Introduction:
Comodo has been a renowned contender in the security software market. Today I will put one of their products to the test. Here we have:
Features:
- Detects, blocks, and destroys viruses
- Immediate feedback on suspicious files
- Prevents malware from being installed
- Auto Sandbox Technology™
- Cloud based Antivirus scanning
- Protects with On Access scanning
- Schedule your scans
- 60 Days of FREE GeekBuddy live remote PC support
Note that I did not try out GeekBuddy.
Head here for the product page: [LINK TO http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/antivirus.php]
Installation:
Comodo’s Installer is pretty nice. They gave it a unique look, and put lots of effort into designing it. Already a good sign. Anyway, the installer does download an additional 177MB for the installation.
After that, it simply installs the program
One interested feature is “SecureDNS”. It changes the DNS servers on your computer to point to Comodo’s DNS servers. Then it routes all the traffic through them, and checks each site against a database of known infected or malicious sites, and gives you a warning. I chose to use this feature.
Once Installed, Comodo Anti-Virus requires 95MB of space of disk space.
User Interface:
The Comodo Tray Icon is nothing exciting. But there’s nothing wrong with it either. To be completely honest with you, I’m not sure why I’m including it. That said, here is the tray icon’s menu in all its glory:
Comodo’s Summary page has some useful information. Any warnings or problems with the program are displayed on the left. There are some statistics about how many threats and infections Comodo has blocked. From here you can also get to the other parts of the program.
By thw way, Defense+ is the heuristics behavior-based protection.
Here are the options:
The scanner is a small pop-up that you can choose to display in front of all the windows or not. It provides all the basic and necessary info, but it’s not large and excessive.
One last thing: The Updater. It’s a simple little thing, with no over-the-top graphics or useless information.
Security:
This is the most important aspect of any security software; whether it protects your computer is pretty much the deciding factor.
Unfortunately, installating Comodo corrupted my install of Cain&Abel, my favorite piece of software (besides maybe Comodo Anti-Virus). It detected it as an infection:
Unfortunately, even clicking Allow and Ignore to Comodo’s prompts didn’t help. Even after a fresh resinstall, Cain&Abel would crash on startup.
Comodo’s Defense+ kicked in a few times during my attempt at reinstalling Cain&Abel.
Comodo Anti-Virus immediately detected the Eicar Test File.
When I tried to visit a site that is known for having malicious intent, Comodo’s SecureDNS alerted me.
Speed and Performance:
Even though Comodo Anti-Virus is a large and complex program with many difference methods of protection, it is phenomenally efficiently coded and did not make any noticeable performance difference to even my old ThinkPad with only a 1.7GHz Processor and 1.5GB of Memory.
Scanning does take a while, though.
Conclusion/Scoring:
Security: 9/10
Speed: 8.5/10
Ease of use: 8/10
Interface: 9/10
Value (Free): 10/10
Final Score: 8.9/10
The bottom line: Comodo Anti-Virus is an amazing piece of software. I actually decided to uninstall the Anti-Virus, and download the (also free) Internet Security, which combines Comodo Anti-Virus with the award-winning Comodo Firewall. This product is even better than our previous favorite, Microsoft Security Essentials. This program also wins the Hardware Insights Silver Award. Discuss this product and this review in our forum here!
Review sample source: www.comodo.com
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