First of all I would like to say that this is a review of CFP 3, and as such, because there is already a thread I made where I reviewed RC1, I am not sure wether it deserves its own thread or belongs in my old one. I will let the decision, and appropriate actions in the hands of the forum staff since my review largely builds on what I’ve said about RC1, with a few changes.
Install package
Installation was pretty straightforward and easy. I encountered no difficulties and found it to be quite easy. It didn’t hog the computer nor did it cause high disk activity. All it really did was spend much time installing the drivers, but it falls well into the category of quick installs. Once that has been done, the firewall asks for configuration. It was simple and went smooth.
Hefty package I must say. 31MB, should look more promissing to the masses than those 2MB firewall installs I’ve seen… I believe the install space estimation isn’t correct however, and there’s two reasons for that. The firewall may require 50MB of HDD space, but mine actually uses some 53. I would set the threshold at 60 or even 70. Second, firewall folders such as C:\ProgramData\Comodo\Common\DB\DDB\CPL contain some 700 files. Due to cluster-fill avalanche effect(example: a 1-byte file will take up 4KB on the disk, more such files will only amplify the effect) this makes the folder, which contains 110KB of actual data, occupy 3.1MB on disk. Now let’s take that to larger scale and check the entire C:\ProgramData\Comodo\Common\DB\DDB folder. Size: 32MB, size on disk: 52MB. And there’s still the install in Program Files which is 20MB. I would say recommend some 80-90MB for CFP to installor centralize those databases into a single file.
First Run
Aiiiiiie! As soon as the system booted again, I was assaulted with popups. All in all the number of firewall and d+ popups was greater than that of ZA. That didn’t bother me. However, there were many many popups a second about what D+ was learning. Again I am not one to mind a series of popups at the beginning. I will gladly take a week to fine tune the firewall to my exact desired settings. However, many users will not. These popups weren’t asking anything, they were just there. But they were many and they just kept on coming. “D+ is learning”.
Why are those popups really showing up there? They stay on screen for about 1 second beforeannouncing the next app that has been learnt. You don’t really have time to read them. And of course, all the information there is abstract. “explorer.exe launched proces blahblah.exe” People just get confused. And annoyed. Secondly, the firewall could have done this quietly. Okay fine, it’s learning, I get it! Why do I have to watch this stuff? If I wanna see process activity I’ll start my task manager. But perhaps the most overlooked aspect of it is WHERE the popups are showing up. That is the lower right corner of the screen. It’s where messenger popups appear. Imagine the annoyance of an IM user. The solution I’d find to this is simple: SHOW ME A CHECKBOX WHICH I CAN TICK TO STOP SEEING THIS INFORMATION. If those popups were accompanied by one such box it would work wonders.
Okay let’s assume you got the firewall’s apps allowed with time. I just loaded my previous settings from CFP 3 RC1. While I am doing this I’m still fighting lots of allow/deny popups.
Interface
Well just like the last one I didn’t like the colors and still don’t. I don’t like the white, in both the windows and the tray icon. But let’s leave that aside. The thing is that when I open a popup window from the interface and then close it, any buttons that may have been underneath it are half-green colored. A bug that was there in all betas since I began testing this.
I’m glad CFP 3 fixed the slow application review purge. But I’d really like an option to just stop making apps show up in there altogether.
Now for my main concern: the logging. Yeah logging makes the disk spin fast when there’s about 10 intrusions a second and it writes them in sequence. There’s tons of apps which log alot of things a second, but they don’t do that. I don’t see my HDD light blink like with CFP on every access attempt.
Performance/Stability/Security
No complaints so far(aside from the beforementioned logging). Everything running smooth as it always has. 10MB RAM usage, 0% CPU. With a product this complex, it’s a miracle. As for security, well it passes all tests it has passed as beta so far(referrence to my old review) and there’s really not much to say there. Wether default configs for IMCP and self-protection against termination are now done properly, I cannot say.
Conclusion
CFP has significantly been polished over its predecessor, RC1. However, there’s still a few interface quirks and nes skins I’d like to see addressed. Inside the cover however, it is a solid, stable, lightweight, and secure firewall. One of its biggest wins over other firewalls is that it never simply blocks access or cause app compatibility issues just because it can. If properly configured, it will work in any situation and I mean ANY, so long as there isn’t local app/configuration compatibility issues. I’m saying this because one of my friends which I had mentioned installed it on his laptop tomy recommendation and had his wireless stop working, has been fiddling with it and says he managed to obtain “partial internet access”. Sadly, I have not spoken to him in detail to find out what he did. But it goes to show that even those who have the old “I installed a 3rd party fw and my internet stopped working” cliche may just be a settings issue.
I would advise Comodo specialists to take more interest in “exotic connections”(shared networks, NAT, wireless), because it seems the issue can actually be resolved simply by having it configured properly. These settings should be discovered and automatically applied for said connections. I believe I can help with this discovery, I will check with my friend and see what he has managed to do…
Best of wishes!