Avast home vs CIS (Comodo Internet Security)

[RejZoR]

@sded
Same here. I am testing it but untill i see some physical results i'll just have to trust my good old trustworthy avast! that has proved itself well several times already in many tests and in real world.

Besides, many promised ultimate detection but only few actually delivered it. So far only AVIRA and Kaspersky fall into that category...
On the other hand ALWIL guys also delivered everything they've promised to us s far so thats also very good.
They promised improved handling of samples and false positives and all that is now a reality. Maybe it's not fully operational but we can already see their new infrastruture in action. New samples are added faster and false positives are also fixed faster.

[Sesame]

@sded
Same here. I am testing it but untill i see some physical results i'll just have to trust my good old trustworthy avast! that has proved itself well several times already in many tests and in real world.

The problem is that it is time consuming to complete a precise test and most of our knowledge is pretty limited.  I don't have knowledge enough to do test on Antivirus.  Basic functions of firewall is relatively easier but is still time consuming.

[solcroft]

The problem is that it is time consuming to complete a precise test and most of our knowledge is pretty limited.  I don't have knowledge enough to do test on Antivirus.  Basic functions of firewall is relatively easier but is still time consuming.

That's the exact reason why so many vendors get away with ridiculously impossible claims.

I'll be testing it in February, since I have time to kill before my vacation runs out. Come next month we'll see just exactly how well the new CIS beta performs. Preliminary estimates at the moment are approx 40-50% detection with heuristics at high, a big improvement since CIS 3.5 rarely goes beyond 20%. But we'll see.

[solcroft]

...and 'solcroft', is that you I see "stirring the pot" there too? http://forums.comodo.com/forum_policy_violation_board-b111.0/ They must know that you are right-now reverse engineering their superior product from behind the Bamboo Curtain   

What can I say, Melih just has a special spot in his heart for me.

[Giraffe]

Which is normal unless you have merged the 'i' and 'a' icons

Oh, hadn't noticed the icons. 

[patrice58]

The AV is poor (but in saying that my computer is clean so I guess it must be doing a ok ish job.)  As I have said before Defence plus should alert you to viruses as well so it could be what the AV does not pick up defence plus will alert you too? Maybe? That might be why they can make the clams they are making.

[lukor]

The AV is poor (but in saying that my computer is clean so I guess it must be doing a ok ish job.) 

Althought I run avast on the computer I writting right now, I use several systems without any AV and they are all clean. I guess this is not exactly a strong proof for the fact that viruses don't exist at all.

[Sesame]

I don't know How I can be sure that our systems are all clean.  Thanks to packet monitoring applications such as Currports and Wireshark (a bit verbose to me), I can check out connections, but I don't know how to monitor malware activities especially silent ones.  HIPS applications may give me hints but I'm not knowledgeable enough to systematically grasp what is going on our computers.  HIPS apps may give me warning if something outside of daily routines happen but that's all.

Although I'm still wondering if I should choose Online Armor or Comodo firewall at the moment, as for AV, I keep using Avast! and AntiVir on our machines simply because some third party virus test rated them OK to higher level.  They tend to put AntiVir slightly above Avast!, though.  I don't know how to check AV by myself, so, I simply rely on well-reputed sources.  Also, I like Avast!'s high configurability.

[sded]

Both OA and Comodo firewall/HIPS are rated very highly whenever there is a comparison.  And run well with Avast!  I used CFP for about a year, but only on one computer because I found it to be demanding in terms of maintenance and reconfiguration.  But very configurable and capable after taking the time to learn and beta test it.  OA is much more usable, but perhaps not quite as configurable.  OA has some features that are very useful for mobile wireless users, such as the Firewall Status Display and its treatment of network interfaces and computers in the paid version, so it ended up primary on my mobile laptop as soon as it was available for Vista.  Some of the ongoing issues with Comodo were virtually impossible to get fixed (like logging, SPI, the "ASK" function, installation/removal issues, ...-see their forum for long threads), since they were/are working their own agenda leading up to the Suite activity.  Even implementing Bugzilla for prioritizing bug reports and the various bug forums got nowhere.  Tall Emu, OTOH, seems to make sure that user inputs are tracked and corrected as they go through the build process.  I even got a few changes incorporated, rather than having to put them on a wish list somewhere.  I think part of this is because OA is still working on building a great FW/HIPS and uses a conventional closed/open beta cycle to do incremental upgrades, rather than surprising the users with the "big bang" that is primarily features vs fixes and has variable testing beforehand.  So I switched my main computer to OA also, and have been beta testing the latest versions for them.  Along with Avast!    But ultimately it is up to you, the features you value, and how you monitor and maintain your firewall/HIPS.
BTW, HIPS is now, but some of the behavioral programs show promise for more reliably keeping your computer clean in the future.  If you read the Wilders forums, especially http://www.wilderssecurity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30, there is a lot of interesting stuff going on.  But will probably mature about the time the next generation of malware shows up. 

[Vladimyr]

Found this review of CIS 3.5 from last year http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2333811,00.asp

[patrice58]

https://forums.comodo.com/empty-t30128.0.html I posted it on comodo's forums and this is what they said................

[Vladimyr]

Wow! Why isn't there a 'speechless' smiley?

Let this be a lesson to us here lest we ever be tempted to stray onto the path of defensiveness.
Criticism of "The Product", "The Way" or "The Leader" (I'm not sure who that might be on the avast! forum) should be accepted.
Each of us can evaluate it and decide for ourselves how valid or not it may be.

[sded]

I thought that the PC Magazine review was pretty even handed, discussing AV immaturity and even pointing out that the review of the Firewall/HIPS was very slightly less favorable because of the integration.  And Neil R. has done a lot of it.  I actually rated them slightly higher-  a little less favorable than the poll on the Comodo site, but not surprising.  They seem to rate a little over 4/5 there.  And the review was recognizing the current preliminary state of the AV, and trying to evaluate the current condition. 
Such a defensive response seems incomprehensible from a security company that holds your safety in their hands.  Really just fan postings, but repeats what the company says.  Certainly different than responses from other companies I deal with when there is an issue.

[patrice58]

I have now disabled CIS "realtime" scanning and I am now using Avast (yay me!) There is no icon in the bottom left hand corner for avast or the i ball tho I know it is running somewhere because I had to give permission for the web scanner to start and windows security centre is reporting avast as running as well.

[sded]

You may need to make sure that ashdisp.exe is trusted by Comodo so that the Avast! GUI comes up.  Does anything show up as blocked in the D+ log?