Security

Firewall

Comodo firewall has been around for a few years now.   It has always been rated highly for its tough firewall. Version 3 now comes with a Host Intrusion Prevention System (H.I.P.S) in the form of Defense +, which protects critical operating system files, the windows registry and personal data by preventing unauthorised access. It is extremely useful but can often be bewildering when all these pop-ups keep appearing on your screen, especially if the user is an amateur and doesn’t understand what is being asked of them. However, once you have got used to it, it works like a dream and doesn’t take up too much memory.

AntiVirus

There are some good free ones that are highly rated Avast, AVG and Avira are very popular. If you want to pay for antivirus software NOD32 and Kaspersky are well known for their ability to detect viruses and Spyware.

Spyware

Not a lot of people know that there is a free edition of Spyware Doctor which doesn’t contain all realtime scanning options like the paid version, but it is an excellent tool for just scanning.  If it slows down your computer just set the  PCTools services to manual startup in the services manager as shown at the bottom of this page. Download from here. From the same makers of Spyware Doctor is ThreatFire which is similar to the Defence + on Comodo. Spyware Terminator is also a highly rated fully functional spyware scanner and remover.

All in One Suite

Comodo Internet Security suite is the only free suite available.  It incorporates the firewall, H.I.P.S and the antivirus engine. There are mixed reviews on this whilst surfing the internet. These reviews mainly question the antivirus engine and the strength of it compared to other retail software. I have so far not had any problems with the antivirus engine but I will use the backup of an internet virus scanner like Kaspersky or NOD32 as I have done previously.  There are of course retail ones out there that you can buy.

Conclusion

I tested my firewall by using a set of tests from Test My Pc Security and Shields Up it passed all of the tests. There is a list of software from Test My PC that failed the tests and those that passed respectfully! It’s well worth a look as there are some retail ones in there.

For now I will stick with my C.I.S with the H.I.P.S and my Spyware Doctor. Comodo are going to eventually incorporate their product BoClean within their security suite and hopefully make it a little more user friendly for those who don’t have a vast array of knowledge! There is a series of videos on YouTube that show the power of Comodo Internet Security. It is well worth a watch!

Set Spyware Doctor Service To Manual

• In XP click the start menu, then click on run
• Type services.msc and hit enter
• In Vista click start menu
• Type services.msc in the search box and hit Enter
• Click continue at the UAC prompt.
• Both users look for the pc tools under the name column.
• Right click on PC Tools Auxiliary and click properties.
• Change startup to manual and click on ok.
• Do the same for PCTools security service.

This now changes Spyware doctor to run when you want it rather than all the time   Just click on the spyware doctor icon to run and when you have finished right click on the spyware doctor icon in your taskbar and click on shutdown.