Should I disable Windows Firewall with CIS [Merged]

I have installed the latest Comodo Internet Security (Antivirus and Firewall) in Windows 10 (64bit).
Windows Firewall is still enabled. Should I disable it?

If so, how do I stop the warnings I get from Windows telling me it is disabled?
Mod edit: Added merged to the topic title, Captainsticks.

Right click the Start button, select Control Panel. Select Windows Firewall, and when the firewall window opens, on the left side, select Turn off Windows Firewall.

Yes you should disable the windows firewall if you have comodo firewall installed and you shouldn’t get warnings from windows if you disable the windows firewall as long as comodo’s firewall is on.

I know it was a dumb question, but I tried disabling Windows Firewall the other day and Windows kept
giving me a warning that there was no firewall on.

Now it is not giving me any warnings.

Thanks for the help.

I have upgraded to Windows 10 Pro x64 and am using CIS Premium version 8.2.0.4674. All appears to be functioning well.

However, according to all I have read applicable to Windows 10 you should not disable the built-in firewall. It appears that the built-in firewall does more than it used to… I did disable it for a short while and the system did experience “displeasure.”

Is allowing the built-in firewall to run going to cause me issues as I am going to keep my Comodo firewall up and going? It simply feels wrong to have multiple firewalls running on a single pc.

Thank you for such a terrific product.

Merged topics.

don’t disable the service, but do turn off the firewall. This will prevent any unexpected conflicts to arise, giving unexpected results.

Thanks John. This was the solution - previously, I had disabled the Windows Firewall service. All is now working as expected.

Not sure why someone says you “should” disable WFW as there is no reason at all to do that.

I’ve -always- ran WFW with CIS and -never- had a single problem with both being on. Even more so, I would totally disagree about disabling WFW as it’s an extra layer of security you will turn off for no good reason at all.

Hi Lintly,
It has been long known and common knowledge that running two Firewalls can cause issues.
https://support.comodo.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/328/13/will-running-two-firewalls-together-be-better-than-one

Kind regards.

It is possible to set rules in one just to discover they don’t work due to the other firewall letting whatever bypass the former’s rules.
Disabling one will help ensure you don’t experience issues with either.

Simply for factual accuracy, as this is an old thread:

Running Windows Firewall alongside Comodo Firewall (free, CIS, or any other 3rd party firewall, it doesn’t matter) will result in many granular Comodo rules being ignored, allowing traffic through which was explicitly blocked in Comodo.

  • Any user who’s claimed they’ve ran Windows Firewall enabled alongside a 3rd party firewall obviously wasn’t paying attention, else they’d have realized traffic they explicitly blocked was in fact being accepted (inbound or outbound, doesn’t matter)

The Windows Firewall service must never be disabled, as the Windows Firewall is only a minute part of the Windows Firewall service. The service is critical to printers, and if one disables it, one will receive endpoint mapping errors when trying to add a printer (as well as print IIRC), among other networking and network device functions (essentially anything utilizing USB over IP). The Windows Firewall service has deep hooks within Windows, and like anything, unless one knows the exact nature of a service (i.e. what it does and does not control), one shouldn’t be disabling it until thoroughly researching the aforementioned.

  • Don’t make the mistake of simply assuming because a service has a descriptive name that it only controls what it’s named as… utilize google and TechNet to research what any service is, and what it controls, prior to disabling.

I realize this is an old thread (but it got recently quoted). Could someone explain why above is true? If both firewalls are running, would not all network traffic have to go through BOTH firewalls? So even if a packet is allowed through Windows Firewall, would not it still have to go through granular Comodo firewall rules and be blocked based on Comodo rules?

Secondly, can we get official recommendation from Comodo team as to whether all Comodo users should manually disable Windows Firewall and exact steps to follow? E.g. in steps posted earlier, should Windows firewall be turned off in Control Panel → Windows Defender Firewall → Turn Windows Defender Firewall on/off for both private and public networks? (I get red X signs in Win10 Pro 1709 - apparently Windows does not like this even though in Settings it can see Comodo firewall and is fine with it being there)

Thanks!

I don’t know the technical reason why, and perhaps this has changed with Windows 10, but it’s not likely. The Windows Firewall service (not the same as the Windows Firewall) sees/handles most, if not all, network traffic going through the PC, which is why the service itself (services.msc) cannot be disabled. I do know on Windows 8 & 7 if Comodo Firewall had a rule blocking network traffic for X, I realized it was being allowed because Windows Firewall was enabled, hence the reason for my prior post. To determine if this is true for Windows 10, create a rule in Comodo with Windows Firewall on and use netstat or Comodo Killswitch and see if traffic is indeed being blocked
[list]- Windows Firewall is a far better firewall than any 3rd party firewall, including Comodo, however it would take several days to properly configure it for a setup that does port and loopback filtering and it’s generally more convenient for most to use a 3rd party firewall, especially if that firewall is apart of an internet security suite.curity suite.

Here we go again…

Why does CFW not turn off Windows 10 Firewall upon installation, or if not allowed by MS to turn it off, include a pop-up to recommend the user to turn it off? Or, is it that the Windows 10 Firewall needs to remain enabled as well as CFW?

Is there a definitive answer anywhere? Thanks.

Turn off the firewall, but leave the service running.
Installation did turn off the firewall on mine…

Windows Firewall should be turned off by the installer but it forgets it more often than not. You will have to manually turn off Windows Firewall in Control Panel.

The Windows Firewall Service otoh needs to run.

Thanks for the replies.

I have some kind of odd conflict ongoing, regardless of whether the Win 10 firewall is turned on or off, and regardless of whether pro-active or firewall configs are used. The symptoms are that some MS office and other applications become “sticky”, there’s often a pause of a few seconds when carrying out an action, particularly minimising say Excel windows or closing the app.

It may also have something to do with accessing Dropbox, but the issue is significantly worse when CFW is installed than with it fully removed and just basic WF + WD running.

I’ll hunt around to see if I can find any posts on this, but any pointers / suggestions are appreciated, thanks. Happy for this to be moved to another thread.

Could you please start a topic about the problems with MS Office in the Defense+ / Sandbox Help - CIS board? And start a separate topic about dropbox in Firewall Help - CIS (assumimg it is the network firewall causing the issues)? Please provide us with detailed description and observations.

Eric, fortunately it’s nothing to do with CFW, I discovered a problem in another app, a password filler. Incidentally CFW HIPS was alerting me to it but I thought nothing of it. It’s now restricted and problem solved. Apologies for confusion.