BBC and google freeze with Comodo

Help for v2
#1

I use Comodo Pro 2.4 on WinXP Home.

About 2 months ago, I changed from ZoneAlarm to Comodo. ZA was fine, but Comodo seems to have more protection.

I immediately noticed a huge slowdown on the following sites:

On Firefox or Internet Explorer, with multiple tabs open, the tabs for all four sites would constantly be showing the circular progress icons, but all other sites would load instantaneously. Usually, closing and re-opening the browsers cleared the problem, but only for a few minutes.

I assumed that I had malware, so I followed the complete cleaning instructions on:

Before disinfecting, I uninstalled Comodo, and re-installed ZoneAlarm. The purpose was to restore my laptop to a previously known good state.

The MajorGeek instructions were thorough, but confusing, and I made at least two errors. Some tests took all night. However, at the end of the process, the four sites mentioned above were all back to normal.

I uninstalled ZA, and re-installed Comodo. Almost immediately the four sites slowed down again.

Because I had made two errors with the MajorGeek instructions, I assumed that malware had re-activated itself. I changed back to ZA and repeated the MajorGeek procedure with no errors. Again, this restored the four sites to normal.

I changed back to Comodo, and the problems re-occurred. Now, I’m not very technical, but even I started to become suspicious. When someone hits me on the head often enough, I begin to associate the pain with the hitting action.

I’ve changed back and forwards between ZA and Comodo several times (but without the MajorGeek stuff in between). Same result with both browsers. Note that on each change, I completely uninstall the other firewall. I do not simply disable the firewall.

No. I haven’t tried surfing without a firewall. My cowardice is surpassed only by my technical incompetence.

Any advice? I still want to move to Comodo with its greater array of features.

#2

Try to find the complete removal instructions for ZA. It is known for not uninstalling completly.
It should be in ZA forum. Somewhere in this forum, some have posted the method too.

But in general: ZA didn’t uninstall completly, and it does bring problems to whatever FW comes next.

:■■■■

#3

I found the instructions. They were very thorough. Even removing registry keys, and changing my motherboard.

The results were just as bad, if not worse than previously.

Firefox loaded google mail and BBC. However, any attempt to reload these sites failed.

Internet Explorer launched, but would not load even a single page. A dialog box popped up called “Network Diagnostics for Windows XP”. I have not seen this before. The message was “Windows diagnosed a connection problem between this computer and the modem”.

I have a diagnostics tool that came with my modem. The tool showed that bytes were being sent to the internet, but no bytes were returning. Each click of “Reload” sent bytes.

Simply to make this post, I uninstalled Comodo and re-installed ZoneAlarm.

Woe to the republic.
(John Quincy Addams, 1825-1829)

#4

As an experiment, I installed Outpost. It was worse than Comodo. If a site loaded, it would not reload. Some sites did not load at all, even after 15 minutes.

Now Comodo and Outpost are highly recommended personal firewalls. Both of these are rules-based, whereas ZoneAlarm is a simple Yes/No.

Is it possible that I am doing something stupid in the early “learning” period of Comodo or Outpost?

#5

Not if you allow svchost.exe etc.
Try to flush the DNS.
Why? Beats me, but sometimes that’s it. Start- Run- “cmd” - ENTER - “ipconfig /flushdns”
No quotes obviously. If an error occurs, it’s because you don’t use the DNS Client.

How’s that? (this is kind of shot in the dark :))

#6

Alan, the message you have from IE is a new feature with IE7; it might actually be helpful sometimes. :wink:

Something to try with CFP is to switch the Security Level to Allow All. If it works, then you know its an issue with rules, most likely Network Monitor. If it doesn’t, there’s a good chance it’s not CFP.

Here’s a question: When you uninstalled ZA, and when you installed the other FWs,did you have any AV or other security software running Active/Real-time? If so, this may be the source of trouble. It is good to disable/turn off any active security software prior to installing, especially other security software…

LM

#7

I don’t think I was ever given the opportunity with either CFP or Outpost to allow/disallow svchost.exe

I do that automatically when only one or two sites appear to be slow.

But all those horrible things might invade my laptop and start oozing through the spaces in the keyboard. Like “The Blob”. Or that thing in “Alien”.

Kaspersky AV runs all the time. The next time I change back from ZA to CFP (or should that be from CFP to ZA? I’ve lost count), I’ll try disabling KAV.