Review Of Comodo Antivirus – Free Antivirus Software (Page 2 of 2)

Unfortunately, I felt that Comodo was a little weak in this regard. Testing the On Access Scanner I was able to pull the EICAR test virus onto the system’s hard drive without Comodo protesting about its presence. Indeed, all was silent even after it had been firmly planted into the system. However, upon trying to physically access the file, Comodo sprang to life and alerted me to the suspicious file, somewhat redeeming itself into the bargain.

Next, I tried the Email Scanner and emailed a copy of the EICAR file to my email address. Comodo detected this instantly and prompted for a response. It also fared well in the real-world email tests, weeding out many Trojans and other assorted nasties sent via spam emails.

However, the biggest bugbear I had to contend with was the irrepressible and over-zealous HIPS control which bleated constantly whenever I tried to access anything it deemed unsafe – which was quite a lot of things; many of them legitimate processes into the bargain. Even running an installation process for a game CD caused HIPS to throw a wobbler, as did installing the latest Opera browser.

HIPS - for all its good points - is incredibly sensitive until it gets to know your PC and the applications you run. It can, however, be deactivated at the cost of a little security. If you choose to run HIPS, be aware that it can sometimes ‘forget’ you have allowed an application previously and warn you again of its presence. If you can put up with the constant nagging about ‘unsafe’ applications then HIPS is a worthwhile additional layer of security.

Apart from the EICAR test virus, my test rig wasn’t afflicted with any viruses while running Comodo. This was corroborated by running web-based antivirus scans through Kaspersky. In both cases the test system came up clean.

I had some issues with Comodo with some POP3 email addresses. The software would occasionally hang while scanning an incoming email, preventing the message--and any subsequent message--from downloading as a result. Short of completely killing Comodo in Windows Task Manager, the only other course of action was to physically log into the mail server and manually delete the message that was causing the issue. This freed up the scanner. In almost all cases, the offender was a spam email, but for anyone who leaves their email running constantly this particular issue could prove troublesome if they don’t notice the issue manifesting itself.

Although a minor irritation, Windows Security Center doesn’t detect Comodo as being installed as a valid antivirus application. This causes the (annoying) Security Center warning icon to appear in the system tray asking you to install a valid antivirus. Thankfully, this can be turned off.

This antivirus offering by Comodo is a good effort by the company and should improve further with the release of version 3. However, while their offering provides a comprehensive suite of set-and-forget antivirus scans with has a good level of detection, it is far from finished. The software’s failure to detect EICAR test viruses until the product has been activated is a concern and one has to wonder what else could have been missed.

The absence of nag screens and banners trying to sell upgrades is a welcome sight, and there is enough overall about Comodo antivirus to merit serious consideration as part of a security setup. However, the fact it is still beta software means I would be reluctant to recommend Comodo Antivirus as a user’s only protection against viruses and malware. Instead users should complement its use with regular online web scans for added security. [Note: it is rarely a good idea to run more than one real-time scanner at a time as doing so can negatively impact system performance.]

If Comodo has addressed the shortcomings of this beta product in the upcoming version 3, then they have the potential to become a major player in the free antivirus software market.

Would you like to read more reviews? Look around Bright Hub and you’ll find reviews of numerous other anti-virus solutions including Norton AntiVirus, Norton Internet Security, Kaspersky Internet Security, ESET Smart Security, McAfee Total Protection, Blink Professional and ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite.