Re: Comodo Personal Firewall

From: earlybird (me_at_privacy.net)
Date: 11/26/05 

Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 15:56:16 +0100

<garry@comodo.com> wrote in message

thank's for dropping in

> By the time the product reaches market it has already been tested
> extensively.
> Obviously not ALL situations can be covered, as with any software.
> Once we get feedback we can then simulate and fix accordingly.

no, you couldn't. Even if your software is for XP computers there are to
much combinations in the field.
I could hangup a specific program with 2 mouse clicks and the author
couldn't recreate it.
I think your company has much more testing possiblities, but sometimes you
have to accept that it wont'work.
Let's say a computer has 256 Mb memory; you don't know if it's 1 * 128 Mb +
2 * 64 Mb or whatever combination.
It could be important for a problem.
It's good to have beta testers in the field; I think it gives a product more
trust.

> The reason the application must contact the web site is to
> automatically install the license from the license code we send.
> This avoids manual intervention from the user having to download and
> install a file to a specific location....and it works well.

of course this will works well; XP users are stupid ;-) and are not capable
to download and install anything if it requires their intervention. Sony's
rootkit software also works extremely well.
It is an option to skip the user interaction, but I don't like it and never
use this software.
I think you will understand that there are people who refuses this
construction; they only install software offline.
If I want to do a re-installation or install it on another computer I always
have to contact the "license site". Oh dear.
Could you use as a privat person the Comodo firewall on more then one
computer ( let's say for testing your own LAN for weakness from within? ).
Testing Comodo ( but why should I or must I; you say it's safe ) seems no
option. OK, how about a compare with my current firewall? Do you have to
activate your firewall within 24 hours after receiving the email for getting
the license or could you activate it next month and could you activate your
license again and again after once having recieved the license code?

> We only ask for Name and email address for the license.

sounds great but this is a mistake. You get more info ( like the real IP
info ) when the application contacts the website.

> I don't know where 'Spyware' comes into this from earlier in this
newsgroup,

very easy; if a program needs to contact a site for further information it
is considered as spyware.

> this product is most definitely not spyware, it doesn't gather
> information from the machine and it doesn't return any information to our
servers, so
> how can it be spyware?

that's how you want to read it. No information to our servers, but maybe to
another server?
Zonealarm did; if I remember it well they call it they had to check the
fingerprints from virusses, trojans, etc.
The average user is to stupid to know which application is allowed or not
allowed to contact the internet, so this type of user always granted
whatever program internet permission. To prevent this behaviour the
application "phoned home" to ask what to do.

For now Comodo seems a firewall for people without questions; just like the
build-in XP firewall ( SP1 ) which doesn't protect you for outgoing traffic.
Microsoft tells you it just works great, but are you well protected enough?
No way.

One more Comodo question. You have the construction :
programs/applications --> local proxy like Proxomitron --> firewall -->
internet access
Could Comodo block unwanted access through a local proxy?

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