice with Avast 5 and malwarebytes on Win7 x32, and one that runs lighter than Outpost (which seemed to slow my browsing noticeably when used with Avast).

    Outpost did the job but was not perfect (won't go into that here). Comodo seems to be the best contender on paper, but Privatefirewall also looks interesting. I'm not sure the free version of OA would have enough program and process level configuration options for me. Any comments?
     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2010
  2. JustJohnny

    JustJohnny Registered Member

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    I've been using Comodo recently and I like it a lot. It has a nice variety of options for setting how you want it to react and on the highest settings it seems very secure. I think some people are put off by the amount of nagging it does (I guess the same kind of people that turn off UAC) but if you like security than that is what you want. However I am not an expert on firewalls at all. Used to run ZoneAlarm for a bit but otherwise I'd just rely on the built-in Windows firewall. So I am sure there are people here that know a lot more on the subject. But so far Comodo seems very good quality.
     
  3. Scoobs72

    Scoobs72 Registered Member

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    Hate it - it broke my Win7 IM driver stack on uninstall. Had to reinstall windows to fix it. Grrrrrrr - never again.
     
  4. burebista

    burebista Registered Member

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    Love it but for now I'm with OA free at home and CIS at work. :)
    After a couple of years with Comodo (which works perfect for me) I'm bored and I wanted to try something new. Fortunately lately OA came with 64 bit version so I'm using/testing it.
     
  5. Cutting_Edgetech

    Cutting_Edgetech Registered Member

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    I just finished giving Comodo FW a test run for the past month. I found the latest version of Comodo FW to be a huge improvement over previous versions because I didn't have to decide wither to allow or deny every little activity on my computer. It makes a lot of decisions on its own now. It has much better white listing than before. The only thing I found that was annoying is the steps it took to make custom rules for applications. I felt it could be simplified by cutting out unnecessary steps. Also sometimes when it detects a new program it will prompt you, and only give you 3 options. If its a program you want to go ahead, and trust then 5 times out of 10 it would not give you that option. You would have to later go back, and set the application to trusted. Also I set Prevx as a trusted application, and every time i opened a web browser it continued to prompt me to allow or deny activity by Prevx. I had to go back, and set custom rules for Prevx or it would prompt me all day. Those were the only dislikes i had about it after a month of testing. I think you should give it a try.
     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2010
  6. pipspeak

    pipspeak Registered Member

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    @Scoobs72 -- why were you uninstalling Comodo before it broke Windows?

    @burebista -- do you miss any of Comodo's advanced setup options now you switched to OA Free?

    I'm also curious how light Comodo runs for those who like it. I was a little worried seeing in a recent member test the amount of disk activity Comodo generates, but that might have been due to some sort of logging setup issue.
     
  7. Scoobs72

    Scoobs72 Registered Member

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    Because I'd decided I didn't like it. So it took revenge on me by killing my o/s.
     
  8. aigle

    aigle Registered Member

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    any application can be trusted via any pop up alert, if you click more options there.
     
    Last edited: Nov 5, 2010
  9. burebista

    burebista Registered Member

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    TBH since I've got a router with ddwrt firmware I feel enough secure with it's firewall so I only need a good HIPS (and eventually a decent outbound firewall).
    If you want both FW and HIPS OA free lacks Advanced control rules but HIPS/anti-keylogger is enough for me and that's all I need.
    I like a lot OA free and if you're not an absolutely maniac about granular control I guess you'll like it too.

    But my move to OA free is only temporary because I'm waiting CIS's Eight Wonder of the World called DACS. :D

    About disk activity. Outpost (yeah, I have a lifetime license for it) was the most active with all modules installed (plus some unusual spikes in DPC Latency) followed by OA and CIS. For CIS most of disk activity appear if you run AV component but I don't run it so it was light as a feather on my rig (that's why I said that I'm bored by CIS, is too damn perfect for my computer).
     
  10. Espresso

    Espresso Registered Member

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    Maybe you forgot to check the checkbox.
     
  11. overangry

    overangry Registered Member

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    :D :D :D :D
     
  12. Kyle1420

    Kyle1420 Registered Member

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    CIS is generally a very good product and I think most will agree, I think that the "hate" issue mainly revolves around Comodo as a company.. and more specifically the CEO. I am not a "Fan" of comodo for a few reasons and won't be apart of their community again because of it :doubt:

    Again, CIS is a very good program and you won't be disappointed (if you can handle the pop ups).
     
  13. TairikuOkami

    TairikuOkami Registered Member

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    You can not try Comodo products, once you instal it, you have it forever, you can get rid of it only with a clean setup. I tried to get rid of their products dozen of times, manually deleting registry, taking permissions, but no luck. I can not imagine, that I used CFirewall for a year before. For me Comodo = Junk Warning! :rolleyes:
     
  14. Rampastein

    Rampastein Registered Member

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    Almost every security software out there fails on uninstalling sometimes. I've installed and removed CFP multiple times and never had many problems, it has always left only a few folders and some registry keys. Nothing serious like drivers etc. Almost all security software leave some leftovers, I recently found a year old Avira Antivir driver from system32\drivers although its been over a year since I uninstalled Avira. The driver didn't have any registry entries left so it didn't cause any problems though.

    What makes people dislike Comodo products are the pop-ups/low usability and the company/CEO (both are reasons for me to dislike it). This subject has been talked through multiple times however.
     
  15. ReverseGear

    ReverseGear Guest

    I have not yet had a problem uninstalling any comodo product ... cis is good but since 64bit version of oa came out im on oa
     
  16. ExtremeGamerBR

    ExtremeGamerBR Registered Member

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    I do not really like Comodo, uninstalling it is awful, and do not know why it did work fine on my Windows, was unstable. :thumbd:

    The two best firewalls that I've tested was PC Tools Firewall Plus (This does not have HIPS) and Online Armor (All versions of it are good).
     
  17. DIgiDis

    DIgiDis Registered Member

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    Comodo has a history of being almost arrogant, especially in the beginning, and was a little too powerful for even seasoned computer users. It had a rough childhood but now that it is maturing it has a better chance. If only their CEO would mature along with the product...

    That being said, I am using it in a virtual machine with XP and I have to admit the whole Internet Suite is a great package and it is next to impossible to get something passed it on "quiet" settings. CIS and a little common sense are a great combination. I still use and prefer Avast Internet Security on all my "live" Windows machines, but have to say I am impressed with how easy and effective CIS has become. Probably in the future I will migrate everything to CIS if things keep improving.
     
  18. blacknight

    blacknight Registered Member

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    Very well said !
     
  19. Sully

    Sully Registered Member

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    For myself it is a multi-faceted dislike of comodo.

    I don't like the UI at all, never have. This is always a personal preference, but one I believe, in the case of a firewall, is probably very high on priority.

    I don't like how chatty it is, at least in the past. All firewalls, especially in the last 5 years, can be chatty if they have HIPS type features onboard. Comodo took honors as the most annoying for me though, easily.

    I don't like how bloated it is/was. Many of thier products felt this way. I would rather use Comodo than Norton I suppose, but they are in the same class IMO.

    I don't like how it uninstalled, which I had issues with many times. Again, I would rather use Comodo than Norton, but again they feel the same.

    I never liked how Comodo seemed to think it was better than it was. All companies like to make outlandish claims, so you must take them with a grain of salt. Comodo always felt fake to me, like they were bragging about something they could not actually do. I put Comodo and Matousec in the same category -- full of hot air, preying on the un-initiated.

    All that said, a firewall is generally a firewall regardless of what Matousec or Mr Gibson would have us believe. Of those that use a 3rd party firewall, what, maybe 10% will ever have it exploited if configured "close enough", and of that 10%, maybe %50 would know it happened? Comodo can probably secure you as well as any other if you can configure it decently. Of course the better the UI for the user, the better the configuration, so it only goes so far.

    These days, maybe Comodo is better than the past, who knows. Many others, like Outpost, continue to evolve into an internet suite, gaining more and more bloat, likely to become attractive to the novice. I prefer the older model, which catered to the elitest, the one who actually understood what was going on.

    I don't personally appreciate the way many software titles are going these days. It is probably just me, but it seems like many have forgotten who brought them to the dance in order to gain the attention of the new-comers. I love finding applications that are still "meat and potatoes" - slim and fast, to the point without excess baggage. They are fewer and fewer I fear.

    The last time I used a Comodo product was its Time Machine, which screwed up. I went back to Macrium Reflect Free and have not even visited Comodos website since. I understand they have a Chromium variant browser, but haven't felt any urges yet to even investigate it.

    For me, Comodo is :thumbd: , :thumbd:, :thumbd: - but that doesn't mean much in the grand scheme lol. I mean, I am an equal opportunity type of guy - I don't like the direction of Outpost either, which has been my favorite for many years. Some guy had this mantra "change is good". I didn't believe him then, and I don't believe him now. I believe somewhere along the lines of "good change is good", but that is just ridiculous, as it requires common sense and wisdom to apply. lol. That was fun ;)

    Sul.
     
  20. rdsu

    rdsu Registered Member

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    Besides the CEO arrogance, and other issues, like tool bars and certificates, I think Comodo lacks quality.

    They want to do many things, and they can have a lot of employees working there, but when I try their products it seems that something doesn't work fine, they are bloated, slower, have bugs that should be detected if the correct tests were made before they release...

    Like you said, maybe they change this behavior in the future, but until then...
     
  21. kiwidave

    kiwidave Registered Member

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    Love Comodo,its better than paid for firewalls.You do get lots of popups but when complted on a certain program there are no more,therefore the longer you use it the less popups there will be.;)
     
  22. pirej

    pirej Registered Member

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    Im using Comodo firewall for years, and i never had any problems.
    The only thing i dislike is the initial setup for the trusted software that i use, after that.. it almost never pop's up asking anything(except when im istalling new software).
    I like it, i like the advanced options it gives me for setup, logs, rules.. im not shore about the sandbox-option yet.
     
  23. gud4u

    gud4u Registered Member

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    I was an early adopter when the Comodo Firewall with D+ was first offered. I endured 4 or 5 iterations and grew tired of being a test dummy.

    That was some time ago, and Comodo products have evolved significantly.

    I recently tried Comodo CIS5 Suite and also separately the V5 Firewall/HIPS products. No problems whatsoever. Slick installation, no problems with HIPS, and good compatibility with other co-resident security apps with multiple guards running simultaneously (EAM and SOL).

    Good stuff!

    Edit:
    I also had absolutely no problems with uninstalling either CIS5 or V5 Firewall/HIPS products. Simply uninstall/reboot/install next product.
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2010
  24. cheater87

    cheater87 Registered Member

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    Loving the sandbox/HIPS. If something gets past your AV then Comodo will catch it one way or another. :) Keeping the PC clean.
     
  25. safeguy

    safeguy Registered Member

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    I've had both good and bad experiences with Comodo software. As for love/hate, there's no such thing.

    Comodo System Cleanup was a disaster the last time I tried it (and it was a long time back). At the moment, CIS 5 (without AV) feels fine on my PC and I can understand how it works and configure it (I'm using the Computer Security Policy to lock down certain apps). Comodo Time Machine latest release caused a need for reformat on my test machine. So there you go. Neither love nor hate. Just use/don't use. As simple as that.

    P.S. Put away their CEO aside, their 'methodology' aside, their enthusiastic and determined fanboys aside, past history aside, all I see is that they're trying to improve. Norton has had it's downfall and so goes for Comodo. Ultimately, it's up to you if you want to give them the 2nd chance. There's no right/wrong answer to that.
     
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