Review: Comodo Firewall

I’ve been looking for a good, free firewall replacement for my Windows XP machine since the ones from Sygate and Kerio were removed from the market. I tried the free version of ZoneAlarm from ZoneLabs but I didn’t use it long. The main issue I had with the free ZoneAlarm firewall was the lack of configuration options. The Pro version offers what I wanted but I didn’t care about all the extra bells and whistles so I decided to keep looking for a free firewall to replace Sygate.

A friend emailed me and suggested that I take a look at Comodo Firewall. It looked like a promising Sygate replacement so I tried it out.

Getting the software
You must provide an email address on the download page in order to get the link for the download. The install program is about 14 MB in size. After you receive the download link email, you will receive another email containing the activation code. The activation code doesn’t unlock anything, it just takes away the 30-day trial limit.

Configuration
Software support built in was impressive. I chose the option to let Comodo autoconfigure applications just so that I wouldn’t get bombarded with pop-ups asking for permission allowing Internet/Network access. The program comes with pre-configured rules for over 10,000 programs (Firefox, Outlook, etc.). Tor and uTorrent aren’t on the list so I had to manually configure the rules for them.

The configuration options are outstanding. They are more advanced that what you would expect from a free product. Adding rules can be a little tricky for novice users but it is easy to pickup. One thing to remember is that, like more advanced firewall programs, rules are applied in the order they are listed. For example, if you wish to allow incoming connection to uTorrent, it will have to be listed before the rule blocking all incoming connections.

Useability
The installation program installs the Comodo Launch Pad that can be used to control all Comodo programs you may also have installed. The user interface is a little difficult to navigate at first but easy to learn. Documentation (help) is a little light on information but sufficient for advanced users.

Comodo Personal Firewall is recognized by Windows Security Center (Windows XP) so you won’t get the warnings stating no firewall is active.

Conclusion
Overall, Comodo Personal Firewall is a great free firewall. It’s a little heavy on memory usage at 34 MB on my XP Pro laptop but that’s pretty much on par with most firewall programs I’ve seen.

System Requirement
Windows 2000 / Windows XP SP2
Internet Explorer Version 5.1 or above
64 MB available RAM
32 MB of available free hard disk space

Screenshots
Initial configuration:

Comodo Launch Pad:

Personal Firewall main screen:

Add rules:

(Note that adding a blocked app looks the same except title of window is “Blocked Application”)

Application network access warning:

07.Jul.06 Articles, Security, Software

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Review: Comodo Firewall”

The_d | July 7th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Plus it looks nice! I might try this one out… I’ve been using ZA for a while now, and i’m getting pretty sick of it.
The_d | August 28th, 2006 at 2:18 am
Wow, i just did a google search for “comodo firewall + tor”, and this entry is the first result.
And i’m sure by the time you read this i will have figured it out, but how do you set up comodo to work with tor?
wyckedone | August 28th, 2006 at 11:23 am
You’ll have to setup an application rule that allows all outgoing ports to all IP’s for Tor.exe. Set it before any rules blocking outgoing ports.
youssef | October 1st, 2006 at 6:53 am
code comodo firewall
MDM280 | December 6th, 2006 at 11:19 am
Superb firewall, officially the best their is!