Plain old www.comodo.com when you select free firewall. Besides the heavy advertising for the Plus warranty, there is a page that locks you into a Plus ad about getting rid of your AV that comes up with a black background, contains an x to close it that is inactive (in Opera and Firefox), and won’t let you go unless you go to the page with the pitch on it. The new website looks like it is modelled on some of the malware sites, not something I would expect from a reputable security company. Comodo, your marketing people should be ashamed of themselves!
I think the sale of a warranty is your business model, but we all need to understand that it does nothing to obviate the damage done by a virus or spyware or trojan, just helps to make cleaning transparent when you eventually discover it. Many use image backups and other means and learn something about security to both limit the damage and recognize/correct the problems early. In fact, encouraging users to be unable to manage their security products after a year of use seems contrary to securing the internet. Needing to use the warranty is something to be avoided, and that flavor and how to achieve that seem to be lacking. And the underplayed fine print about not needing an antivirus, that it assumes you essentially have trusted sites and trusted correspondents and watch D+ effectively (even though you are not smart enough to clean an infection) seems to stretch the point more than a bit. But there probably is a class of user that might benefit from it, in spite of all the posts that believe it is actually a different product.
One users opinion.
Well the little “x” worked for me in IE7…
IAC, IMO the new page isn’t quite that bad, although I don’t particularly care for the focus-stealing pop-up.
I believe that they are looking into this, with a view to better differentiating the warranty from the free core product.
The “X” works for me too, in IE.
Ewen 
“x” works for me in FF and IE.
Took me a while to understand what you were talking about. Then i remembered, temporarily allow.
Sded, in NoScript it seems one needs to allow Google analytics…
I have no special D+ settings, and don’t know what Noscript is. My interest is firewalls, not HIPS. I suspect that many users see the same thing I do, since it happened with two different browsers with nominal settings. I have done nothing to either browser, and rarely use FF, have no addons. And the problem is completely repeatable. In any case, I believe that AV-Smart is being overpimped by Comodo to the detriment of many of the users and don’t appreciate being forced to listen to a commercial for something I think is nonsense!
NoScript:
GPL license.
If you don’t use it, then some setting concerning google, or the extension customize google.
I don’t know much about all this, but it seems the only way for me to close that window is by allowing google analytics in NS.
Of course, i had to allow Comodo’s website in the first place to see what was the issue. With NS blocking (the default, all scripts are blocked), i don’t even see that window.
Cheers
PS: i hated that window too. But now it’s gone like before.
Sounds like users can kill it, if they ever get beyond the commercial and decide to use CFP3. But in its raw form it is offensive like a porn site popup. My usual browser is Opera, and it just froze it until you looked at the commercial. As intended by the marketeers.
They are allowed to make money, aren’t they? 
+1
I agree I don’t like it but I even more agree with panic
even more so it’s not my business
it’s Melih’s
OD
They use analytics to measure traffic, which is one of the valid aggregators they want to measure as part of their business analysis. I know some think google is really the dark side, but their analytics engine IS a valid business tool.
Ewen
I went to the site to look up some information for a user. I won’t make that mistake again. But so far:
- Comodo has sold SSL certificates to a reported slimeware vendor
- Comodo has cobranded with a reported slimeware vendor who has even been banned by MVPS hosts
- Comodo has created their own site that entraps users and I think misleads them
and the only answers I have seen are “we will look into it”
That is a little different from “allowed to make money”. But as you say, it is Melihs business. But any place I want to support and recommend is MY business! And I am disappointed in Comodo!
Gotta say, as far as the entrapment angle goes - I barely even noticed it. Seems to me that almost every single site I visit on a daily basis hits me with at least one of these: Myspace, Yahoo, Photobucket, you name it. As for questionable business partners I plead ignorance, but I was able to go from the above link, past the offending bait-and-switch screen, to the actual DL in about 4 seconds flat. I was very mildly inconvenienced.
Just my $.02 (like any of you give a hoot what I think (:LGH)).
sded, as pointed out here, they are looking into it! Haven’t you checked the “secret board”?
LA
This is true
OD
What would you have me say then?
Shall I will revoke their agreement without looking into claims made in the forum? Shall I not investigate and get their side of the story and do further investigation on our side?
Melih
PS: I would love to get your views on item 3: about misleading. It is a serious opinion you have formed and I want to make sure we can improve our messaging. Please tell me what makes you think that. thanks.
I also have to say that i really dislike the new “focus ad” in the website because it is very obtrusive. I also had problems with it in FF. So, if possible make it a “normal” ad and not one like it is now.
Thanks (:TNG)
Meliih, items 1 and 2 are being widely discussed in other forums and here, and the silence from Comodo has been deafening. The time to look into the practices of those you deal with is really before it happens-don’t you have anyone in marketing responsible for “due diligence”? As a company in the security business, depending very much on the trust of your customers to be successful, even simply stating what your policy is would be helpful-I certainly think these “revelations” were a surprise to your users, and the reactions may even be a surprise to you.
As far as why I think the ad campaign is rather misleading, it starts with a popup (which reminded me of a malware site like capture) alluding to users saving money by buying Plus insurance instead of an antivirus. And my comment on the marketing, which I have discussed briefly in some of your other threads and a little bit in the earlier posting above, is this: An antivirus/antispyware/antitrojan is primarily to catch the malware before it can damage your system. The Plus option really only cleans up the debris after the worst has happened-at least that is all that is promised. To run a popup ad that appears to say they are interchangeable does not pass the BS test for me. And repeating the previous text: “I think the sale of a warranty is your business model, but we all need to understand that it does nothing to obviate the damage done by a virus or spyware or trojan, just helps to make cleaning transparent when you eventually discover it. Many use image backups and other means and learn something about security to both limit the damage and recognize/correct the problems early. In fact, encouraging users to be unable to manage their security products after a year of use seems contrary to securing the internet. Needing to use the warranty is something to be avoided, and that flavor and how to achieve that seem to be lacking. And the underplayed fine print about not needing an antivirus, that it assumes you essentially have trusted sites and trusted correspondents and watch D+ effectively (even though you are not smart enough to clean an infection) seems to stretch the point more than a bit. But there probably is a class of user that might benefit from it, in spite of all the posts that believe it is actually a different product.” I don’t disagree with the warranty as part of an enhanced security profile for novice users, but the current campaign seems a bit like offering dental insurance without telling them they need to floss and brush their teeth.
Had I not gone to the website to deal with a users comment that CFP claimed to do bandwidth management, probably never would have seen the campagn or bothered to comment on it.
So, one users input.
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FYI: I initiated a Standards Setting organisation called www.cabforum.org in may 2005. The problem the industry was facing was there were simply no standards in which CAs issued certs. Hence I tried to introduce a standard. Until then, there was no accepted way (there was NO STANDARD) for issuing certificates and what to check for. Did you also know that there hasn’t been a big CA that has not suffered from what you claim we did?? Its an industry wide problem and with the standards org I initiated in May 2005 we are trying to mitigate this risk. its called EV SSL certificates. IE7 has the capability by displaying green on the address bar and FF3 will have this functionality too. (I am sure Opera will follow soon). So once again I put my money (I even paid for the first meeting place in NY to gather the whole industry!) where my mouth is and helped created a new standard and very functional standards organisation that will help us all, CAs and End users!
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Just because one or two sites/programs blacklist something means nothing tbh! It could be a FP and they share the signature db! It could be misunderstanding! or it could be they are the only ones who know this particular malware! We did our initial due-diligence and they passed! I was alerted via the forum about this issue, i responded by saying, I am looking into it, I initiated internal discussions with relevant people who are in charge of this account, they have done their research again, and came back positive and once again I wanted them to get me more info and I asked them to go talk to the company in questions and have their side. They are on with that. What is wrong with that?
3)I have to disagree: CPF with D+ will protect the user much more than any AV out there, Period!!! Look at the failures in detection in last 24 hours as reported by Virus total! The bottom line is having AV as your first line of defense will fail you in around 80% of the time against new malware simply because they do not detect it! That is a reality and the evidence is mounting towards that! You know what, money talks… just look at who is putting money where their mouth is? AV industry or Comodo?
here is question: Who will it cost if the user gets malware? Comodo or the AV industry? In this business model we have proposed it is Comodo who will have to clean up if the user gets malware! Lets see AV industry offering this! And why not? here is a question for you: In whose interest for you to be sick? The drug industry or the Insurance industry? Of course the drug industry… it costs the insurance industry money for you to be sick! So the insurance company will get you to be as proactive as possible to avoid that! Comodo has turned the Security Industry upside down by offering this unique offer! There are many users who don’t necessarily download 26 applications a day who use their PC for their everyday use and just want to be secure! for those people setting d+ into clean pc mode and forgetting about it with our AVSMART package will be 100% piece of mind as they simply do not want to deal with malware! Just like we pay for services for other people cos we don’t want to deal with it. This is a service to remove the Malware from list of worries!!! Why can we make it so cheap? Because we can prevent it better than anyone else! There are many novice users, for whom this kind of service will be god sent, cos otherwise they either take PC to bestbuy and pay a lot money (over $100 for one of clean up etc) or some even buy a new PC cos they think their machine cannot be reclaimed! The idea of the AVSMART package is to offer 100% peace of mind using the combination of CFP D+ with Comodo experts!
Also that popup only comes once first time you visit the site. Lets be clear here, this is not a Portal site where you go to everyday, heck even I don’t go there everyday! Who does? its only when you want to download the firewall and its only one popup trying to get the users attention to what we have to offer.
I hope I clarified some of the issues. If not pls feel free to ask further as I am here to be as open and frank as I can and more than happy to answer those questions.
thanks
Melih