Need your ideas about how Comodo can generate revenue from free products! :-)

[Guest]

[Fourm.Man]

didn't want to edit my post above because i didn't want any of the Comodo F/W team to miss this...

one way to make a really good buck on the product perhaps, and keep it totally ad-ware free, would be to license the basic engine.  Kerio did this and one of their clients markets Tiny Personal Firewall (that runs the Kerio engine).

[Melih]

Hi, everyone. I'm new to the forum, been involved with networks and PC's for over 17 years.

I wandered through the various paged of ideas and one post made me think of something.

***We would like to have an enterprise version for central management and charge for that component. So enterprises can still use the firewall for free but to manage them all etc, they need to buy the central management module.***

I like this idea, it's robust, and it provides an extra functionality that businesses could pursue, and see as having value. Individual workstations could be protected at no cost, whilst in networking those PC's the business owner could pay to manage all pc's, and keep them managed, and protected at a cost effective ratio.

So, to make this a business model, I am proposing the Free Comodo client, the paid for management module, and as part of that module, a free Comodo client firewall add-on, that comes as part of the management module subscription. (Add-on) installed by management module.

Here's what this extra module and add-on, may do.

Single point of entry.

Individual pc's connect to a network, and have a gateway which they broadcast to, and have their data forwarded by. All well and good. Their individual free software keeps them protected locally the gateway acts as a gateway and everyone is a happy bunny.

When you purchase the central management module, this will connect all Comodo protected PC's together. The module will install a small hook to each managed PC (Comodo add-on), that ensures that all access to and from the network must go through the management module, as gateway and filtering mechanism, this will enforce security. You could even delegate to differing node gateways ( Secondary tiered management modules?) if you wished to, by scripting the add-on software to only communicate/allow communication between a trusted management module gateway and selected Comodo protected pc's. (Now you can effectively segment the lan or wan, and group and sub-group traffic)

Each management module in addition to it's other duties, will also act as a network sniffer, actively listening to any connections on the network. If the data that enters the network is destined for a pc NOT protected by the module (Let's say by mac address, IP address or some unique identifier), this will be flagged so that an admin is aware there is a rogue pc on his lan with inet access, that is not managed or protected that could be a backdoor into and out of the network.

You could even go further with this module, and have it be monitor pro-active. The add-on could also be a network inventory collection tool. This is now one stop shopping. Access to and from the network is controlled, and you can see the state of the protected pc's at the same time.

You could even have the management module be network pro-active by scanning the packets as they arrive, and you could have it generate a map of the network, and visually show what is secured and what is not. Anything running through the Comodo client PC's is already monitored, that traffic is secure, but anything else being relayed across the network is not. Inspecting these packets will show where those pc's are and what their gateway mechanism are too. Show them visually and differentiate between what is protected and what is not. And if I really wanted to get technical I'd get into the in's and out's of the OSI 7 layer module, and start talking about how you could lock down any unprotected pc's by having aggressive functionality designed to seek out these unprotected pc's and 'access' them allow the network admin a chance to remove them from his network or add to his protected pc's.

But I think that's enough for now LOL.

very useful feedback fourm.man, we have a thread on central management in this forum. pls join us there.
thanks
Melih

[Fourm.Man]

very useful feedback fourm.man, we have a thread on central management in this forum. pls join us there.
thanks
Melih

were you talking to me regarding the idea to license the f/w engine, or to the person you quoted, LogicMotion?

[Melih]

were you talking to me regarding the idea to license the f/w engine, or to the person you quoted, LogicMotion?

Sorry, i should have said LogicMotion.

thanks for the correction.

Melih

[Fyxer]

I am new but just read all these how to help keep this free, I haven't even installed it yet but from everyone else here it seem this software is worth supporting. Anyway The paid corporate control consol seems like a good idea but keep clients free. To keep them free have some kind of a web link in the update notification, your update has been brought to you by whatever and you can go there or not. I am not sure if that would make it ad ware or, i guess it might depend on how it was applied.

[gjmveloso]

Central Management sounds good!

Also Comodo can deliver security softwares for non-personal users at a little cost!

Merchandise sounds good too. I like to buy a Comodo T-Shirt!  (L)

[TZer0]

I'm not sure if this has been posted before... this might be a crazy idea, but it might work.

There's a growing problem with mobile phones, they get viruses and a virus on a phone is harder to remove than a virus on a computer as there are no anti-virus programs on phones. So maybe you should throw yourself into the buisness of making phones secure by creating anti-virus programs for phones or start a filtering service that stops viruses before they reach the phone (charge the phone companies for making filtering programs)

[supermario]

You can put a few adds (not pop ups) on your website to get a  little $$$$

[sarah]

well one way too make money is put ads on the forum

[arne22]

As Logicinmotion already has mentioned you should also look in the direction of the professional corporate market.

The existing firewall produckt should be kept "as is" and imroved further on. This should be used for "branding", to generate trafic and to build "Comodo" as a world wide well known "brand" or "trademark" (like Google.)

If the firewall product is kept as is this will happen more or less "automatic" from "roumors" on discussion groups etc.

As the population of the world starts to know "the trademark Comodo" and it is assisiated with high quality internet security, you should do some other strictly commersial projects directed against the corporarpe marked.

Something like a gateway or a "ISA server light" or possibly a variant of a personal firewall that is specially modified to run inside a Corporate environment, lets say that are implemented to the Microsoft Active Directory, in some way or the other, that will allow MS Domain administrators to do their job also with a personal firewall on the clients. Such a Comodo firewall commersial network edition, will not have functions that migt be of interest for private end users, but it might generate money on a commersial basis, without the need of restricting the existing free firewall edition.

Just some ideas ..

[panic]

As Logicinmotion already has mentioned you should also look in the direction of the professional corporate market.

The existing firewall produckt should be kept "as is" and imroved further on. This should be used for "branding", to generate trafic and to build "Comodo" as a world wide well known "brand" or "trademark" (like Google.)

If the firewall product is kept as is this will happen more or less "automatic" from "roumors" on discussion groups etc.

As the population of the world starts to know "the trademark Comodo" and it is assisiated with high quality internet security, you should do some other strictly commersial projects directed against the corporarpe marked.

Something like a gateway or a "ISA server light" or possibly a variant of a personal firewall that is specially modified to run inside a Corporate environment, lets say that are implemented to the Microsoft Active Directory, in some way or the other, that will allow MS Domain administrators to do their job also with a personal firewall on the clients. Such a Comodo firewall commersial network edition, will not have functions that migt be of interest for private end users, but it might generate money on a commersial basis, without the need of restricting the existing free firewall edition.

Just some ideas ..

Check out www.trustix.com - they're waaay ahead of you!

ewen :-)

[Sidris]

Hello all,

My first post here.  First, my thanks to the Comodo folks for creating not just a firewall that a nitwit (me) can actually understand and use but for giving it to the world for free.  Your generosity is to be commended.

As far as how Comodo might generate revenue from their free products...

Forgive me for not reading all 9 or so pages of suggestions but scanning through them the one thing I haven't notice is selling "service".  This would be to users of both your free firewall as well as your other enterprise products.

For example.  Lets say someone discovers suspicious activity on their computer but they're just not certain how to verify if it's good or bad.  Zipping up and sending huge files to Comodo for analysis is one thing but something I'm sure takes time to sift through and may, in the long run, turn out to be false positives or nothing at all to be alarmed about.  This means the use of extra bandwidth as well as loss of time for the Comodo techs.

Why not charge a very small fee for one-on-one user system analysis using remote desktop access accompanied by live chat?  Comodo Tech to Comodo User.  A highly personalized service but one I know I'd trust and feel other Comodo users would, too.

Right now I know I'd happily pay a nominal amount to have an expert look at the contents of my system32 folder, registry and the opportunity to ask a few questions about some questionable things always present in my computer. 

Sessions could be arranged for in advance, a small fee (like $5 or maybe $10) could also be paid in advance, Comodo could send the subscriber explicit instructions for enabling a remote session, a time could be scheduled, the user would be on hand as the tech explored various issues then suggested various fixes.

I'm sure my idea is quite similar to other outfits who charge huge amounts by the minute to conduct similar work (and who probably aren't nearly as experienced or knowledgable as the Comodo team).

If this idea has already been offered, my apologies.  Although my computer knowledge isn't nearly as great as I'd like it to be, I've been in sales for many years and know first-hand that the best way to support a product is to offer reasonably priced services on a per-issue basis to maintain them.

Good luck in your endeavors and thank you for a superior free firewall that's bailed me out of a lot of trouble on several occasions yet confused me on others because I wasn't sure what choice to make - allow or deny.  Still, it has helped me learn more about what goes on "under the hood" of this machine than any other similar products I've used.

Sidris

[N.T.T.W.]

Just a thought. On computers at work we use exchange server and outlook for our emails. CAVS does not currently scan emails on exchange server.
Though your products are free even to business users perhaps you could develop a version of CAVS that scans exchange server emails and sell this for a small initial fee with free lifetime updates. Then small business users would have a choice of the free CAVS that will pick up viruses anyway or they could buy a version that will scan and certify their emails (thus advertising Comodo even more) with no fees beyond the initial small purchase fee.

 

 

[RLJSlick]

Maybe join forces with Firefox, and see if they would be willing to pay you guys to add your FW or/and spyware program as a "added" feature to it's popular web browser.
I also love the merchandising idea, that is always worth some bucks. Worked really well for Firefox. I have a whole wardrobe from them.
Maybe advertising only in the software itself, not any sort of ad aware, or popups, that is the fastest way to lose clients, you can ask Real Player and Weatherbug about that. 

[Simplicity]

Hokay, have read all 9 pages of this rather interesting discussion....

A) What originally got me installing Comodo was 2 things:
1) It was FREE and had a promise to always remain FREE
2) I heard from around the place that it has a very small footprint when comparing with other Firewall products..

Since I have had it installed on both my machines, I have totally recommended it to friends with no reservations telling them that it beat every other firewall (both free and commercial) hands down, and that 6-12 months down the track they wouldn't be hit with a new "payment" type scheme other software companies have come up with.
My friends have been very pleased with Comodo as well, and have started spreading the word with their friends as well..

I DO like the idea of merchandising (ie: cups, teeshirts etc) but have reservations for people in other countries (I live in New Zealand) as once you add in exchange rates and then postage, that $19.95 teeshirt could very quickly become $50 in NZ dollars 
I also like the idea of having a product that could manage Comodo products over different computers (especially like the idea of having upto 3 computers being free (I only got 2) 

Personally, I really liked the authors commitment to us users regardng Comodo, and am a little dismayed about all the posts I have read from others encouraging the author to make a free and a commercial version, or to have some sort of subscription service for updates or the software itself.
To me this goes against everything Comodo stands for, you have built up a great trust between you and your customers, bringing in anything like making commercial versions, or asking for subscriptions (to me) would betray this trust big time..

I too like the idea of having "Donations", I myself have donated to several software programs as I thought the developer deserved it, I did this with no "encouragement" by them to do so, I did it because I wanted to...
If I had felt that I "had" to, I probably never would have..

Anyway that's my 2c worth..
Best regards - John...

[Tags:]