Goodbye, avast (Apparently also a troubleshooting topic)

[websave]

Just COMODO firewall

[Para-Noid]

What is your OS? What other security software do you have now or ever had? If uninstalled, how was it uninstalled? 

[Aventador]

Ummmmmmmmmmm. Comodo just had an update to correct cpu usage. Also with Windows 7 or 8 you no longer need a 3rd party firewall. Dont blame Avast. I have installed Avast with Windows Firewall on hundreds of pc's including my own with no issues at all. As in matter of fact it was a list of 200+ bugs. Have you used something like Process Explorer to assure exactly what process is consuming your CPU? Can you show us a screen shot of Avast eating up your CPU? These are the problems which occur when people add extra layers of security. Did you excluded ALL the Comodo processes from Avast? Did you excluded the Avast processes from Comodo? Also Avast has a BB which can conflict with D+.

http://downloads.comodo.com/cis/download/updates/release/inis_2001/release_notes.html

[mchain]

I'm going to run some tests with avast. First I'll do a clean uninstall of everything then get avast again. If everything works fine, I suspect it is COMODO. Even though I have had problems with avast! it was hard to leave. I am still loyal to avast!

Couple of years ago, much the same security setup as you.  Avast! a/v free, COMODO firewall free.  I gave up on COMODO as I was running the system (see sigs below) below and it would actually freeze/hang for several seconds whenever off-line or when installing new software; also even when online.  D + was the culprit, and the automatic checking to the cloud always took some time to complete.  Once COMODO was removed, (and D + along with it) lagging/hang/freeze was no more.  Solution was to use another HIPS capable firewall such as Online Armor.

Running D + just got to be too much, so COMODO went out the door.  Running COMODO without D + was not an option, otherwise what was the point? 

I suspect that on some older machines it just does not work as well as it should, even if the machine exceeds minimum requirements as this one does. 

[thug4real]

Something must be off in your rig. Avast! scored pretty low for performance impact in systems according to the latest AV test done in April, and much much better than AVG see image

http://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/avc_per_201304_en.pdf

Thank you for the info. Man avast! free is so great, I'll use avast all my life

[GTX66]

As soon as my subscription is up, I am gone.  It is blocking too many good programs such as Firefox.

[DavidR]

As soon as my subscription is up, I am gone.  It is blocking too many good programs such as Firefox.

Don't know what is in your firefox, but I have never had avast block firefox in all of the time that I have had firefox and avast and that is quite a few years.

[polonus]

Hi DavidR,

There is a firefox.exe that should be blocked. but that is a variant of the U.K. Gamma Govt. Spyware (also known as FinSpy) also used in the socalled Bundestrojaner version 1, read: http://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2013/04/30/protecting-our-brand-from-a-global-spyware-provider/ 
and avast detects this variant,

polonus

[iroc9555]

Why did you ask about Comodo 6?

Well I think Aventador and mchain answered the question for me. Comodo 6.1 came out to fix some issues about high CPU in some rigs. I for one have been unable to run Comodo 6 or 6.1 in my system. BTW I have been running Comodo since version 2.4 and I have my share of time and topics in its forums. May be it is my machine but there are also some others complaining about Avast!/Comodo in the forums.

BTW I am the first one to post exclusions in Avast! and Comodo when someone complains about it:
http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=93953.msg748290#msg748290

I asked because if websave was running Cfw 6, he could try Cfw 6.1, or just to uninstall Comodo and see if the high CPU was still there. Just a thought.

Something must be off in your rig. Avast! scored pretty low for performance impact in systems according to the latest AV test done in April, and much much better than AVG see image

http://www.av-comparatives.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/avc_per_201304_en.pdf

Thank you for the info. Man avast! free is so great, I'll use avast all my life

You are welcome.

[DavidR]

There is a firefiox.exe that should be blocked. but that is a variant of the U.K. Gamma Govt. Spyware also used in the socalled Bundestrojaner version 1, read: http://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2013/04/30/protecting-our-brand-from-a-global-spyware-provider/ 
and avast detects this variant,

This is certainly not a spelling or variant of avast that I'm aware of using the English UK version of firefox. Not to mention GTX66 isn't in the UK, even if this were a variant.

But we don't want to take this off-topic more than it already has.

[websave]

What is your OS? What other security software do you have now or ever had? If uninstalled, how was it uninstalled? 

>What is your OS?
Windows 8 64 bit

>What other security software do you have now or ever had?
Currently have: Avast, COMODO firewall, MBAM, SAS
Had before: Spybot S&D, AVG free

>If uninstalled, how was it uninstalled?
AVG: Uninstalled from control panel then used uninstall utility
Spybot S&D: Uninstalled from control panel

[Aventador]

You do not need a 3rd party firewall especially when your using a new OS. 3rd party firewall were a good thing in the days of Windows 98 and XP. But now with the advancements in security the need for a 3rd party firewall is unnecessary. All it does is create problems and is merely a chatter box. If your behind a router with NAT your all set. Why do people want to add so much unneeded protection on there pc's is beyond me. You can have all the security in the world but its meaningless if you do not have a good backup solution. I could careless if I ever got infected. That's why I keep a clean system image handy. So what is "xyz.exe" needs to connect. If its not malware related then its mere paranoia.

[Dch48]

You do not need a 3rd party firewall especially when your using a new OS. 3rd party firewall were a good thing in the days of Windows 98 and XP. But now with the advancements in security the need for a 3rd party firewall is unnecessary. All it does is create problems and is merely a chatter box. If your behind a router with NAT your all set. Why do people want to add so much unneeded protection on there pc's is beyond me. You can have all the security in the world but its meaningless if you do not have a good backup solution. I could careless if I ever got infected. That's why I keep a clean system image handy. So what is "xyz.exe" needs to connect. If its not malware related then its mere paranoia.

I can't completely agree with that. While the Windows 7 & 8 firewalls are much better than the older versions, they are still only one way by default. Even a NAT router's firewall is one way.  It is true that outgoing filtering is rarely needed but it will stop malware that has gotten through your other defenses from dialing out and downloading more bad stuff. The new Comodo suite has HIPS disabled by default and can be configured so that the only firewall alerts you will see are for connection attempts by new, unknown, or untrusted files. Those files will also be sandboxed and prevented from doing damage.

[Aventador]

I am well aware of how Comodo works. I have tried it many of times and played around with since version 2.4. The power of Comodo comes from D+. Without its just a plan firewall. A hardware firewall filters inbound traffic and stealth's your ports. A software firewall filters outbound traffic. Windows 7 Firewall w/Advanced Security can be easily configured to be just as effective as any 3rd party firewall. There are also free tools to aid in this. No matter how you look at when you start adding this and adding that its going to create problems. So don't go complaining to Comodo or Avast when you have these problems. When you OC your GPU and CPU do you run to Dell complaining? No.

http://tinywall.pados.hu/download.php

http://www.sphinx-soft.com/Vista/order.html

[Dch48]

I am well aware of how Comodo works. I have tried it many of times and played around with since version 2.4. The power of Comodo comes from D+. Without its just a plan firewall. A hardware firewall filters inbound traffic and stealth's your ports. A software firewall filters outbound traffic. Windows 7 Firewall w/Advanced Security can be easily configured to be just as effective as any 3rd party firewall. There are also free tools to aid in this. No matter how you look at when you start adding this and adding that its going to create problems. So don't go complaining to Comodo or Avast when you have these problems. When you OC your GPU and CPU do you run to Dell complaining? No.

http://tinywall.pados.hu/download.php

http://www.sphinx-soft.com/Vista/order.html

Yes, you can use tools with the Win 7 firewall to make it 2-way. I used the Windows Firewall Notifier utility for just that and it worked very well but gave alerts for every connection attempt which got annoying and sometimes troublesome. I was referring to the default state of the Windows firewall which is what most people will use. I have never and will never overclock anything so that's not an issue. You can have problems when you mix and match components of your security between different vendors which is why I always use the full package from anyone. However, vendors know that people will mix and match and it is their responsibility to resolve conflicts arising from such activities as much as they can.