Oldest Living Blogger asks: "How good is a freebie firewall?"
By Ray on July 17, 2008 - 10:45am
Rather than answer my own question, may I let the folks who made it do that? Here's what they say in their Help section's introduction of it:-
Overview
Comodo Firewall Pro offers 360° protection against internal and external threats by combining an enterprise class packet filtering firewall with an advanced host intrusion prevention system. The new-look interface facilitates quick and easy access to all major settings, including the powerful and highly configurable security rules interface.
Built from the ground upwards with your security in mind, this award winning firewall constantly monitors and defends your system from inbound and outbound attacks. Version 3.0 now features a fully fledged Host Intrusion Prevention System called Defense+ to protect your critical operating system files and block viruses and malware before they ever get the chance to install. In fact, Defense+ is so good at blocking malware, you may never need a dedicated anti-virus program ever again.
The new-look firewall features a friendly graphical user interface; highly granular configuration options; easily understood and informative alerts; wizard-based detection of trusted zones and much more. It delivers enterprise class protection yet can be used ‘out of the box’ - so even the most inexperienced users will not have to deal with complex configuration issues after installation.
And here's an image of it in action.
Now then, next question: "How good is a freebie Word Processor?" Before I answer that, you should have a look at it and then if you'd like one, visit their website http://www.abisource.com/ and don't forget to also get the plug-ins for it - you may as well have it all.
If you like details, then this is Task Manager on steroids.
If you find that the 'Help' won't open, the forums have an answer. Briefly, it's like this: There was a problem with Windows built-in security, and that surprises me, because Microsoft now owns the company Sysinternals which issued it. The cure - before you go for the forums - go into the folder for the program, try clicking on the file procexp.chm, and when it pops up a security window asking if you'd really like to open it, uncheck that box for "Always ask before opening". Then go ahead and say 'yes'. It worked for me.
This gives you a better story on what's doing what to whom than you get from the regular Task Manager, and it can be configured in several ways according to your preferences.
When I began having problems with the firewall in AVG 8.0, and got really frustrated at not being able to configure it any differently to solve that, I wrote to support at AVG. I asked them if I could switch back to their AVG 7.5 which I had previously. Normally, they answer their mail either the same day, or the next day. I sent that email on the 12th, and haven't had any response yet (today is the 17th) so I'm thinking something's changed there for sure.