Sometimes when I mouse over the cfp tray icon, it simply disappears. So, do I lose my protection then?
Vista reports that the firewall functions normally, but I don’t think it is: when I click on the cfp icon on the desktop to turn the firewall on, it starts to log in as if I’ve just switched on my computer, the Network Defense begins to report blocked intrusion attempts from scratch - I use the “Block all incoming connections - stealth my ports to everyone” option.
IMHO if the firewall functioned normally then it would report blocked intrusion attempts from a given level, wouldn’t it?
So, is my theory correct? I’d really appreciate if someone disabused me of my mistake.
It’s not the first time I have seen such a thing happen - far from it - it has happened many times so far.
I use vista 64 with SP1 and the latest version of cfp (3.0.23.364)
P.S. I would like to thank all the people who develop cfp very much. It’s a fantastic product guys! Keep up the good work!
BTW I hope there’s no such a thread already in the forums. If this is the case - SORRY.
As sad as it may sound, what happens is that CFP crashes silently at some point, and when you run your mouse over the icon only then does Windows eliminate it from the system tray. Go to start - run -“eventvwr” and look for anything relevant about cfp.exe. Don’t check the folder for a crash dump because there won’t be one for this type of crash. This has happened to me although only ONCE. It was right during startup according to the log. Minutes after booting I happened to run my mouse over the icon and it disappeared. Checked task manager and cfp.exe was gone.
I have just updated my cfp to the newest build 3.0.24.368. Alas the bug which terminates the firewall has not been ironed out yet.
I clicked on WmiPrvSe.exe and WMIADAP.exe (these pop-ups didn’t appear simultaneously but within a couple of minutes) to see what they actually were, and after getting familiar with the description I clicked the “OK” button and wanted to “Allow this request”, but the pop-up message disappeared and guess what - the firewall turned itself off.
I’m enclosing these two screenshots so that maybe they will come in handy for the Comodo staff and will help them to fix this bug.
However, when I simply let these applications do what they want to do (without clicking on their icons to see what they are), the firewall works absolutely fine.
When everything is working properly, Windows Task Manager processes tab will show cfp.exe and cmdagent.exe.
If the cfp.exe process is missing, then you lose the shield icon, but your PROTECTION only requires that cmdagent.exe be running. If cfp.exe is missing there is, I believe, no danger, just the inconvenience that if an action does not conform with existing rules, then there will be no pop-up to ask if it should be allowed, and the action is automatically blocked. Inconvenience should end with a simple launch of cfp.exe - no need to reboot.
n.b. I installed 3.0.22.349 last week, and set I.E. as a web-browser. I did not bother with Outlook.
This morning my daughter logged in and had a couple of errors on start-up. After this she used I.E. to surf the net with no problems. She had no luck at all with Outlook - no pop-ups, no nothing. There was no cfp icon. I launched cfp.exe and got two errors - two errors on every attempt.
The fact that Outlook was NOT allowed to run demonstrates that cmdagent.exe is adequate to protect against things which have not been allowed.
n.b. Firewall has no problem with my profile. The problem in her folder is that Windows Explorer now says the Comodo application folders in her profile are not accessible, and the “Sharing” tab says controls are not accessible because it is only a shared view of something that belongs to some-one else !!! Windows seem to be a never-ending sequence of Patch Tuesdays and other calamities !!!
Honestly all you have to do is take a look at those alerts - they look horrible. The CFP skin isn’t working properly. I can’t put my finger on it, but skin glitches could very well be related to CFP crashes.
You could do Comodo and yourself a huge favor if you download Process Monitor by Sysinternals. It’s free. Have it filter out cfp.exe events and then when the firewall crashes you should be able to see exactly what it was trying to do when it crashed.
You were right, when the firewall crashed (I had deliberately clicked on WmiPrvSe.exe in the pop-up) cfp.exe disappeared from the Windows Task Manager but cmdagent.exe was still running.
From doctor to patient it seems, crysisfan. Today after a restart I went and clicked on the misc. tab and checked the firewall’s version. After that I clicked check for updates and guess what, CFP silently died. I went and reproduced my actions and AGAIN the firewall UI crashed. I have since then been trying hard to recreate the crash but without success. Still CFP.exe feels a lot more frail now…
From what you have written and from my own experiences with the firewall I can deduce that a huge amount of work is awaiting the Comodo staff in order to iron out this glitch.
But, nevertheless, I know that they will manage to fix it. Because (R) (it was not my intention to butter up the Comodo staff (:TNG))