Tracking Down Great Software For You!
Comodo Personal Firewall is definitely my favorite firewall on the market right now. A large part of that reason is because you can download it and receive an activation code for FREE!
Besides for the reasonable cost ( 
) it is also loaded with features and customizability, both of which are extremely important to me. Sometimes it is nice to have software that you don't have to configure but it is also nice to have choices. Comodo kind of has the best of both worlds because it worked just as it should without configuring anything but if you feel the need to do some tinkering then the nice list of settings are awaiting your clicks.
Some people wonder whether Comodo slows down your Internet connection but that has not happened in my experiences with it. I just installed it on another computer and tested the speed to see that it was almost exactly the same (about 5Mbps). Maybe it does happen to some people but it seems to work good for me. I have taken some screenshots below so that you can see the different configuration panels before downloading it:
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Always wondered about this one – how it compares to Zone Alarm Free? Looks good, though.
How does it compare to the now defunked Sygate Personal Firewall?
Security wise I think Comodo would be similar to both of those firewalls, but I am just in love with the interface. Like most firewalls it will prompt you each time something tries to connect. It received [pcmag.com] as well as an Editor’s Choice award.
Does it also alert you if a program’s executable file has changed since the last time you ran it. While a good security feature it can get a little annoying since I am using the nightly builds on both T-Bird and Firefox.
Yes, it will notify you when the “cryptographic signature” has changed…which happens every time that Firefox is updated.
I’ve been using Zone Alarm’s free firewall all along. I tried Comodo in May 2006, and decided to stay with Zone Alarm. Comodo is supposed to block one specific type of intrusion that ZA doesn’t, but ZA is supposed to add this feature soon. What I didn’t like about Comodo: the interface is more complicated than ZA, and, you can’t have Comodo totally lock down the internet after a pre-determined time (like you can with ZA).
That lock-down feature is really nice on ZoneAlarm but I typically have my computer doing stuff 24-hours anyways so that wouldn’t really benefit me. Comodo’s interface is a little more complicated but it gives me a lot of configurability and is made for power users in my opinion.
Does it work in Vista?
I used to use Sygate, but haven’t bothered installing it since my last update. Windows Firewall and the hardware firewall in the router do me fine anyway.
Thanks for the review about this.
Have been stuck using Windows Firewall for quite a while now. Am gonna give this a shot.
Did you check out Comodo Antivirus? We wacked it in a podcast a while back, seems it has a growing fanbase as well. Same pricetag as well
I tried Comodo’s Personal Firewall once, and I didn’t like it. But I don’t remember why anymore.
Me too, and I still use it.
If you think that Windows Firewall is safe, then you can’t be considered ‘aware of computer security’.[quote]About the Windows XP Firewall…
The Windows XP firewall gives many people a false sense of security. Unlike SKPF4 and other leading stand-alone firewall software, the XP firewall does not block information going out of your PC. The bottom line: Your credit card numbers, passwords, account information and more could be sent from your PC to a hacker, without the XP firewall even detecting the breach.
I used Comodo for a couple of weeks and found that with the dafault settings I was unable to upload files and photos for a couple of social network sites, I even had problems with Yahoo Gruops where as I told, was unable to upload photos and had to disable Comodo everytime I wanted to use these kind of services…
It didn’t let me install it initially because it prompted saying I was trying to install it on an incompatible operating system. I was deterred by that because I just forced the installation to startup with XP compatibility. However, I ended up uninstalling Comodo right after it finished because Vista said that I was running an incompatible firewall that wouldn’t be able to provide adequate security. So it looks like it might work but I wasn’t about to go there.
Actually I haven’t tried Comodo Antivirus but I often like to diversify my products instead of having everything by the same company. That way it would make it harder for a hacker to break into a computer that just has the standard security suite.
Amen to that!
This is yet another reason why you should avoid Norton Internet Security at all costs…
I just snagged the free Webroot license offer and trying it. Looks good so far but I might switch back to Comodo! Nice review by the way!
Stumbled.
I still have a soft spot for Comodo as well. When the Vista-compatible version is released I’ll probably be switching back, too.