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When some individuals describe the web, they are saying it’s a jungle on the market. And that’s true – if it’s a jungle the place each single creature is lined up and tooled up, able to assault you the second you arrive. The web is so stuffed with malicious software program that it’s not a matter of whether or not an unprotected PC will get contaminated with one thing severe; it’s a matter of how shortly it’ll occur.
Enter Comodo, whose free firewall is designed to ensure your PC doesn’t develop into a statistic. It blocks malicious software program from getting onto your PC, and if there’s already malware in your PC it stops it from speaking with villains over the hills and much away.
Comodo Firewall provides protected internet shopping and it really works on the premise of what’s referred to as Default Deny Safety with Default Permit Usability. In plain English, which means it assumes unknown software program is responsible till confirmed harmless.
The firewall is aware of the small print of over two million protected apps, so the probability of a false constructive flagging a good app may be very low.
For much more energy, Comodo will usually gently push you in direction of upgrading to its Web Safety bundle, which guarantees to ship a whole antivirus suite for all of your safety wants, plus some particular options.
The fundamentals embody its Protection+ tech (a Host Intrusion Prevention System – HIPS) that protects important system recordsdata and blocks malware earlier than it installs, the automated sandbox, which runs unknown recordsdata in an remoted atmosphere the place they will trigger no injury, cloud-based antivirus, spyware and adware scanning, on-line banking and purchasing safety and, in fact, its firewall.
When it comes to extras, this bundle throws in a $500 virus-free guarantee, 50GB of cloud storage, on-the-go Wi-Fi safety, and limitless stay professional virus elimination – all that for simply $29.99 per 12 months if you happen to want protection for one machine or $39.99 per 12 months for 3 gadgets (no will increase upon renewals).
Supported gadgets embody Home windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and any FireTV machine working Android 5 or above.
Accepted cost strategies embody credit score and debit playing cards, in addition to PayPal.
Consumer expertise
Like with many free (and generally even paid) apps, it’s a good suggestion to concentrate if you’re putting in Comodo Free Firewall; if you happen to don’t, it’s possible you’ll uncover a brand new browser or an additional service that you simply didn’t ask for. Whereas this may be okay with some, others may not recognize the sneaky installations so readily.
That stated, the setup was fast and painless – simply obtain the set up file from the web site, run it, and observe the prompts. Earlier than you start, nevertheless, ensure to uncheck the choice to obtain and set up the COMODO Dragon Internet Browser and/or Web Safety Necessities if you happen to don’t need them. They are often discovered within the ‘Parts’ tab on the high of the set up window.
Once more, on the finish of the set up course of, you’ll once more be requested to maintain some additional choices enabled, together with altering your DNS supplier to COMODO Safe DNS (improved safety on-line, sooner decision of internet pages), turning on the cloud-based conduct evaluation of untrusted recordsdata, sending nameless utilization statistics to the corporate, and setting Yahoo! as your homepage, new tab, and default search engine on all supported browsers.
As soon as put in, Comodo Free Firewall is easy sufficient to make use of, if somewhat vocal – it tells you when recordsdata are okay in addition to once they aren’t, however there’s a silent mode to show off notifications – and the safe browsers are simple to entry and use. The threats database lives within the cloud so that you’re at all times utilizing probably the most up-to-date model. That’s essential as a result of new threats emerge day by day.
The interface is nice and intuitive sufficient, contemplating it’s full of loads of options and choices. Its simultaneous simplicity and distinctive configurability make it appropriate for novices who don’t wish to trouble themselves with deeper settings and superior customers who would recognize them.
On this line, you may select whether or not the app will present within the fundamental (beginner-friendly) or superior (expert-supported) view. The previous will solely show your system’s safety standing and the choices to handle networks, unlock functions, replace this system, and run a digital container. You’ll additionally see a Reside Help button on the high.
In the meantime, the latter will provide you with a complete host of deeper actions, comparable to entry to superior firewall settings, inbound/outbound connections, auto-containment, HIPS, VirusScope, and web site filtering, in addition to a view of community intrusions, blocked apps, contained apps, and unrecognized recordsdata. The essential view’s Reside Help button is changed by the Logs button, offering an in-depth view of all the safety occasions associated to the machine.
The platform itself may also be pushy at instances, particularly if you happen to have been shrewd sufficient to cease the undercover set up of its browser and attempt to get you to put in it later as you’re utilizing its present (free) capabilities. There’s additionally the consistently current ‘Improve’ button on the backside left of the interface taking you to the web page the place you should purchase the total Comodo Web Safety service.
Safety
Comodo Firewall retains vigil over your system’s safety in actual time and permits you to scan your machine on demand. Thoughts you, there’s just one kind of scan, and it appears to be the fast sort that different cybersecurity suites have along with full and customised scan choices. However contemplating that is ‘solely’ a firewall answer, it’s greater than sufficient.
The primary scan took about 5 minutes to complete, and every subsequent scanning motion was accomplished in an excellent shorter time – normally in lower than a minute.
When it comes to third-party antivirus testing labs, SE-Labs analyzed Comodo Antivirus in its April-June 2024 Home Endpoint Protection report, assigning it an AA rating, because it reached 90% complete accuracy and a couple of% rating when it comes to false positives.
AV-Check final examined Comodo Web Safety Premium in August 2019, when it scored 6/6 in safety, 5.5/6 in efficiency, and 5.5/6 in usability, incomes a ‘licensed’ award, which is nothing to put in writing residence about as there have been others among the many competitors that did a lot better.
In the meantime, MRG Effitas examined Comodo’s VPN service in its Q4 2023 Android 360 Assessment Programme, by which it did poorly, however maybe the truth that antivirus wasn’t its main operate was part of the issue. Nevertheless, the outcomes weren’t a lot better when it got here to Comodo Cell Safety Antivirus.
Its trade peer, AV-Comparatives hasn’t been inquisitive about testing Comodo in any respect.
Options
Comodo Firewall provides loads of options, even without spending a dime customers. The app’s operations are divided into 4 predominant classes – basic, firewall, containment, and superior duties. The overall duties contain scanning your machine for viruses and spyware and adware, checking for program updates, unblocking apps beforehand blocked by Comodo, and getting stay assist.
When it comes to firewall duties, there’s the choice to decide on the apps you wish to permit to connect with the web by way of a file picker, in addition to the identical possibility for blocking apps, a controller for the machine’s community visibility, a community supervisor, a fast change to cease/restore all community exercise to and from the machine, and a viewer of all apps related to the web.
The containment duties are a bit upper-level, such because the digital container for working apps, an choice to create the space for storing shared between digital and actual functions, an lively processes viewer, and a Comodo killswitch and digital desktop. The latter two weren’t put in with the Firewall app however have been one click on away.
Lastly, superior duties are meant for professional customers within the cybersecurity area, as they embody a process supervisor, a viewer of safety occasions, exercise, and alerts, an choice to create a bootable CD or USB flash drive to wash up closely contaminated PCs, an endpoint cleaner within the type of Comodo Cleansing Necessities to cope with persistent infections, a quarantine viewer, and a characteristic that permits you to submit recordsdata for evaluation to Comodo’s workforce.
Digging deeper into the app’s superior settings, accessible from the gear icon on the high left nook of the window, you may get the total Comodo Firewall expertise, ranging from its look, which you’ll be able to management by deciding on one of many 4 themes within the app’s settings.
Moreover, there’s a listing of supported languages you may select, alongside different choices to totally customise your expertise, comparable to permitting notifications, sounds, messages from the Comodo Message Heart, data messages when duties are minimized/despatched to the background, a welcome display screen, a desktop widget, in addition to establishing a password.
It’s also possible to set this system replace schedule and guidelines, and outline logging choices to handle the recording of important occasions like caught malware, firewall actions, and the like. There’s additionally a piece that permits you to import, export, and change configurations for this system.
Naturally, the app’s firewall choices are probably the most detailed, facilitating the choice of the kind of firewall (protected mode, coaching mode, block the whole lot, and customized ruleset) for inbound and outbound site visitors, Trustconnect alerts, and site visitors animation results.
It’s also possible to set guidelines for protected functions, alert frequency and timeout, and extra capabilities, together with filtering IPv6 site visitors and loopback site visitors, blocking fragmented IP site visitors, performing protocol evaluation, and enabling anti-ARP spoofing.
Software Guidelines and World Guidelines help you add, take away, and handle firewall software guidelines and international guidelines lively in your laptop, and add/take away/edit rulesets outlined on the machine. Community Zones can robotically detect personal networks and allow you to handle community zones in your PC. Additionally, you may handle the outlined portsets (HTTP, POP3/SMTP, privileged).
Customers also can handle the Host Intrusion Safety System (HIPS), the part monitoring important operating system actions to guard the PC in opposition to malware actions, its alerts and guidelines, protected objects, HIPS teams of objects, adaptive mode, and so forth.
Relating to containment settings, they cowl shared areas between contained and different functions, computerized startup for providers put in within the container, detecting packages that require elevated privileges, like installers and updaters, the Digital Desktop choices, and auto-containment administration.
It’s also possible to allow/disable file rankings by way of Cloud Lookup and management associated settings (comparable to alerts, automated detections, and others), handle file teams (like executables, vital recordsdata, momentary recordsdata, and so on.) and file lists, see submitted recordsdata, and add/take away trusted distributors.
Additional down the checklist of superior settings is the Superior Safety part, with further choices that embody the VirusScope subsystem which dynamically analyzes the conduct of working processes and retains a report of their actions, scan exclusions for skipping outlined recordsdata and folders whereas performing the scan.
Then there’s Machine Management which blocks gadgets of a shopper laptop from accessing, comparable to USB drives, Bluetooth gadgets, printers, serial, and parallel ports, Script Evaluation the place you may handle the checklist of apps for which you wish to carry out script evaluation primarily based on containment guidelines, and Miscellaneous choices, together with computerized shellcode injections, alerts for software program making an attempt to switch browser settings, and extra.
Lastly, you may decide in or out of the Web site Filtering characteristic to filter web sites in keeping with the user-defined guidelines and profiles (allowed vs. blocked websites, including/eradicating/modifying/transferring guidelines, and the like).
Closing verdict
All issues thought-about, Comodo Firewall is a succesful machine safety system that, for probably the most half, is free to make use of, exceptionally simple to navigate however complicated sufficient so those that want to tinker with the extra detailed settings and configurations can freely accomplish that. Nonetheless, it doesn’t completely substitute a full antivirus suite, so combining it with Microsoft Defender or an identical answer may be the very best plan of action.