Anyone here having problems with ThreatFire?

[Jeleal]

I saw in the PC Tools Forums that some people are having troubles with Avast and the latest release of ThreatFire. Just wondered if anyone here is having any. I think they make a very good security combination and was thinking about installing TF again because of it. Thanks.

[DavidR]

I have seen one other post in the forums about this, try a forum search.

However, to be honest they are blaming everyone and everything but threatfire.

Edit: here is the same question, http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=33650.msg334957#msg334957, you can see my response below it along with some others.

[Jeleal]

Thanks DavidR. I did a search, but because I only used "ThreatFire" to do so I didn't find the thread you gave. I believe I better rethink using TF again for now. I wish there was a longer trial available for the OutPost Firewall Pro 2009 program that I see you use. It ran very well for me and I liked it a lot. I currently am using Comodo Internet Security without AV running. It's nice and light, but I am always worried about answering an alert wrong and allowing something I shouldn't have. I didn't feel that way when with OPP though. All right. Thanks again and take care.

[DavidR]

You're welcome.

You will always get alerts for most of the most common good firewalls almost a fact of life unless you switch to a different mode Novice Vs Experienced or lower the sensitivity.

The important thing is when an alert pops-up not to panic, try to remember what you have just been doing as that could well be why the pop-up does its thing. For example if you have just updated a program, etc. then changed elements would be interrogated again, you get asked the question. I believe Comodo has a more information link on the pop-up, this can help as it may show the Parent (program calling the process that the alert is about), is that trusted or related to what you were doing at the time.

Yes OPP does seem to have a better balance on the pop-up front (depending on your settings), but much of what goes on with comodo could well be related to the defence plus function, which may not even be to do with outbound internet connections.

[dallas7]

Yes.  After using ThreatFire since it was Cyberhawk, and having zero problems for the longest time with v 3.5, I had to dump it when they released version 4 (currently at 4.0.0.8, I think).  I discovered that browser rendering stalls during Web Shield scans of .js content and I was the first to post up the issue in their forum back in October.  I have the same user name over there if anyone wants more info on my selfless and invaluable efforts.    The TF folks confirmed the problem about 10 days ago.  I'm not sure where they are in the resolution process or if there is one at all.  The current workaround is to uninstall TF or pause (or terminate) the Web Shield provider.

I have since replaced TF with Spyware Terminator (with ClamAV enabled) and BOClean.  I'm not terminating anything in Avast! 

[Lisandro]

ThreatFire, sooner or later, always brought me problems... specially with Firefox and its extensions.

I have since replaced TF with Spyware Terminator (with ClamAV enabled) and BOClean.  I'm not terminating anything in Avast! 

I think you're overkilling your computer... maybe, only maybe, the spyware protection is needed side-by-side with avast.

[dallas7]

I think you're overkilling your computer... maybe, only maybe, the spyware protection is needed side-by-side with avast.

Yeah, you're probably correct.  But my environment is stable and in this day and age, it's better to be too careful.  Besides, my setup is nothing compared to other users I've seen on forums that run every av/spy-malware app you can imagine.  Which leads me to believe they are all really well behaved, or they do nothing at all.  Hmmmmmm... 

Anyhow, I dropped Spyware Terminator.  Way too intrusive and unstable.  No matter what I did or how I configured the darn thing, at some point in time it would begin challenging me to allow/block avast!, Firefox and, among others, Explorer (the shell, not IE) and then every dll, ocx, etc associated with them.  In the end there were dozens of entries in the allow listing.  However, the ClamAV module worked well and didn't step on avast!  Too bad, as it's bye bye Spyware Terminator.

Threatfire has confirmed they are testing a build to address their conflict with avast!'s Web Shield provider.  As of this moment, 4.0.0.8 is still the current version pushed.  TF was the only app that alerted "whatever.exe is attempting to access the Internet in a suspicious manner" and I miss that functionality since it eliminated the need for a "real" software firewall.  (No one makes a simple outbound rules firewall anymore.)  I am sincerely hoping their next release will work smoothly with avast!.

While avast! Pro remains my front line defense, I am firmly convinced that Comodo's BOClean and Memory Firewall protect areas that avast does not.  And I am currently testing PC Tools' Spyware Doctor.  Unless some one can provide forensic evidence that these aren't necessary, I'll continue to run them.

Cheers!

[dallas7]

PC Tools has released Threatfire 4.0.0.10 indicating a fix for (among others) its behavior when running with avast!

I'm going to give it a wait until others report it's OK. 

[DavidR]

Fingers crossed then, someone else reported a problem with the web shied (browsing slow) and they too have threatfire running.

[sded]

I have never used Threatfire, but downloaded 4.0.0.10 to see what it was all about.  Browsing seems OK with Opera, Firefox, IE on Vista Ultimate SP1+Avast with web shield + OA without web shield.
EDIT:  After uninstalling, I can verify that there is a small but noticeable delay with Threatfire.

[Tarq57]

Ah. Been waiting for this, as I had uninstalled TF 4.0.0.8., too many minor bugs.
So far the new version is running problem free, updating correctly, and doesn't appear to be slowing down the browsing.
Fingers X'd.

[Snagglegrain]

Ah. Been waiting for this, as I had uninstalled TF 4.0.0.8., too many minor bugs.
So far the new version is running problem free, updating correctly, and doesn't appear to be slowing down the browsing.
Fingers X'd.

Same here... everything that you said.  I think the slowdown problems may have been fixed.

[normishmael]

Strange ThreatFire story.
I downloaded Threat-Fire in July this year,and since Cyber-Hawk was less than serene on my system,
I had little hope for it new incarnation.
It was a sweetheart!!!
Set it and forget it!!
In late August I moved,changed ISP,and set my computer back up,same security system,same hardware,just a different ISP,and Threatfire went berserk!
I could not use Windows Zip utility,I had really quick BSODS,that flashed a message too quick to read,
and never showed up in the event viewer.
I yanked Threat-Fire.
To bad,I really liked it.
BOClean is its little RAM guzzling replacement for now.

[Lisandro]

I have dropped ThreatFire when it started Firefox extension problems...
Minor bugs from time to time...
Too much promises and not the same protection...

[Sammo]

I used to really like ThreatFire. The big problem is that when it found malware it also blew away other safe apps such as Firefox and Free Download Manager which happened to running at the time. It also takes up 100% cpu when it kills a file. I said enough is enough and went to Comodo BOClean instead.