I’m tired of Comodo Firewall fighting w/ Apple products – it’s not worth the hassle of figuring out which ports to unblock, and then re-figuring it out when Apple implements new functionality that uses different ports. One of my antimalware programs includes a firewall that should meet my needs just fine – and Iknow from my Web research that it won’t give me any hassles w/ iTunes, Apple TV and Airport Express.
I know from past experience that setting the Comodo Firewall to Disabled is not the same thing as having the Firewall uninstalled. [I’d sure like to know why, but…]
I really like Defense+. Is there a way to install just Defense+ w/o the Firewall – or are they married?
Thanks, wasgij6 – unfortunately, as I mentioned above, I have personally witnessed incidents over the years where setting the Firewall to Disabled did not always resolve conflicts – uninstallation was necessary. A quick Google search that I am not alone and that it’s still a problem in 2012. One would think that “Disabled” means “Completely Disabled, pretend it’s uninstalled” – but that’s not always true.
Thanks, aim4it – but I’m not sure what you’re suggesting?
Open “Network and Sharing Center” → Change Adapter settings → Select the adapter(s) you use LAN/WiFi one by one and untick ‘Comodo Internet Security Firewall Driver’.
Apply the changes, this should detach the filter driver from the Network adapters and shouldn’t cause any filtering issues anymore. (Works only on Vista/Win7).
Thanks, Ronny – that makes a lot of sense. I’m embarrassed to say that never occurred to me.
In the mean time before I saw this, I uninstalled Comodo and my iTunes sharing filtering problems disappeared. That proves once again that Firewall Disabled <> Firewall Uninstalled.
I’ll reinstall so I can get Defense+ back, and then try detaching the driver from my adapter.
Well, go figure. It was a component of Defense+ that was messing up my Apple sharing. Ran a bunch of tests. Seems that disabling Defense+ partially fixes the conflict – but a complete uninstallation of CIS is necessary to fix it. [Tried rebooting in between tests before deciding to uninstall, just for fun. No effect.]
Guess I’ll go w/ Webroot and Windows Firewall, and check back in a few months to see if a newer version of Comodo fixes the problem. I like Defense+, but when I set a program component to Disable, I expect it to be disabled. Ditto for when I click Exit. I’m guessing that it’s some kind of Comodo device driver issue (since I had clicked Exit – although, now that I think of it, I didn’t doublecheck to see if any Comodo processes stayed active), but I’m not going to go to the trouble of trying to track it down.
Thanks, HeffeD. D+ is the only part of CIS that I want.
And thanks for the Exit tip. Oh well – when I click Exit, I’m not looking for protection.
The computer geek in me likes the power of CIS, but the user in me just wants software to work w/ few hassles.
What I really want is the simplicity of Webroot married to the Comodo capabilities that let me get under the hood and make tweaks. Going to have to go w/ the former – even though I am someone who has programmed computers in machine code by flipping toggle switches. [PDP-8.]
You were saying that disabling D+ only partially fixes the conflict, and that a complete uninstall is necessary to completely fix it. The partial fix is likely due to the drivers being loaded. I was pointing out that you don’t need to uninstall the application to see if D+ is still blocking something when disabled.
If you could provide more information about exactly what the problems are that you’re experiencing, I’m sure we could help you remedy them.
Please note that I’m not trying to sway you away from Webroot if that is your choice. I’m just saying that I’m sure we could work out whatever you’re seeing as an incompatibility.
HeffeD, that’s very nice of you – thanks! I was already using Webroot – I just enabled its firewall and the Windows Firewall when I uninstalled CIS. I’d like to go back to my original config. So, here’s what I have found after spending way too much time testing and rebooting after each CIS change…
–D+ in Safe Mode completely blocks iTunes Home Sharing.
–D+ in Disabled Mode allows iTunes to see shared libraries, but I’m unable to access them.
–Uninstalling CIS allows iTunes Home Sharing to work as it should.
–Detaching the Comodo firewall driver from my network adapters had no effect.
–The only thing I didn’t try was installing CIS w/o D+ – b/c that’s not a configuration that appeals to me.
[It still really, really, really bothers me that selecting Disable for the firewall and D+ doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t affecting my system in some way. That’s a design flaw, as is Exit not being clearly labeled “Exit System Tray and GUI, CIS still running to protect your system.” But, I digress.]