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Free Comodo Internet Security is here - screenshot tour
As a long-time fan of Comodo Firewall, I was glad to see the company developing a more complete Internet defense application. On October 28th, they released Comodo Internet Security.
Why the move? To quote from the press release, Comodo's president Melih Abdulhayoglu believes that "Safe computing on the Internet should be a right, not a privilege." He continues, "We are offering an advanced, intelligent Internet Security package at no charge in order to promote a safer, trusted Internet for everyone."
So far, I'm every bit as impressed with Internet Security as I was with their standalone firewall. Apart from rolling the usual antivirus and firewall features, Comodo's new product sports a number of interesting features and very low resource utilization.
The program's main window is uncluttered and informative, providing a vitals like the status of protection systems and updates, and the present level of network activity. It also features links to quickly lock down your system or set the program to install mode (which tells it ramp down the activity alerts temporarily).
Its main program window presents the three major defense components: Antivirus, Firewall, and Defense+. Configuration options are plentiful on all three. The virus scanner supports automatic updates, flexible scheduling, multiple scanning profiles, excluded directories and files, and detailed logging.
As you'd expect, the firewall offers a myriad of rule and configuration options. Granting and revoking trust from applications, ports, and networks is a clear, simple process. Novice users will either want to leave the default settings alone or spend some time reading the detailed (and user-friendly) help files, as a couple of wrong clicks can quickly create networking headaches.
An active connections screen is also available and it presents information similar to Sysinternals' TCPview, providing insight as to which applications are transmitting or receiving data.
During the first launch, Comodo does a good job of determining which applications are safe to approve. Alerts are color coded, so novice users should pay special attention to any that appear in a red window.
What interested me most about CIS was the Defense+ system. It provides another layer of protection against malware, allowing users to specify trusted software vendors and files, folders, and registry keys that are to be protected. Any modifications to these files or keys (by a hijacker, for example) can't occur unless authorized.
Adding a file, process, or driver to the blocked list makes it impossible to access by any user or process - unlike protected files, to which you can selectively grant permission. The program does its best to recognize new files automatically, but unknown ones are added to a pending list, which allows you query Comodo's master database for more information or submit files for review.
Comodo Internet Security is exceeding my expectations, and I would recommend it for anyone that is after a unified solution for malware, virus, and intrusion defense. It's a much more complete solution than other free apps like AVG, Avast, and Avira.
Install note: by default, Comodo will install the Ask toolbar and change your home page. Pay attention to the screens, and deselect them if you're not interested.
Comments
17
Subscribe to commentsKevinOct 30th 2008 10:23PM
I'm excited by this news as I'd much rather have an all-in-one security product. However, I'd like to see some anti-virus test results and reviews by trusted reviewers before I replace my AVG with this. I'll continue to use Comodo Firewall in the meantime though.
vooxNov 7th 2008 12:25PM
You can see a review of this AV in action from this guy on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybKUfd4LLwA&feature=related
It's in 4 or 5 parts, and he reviews from installation to a full scan.
From what I saw, it works very well for a free suite.
blasztaOct 30th 2008 11:13PM
Lee, I think you should more focus on the weakness of the suite as Kevin stated above: the anti virus.
There have been many reviews for Comodo Firewall (and Defense+ is already included since v3) and almost all of them is positive (and from my experiece is the best free firewall out there), compare to their AV which is (from my personal experience)... sucks! It keep crashing XP and at some point you can't boot at all! Lucky I already imaged my system. There was a tuime when I hoped they will release their v3 anti virus soon.
If the suite is still using their v2 AV engine, then it will just give bad name Comodo...
novettamJan 7th 2009 6:22PM
The Comodo Internet Security includes the final version of the Comodo Antivirus v3.
HaploOct 31st 2008 1:16AM
I've been running AVG for a while now, and it's very good, for example it won't let me open any "keygen" file (wich I have absolutely no idea what they're for).
Now Comodo, will tell me that a particular keygen is trying to connect to the internet, so I can block it, but still being able to open it. That's an improvement.
It also uses less memory than AVG.
But, as has been said, we should wait for the serious antivirus reviews.
RyanOct 31st 2008 1:24AM
I tried Comodo firewall out once before on my Vista machine, and was quite disappointed how it completely slowed it down and gave me headaches when trying to remove it (with its added virtual network adapters and what-not).
Reading this article is tempting me to give it another go - if I do it will be on a test system first.
RyanNov 3rd 2008 5:01PM
Well I've been using the software on my main Vista Ultimate x64 machine for a few days now and it seems to be doing really well now - thanks for the free software Comodo and for letting me know about it DLS
nYdGeoNov 29th 2008 9:34PM
I've been using it on my personal PCs for several years in XP, as well as both 32-bit & 64-bit Vista. I've also installed it on every PC that I've built and/or installed for any knowledgeable user since the middle of last year. Its never been a problem, and never slowed down any system I've installed it on.
I'm sorry to say that the overwhelming evidence from the vast majority of users says that whatever issue you're having is something unique to your installation. That doesn't make it any less real or disappointing for you...I know this. I wish you the best of luck finding the cause of the issues you've experienced.
idodialogOct 31st 2008 2:37AM
The Firewall is highly regarded and I persevered with it for about 4 months until it completely drove me crazy with its interference, its (occasional) memory demands (like 100% right out of the blue) and its incredible slowness whenever I wanted to install anything.
Also I had a few problems with set up and it took forever to find solutions in their fora - which were common problems with many frustrated users.
Ultimately I ended up with something wich snuck through and wrecked my XP instal entirely.
So I enjoyed a secure environment in Ubuntu for a while!
I doubt this is an improvement, I wonder as to the effectiveness of any firewall or virus checker but while avast is doing its job and I'm using a pretty well entirely non-intrusive firewall program I'm going to leave this to the security and firewall obsessives to waste their time and resources with!
nYdGeoNov 29th 2008 9:34PM
Again, I reiterate that the overwhelming evidence from the vast majority of users says that the legitimate issues that you've experienced are unique to your Windows installation. I've personally installed the firewall in no less than 30 machines over the last couple of years and it is still on each and every one of them, often several versions later, working just fine.
Some of your complaints are rather silly and point to your inability to configure the product to work the way that you want it. It can be configured to where there are virtually no warnings or interuptions other than during an installation. I've never seen the 'slow-downs' you speak of, nor the resource issues, etc, other than one time.
The one occasion that I saw behavioral issues was in the case of a gent who read to many things in PC Mag Online, and had every damned useless utility known to man kind in his PC. I removed several of them, and his PC was and still is fine.
From their forums I do know that there are folks that experience issues, and I know that to those people the stress is very real. But since there are tens of thousands without problems as compared to the very small percentage with the problems, the evidence says that the issues have something to do with specific Windows installations and/or their configurations.
Until I experience an issue sufficient to make me lose my faith in it, or until something better comes along, I'll continue to use their Firewall. I'll have to wait and see on their AV software as that is still an unknown.
birkoffOct 31st 2008 9:09AM
Congratulations for all-in-one product comodo. Firewall remains top-notch but anti-virus is still to prove itself, and defense+ is tooooo intrusive. I can say defense+ is highly effective it protects your computer veeeeeeeeery well, but unfortunately at a cost of intrusiveness. Whenever you install a new program, hips would interfere 20 times or more. This drove me crazy and I was forced to disable it. I prefer smart hips like threatfire, but if comodo solves this problem with hips, I believe there will be no resaon ever to switch to eset, bitdefender or any other security suit. Comodo should take in consideration that most computer users do not know much about hips etc, and all the warnings would probably scare them away.
HaploOct 31st 2008 1:37PM
You have 2 options: set comodo to install mode, or at the first nag tell it that treat that application as trusted application. It won't nag you 20 times like that.
LinearmodeOct 31st 2008 11:53AM
Hm... I gave it a try knowing how aweful windows firewall is, and it seems quitee nice, the only thing I really hate is the constant notifying when a change in the registry or anything is made. I'ma keep it tho!
steveOct 31st 2008 11:58AM
i still enjoy avast,online armor firewall and threatfire. all 3 work perfectly together
Jash SayaniOct 31st 2008 12:00PM
Nothing new... Have been using this since more than a month!!
TedNov 1st 2008 1:47PM
I really, really like the Comodo Firewall. The warnings slow down after a while, and almost stop altogether when you are ready to switch to safe mode.
The biggest problem I have with the Antivirus is that you can't easily switch between users on XP. You need to log out first every time. I also haven't heard much about whether or not the detection rate has gotten better. Any word on either of these issues?
JD GabbitasNov 10th 2008 2:44AM
Just put it on after Dell told me to uninstall ZA, hope it works out,any comments?