Should I let Comodo Personal Firewall install PrivDog ?

I'm trying to follow chaslang's "How to Protect..." guide, and some others I've read here, while reinstalling XPH on a Vaio whose HDD crashed recently. I'm at the point of installing CPF, and it's asking me if I want it to install "PrivDog", which presents itself as an ad blocker that detects embedded malware, but then has an option pre-checked to allow ads only from a particular network (AdTrustMedia), with an INcomplete description of what that checkbox will do.

First: should I even allow this to be added? Will I be able to uninstall it separately from CPF later? Is it scamware?

Second: if it's installed, does checking that box mean that, if the site I go to doesn't use that network, NO ads will be shown? Or does it mean, if it blocks other networks' ads, it will insert its own ads? And does UNCHECKING it mean that it will show NO networks' ads? Or that it will allow all networks' non-malicious ads?

Thanks for any enlightening responses!

 

Personally I would not use Comodo at all. If you are behind a router, you are safe, along with the built in firewall for XP Home. Unless you are doing something critical, that you need to keep certain items from gaining access to that system, personally Comodo is not worth the effort. Especially if it is wanting to install some third party software.

Really over time, have found Comodo, goes off on its own, locking down the system so bad, that it causes more problems, then giving you that warm cozy feeling as they state in all of their marketing.

Really you are again safe behind your router, if your system does not leave your LAN, along with the built in firewall for XP, if you decide to enable it. I do not use the built in firewall in Windows, unless we go off of our LAN with our laptops. Otherwise the built in IpTables based firewall on my Pace/2-Wire 3800hgv-b Router/Gateway works just fine.

 

Cool - I cancelled the installation while waiting for a reply, so I can just skip it. I guess I'll uninstall it from my other 2 machines, too. Other than hacking spy satellites & slowing down heavy-water centrifuges, I don't do anything critical.

 

I've used PrivDog, it does some of the things you say. It replaces ads on every website with ads from AdTrustMedia, I think the thought is that you get your ads from one source rather than a million random ones. I have found that you can block ads altogether with it if you wish, but it also blocks those huge flash ads (which is useful).

It's not hard to uninstall if you don't like it.

Good luck!

 

It's a matter of opinion. I've used Comodo's firewall for many years. There is nothing wrong with installing Comodo Firewall, if your computer is relatively modern and has the extra horsepower to run it easily on a full time basis. It is far better than the native Windows firewall. It alerts you when a program wants to access the internet without permission. It is a useful and mature product. I recommend it.

I don't necessarily recommend PrivDog, however. I don't think it is necessary. It is a money make for Comodo, and that's OK, since they give us the firewall for free.

I already block third party advertising via Hosts file blocking. So, I don't need or want PrivDog as I have no use for it. But, there is nothing inherently wrong with PrivDog, either. It might be worth trying, since you can uninstall it from the Control Panel at any time.

 

Also, modern browsers have a plethora of security features these days that are built in to protect unwary users from being exploited by things like third party ads. Just using good common sense when browsing the Web is the best defense against attack. The bowser, itself, will ofter alert you to an imminent threat. There is no defense against stupidity or unsafe user practices.

 

brownize that is terrible advice!

Routers MIGHT have been able to protect you in the 20th century but anything short of Comodo is leaving your house unlocked because you figure you aren't a millionair so who would want to rob your house. Comodo can block fragmented IP traffic and more. That is a typical 21 century attack. That will get through all the personal firewalls I have looked at other than Comodo. It is likely your computer is infested with all sorts of malware. The only protection you have is provided by your resident malware that fight off competition. If you want to be unnerved, Google serverside polymorphic software check out the Sophos artical which is all too easy to comprehend. That technology has been out at least 5 years. You have been under the false assumption your malware scanners can find even some of the new threats. They can't find ANY! Over 2 years ago when SSPMS was discovered by the good guys and a test was run. 80 of 80 bad boys infected the top 5 AV systems without one prevention or detection. You need to format and reinstall your OS and comodo firewall BEFORE you connect to your own network. Your router is probably infected as well. Even most if not all DVRs are infected. I am guessing they are there just incase you have the witt to clean your computer. Your on hardware will infect you as soon as you attach to your home network. Slick! By the time you have down load and installed your security software the malware is already up and running and will sabotage your security before it is in force. The problem is there is no way to check, no router protection and the only thing you can do is re flash the firmware that you downloaded from a safe computer not yours & reset back to factory defaults. It is likely any device connected to the web has memory and a processor is already infected with a botnet. This means security system, thermostats, survalance cameras, ect.

 

Correction, Zonealarm also can reject fragmented IP traffic.

One of the most popular attack scheme is to attack IP addresses by methodical checking (pinging) every IP address on the planet in ranges. The likely priority is log all IP addresses that do not stealth their ports. A single computer ought to process at least 1000/min. The XP firewall doesn't stealth ports. These firewalls can be breached with even the most simple tricks. I an guessing these can be infected by much more than 10 computers/minute per computer. As you can see within hours a start up botnet will have thousands of zombies and millions within a week. After it uses up all the super prey it could move on to a bit harder prey. Botnets used to limit their size to keep form being caught but advances in their technology before SSPM malware 30 million was the biggest botnet discovered. Now who knows? I suspect it will be in the hunderds of millions of computers. Something that large could check every possible IP address within an hour using only a small fraction of its army.

 

I found PrivDog to be something of a bitch, if you'll pardon the pun. The Firefox add-on Self Destructing Cookies kept repeatedly destroying a cookie from adtrustmedia.com which I finally traced to PrivDog. Which unfortunately stuck around after removing the free Comodo firewall. Apparently the thing was a persistent cookie and could not be gotten rid of in any normal manner. Removing the PrivDog add-on was the only solution.

 

Update to my previous post. Turned out that PrivDog was also listed with my Revo uninstaller (I should have looked there first). Revo found an astonishing 5,800+ registry entries for this thing. Other than Windows itself, I've never run across anything with that many entries. Kinda creepy.