I still see people commenting that they are unsure about the effectiveness of Comodo Antivirus, so use another. Others say that they only use the firewall alone because Defense+ has too many pop-ups.
I use the whole of CIS. Even though at this stage there may well be better avs available, I believe that to be a safer combination when there is an increasing risk of running into malware not yet in av databases.
With Defense+ set to proactive, you should get warnings which allow you to deny anything harmful before it can have any effect. The risk there is that if you do not use the anti virus component of Comodo Internet Security, with it’s extensive white list, you will get many more popups, so you have a greater risk of allowing something by mistake.
Really depends on what other security you’re running.
I’ve been using CIS Firewall with Defense+ disabled (I enable it in “Paranoid Mode” if I’m wanting to observe the behaviour of malware etc.) in combination with Sandboxie (+ LUA + KAfU + SRP + DEP) for the last several weeks. Working great here.
I think most “average” users should just use the “whole of CIS” though.
CIS used a technology as “Aggressive” because It’s database was lower detection than major security apps.
Like Kaspersky but I don’t know why Kaspersky display fewer Popups than CIS.
The “Proactive” security apps different (And better) than some anti-virus software that’s used a file size to be variants of malware. That’s “Reactive”
Because malware detected by file size and code, Not for harming and suspicious activity.
For what it matters I sure preferred HIPSes over the promises of behavior blockers or AVs whenever I overall endorse a layered security approach.
I started using CFP3 before the integration of AV technology led its name to change into CIS about a year later.
Whereas on CFP3 release I continued to use a 3rd party AV for some months, I came to use the whole CIS suite for quite some time now, completely dropping the 3rd party AV.
FW and D+ both in Safe Mode. For browsing Firefox with AdBlock Plus, NoScript, TACO and Ghostery and a lil’ bit common sense lead me problems free. At least until now.
I don’t use any AV at home.
I am currently just using the whole suite in antivirus config, with image execution prevention turned on. The main reason im using the Comodo AV is because its really light and runs really well on my 64bit machine. I did use Microsfot security essentials for a while but i found it uses alot of RAM, which isnt much of a problem these days, but with its realtime protection on i found it slowed my system down a little. Especially when installing programs etc.
I use the whole package with D+ in Clean PC mode and the firewall in safe mode. The antivirus might not have as many features as others but it works very well within the structure of the suite so I see no need to use anything else. I also use the Internet security config but with Image execution turned on and all the monitor settings of D+ also turned on. I have found that the entire CIS suite uses less resources than, for example, Avast! or MSE by themselves.
The point I was trying to make originally, was that if you use a 3rd party antivirus, you do not get the great reduction in the Defense+ pop-ups, because the two parts within CIS work together so that the av whitelist prevents unnecessary Defense+ alerts.
Therefore with more pop-ups to answer, a user is much more likely to allow the wrong thing by mistake.
The AV in CIS may or nay not be as good as other standalone AVs out there, but it is at its best when viewed in the context of being a part of CIS. As you’ve correctly pointed out, the AV and D+ co-operate with each other, and this has been a design principle of CIS from day 1.
i use pctools firewall plus which i think is good for average users. few and simple popups and simple configuration and yes its a good effective firewall from my point of view for average users. for antivirus part i have avira and behaviour blocker threatfire. so my layered security and other security softwares are
windows xp sp3
pctools firewall plus
avira antivir personal
threatfire
wot
spwareblaster
everything working light and without issues on this system. just coz of threatfire the system takes little more time to shut down. no other probs.
WOT is the most helpfull add-on I know. If I browse the Net without it I feel naked.
Back to topic. I don’t trust all my security app’s to only one manufacturer as a matter of principle. If one thing goes wrong the whole may go wrong. Just like the problem with the CAV update some weeks ago.
I am using only using the complete CIS on access as it is light from the first beta build of the suite. I am on older hardware with recent OS’s so resource usage is important to me. With 3.5 beta I was using Vista and now I am on Win 7.
Of course I have several on demand anti malware scanners as well: Spybot, MBAM, SAS and 12 Free. Other than that just using the non standard browser Opera with its default fraud protection against phishing and known bad web sites.
I think the layered approach of the AV with D+ as “catch all” does a very good job. Never caught a bad guy.
The white list works on the firewall as well. Currently my firewall is in Safe Mode and it automatically creates rules for part of the newly installed applications.
I use CIS, Proactive Security, and no other scanners. I don’t regularly scan with CIS, but it happens, if my computer is on when the weekly scan i scheduled. ;D
I was glad I had CIS (CAV) when I went to a hacked web page (a Swedish security forum :o) and CIS found a PDF exploit. :-TU
I run on-demand scans with other products as a second opinion, but I’ve yet to see anything that leads me to believe the CIS suite isn’t up to the task of keeping my system clean.
I still feel there is a lot of room for improvement in the application. (Particularly the AV)
I use the whole of CIS with firewall in safe mode and defence+ in clean PC mode and with parental control on. I also use limited user and software restriction policy. For me CIS is just in case anything gets past the software restriction policy. I don’t expect the AV to be needed but I want it for information value.
The only problem I have is false positives on the AV. Everything I do works in clean PC mode with no pop-ups. The hard work is removing things from “my pending files” (if only you could multi-select files) and turning parental control on and off (if only it could be non-administrator accounts only).
