Free Software - Update
I recently posted about Comodo’s free security products. I have been using their firewall and antivirus for a few days now and so far my impression is positive.
The Firewall is very active at the moment which is what I would expect soon after an install. It is constantly asking for permission to allow certain processes and applications to access the internet or act as a server. I am happy with this as I would prefer to monitor activity and manually allow rather than use a more automatic approach. So far each one has been expected and I have allowed the access. The firewall passed the Steve Gibson shields up test with flying colours.
So far though it is the antivirus program that has impressed me. While I haven’t fully investigated its success rate in detection and removal, I have noticed how light it is on system resources. This is the first antivirus program I have used whereby I have been able to use the pc normally while a full system scan is being performed. I noticed virtually no slow down or lag at all. Sitting idle in the system tray with all the on demand scanning and background checking turned on it is consuming about 3.5MB of physical memory.
Now a warning - Is there such a thing as a free lunch?
I have since found some interesting comments posted about the Comodo products and the installation of what some are calling adware. See this article at trimMail’s Email Battles. There are plenty of positive things said about the products in the comments to this article as well as some negative. This seems quite the norm when people discuss this sort of software.
As for the Launchpad program which seems to be the cause for the adware claims - it doesn’t install with the firewall or the antivirus as far as I can tell. On another machine where I have installed the free backup program and the iVault password manager launchpad has been installed. I wasn’t asked as part of the installation whether I wanted it. Is it adware? I suppose so. When the program is opened it shows you the applications you have installed and lists the others that are available from the Comodo website. That’s about it as far as I can tell. It also provides a simple way to launch all the Comodo products from one place (it is called launchpad after all). It sits in the system tray but can be closed if desired. I don’t know whether it can be uninstalled but at the moment I don’t really care.
The AV program is in Beta. There are a number of comments in the above mentioned article about the AV program having their system for lunch. Again, my experience has been positive so far. i haven’t tried to uninstall it though so I can’t comment on how easy or difficult to remove it is.
Finally, by way of balance here are two opposing comments posted about the products. Make up your own mind but perhaps caution is best.
The Bad:
I’ve beta tested software for years, documenting and reporting bugs as they appear. Comodo AV should have never been released. It is a TOTAL POS that is impossible to uninstall. I expect issues with beta software, but not with such a basic element and uninstalling it. Not only will the installer launch with every browser instance, but it becomes corrupted to the point that you will not be able to install anything that uses the Microsoft Windows Installer engine and will most likely not be able to uninstall many programs as well.
If you search the web you’ll find that this problem is rampant and Comodo’s method of dealing with it had been to just simply pretend it doesn’t exist. If they are really pressed on the issue, they respond with “well..it is beta”. What will their respose be if a serious issue was brought to light with one of their “released” products?? “Well it is freeware”??
Their support sucks, they have no solution, and have not attempted to come up with a patch or fix to rectify this unbeleivable programming error.
Month after month goes by, and my emails continue to go unanswered.The way in which they have handled this says a lot about the company.
My advice is, spare your seld the grief and coutless hours of frustration and steer a wide path from anything remotely related to Comodo.
The Good:
COMODO Firewall, kicks ZoneLabs Zone Alarm right out the door!
COMODO AntiVirus is beta, and is being worked on and improved
all the time .
McAfee, Norton, and other big name apps. are a constant commerical ….. and their so-called Security Centers …….?
Are crap adds (at best) I have been running COMODO AV on one PC for a while, and it has found lot’s of stuff that The so-called big AV software has flat-assed missed !I have been using NOD 32 on my online Gaming PC ( AcesHigh, air combat game ) and have had great results with it. COMODO AntiVirus is going to replace NOD 32, when the sub expires in two weeks …..
ps COMODO’s anti spam sofdtware works !
