Free VPN services like Hotspot Shield are very popular, even though they are usually limited in bandwidth and running on low priorities.

Comodo TrustConnect is a VPN service by Comodo that sets you back $8.99 monthly with unlimited traffic, $99.95 annually or $3.99 daily. To promote the service, Comodo is offering free accounts with a 10 Gigabyte data limit per month. 10 Gigabytes should be more than enough for day to day surfing in unsecure locations like coffee shops, hotels or other public Wi-Fi locations. The free service unfortunately has a few downsides. This includes not being able to select the location of the VPN, ads being displayed in the web browser and some blocked protocols like ftp or NNTP.

Free users need to use the TrustConnect client for their operating system. The software is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Installation should not pose any problems. You are asked to create a network installer on Windows during the installation though. You then need to paste the license key from the Comodo Account page into the application. This links the program to your account.

I suggest you use an IP checker to verify that you have received a new IP address.

My computer connected to a VPN in the United Kingdom during tests, and not a US location. This makes sense as it improves connectivity. I was able to connect to the BBC website and stream shows and radio using their iPlayer service. Playback was smooth most of the time after the initial connection phase.

Comodo Trustconnect works well enough for now, and the ten Gigabyte should be more than enough bandwidth for the majority of users. It remains to be seen how the service fares when user counts surge due to the free offering.

Interested users can sign up for the free VPN account at this page here. (via)

The interface displays the maintenance tasks on the left sidebar. Selecting an entry displays its contents in the main window, this are for instance all installed programs if the Programs task is selected, or all installed updates if Windows Updates is selected.

comodo program manager

The functionality in the programs group is a bit disappointing, as it is only possible to uninstall programs with the build in uninstaller. Users who are looking for leftover scans after uninstallation will not find that feature implemented in Comodo Programs Manager.

uninstall program

The drivers and services section lumps drivers and Windows Services together in one big list, and offers to uninstall ALL of them. Now, we are not entirely sure if it is indeed possible to remove essential Windows drivers and services with a click, but the uninstall button was active on every item. This could be potentially disastrous for the operating system.

Windows Features offers the exact same functionality as its Windows pendant. Features can be installed or uninstalled easily, a Windows DVD or CD may be required to do so.

Windows Updates finally lists all installed updates. Each maintenance group offers a search form to locate specific entries.

The backup functionality that is integrated in the program did not work on our Windows 7 Professional 64-bit system needs to be activated in the program’s settings before it can be used.

Comodo Programs Manager is an easy to use program, but that’s almost the only selling point. Specialized programs like Revo Uninstaller, and the standard Windows applications offer the same or a better functionality. They are also not putting the operating system at risk by offering to uninstall core components.

Users who still want to try the application can download it at the official Comodo website.

Update: We have apparently overlooked two additional features offered by the application. Comodo Programs Manager can create custom setups for applications so that those programs can be deployed on other systems. The software also monitors program installations and system changes, keeps track of them and offers complete uninstallation options. All setup files are automatically scanned with a cloud-based antivirus engine. Thanks Zachary for pointing that out.

Desktop email clients and security software often comes with an anti spam component as well to tackle spam on the desktop. That’s of no use for users who manage their email accounts on a website but those that prefer desktop software have additional anti spam software at their disposal to block spam from reaching the inbox.

The anti spam software Comodo AntiSpam is such a software program. It is compatible with many popular email clients such as Outlook, Windows Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird.

The anti spam software uses Passcode authentication to protect the email accounts from spam. This anti spam protection basically uses a whitelist of senders that are allowed to send email to the user. Every other email sender that is not in that list needs to reply to an email that are automatically generated before the original email will be accepted. It is like captcha for email.

The program walks the user through a five step setup process that consist of the following configurations:

• Generation of the passcode
• Import of authenticated senders either from email programs or address book files
• Configuration of email accounts that are automatically recognized by Comodo AntiSpam

Comodo AntiSpam runs in the background from that moment on. It will automatically send out the passcode email verifications to senders who are not on the authenticated sender list.

New email accounts can be added to the program at any time. It is furthermore possible to add email senders and domains to a blacklist so that their emails are blocked automatically from that time on.

How effective is Comodo AntiSpam? That depends on a number of factors. Spam is usually send out automated and a great deal of spam messages can be blocked with the passcode authentication. Spam senders who take the time to reply manually to the passcode authentication could however bypass the system. It is also likely that many phishing emails would go through as they fake the sender’s email address.

The verification raises concerns when it comes to first time contacts with legit companies as it is not clear how they will react if they receive a passcode reply email.

Comodo Antispam is nevertheless an interesting anti spam software that works best in addition to other anti spam techniques. The anti-spam software is available for free at the Comodo website.

Many security software companies are currently either adding sandboxing or cloud computing to their products with sandboxing probably being the more popular option for most. Sandboxing comes in very handy when trying out new software programs, executing other files that could possibly be malicious or forcing regular programs to run in the sandbox (like a web browser) so that no matter what happens during use is not affecting the rest of the operating system.

Comodo has also improved the user interface of Comodo Internet Security 4 and the usability of the security application. The number of popup alerts have for instance be reduced. Popups have been redesigned to provide the user with additional options and information. Some core modules like the antivirus engine have been improved although it is to early to say how well they fare.

The Comodo Internet Security 4 Download is provided at the official Comodo website. Some users in the Comodo forums are experiencing bugs and other issues with the security software.

Comodo Internet Security 4 Downloads

Download 32-bit Offline
Download 64-bit Offline
Web Installer Download

Have you been using Comodo Internet Security 4? What is your opinion on the product?

Comodo Cloud Scanner seems to be a relative new product by Comodo. It combines malware scanning with privacy issue, registry error and junk file scanning. Comodo will usually find thousands of issues which can largely be attributed to temporary files that are reported either as privacy issues or junk files.

One of the biggest disappointments becomes apparent after the check finishes. There is no way to resolve the issues right away. That’s right. The only action that can be taken is to click on the Help me clean my PC button which will show a prompt to install Live PC Support on the computer system.

Live PC is apparently a service by Comodo that starts at $19.00 for a one time consultation or $49.00 for a yearly subscription. Included in the service are

• Virus Diagnosis
• Virus Removal
• PC Tune-up
• ID Theft Protection
• Email Account Setup
• Software Installation
• Printer Setup
• Printer Troubleshooting
• Green PC
• Computer Troubleshooting

The main question here is if anyone needs this service in its current stage. The answer has to be no unless the user prefers to talk to a technician that walks through the steps of cleaning the computer system. There are programs out there that can perform a similar diagnosis of the system from CCleaner to free antivirus software like AVG 9. Those that want to try Comodo Cloud Scanner can do so by downloading it from Softpedia.

Comodo Time Machine is another software program that can create system snapshots and restore them if necessary. The system snapshot will create a copy of all files and settings of the hard drive Windows is running on. This includes Windows files, Registry settings, programs and documents and other files stored by the user.

The program will automatically take a system snapshot during installation which is called the baseline snapshot in the program. The program can create new snapshots automatically or on the user’s request with further options to delete previously taken snapshots (except for the baseline snapshot) to free up disk space.

Snapshots can be mounted right in the applications’s interface by right-clicking a snapshot and selecting the mount option. It is possible to mount the snapshot with full access rights or read-only rights. All files of the snapshot become then accessible in Windows like any other directory.

Files can also be recovered individually without mounting with the help of the Recover Files menu in the Time Machine application. This feature provides a file search option to search for files in the selected snapshot. This makes it rather complicated to use, a Windows Explorer like approach would be helpful here.

The creation and restoration of system snapshots can be scheduled in the application which offers several interesting possibilities. Public computer administrators can for instance schedule a restoration of a snapshot whenever the computer starts to ensure that data that has been tampered with won’t affect the system after a restart.

Users who have full disk encryption software programs installed will not be able to use Comodo Time Machine as it requires the uninstallation of those programs before it will commence the installation. That’s a rather strict and unfortunate rule that will likely turn away users from testing or using the program regularly.

Comodo Time Machine can be managed from the command line as well. Commands like taking or restoring a snapshot can be issued from the command line.

There is finally a so called sub console that is displayed during system startup if the user presses the Home key. This sub-console loads before Windows and offers the means to restore the system, take a snapshot, uninstall the program or compact the snapshots to save hard drive space.

Comodo Time Machine is compatible with most Microsoft operating systems including 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. Its features make it an interesting program for public computers, test systems, multi-user systems and computer systems where the user wants to be able to restore a previous snapshot in case of emergency. The recovery system that loads before Windows and the ability to schedule snapshots make Comodo Time Machine a clever product for that purpose. Only the incompatibility with file encryption software like True-Crypt put a dent in the otherwise interesting program.

The software can be downloaded from the Comodo website (via BlogsDNA)

Comodo Verification Engine is a free standalone Internet security program that has been designed to “verify the authenticity and identity of websites” to ensure that sensitive data is not falling into the wrong hands. The program is cross-browser compatible supporting popular web browsers like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox but apparently not Google Chrome, Opera or Safari. It will run on all Microsoft operating systems including Windows 95, Windows XP and Windows Vista. The Internet security tool installs itself automatically in all supported web browsers.

It offers five cornerstones of verification and protection:

• Verification of web page content (brands/logos)
• Verification of login boxes
• Verification of SSL session and encryption endpoint
• Protection against Phishing attacks
• Protection against Pharming attacks

There are basically two ways that Comodo Verification Engine uses to inform the user about the active website. The first is when the user moves the mouse over a site logo or brand on that website. Comodo will display a green (that color can be changed in the options) box around the website signaling that the website has been verified (or not if it was not). The main drawback of this method is that websites have to register with Comodo for this to work. Comodo claims that most financial and popular websites did (PayPal did for example) but that it can happen that subpages on those websites have not been added if that was not requested by the site owner. It will also mean that several smaller websites and probably many non-English websites are not included as well (for example the German PayPal.de website does not verify). Comodo can verify several trust credentials such as BBB online or TRUSTe.

That’s where the second indicator of a website’s trustworthiness comes into play. Both Firefox and Internet Explorer display a padlock in the status bar of the browser when a user opens a website that is using the SSL protocol.

Moving the mouse cursor over that padlock will display the information in the way shown in the screenshot above if the website validates.

Comodo Verification Engine is an interesting tool for users who work with websites that are included in the database. This mainly means English speaking users who work primarily with either Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.

The registry cleaner tool will scan the Windows registry for various invalid entries. Each entry is shown after the scan with the possibility to clean it up. By default a backup of the Registry will be created before any cleaning takes place. It is furthermore possible to schedule regular Registry cleanups or restore a previously created Registry backup.

The disk cleaner is a basic tool that will scan the hard drives of the computer for temporary or duplicate entries giving the user the options to delete those files from the disk. It is nowhere as extensive as tools like CCleaner offer but it covers the most widely used temporary locations.

The disk cleanup utility can be scheduled like the Registry cleaner can. Filters can be added to include or exclude certain file types from the scans. The privacy cleaner option can be used to remove several privacy related entries from the operating system. Other tools that are provided by Comodo System Cleaner are a disk wiper, a tool to calculate file crc and extensive system settings that match most Windows tweakers out there.

Comodo System Cleaner combines several important system utilities in one application. Users who are looking for tools to cleanup temporary data are currently better of with tools like CCleaner who have the advantage that they can be further customized by the user which Comodo System Cleaner cannot.

Basically it comes down to being complicated and a nuisance that is not worth the effort. Comodo Secure Email is a free for personal use product by popular software developer Comodo that removes the complexity attribute from the process. Secure Email is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows XP or Windows Vista and fully integrates itself in popular email clients such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.

A software wizard will walk the user through the process of creating a digital certificate that will be used for an email address. It simply means to select the email address that should receive the digital certificate. The user enters his name and email address and the certificate will be automatically generated.

Secure Email will start signing outgoing emails digitally right away and encrypt them if the contact has provided the user with an public key as well. The whole process is automated and the user in front of the monitor does not have to worry about acquiring digital certificates or exchanging public keys.

Secure Email can also scan all mails in the email client for encrypted emails that the user might have received in the past. One of the biggest advantages of Comodo Secure Email is the automatic integration in the mail client. It integrated itself automatically on a test client that used mail accounts from various email providers and Mozilla Thunderbird.

Another interesting feature of Secure Mail is the ability to create unique single use email certificates even without knowing the recipients public key. The recipient has two options to read the email: Install Comodo Secure Email or read the email message on the Comodo website.

Secure Email Features:

• Simple and Easy to use. Fast set-up and automatic encryption and signing of outgoing emails makes it easy for even non-technical users to enjoy private and secure messaging
• Session certificates take the application beyond traditional PKI infrastructures by allowing users to encrypt messages even when they don’t have their contacts’ email certificate installed.
• Web reader service – on-line interface allows your recipient to read mail that you encrypted with a session certificate
• Encryption when your mail client doesn’t support encryption – Comodo SecureEmail operates at the network layer and provides encryption and signing capabilities if your mail client doesn’t have encryption in its feature set
• Automatic certificate exchange and installation – SecureEmail’s notification system ensures both sender and recipient are instantly updated with each others certificates
• Built-in wizard for easy sign-up and installation of Comodo E-mail Certificates (Home version allows home and personal users to quickly sign up for a free Comodo email certificate. Pro version of the software enables business customers to easily purchase Comodo corporate e-mail certificates.)
• Automatically imports relevant mail settings from all major mail clients to ensure the fastest possible set-up time
• You’re in control – granular configuration of settings means the application will work to your security preferences, not the other way around

The biggest advantage of Secure Email is the ease of use. It requires virtually no configuration after adding the email accounts to the system. The only change that users might want to make is to disable the email popup notifications that are activated by default. This can be changed in the program’s settings.