As some people on Techspot, occasionally complain that the ubiquitous Zone Alarm
is less than perfect,I decided to check out Comodo (http://www.snapfiles.com/get/comodofirewall.html) firewall.Here are my random comments -

The good points :

1.It`s free.

2.It installs easily on my P.3 XP SP1 machine.

3.Appears to use even fewer resources than ZA.

4.The default settings seem about right,except for the Application behaviour monitoring,
which could be turned off

5.Has plenty of paranoia settings,for those who are that way inclined.

6.I like it better than ZA or Kerio and will to continue to use it,until blows up my system for no apparent reason.


The not so good points :

1.It`s more complicated than ZA,so for a complete novice,it could be offered as
a possible alternative to ZA,rather than a definite replacement.

2.It`s so "quiet",it`s sometimes difficult to know if it`s actually working at all (it is).

3.The developers still haven`t paid me yet.

one aspect I like is that when a DLL is loaded with network access, the firewall
can bless or deny access to the net at this level. This means you get a chance
to see what svchost (and other *.exe programs) is loading for fine-grain
control. You can set an option to LEARN the components and then after a couple
of days, revert to monitor components=ON
(so clearly, I like 4.the Application behaviour monitoring)

the logging is interesting, in that it reports the parent of the application,
the application itself, and the activity that was attempted. the classification of
Severe, High, Low risk is arbitrary, so don't get too alarmed at these.

the firewall comes PRE-CONFIGURED with not only reasonable defaults, but
it also is prepared to support a VPN connection;
allow IP/GRE {in,out}bound

the access to port 53 (ie: dns) is caught and if the app/dll is not totally mapped
by the firewall, it is rated Severe (or was it High) Risk. Heck, all URL translations
need port 53 so plan on setting it as ALLOW.

the other day, a web application had a link for email us and upon clicking,
my email program (Thunderbird) was launched; Comodo caught the action
and clearly showed the attempted SILENT invocation of Thunderbird.
Yea sure it had a window and I knew what/when and why, but if some
vile bugger was launched w/o a window I would have not known it unless
Comodo was there to show me :) {4. Application behaviour monitoring in effect }

Yes it`s true Application Behaviour Monitoring has it`s uses.

Yes it`s true some people like being bothered more than others :)

It`s just that my experiences with various firewalls and anti-spyware

progs,have given me a phobia of warnings that legitimate app A,is trying to do legitimate thing B.

Maybe Comodo does it better.I`ll give it another go.

But I warn you : If it gives me any hassle at all,off it goes.

ZAs greatest talent,was ignorance.:zzz:

only Y O U can tell if A invoking B is legitimate, and that's how it should be imo.
I want to make that decision and not depend upon someone else saying it is.

I like to see a correlation of what I was attempting to do to how the system
responds. If I see access to ports 53 and 25 when asking to send email, then I
know it's expected and ok. On the other hand, I see ports 53 and 15036, I'm
going to start to wonder about it. I can say deny this time and go lookup
the port usage for xxxx and learn if this is an email port (15036 is not).
if it is, I can allow+remember the next time.

I've just turned to Comodo Firewall, because on several Test sites, it is said to be better than ZA.
However I have a little problem with utorrent! The port I use is blocked. I followed the instructions on Portforwarding.com, but with no result.
The port is open when I turn the firewall off, but as soon as I put it on Custom, it goes wrong and utorrent can't download correctly anymore...
Someone plz help...

Hi folks,

I just installed Comodo too. Not many FW'S impress me but this one did. I can't wait until the next new version. It gets better!

@Jungchen

I found this info about Utorrent. I hope this helps your problem.
http://forums.comodo.com/index.php/topic,4106.0.html
http://forums.comodo.com/index.php/topic,4226.0.html

I like the Sunbelt Kerio Firewall because I set mine up to be really protected so I cant even play online games ( have to disable it ) ;)

I've tried both ZA and Kerio but decided on Comodo instead because it was a lot more user friendly in my opinion with a little more options to suit my needs.

Yeah ZA sucks pretty bad but I like kerio alot because you can config it to be really powerful and block everything ;)

Hehe. I went down the same route as some here.

1. ZoneAlarm - Used it until a bad update screwed it and I was also tired of it.
2. Kerio - dunno
3. Comodo - more options :) and better protection according to some sites.

I think I`m going to give Comodo a try. I`ve been using Zonealarm for a number of years without problems, but maybe it`s time to try something else.

Regards Howard :)

Edit: I`ve just uninstalled Zonealarm and installed Comodo. I must say it looks fairly impressive. I`ll run it for a few days and see what I think.

I upgraded my pc less than 2 weeks ago and dumped all the Norton crap. I knew it was a system hog, but I dealt with it because I never had problems like so many others, nor did I ever receive a virus or get hacked. But, when I tried to reinstall NIS and Norton Virus (third time, subscription doesn't run out till Oct 07), I was greeted with a no go. Since I reinstalled three times due to upgrades, the product no longer worked and I had to contact Symantec personally. Long story short, I opted to install Comodo firewall and Avast Anti Virus. I am impressed with just how little system assets these two FREE programs operate on. My computer boots up almost 50% faster than with Norton, and I don't feel that I've compromised any system integrity or lack of protection. Should have done this long ago.

I have tried many firewalls. Recently using Comodo and it seems to be running fine. Uses alot less system resource than Zone Alarms and i like how you can see which program is starting another program and the process that it's going to carry out.

I was a long-standing fan of Agnitum Outpost-Pro, but after they released version 4, I had so many issues, that I finally threw it off.
I still have an open ticket with Agnitum (since November 2006) that has yet to be resolved!
So, out with Outpost and welcome to Comodo. Works great so far!

PS: a colleague of mine has a problem with the (free) version of Mailwasher and Comodo, apparently they don't like each other. He has to switch Comodo temporarily off to make MW work, then turn back on.

I now used Comodo for several month and it works just fine... I can only recommend it to anyone.. it is better than the firewalls you have to pay for... so go get it, if you're looking for a firewall.

After following Howards advice and ditching Norton I decided to install Zone Alarm.
I didn't really like it and then saw Comodo recommended on DL.TV.
I'm really please with it !!
Its got a nice interface and has been problem free.
Better than ZA in my opinion.

10 out of 10 !!

I used to think Comodo was great, 'till I found out it was the cause of all the blue screens I'd been getting. I've read posts on this site saying it might be due to a conflict with Avast AV, but it sounded like it's just speculation at this point. Either way, if you suddenly start getting 0x0000000A Stop errors after installing Comodo, know that it is the cause.

You should verify your install (ie uninstall / reinstall) and check the health
of your computer with Tools like WinDoctor (a tool within Norton System Works).

Few of us have such problems and errors like these are frequently the result of
other system problems.

My problem with comodo is its regular messages which I know you would say are good. I tell it to remeber what I have chosen but it just never does and my family are rubbish with pcs so thats a problem when messages come up.

I tried Comodo for awhile after uninstalling Kerio, It's alot better then ZA in my opinion, it gives alot of customization features and doesn't take up that much resources ( which is good for people who play alot of games )

10/10 :)

I had tried SentiveGuide, R-Firewall, ZA(long time ago with Norton/Sygate) Filegate one from china (free with so much network monitoring going on you can slow the system down.) This all you talking about didn't work for me. I've gone back to Armor2net. Frankly I just wanted to be able to see what's was coming in and out. Application control is strong..

@ sghiznaneck

I used norton and also never thought I had any viruses until I installed AVG and found that norton just hadnt managed to pickup some serious viruses that were really screwing with my pc. This was also the corporate edition of norton which "should" hjave been decent.

I have been using COMODO on several PCs for over a year. Two of them have Avast AV. No problems whatsoever. I like it over ZA, because it is not intrusive, where ZA used to come out with updates every month or so.

I wonder if you go to a certain web site how good your protection would shield you? What I use does...

tipster
COMODO does a pretty good job, but I also practice safe web surfing by avoiding high risk web sites. Also, it is not the only defense. Armor2net may be better and I'll take a look at it. Has to be low maintenance and unobtrusive.

The best thing about Comodo is that you can right click on the icon and choose "Allow all"

That is so useful.Zone Alarm just has two ways of blocking all.

ZONE ALARM firewall sucks.....It offens corrupts the system. That is when it is being installed BSOD can come

I agree with Thehacker, Zone Alarm always made my counterstrike go into Windows Mode because it asked like 500 times for "Allow Hl2.exe?!?!?!?!?!!" even though I added it to exceptions list :(

I tried COMODO and liked it and everything but when I went to play BF2 it screwed my screen up big time. The screens for BF2 was all screwed up could hardly read anything on it. So I got rid of COMODO. Kind of anoying having any firewall really (except for maybe windows firewall :D) I got tired of having to figure out how to allow my LAN conections for playing games with my two comps. I may try COMODO again though and see what happens.

it's because if you have the default settings with Comodo it'll do a popup thing to say if you want to allow BF2 to connect to ports, just put Allow ( and put a check in the box so it doesn't ask again ) or in the Comodo interface ( Under application monitor ) put BF2 > Allow to all ports / IPs and for TCP/UDP then it wont ask again and make your game mess up ;)

I do believe I actually did that. I usually hit the check box to make sure it won't ask me to allow the game again or a certin program. When I was in the game all the colers where distorted and you couldn't read anything. I may try again though. :D

Yeah, windows firewall isn't very good ( from my experience ) so Comodo was alot better for me, It also allows me to see network logs so I can see where people are trying to connect to me and stuff