I would like to see a feature added to the Comodo Firewall that would allow a mobile notebook user to switch the common LAN IP range 192.168.1.0 - 192.168.1.255 from a “trusted zone” to a “not-trusted zone” in one or two mouse clicks, and then switch back to again in one or two clicks.
Many notebook users access multiple wireless APs during an typical day. This may be at home, the office, and a variety of public APs (Starbucks, etc.). Almost all wireless routers use the standard LAN IP address range 192.168.1.0 - 192.168.1.255. So setting your Comodo Firewall to a trusted LAN using this address range may later open you up to other computers on a public AP using the same range.
One thing still good about ZoneAlarm is that it allows users to easily switch their wireless connection from Trusted to Internet (and back again) in just a few clicks. If Comodo can offer a fast and easy feature like this, I would feel more comfortable about using it on my notebook.
Hope it can be included in an upcoming version soon!
I empathise, but in CFP 2.4 there is no simple two-click solution.
What I have done to overcome this is to set my home wireless to an IP range other than 192.168.X.X. Private address pools can be in any of the following ranges;
As you’ve correctly pointed out, the vast majority of APs use the 192.168.1.X or 192.168.2.X ranges. If your home AP is set to 172.16.29.X (for example) and this range is set to trusted, you shouldn’t too many problems with public APs.
Further to the above mentioned change to your home wireless, it’s a good idea to restrict your routers DHCP allocation range to roughly the maximum numbers of devices that you expect to connect to your LAN, rather than just allocating the entire 255 addresses. This reduces the chances of someone piggybacking your connection. Adding MAC filters helps as well (of course you’ve got WEP, WPA or WPA-2 set as well).
I realise this is an imperfect solution, but it is a change that only needs to be made once (hopefully ;))
Thanks, Ewen! It is a workable solution for my home network. But unfortunately I don’t have the authority to make those changes in the company offices where I need “trusted” access.
Hopefully the folks at Comodo will accommodate the needs of the mobile working class in the next release?
Thanks again for taking the time to write a thoughtful response!
