I’ve been using Comodo Firewall for about a month now and mostly like it - expecially the WinXP Fast-User-Switching support!
My main pet-peeve is the lack of information in the log files. Is there any way to see more info than:
Date/Time :2006-11-19 06:10:04
Severity :Medium
Reporter :Application Monitor
Description: Application Access Denied (iexplore.exe:216.239.122.225:http(80))
Application: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
Parent: C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe
Protocol: TCP Out
Destination: 216.239.122.225:http(80)
The main info I am looking for is which “Blocked” dll in the Component Manager caused this Access Denied.
In the case above, I had blocked 7-zip.dll (7-zip is similar to winzip, but freeware and IMHO better ). All was fine until I used 7-zip in explorer. All of a sudden IE7 no longer could conect to the net.
As there is no way I can see to determine which blocked dll causes problems, I end up allowing all of them. Thus the only use I see for component manager is to see which new dlls are loded whenever a popup occurs.
This indicates that it was the Application Monitor that reported the block. So, you should look for blocks (red crosses) in the Application Monitor. If there aren’t any, then it is possible that it was a temporary block (a Deny without Remember ticked). Temporary blocks can normally be resolved by restarting the application in question. But, since explorer might be part of this block you might need to reboot to clear it.
I hope that helps.
Edit: Actually, you might have blocked the Explorer-MSIE relationship due to an OLE-type warning. You’re warned about MSIE because Explorer is the parent process, which 7-zip messed with.
Application Monitor has no blocks set for IExplore.exe and no entries for explorer.exe.
So yes it probably was a block due to an “OLE-type warning”. My suggestion would be to make this clear in the log file. It would be nice to know that the block for 7-zip.dll caused the Access Denied - right now there is now way to tell!
The only reason I made the link is because I happened to realize the IE7 stopped responding just after opening a zip file. Earlier this week my (much less computer literate) wife called me down in a panic as IE7 stopped responding. I traced it bacl through trial and error to a printer dll that was blocked - she has just printed a web page… I blocked these dlls ages ago (thinking why does the printer need to connect to the internet?). Since I had never printed while connected to the internet I had no idea it was required to allow this dll and was initally baffled when IE7 stopped responding.
If the exact source of the Access Denied was logged (e.g. blocked component 7-zip.dll loadded into parent process explorer.exe) it sure would make debugging connection problems easier.
I was hoping that this info might be available somewhere - but I guess not?
). All was fine until I used 7-zip in explorer. All of a sudden IE7 no longer could conect to the net.