Why I think comodo is rubbish

So comodo is meant to be the best free firewall, yet I ask the question, why?
I've had nothing but trouble, hassle and annoyance from it. Various programs not working and plenty of 'non valid win32 applications' messages.


Limewire couldn't connect, yet with sygate, no problem.

2 weeks ago, I bought a DVD writer and couldn't install the Nero 7 essentials disc that came with it. I posted on a DVD software messageboard and they said it was to do with my virtual drives conflicting. It wasn't that. Because tonight, the disc installed without a hitch, since installing sygate. There were no alerts in comodo so I had no idea it was being blocked.

Comodo might be great for some people, but I wil never install it again, and I've said this to the people on the comodo forum too. What is your opinion of comodo, am I being too harsh?

 

Comodo is not meant to be the best free firewall, Comodo is meant to be the best firewall.

 

Well as far as I'm concerned, they can stick it where the sun doesn't shine

 

I don't feel the need for a software Firewall but if I did sygate would be the one.

 

I don't know if it's fair to pick solely on Comodo. This sort of thing can and does happen with HIPS programs also. Anything that tries to watch and protect everything happening on the system to that degree is bound to be not only annoying, but even buggy and problematic. If you're looking for hassle-free living, then it's probably best to stick with the simple apps and approaches to security, and rely more on your street smarts to keep yourself out of trouble.

 

If you switched to Sygate, that means you don't want/need Defense+. Did you try it without Defense+? Heck, i don't use it.

 

Well as far as I'm concerned, I having it installed and perfectly happy with it

 

Well,

never say never, but if it not usable for you now... forget about it and move on.
You will find posts like yours about really every firewall or (security) program.
But it is not that you are made for a single program, very much programs are made and you can choose the one which fits your needs.

Maybe in this case it's also because everyone is very proud to say: I use the biggest and best FW, better than the rest and you are a real security expert if you can handle it.
Most often it is just swank from scared adolescents, the typical comodo user.

So look out for another Sygate replacement if you like, many options around here.
Or keep sygate and add for example a behavior blocker.

Cheers

 

Nah, didn't even know you could turn it off. I was just so fed up with alert after alert after alert for every goddamn little thing, I was actually shouting at my computer. Even after I switched to installation mode I'd still get some alerts. And the fact that comodo didn't even make me aware that it was blocking Nero was the final straw for me. I'm happy with sygate, apart from one thing. It won't let me activesych anymore with my pda, but apparently there's a phone registry edit for that.

 

Yes, good post, subset. I agree.

On the comodo forum, I posted in their feedback forum saying thanks for all their help ( because certainly they were very nice and helpful to me over the last year and a half,) and goodbye.
Yet I got a few condescending replies suggesting I didn't read the FAQ's, didn't learn enough about comodo, etc. Well frankly, I'm not even interested in firewalls, it's just a necessity. I just want one that works in the background and doesnt keep tugging at my shirt every 2 seconds for attention and blocking programs I don't want blocked. I think comodo is actually for people who are interested in messing around with firewalls, not average users like me. I like sygate. And before comodo, I liked PC-Cillins' internet security firewall. I found that pretty effective and easy to use and non intrusive.

 

My I.Q. was too low to use Comodo Firewall. I use Sygate now.

 

Hi, folks:

Comodo f.w is not made for everyone. So true are all other applications.

Therefore, the course of smart action is to select the ONE fits your needs. There are no such things as the BEST. You either use a better one or enlist an average one. At the end of day, they all provide you protection required. No sweats.

Comodo is not a rubbish, just not to your linking that is all. Do not stir up another war(?) here please. Be happy.

 

Of the numerous firewalls I have used, Comodo has performed the best for me. I don't care about hips, nor do I use hips. As just a firewall it suits me just fine. I have just recently purchased a one year license for Avira A/V, after trying numerous A/V's, free or paid. I'm just happy that Comodo firewall is free. I would like to try Online Armor, but it's not Vista compatible, after all this time. If a better firewall came along, I would certainly try it to see if it was true.

 

Hi,

Because most people want teh best security and think they are experienced they start to use Comodo full swing, then you will be getting telephones from these PC experts: hey do you know. . . . ? My initial response was this post https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=207773 (Or in simple terms finding a reasonable quiet D+ setup.

Thanks to BIGC (Thank you Thank you ) I now show them his post on Vista FireWall and the smart Vista FireWall COntrol utility. Together with LUA (in quiet mode) a decent AV and Threat fire it is a no hassle set up

So please STEM/BIGC post another few testimonials for easy set up, so Wilders Members bugged by friends wanting to use a FW which is over their head can say, but the real experts say . . . .

Regards Kees

 

Vista Firewall Control is excellent software. Couldn't get an easier firewall. Either disable, allow outgoing, or allow all.

The original poster raised a good point. Firewalls are a necessity to have now because of how the internet turned out. In an 'ideal world', we wouldn't need something to slow down our connection, throw a ton of popups our way, make us think while we're trying to zone out.

Comodo suits those who demand knowing every detail going on with their system.

If you can handle nagging from the wife/girlfriend every minute, Comodo is for you. If you can just handle 'take the garbage out' a few times a day from the wife/girlfriend before your head explodes, stick to something simple like Vista Firewall Control or Sygate.

 

Let me give my reason on why I also uninstalled Comodo. Comodo might be raved as the best free FW well and truly that might be ok, but it was a FW that needed constant baby sitting. I think I got more pop ups from Comodo in a day than emails in a week, and even when a pop up window from Comodo came up and I clicked allowed ( a program that I trusted), that same pop up will come up again and again. It was just pop up after pop up one after another. I know all FW's will have this pop up and users have to respond to it, but this just went overboard honestly and it was constant baby sitting. Infact to be honest I found far less popups in V2.0 than 3, meaning V2 didn't need all this baby sitting and had a mind to think for itself, not like 3 which needs 24/7 365 a year attention.

Well after all this saga I uninstalled V3.0 and reverted back to ZA Pro in which I love and personally think its one of the best FW's ever made no matter what any one else says. I'd been using ZA Pro in the earlier days when I was using Win 2000 Pro SP4 and it worked without a hitch plus it intergrates superbly well with my NOD32 AV and thought I do get a pop up window now and again, it does not annoy me with one after another pop up window like what Comodo did.

I'm not here to rant and rave and say Comodo is bad, but sorry it did not agree with me and my liking.

 

combo also block my RADMIN server sh*ity fw it is

 

100% agree mate. You nailed it, it DOES need babysitting, and my experiences are exactly the same as yours. I too had a better experience with V2 than V3. Once v2 was set up and I'd made various allow rules ( which I found complicated but the comodo team helped me through it ) it seemed to be fine. I wish I'd stuck with V2.

 

Version 2.4 is still available for download.
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/download_firewall.html#fw2.4

 

Not reading the HELP file is the usual reason of why people can't understand Comodo... Comodo is useless and extremely frustrating without having read the help file for every one of its sections.

This is where your mistake was. Comodo isn't shining as a firewall, but as a firewall + very powerful HIPS combo. If you just want a firewall for packet filtering, Comodo should be the last place to look for, since it also cuts a bit of your network speed, while "simple" (aka non-including HIPS) firewalls, perform better.

It's for people that want HIPS on their PC and instead of installing 2 applications, they prefer using one that works as firewall and HIPS at the same time.

Sygate is fine as long as you don't encounter the local proxy vulnerability. If you like Sygate, you may also like Zone Alarm free, Fort Knox Firewall and AShampoo free (which doesn't stealth ports though, but closes them). If you are a bit more expert, try Kerio 2 and PC Tools firewall.

This is a classical case of not understanding how Comodo works. If you click "allow" for an application in Comodo, it WILL pop up again, as soon as it will perform an action that wasn't IDENTICAL to the one you allowed. This applies to the connections part too. For example, you allow Opera to execute? Fine. When you will try to download something, you will get most likely an alert that Opera tries to write in a directory. You must give new permission. The best way to get rid of such things is to go to advanced properties for Opera and manually add the allowed directories. At the same way, if Opera pop up asking connection to IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx port 80 and you hit "allow", it will allow it but ONLY for remote port 80. When Opera will need to connect to remote 443, you WILL be asked again. The alternative is to avoid this is to use "treat as browser". Similarly, if you don't want D+ to ask you for every single action an .exe performs, you should NOT select simply "Allow", but "treat as trusted" (if you trust the exe).

If you don't read every single help file in Comodo (there is one in every page), you will NEVER understand how it works...


This said, YES, Comodo can be annoying. But, it's how HIPS are supposed to be. Still, as a HIPS, it is more convenient than "older" HIPS, like Process Guard full or SSM Free, which don't have any "treat as trusted" option when you get a pop up.

Comodo is perfect for total control of your PC. But as with everything advanced, it needs some reading from the user's side.

Installation mode, is made so that it will spare you the hassle of clicking "allow" for every step that your installer does (temporary files, driver installation etc). It does NOT automatically trust the new executable. Is this annoying? Yes. But then why did they make it so? Because, what if your installer is infected ? If all the new exes were automatically trusted upon installation, the malware would be trusted too. On the contrary, with Comodo's way, you will STILL have a chance of understanding that the newly installed program is doing something weird and block it.


To put it in 2 words, you can't have it all for nothing. You can't have a PC locked down like Fort Knox, without having "checkpoints" that ask for your "identification and fingerprints".

Unless Comodo has stability problems with your PC, then yes, i think you are being harsh. Otherwise, everyone would be complaining about the same issues. If you haven't read and understood Comodo's help files, it's useless to try and run Comodo, because it will drive you crazy. It's like people that have never driven manual clutch cars and they blame the car when they first try it and can't drive. It's not the clutch's fault, its the driver's that doesn't know how to drive on manual gears.

Comodo wasn't designed to be "best firewall", but "most secure" firewall, that's why it has HIPS. The best firewall is anyway the one you understand fully. If you ask me, PC Tools firewall is much less secure than Comodo, but performs much better on internet speed, that's why i run it. You like Sygate and understand it? Then that's the best firewall on the earth for you. Just not as secure as Comodo (not regarding the packet filtering part, but the HIPS one).

Best regards.

 

I agree with your post overall, only don't quite understand you here. What major thing is CFP missing? Don't install D+, compare it to Sygate. What's missing, detailed logging?

 

For me, there is a certain lag i have with internet and Comodo. Barely noticeable, but it's there. This "lag" increases if you use p2p. It's like the firewall is having more difficulty in handling many connections compared to "simple" firewalls. With PC Tools i can feel it. See Matousec's latest TCP and UDP performance test. There is a 20% drop in both with Comodo.

It's not strange either you know. When was the last time you saw in the changelog something improved in packet handling? Until a few years ago, when firewalls had no HIPS, each company used to work for YEARS in their firewall driver, trying to fix bugs, improve stability, connectivity, etc. Ok, one may think that Comodo has perfect record there, so there is no need to do such improvements. But i simply don't have that impression when i compare Comodo with PC tools for example, which feels faster in everything.

The logging etc, are features that one may want or not. Personally i LOVED Sygate's logging system, but nobody seems to care about logs these days. All they care is HIPS. But i am not referring to such features. I would be very happy with Comodo even with its current logging system, if it would be so performant on my PC as the "simple" firewalls, internet-wise.

 

My only problem commenting is that i don't use XP that much these days. So, i didn't try Emule or anything on latest v3.
Did you really uninstall Defense+? Defense+ makes a big difference. I, although for different reasons, don't use Defense+, and find it light.

CFP is the most logical firewall for me, rules based, and creation of rules is simply easy. It needs further improvements on those very advantages (alert very high should be specific to ICMP messages for instance, and source ports), but there's not many firewalls that open and logical.
LnS is good, but application control doesn't quite fit me. Jetico would require more time (possibly would like it then), as well as CoreForce
All others severely miss something or show bugs as time goes by. Kerio 2.1.5 won't let my laptop hibernate

I agree on one thing: too much attention is being given to D+, and not the firewall proper. It's what i've been saying in the Comodo forum.
Obviously they can't neglect D+ either, bugs and all that.
And the firewall did get good improvements from v2 to v3, just not much between v3 builds.

 

Hello,

I don't think Comodo is rubbish - but it is not a firewall for games or p2p-ers. It is a firewall for people who:

1. Do want an interactive firewall - and can handle the prompts.
2. Don't mind the performance compromise in return for whatever extra they might be getting.
3. Want a free solution.

I'd still say got for Sygate or ZA before Comodo, but I would also recommend it. It may not be ideal for you or me, but it will do its job. And for people who only surf a little and email, the slowdown will not be noticeable.

Of course, I could not possibly bear it, with 500-800 p2p connections

Mrk