COMODO Internet Security

COMODO INTERNET SECURITY

Comodo Internet Security (CIS) is a suite of programs that consists of an integrated, easy-to-use set of security applications designed to provide security to your PC. The primary components of CIS are the firewall, the anti-virus and the Host Intrusion Protection System (HIPS). CIS is the latest development from Comodo and follows their philosophy of creating a Trusted Internet.

Current version: 3.12.111745.560

You can read news and announcements about CIS or you can post your comments and general feedback about CIS in Feedback/Comments/Announcements/News - CIS board.

Please, if you have any questions or need any assistance or help with the use of CIS, please post in the appropriate CIS Help board.

THE FIREWALL
The firewall component of CIS (also known as CFP - Comodo Firewall Pro) monitors and controls the data that enters or leaves your PC. It doesn't care whether the data is going to or coming from the internet or a local area network (LAN). The firewall allows you to specify what applications on your PC can send or receive data.

Related Boards:

Firewall Help
Firewall Frequently Asked Questions ("read only" board)
Firewall Bugs
Firewall Wishlist

THE ANTI-VIRUS
The anti-virus component (also known as CAVS - Comodo Anti Virus / Spyware) examines all files that are about to be written to the hard disk or are about to be executed in memory for malicious code. It does this by several means - comparing the file against a database of known "good" files (this is known as whitelisting), comparing the file against a list of known "bad" files (this is known as blacklisting) and online analysis using the CIMA file analysis service provided by Comodo.

The term "anti-virus" is a bit out of date, as there are a myriad of different threats that exist today. Spyware, adware, worms, trojans, droppers, drive-by infections - we have, unfortunately, passed the point where viruses are the only thing that could infect our PCs. The anti-virus component in CIS detects all forms of malware, which encompasses all the above forms of "viruses".

Related Boards:

THE HIPS
The HIPS component of CIS (also known as Defense+ or D+) monitors and controls the parts of your PC that can execute automatically on startup. This is an over-simplification, but the primary purpose of a HIPS is to prevent unauthorized intrusions into certain critical parts of your PC.

Since the release of CIS version 3.8, buffer overflow protection has also been added. What is "buffer overflow"?

Quote from: http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Analysis_of_Buffer_Overflow_Attacks.html

Broadly speaking, buffer overflow occurs anytime the program writes more information into the buffer than the space it has allocated in the memory. This allows an attacker to overwrite data that controls the program execution path and hijack the control of the program to execute the attacker’s code instead the process code.

Related Boards:

Defense+ Help
Defense+ Frequently Asked Questions ("read only" board)
Defense+ Bugs
Defense+ Wishlist

These three components (firewall, anti virus and HIPS) work cooperatively to protect your PC and they will use the same Graphical User Interface (GUI).

THE GUI
The Graphical User Interface will allow you to configure the above mentioned components.

Additional Important Feature: THREATCAST
ThreatCast is a community-based advice system, which gathers information about decisions other users have taken, regarding certain actions on a user's computer. These statistics are then displayed in Alert windows, giving the user an idea as to whether the action is safe, or dangerous.

Related Boards:

Additional Important Feature: COMODO Secure DNS

As of CIS version 3.10, a FREE COMODO Secure DNS service has been added. It requires NO installation, setup, configuration of hardware or software.

For more information and help about this service please see this thread: Comodo Secure DNS: Enable & Disable Information.

INSTALLATION

You can install CIS in anyway you want. If you only want the anti-virus, then just choose COMODO Antivirus at installation. If you only want the firewall, then just choose COMODO Firewall at installation. And then you can have the FULL CIS and check both boxes.
Defense+ is included with the firewall or the anti-virus, or both.

The following list of forum topics may further assist you:

TroubleShooting CIS

The guides board is a "read only" board that will contain tutorials, videos to help new users. Members are encouraged to write tutorial and to contact moderators and admins in order to have them placed in a corresponding guides childboard.

Credits go to panic, 3xist and LaserWraith.