Comodo firewall - telemetry, tasks reappearing in task scheduler

rivre · 31 May 2018

I've noticed that Comodo has several tasks in the Windows task scheduler - and no matter how many times I disable them, or even delete them, they reappear every time I reboot, with new scheduled times:

Comodo Telemetry
- At log on of any user
- One time - After triggered, repeat every 2 hours indefinitely

Comodo maintenance

Comodo CMC
- At system startup
- One time - After triggered, repeat every 1 hour indefinitely

Even going into task scheduler individual properties and manually unchecking "enabled" for each one doesn't make a difference - they keep coming back. Throughout the day, Comodo "comes alive" and I notice HDD activity, which is often annoying, and Resource Monitor shows it's Comodo. This is even though I have Auto-Containment, HIPS, VirusScope, and Website Filtering off (all modules except firewall), and even "silent mode" is enabled.

Is there any way to disable these unwanted tasks, and quiet Comodo down so that it does it's job as a firewall and nothing more (no random scanning), or do I just need to give up on it? Because I'm ready to remove it from my PC for good. And I hate to because I have lots of custom firewall rules I hate to have to enter into a new firewall program.

makiraper · 31 May 2018

i don´t think telemetry for comodo it´s like " bad info u dont want to share " i remember u can uncheck when installing also disable in option but not sure the last 1... they only take data from program use, nothing like google, microsoft etc.. and mouse pointer inside comodo program window to see how UI work for users and how to improve.

rivre · 31 May 2018

The point is if I disable it in the task scheduler, it should stay disabled. And it doesn't.

Also, as I said, Comodo like to run for no reason throughout the day at various times, possibly due to forced scheduled tasks, and I have no idea what it's doing, because all virus modules are disabled, so all it should be doing is silently blocking unwanted connections, not constantly accessing my HDD.

TairikuOkami · 01 Jun 2018

How to disable Comodo default scheduled tasks?

You can not, that is the price for free. I abandoned Comodo for that reason as well, not to mention, that virtually every signed malware out there uses Comodo certificates.

Unfortunately, there is no free alternative, most are too basic tools just to block/allow, pretty useless.

Zone Alarm Firewall is nice, it is able to catch hijacked processes, but it has virtually no settings.
FortKnox Firewall seems great, but it does not allow IP ranges (nor they plan to).
Sphinx Windows 10 Firewall Control is perfect, but free version is too limited.

There is also simplewall by Henry, but it did not work for me.
Binisoft has been sold to Malwarebytes, so that is that.

I decided to stick with Windows Firewall. I hate, that it adds rules at will (not so much lately though), but it is better than nothing. I remove WF rules and add my own at every shutdown to keep it in check.

Code:

rem Enable Windows Firewall / AllProfiles / CurrentProfile / DomainProfile / PrivateProfile / PublicProfile
rem https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771920(v=ws.10).aspx
netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state on

rem Block all inbound network traffic and all outbound except allowed apps
netsh advfirewall set DomainProfile firewallpolicy blockinboundalways,blockoutbound
netsh advfirewall set PrivateProfile firewallpolicy blockinboundalways,blockoutbound
netsh advfirewall set PublicProfile firewallpolicy blockinboundalways,blockoutbound

rem Remove All Windows Firewall Rules
netsh advfirewall firewall delete rule name=all
rem reg delete "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\FirewallRules" /f

rem Windows Firewall Rules
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="COD MW2 TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteport=27015 program="E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2\iw4sp.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="COD MW2 UDP" dir=out action=allow protocol=UDP remoteport=1025-65535 program="E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2\iw4sp.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="COD MW3 TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteport=3074 program="E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3\iw5sp.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="COD MW3 UDP" dir=out action=allow protocol=UDP remoteport=1025-65535 program="E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3\iw5sp.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Discord TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteport=443 program="%LocalAppData%\Discord\app-0.0.301\Discord.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Discord Update Loop" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteip=0.0.0.0 remoteport=1025-65535 program="%LocalAppData%\Discord\Update.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Discord Update TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteip=104.16.0.0-104.31.255.255 remoteport=443 program="%LocalAppData%\Discord\Update.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="DriverEasy TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteip=169.53.0.193,172.217.11.14 remoteport=80,443 program="%ProgramFiles%\Easeware\DriverEasy\DriverEasy.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="ETS2 TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteport=80,443 program="E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Euro Truck Simulator 2\bin\win_x64\eurotrucks2.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="ETS2 UDP" dir=out action=allow protocol=UDP remoteport=1025-65535 program="E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Euro Truck Simulator 2\bin\win_x64\eurotrucks2.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="ETS2 MP TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteport=80,443 program="E:\TruckersMP Launcher\Launcher.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="ETS2 MP UDP" dir=out action=allow protocol=UDP remoteip=0.0.0.0 remoteport=1025-65535 program="E:\TruckersMP Launcher\Launcher.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="PatchMyPC TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteport=80,443 program="E:\Software\Temp\Soft\Windows Repair Toolbox\Downloads\PatchMyPc\PatchMyPC.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="POP Peeper IMAP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteip=94.100.176.0-94.100.183.255,217.69.136.0-217.69.141.255 remoteport=143,587 program="%ProgramFiles(x86)%\POP Peeper\POPPeeper.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="RadioSure TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteport=80,1025-65535 program="%LocalAppData%\RadioSure\RadioSure.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SimpleDNSCrypt UDP" dir=out action=allow protocol=UDP remoteip=185.228.168.10,185.228.168.11 remoteport=8443 program="%ProgramFiles%\bitbeans\Simple DNSCrypt x64\dnscrypt-proxy\dnscrypt-proxy.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Svchost TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteport=80,443 program="%WINDIR%\System32\svchost.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Steam TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteport=80,443,27015-27030,27050 program="E:\Steam\Steam.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Steam UDP" dir=out action=allow protocol=UDP remoteport=1025-65535 program="E:\Steam\Steam.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Steam Web TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteport=80,443 program="E:\Steam\bin\cef\cef.win7\steamwebhelper.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="TeamViewer UDP" dir=out action=allow protocol=UDP remoteport=5938 program="%ProgramFiles(x86)%\TeamViewer\TeamViewer.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="TeamViewer TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteport=80,443,5938 program="%ProgramFiles(x86)%\TeamViewer\TeamViewer.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Update Time UDP" dir=out action=allow protocol=UDP remoteip=85.236.36.0-85.236.36.127 remoteport=123 program="E:\Software\Temp\Soft\Windows Repair Toolbox\Downloads\Custom Tools\Added Custom Tools\UpdateTime.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="WRT TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteport=80,443 program="E:\Software\Temp\Soft\Windows Repair Toolbox\Windows_Repair_Toolbox.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Yandex TCP" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteport=80,443 program="Z:\Yandex\YandexBrowser\Application\browser.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Yandex Sync" dir=out action=allow protocol=TCP remoteip=213.180.193.0-213.180.193.255 remoteport=443,5222 program="Z:\Yandex\YandexBrowser\Application\browser.exe"
netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Yandex Yandex DNSS" dir=out action=allow protocol=UDP remoteip=77.88.8.78 remoteport=15353 program="Z:\Yandex\YandexBrowser\Application\browser.exe"
rem netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Yandex OpenDNSS" dir=out action=allow protocol=UDP remoteip=208.67.220.123,208.67.222.123,208.67.220.220,208.67.222.222, remoteport=443 program="Z:\Yandex\YandexBrowser\Application\browser.exe"
rem netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Yandex System DNS" dir=out action=allow protocol=UDP remoteip=156.154.70.2,156.154.71.2 remoteport=53 program="Z:\Yandex\YandexBrowser\Application\browser.exe"

makiraper · 01 Jun 2018

anyway the dont collect data " sensitive " why care for comodo when in the moment any user uses windows, mac , android, google they shared alot more info. Im good with comodo the best free firewall for sure.

rivre · 01 Jun 2018

makiraper said:

anyway the dont collect data " sensitive " why care for comodo when in the moment any user uses windows, mac , android, google they shared alot more info. Im good with comodo the best free firewall for sure.

Because as I explained twice, the scheduled tasks slow down my boot time by a considerable amount, and the forced random updating throughout the day and forced HDD activity is bothersome and annoying.

rivre · 01 Jun 2018

TairikuOkami said:

How to disable Comodo default scheduled tasks?

You can not, that is the price for free. I abandoned Comodo for that reason as well, not to mention, that virtually every signed malware out there uses Comodo certificates.

Unfortunately, there is no free alternative, most are too basic tools just to block/allow, pretty useless.

Zone Alarm Firewall is nice, it is able to catch hijacked processes, but it has virtually no settings.
FortKnox Firewall seems great, but it does not allow IP ranges (nor they plan to).
Sphinx Windows 10 Firewall Control is perfect, but free version is too limited.

There is also simplewall by Henry, but it did not work for me.
Binisoft has been sold to Malwarebytes, so that is that.

I decided to stick with Windows Firewall. I hate, that it adds rules at will (not so much lately though), but it is better than nothing. I remove WF rules and add my own at every shutdown to keep it in check.

Thanks. Yeah, I don't know what to go with. I used to use Online Armor free, but they are gone now, and the free version didn't allow you to save your exceptions which is a deal-breaker for me these days.

FortKnox looks promising for my needs, but it isn't free from what I can see. It's a free download, but you have to pay to keep functionality, unless I'm missing something.

rivre · 01 Jun 2018

Is there some way to put a script or batch file in my startup folder that will manually disable a specified task in the task scheduler each time the PC is rebooted?

Callender · 01 Jun 2018

Personally I use an old version with just the firewall installed: 8.4.0.5165

Download Comodo Internet Security 8.4.0.5165 - FileHippo.com

Here's what you need. No telemetry.

Attachment 190864

Attachment 190865

Attachment 190866

Maybe uninstall and use the 8.4.0.5165 version instead and disable program updates.

Scheduled tasks in this version.

Comodo firewall - telemetry, tasks reappearing in task scheduler-taskschedulerview.jpg

How to Install Comodo Firewall | Gizmo's Freeware

I've used most free firewalls available but keep coming back to this one.

TairikuOkami · 01 Jun 2018

rivre said:

FortKnox looks promising for my needs, but it isn't free from what I can see. It's a free download, but you have to pay to keep functionality, unless I'm missing something.

It looks like an unlimited trial (Softpedia lists it as ad-supported). You have to update it manually, until you buy it, then you will get additional features, similar to Glasswire. Still $20 for 5 lifetime licences is a nice deal.