Protect Your Computer with Comodo Personal Firewall Pro

If you can read this, you need protection while connected to the internet. An open port is a dangerous one and if anyone knows this, I do. While a lot of my friends will be shocked to read this, I no longer use the ZoneAlarm Free firewall. I've switched.

Why? After trying to manually install a new version of ZoneAlarm, I had some problems with it. It was actually telling me to install from an administrator account. Are you kidding? Other users have commented on ZoneAlarm Free's sharp decline in quality in the past year as a quality firewall, so what can be better (and free)?

While searching the internet(s), I came across a review of Comodo Personal Firewall Pro on PCmag.com (official website of PC Magazine, one of the best tech rags ever). It got PC Mag's Editors' Choice award, the only free firewall (that I know of) to get that kind of prestige.

You know what? I'm sooo glad I took the plunge with Comodo. The software is top-notch. It reminds me of ZoneAlarm Pro (ninety-nine times out of a hundred, "Pro" means "Pay" and we don't do that here) but way cheaper (and prettier). It has a simple but thorough interface that helps you feel like it's working, protecting, and giving you the sense of control. If I did have to pay for it, it would've paid for itself because it helped me find a WORM on my computer.

Here's the story: After giving up on ZoneAlarm and installing Comodo, I was asked if a ZoneAlarm service - the TrueVector service - could be released to the internet. I thought, "Hey, that's weird... I just uninstalled ZoneAlarm so there shouldn't be a ZoneAlarm service connecting to the internet." I went ahead and let it go to see what would happen.
I couldn't use my browsers or any other software that used the internet. Only this "service" (called vsmon.exe) could get on the internet. I made sure that somehow my other software wasn't being blocked by my new firewall, and they weren't.
I can't get online but my modem and my firewall said I was. It was time to see just what the hell was going on, so I popped in a Linux Live CD (Knoppix 3.9 to be exact, though it didn't matter which one I used) and saw that my network was fine! Knoppix's Firefox was able to get around on the internet so I looked up what the hell vsmon.exe was. Sure enough, it was a RBOT WORM disguised as a ZoneAlarm component. The reason why I couldn't get online was because the Worm was in the middle of a DoS attack. I went into Windows Safe Mode and deleted the sucker.

ZoneAlarm didn't detect this while I had it because it thought it was its own component. Comodo's firewall would have. It even asks you if Comodo's own components and services can access the internet. Who knows how long I've had this WORM doing god knows what.

If you happen to still be using ZoneAlarm Free (or any version of any of their software) after what happened to yours truly, uninstall their software, reboot and press Ctrl+Alt+Delete. In the processes tab, if you see vsmon.exe, you have the WORM. Now look in C:WINDOWS\System 32\ZoneLabs and see if you can locate vsmon.exe. If it's there, go into Windows Safe Mode by restarting your computer and pressing F8 at the beginning of the boot process. Go to the aforementioned folder and delete it. Your computer should work as normal. The reboot should've deleted ZoneLabs' processes and system files, so there shouldn't be anything left running.

Between Comodo Personal Firewall Pro and ZoneAlarm Free, the winner here is definitely Comodo. Without a doubt. Check Point (the new owners of ZoneLabs and ZoneAlarm's products) doesn't seem to care much for its free firewall. They left it kinda difficult to find on their own website.
How sad...

To download the Comodo Personal Firewall Pro, click here.
ZoneAlarm knows about the RBOT WORM and has some info about it here.