Check Point Remote Access VPN Reviews

Our company works in the area of developing and delivering online gambling platforms. The Check Point Next-Generation Firewalls are the core security solution we use for the protection of our DataCenter environment, located in Asia (Taiwan).

In addition, there are about 30 Google Cloud projects of different sizes ranging from 10 to 250 virtual machines, and they are used for development, staging, production, etc. For every project, there is one dedicated scalable instance group of the Check Point CloudGuard IaaS gateways.

We user the Check Point Remote Access VPN to provide access for our employees to connect to the specified environments.

We use the Check Point Endpoint Remote Access VPN client to allow our remote employees to connect to our company's offices in a secure and reliable way.

We use the clients for Windows and macOS, with the current software version E82.30. The Endpoint Remote Access VPN clients are fully compatible with the Check Point NGFWs Mobile Access VPN blade, and there are no problems connecting to it.

The clients have additional functions, like Firewall and Compliance blades, which we consider as a strong benefit for using the pure clients.

Several remote sites are supported in the client configuration, which allows us to have the redundancy for the case when one of the Offices becomes unavailable due to ISP problems.

1. It is easy to install the Endpoint Remote Access VPN client to different platforms. Within the company, we use it for Windows and macOS.
   
2. Built-in, centrally-managed Firewall blade, which allows filtering traffic on the client-side.
3. Built-in, centrally-managed Compliance blade. We check the client OS on the presence of the latest security updates and that the corporate antivirus software is up and running, and do not allow the client to connect to the office site in the case where these rules are not satisfied. That prevents the infected computers from connecting to the company's location and spreading the threats.
4. Stable VPN connection.

1. The Compliance software blade is available only for the Windows operating systems family, so no macOS security checks are implemented and performed. This is valid for at least software version E82.30, which we currently use.
2. In addition, there is no full client of the Check Point Remote Access VPN available for the Linux operating systems families. That is important since some of our administrators prefer to use this OS even on their home PCs. We hope that Check Point would develop a client for Linux in the future.

I have been using the Check Point Remote Access VPN for about two years.

The Check Point Remote Access VPN clients are stable on both Windows and macOS.

The Gateway side part of the software scales well.

We have had several support cases opened, but none of them were connected with the Check Point Remote Access VPN. Some of the issues were resolved by installing the latest recommended JumoHotfix, whereas some required additional configuration at the OS kernel level.

Prior to this product, we didn't use any centralized VPN software before.

The setup was straightforward and simple.

Our deployment was completed by our in-house team. We have a Check Point Certified engineer working in the engineering team.

We did not evaluate other options because we already use the products from the CheckPoint ecosystem.

The Check Point Endpoint Remote Access VPN for MacOs and Windows are reliable solutions for remote access VPN, and fully compatible with the Check Point security ecosystem.

We primarily use this solution for our clients. Use cases vary, and they include VPN connectivity. It can be used as a provisional firewall and you can allow for a provisional access list, or grant permission to access or for servers or users trying to connect to the server. 

The VPN, the end-user client VPN, is excellent. 

The firewall experience that we have had has been good. It's secure. We've enjoyed it so far.

The initial setup is very easy. It's pretty straightforward. 

The solution is very stable.

Technical support has been excellent.

With this particular client VPN, there needs to be a feature that can glance at your credentials, of being able to look at credentials. You might hang for a bit or the execution might fail. It would be useful to see your credentials before you connect to take note to see if you are likely to have trouble connecting. They need to increase their timeout. Right now, it will fail after ten seconds, however, it shouldn't fail until after 20. If you don't get on your phone right away and check on your authentications, it will kick you out. They need to give a bit more time.

I've used the solution within the last 12 months. I've used it for a while. 

The stability has been quite good. It's very reliable. It connects. Our VPN connects over 1,200 people with no issues. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.

I can't speak to the scalability aspect. We don't have a need to scale. We have about 1,200 users and that's all we need. Therefore, I've never tried to scale it previously.

I've worked with technical support in the past. I was surprised at how responsive they are, actually. They are very helpful and ready to assist us. They're knowledgeable. We're happy with the level of support they give to us. 

We also have a vendor right here in Nigeria, which is quite helpful.

We did not find the initial setup to be overly difficult or complex. It's pretty straightforward. A company shouldn't run into problems with the initial setup.

You do have to pay a licensing fee, however, there aren't add-ons or additional costs that you would need to consider.

We are customers and end-users. We don't have a business relationship with the company.

I'd advise new users that, when it comes to deploying with an authentication provider, I would advise that you use a Microsoft authenticator. We tried using their authenticator at first, but that is not good. That did not work.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

The solution is primarily used for secure access for remote users. It's deployed as a SaaS over the cloud. 

The solution offers great security features, including zero-day protection, malware protection, anti-phishing, et cetera.

If you are new to deploying the solution, the initial setup might be difficult the first time around. I had trouble setting the policies and then resetting the device. 

I joined my company eight or nine months ago and have been dealing with the solution since then.

I don't have much information on the stability aspect of the product. I haven't spoken to customers about their experience. 

I haven't discussed scalability with customers to get their take on how easy it is. 

We haven't referred to the technical support of Check Point just yet. We did have a replacement engineer assist us in deployment, and they handled it quite well. 

Positive

There was complexity in the initial setup. With one client, once we installed it and then tried to set the policies, the firewall was not responding very well. I was doing it for the first time, so we were unable to do it. The customer was not pleased with that, so we had to send another engineer to deploy that device. That's not to say it's overly hard - it was just my first attempt at an installation.

We had three engineers handling the initial setup. We deployed it over two days. 

I'm hoping that the next time I'm deploying it, it should be done perfectly, without any support from any other engineer.

We do the implementation for our clients. 

I'm not aware of the exact licensing costs associated with the product. 

We are in the business of selling firewalls. We're resellers and Check Point partners. 

I personally have sold just the Check Point solution to only one customer. We are also selling data storage solutions, data backup, and cyber security solutions.

We are dealing with the latest version of the solution.

The solution is available both on-premises and in the cloud. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. I'd recommend it to other users and companies. 

Remote Access VPN is one of those essential items for every organization in order to maintain seamless and highly secured connectivity between the end-user and the organization's local area network to access resources - including Jump server Databases, et cetera.

No matter from which device or from which location users are accessing an organization's local resources, with the help of the Check Point VPN client they can make sure they have connected securely.

Check Point offers a best-in-class encryption algorithm to ensure confidentiality and maintain integrity between the end-user and the Gateway. 

In disaster situations like Covid-19, most users were working from home or in remote locations. In such cases, Check Point Remote Access VPN provides feasibility to everyone to work from home and access an organization's resources remotely.

With a client-less configuration known as SSL VPN users can directly access resources via a browser-like database, share folders, et cetera.

To maintain the authorization of the connected user, Check Point provides multi-factor authentication for an RA VPN client to make sure legitimate users have access to resources.

• Secure connectivity: Guaranteed authentication, confidentiality, and data integrity for every connection and user.
• Straightforward Configuration: Easy to enable blades and define policies.
• Authentication: SAML authentication makes sure the user is legitimate.
• Compliance check: It scans the endpoint machine to detect suspicious/malicious content before connecting to an office network.
• MEP: Multi entry points to make sure there's availability to the LAN network even if the primary gateway goes down.
• A single client can work as sandblast agent.

Check Point RA VPN requires companies to take separate licenses initially so that only 5 connected users licenses are given as subscriptions. Most other competitors, like Palo Alto, provide 1000 connected user licenses for free.

Some configurations, like idle timeout (the requirement came from multiple users), are not possible to configure directly from the Check Point management server. We have to make changes in the local directory of the respective devices.

I've used the solution for more than three years.

The solution is highly stable.

Check Point has an Unlimited License Package for the RA VPN and therefore we can scale it easily.

Customer service has a dedicated team that handles RA VPN cases which ultimately leads to an early resolution.

Migration has taken place such as from Cisco to Check Point and Sophos to Check Point. During that phase, the customer needed to change the VPN client as well.

Browser-based functionality is one of the best things that Check Point provides.

The initial setup is straightforward during the initial configuration.

The setup is very straightforward but subscription-based. It isn't cost-effective.

We did look at Cisco Anyconnect and Palo Alto Global Protect.

After implementing our GW and management security appliance in our public cloud infrastructure, we needed to establish P2S VPNs so that some users could connect to our offices safely to be able to access information and internal applications from anywhere.

This need begins when the sales department requires access to internal resources to be able to show solutions that we sell to clients. However, these connections were mostly from public places without security, which was clearly a huge vulnerability of the company.

Thanks to this tool, we managed to solve this need.

Check Point Remote Access VPN has given us the ability to provide access from a client to our network. It offers a simple and integrated installation with security measures such as MFA in addition to being able to enter our infrastructure in a controlled and secure manner. The solution not only provides access. It also generates monitoring and event logs and maintains connections correctly,

Thanks to all these security processes, our users can access our infrastructure with the certainty that we will not be compromised.

It is also essential to know that the users who can use the solution are under granular policies from the security application. Policies that can be applied to different user profiles guarantee correct and effective access for the different departments of the company.

Its implementation is very simple through the VPN blade in our Check Point gateway which is located and implemented within our public cloud architecture.

Its different monitoring and records generate the required tools to be able to provide good control of everything that happens during the connection time of the users.

Also, the policies can be generated as granularly as desired, and the portal is extremely intuitive. All this is a great help for administrators to manage VPNs.

The VPN remote Access blade could be improved. Licensing is extremely expensive per user and more so for large companies where the number of users directly impacts the cost.

The documentation for good practices and specific configurations is somewhat old, generally for versions before R80, which is why it is sometimes more challenging to understand them or be able to implement them,

Also, at the support level, response times can be improved, as the technical level for this type of tool is very good.

This is a very good tool and we have used it for a long time from our Check Point gateway. It's security management is providing the perfect and secure solution to connect from any location.

This solution is scalable in cluster and VSS architectures.

Previously we have used FortiClient to solve VPN problems. At some point, we also used the Azure P2S VPN. However, it does not provide security.

It is very necessary for a company to have the support of a partner so that they can provide you with cost estimates, documentation, and access to tests that are not publicly available.

We always seek to validate the documentation of each security tool seeking the most significant benefit for our interests and each of the company's needs.

It's a very good tool for VPN security. It is somewhat expensive, but they should evaluate it so they can have a more personal concept.

The primary use case of this solution is to connect to our internal network for accessing servers and clusters using Check Point VPN. End-users are, for example, students accessing computer labs and licensed software that can check academic licenses only within the campus network; further, our ERP folks could make good use of the VPN solution by remotely working on the Institute Management System infrastructure and can work efficiently without any hindrance. We also use its capsule app on smartphones to connect further.

Using Check Point Remote Access VPN has increased the overall productivity for users staying outside the campus and working remotely during this Covid-19 period. Faculty, students, staff, and research fellows as well as a lot of other eligible users have been benefited by securing the VPN license in order to run login remotely and access the project workstations, clusters, run simulations and submit their research work for the final thesis defense. It also allows for publishing in high-impact factor journals.

Once we install and connect the VPN service, it keeps on running until we disconnect. Moreover, the best outcome is when the end-users are able to check out software licenses through the tunnel and keep on working remotely from their home without any interruption. 

The VPN service works seamlessly in Windows and Mac. Only in the case of Linux or Ubuntu have we had to struggle a bit by understanding the SNX Batch file to get installed and run it. Moreover, in Windows and Apple systems the app is running on the system tray whereas in Linux we have to keep the Terminal Window Open.

The Linux version may have an app (similar to Windows) instead of a shell script. We have seen that in Windows and Apple systems the app is running on the system tray whereas in Linux we have to keep the Linux Terminal Window open otherwise the connection drops. Sometimes, we have noticed that the owing to installation of various antivirus and running of inbuilt firewalls (applicable to all operating systems); the connection for VPN sporadically drops and tries to reconnect. When this happens, we have to manually either disable the firewall/antivirus or reconnect the VPN again.

We've used the solution since 2015 or 2016.

We were using Cyberoam.

Users must pursue Proof of Concept as the functional requirements can vary.

We also looked into Palo Alto and Fortinet.

Check Point Remote Access VPN is a highly secure and seamless software that provides end-to-end security solutions.

We can connect anywhere in the world over possible ways to secure the infrastructure.

Check Point Remote Access VPN is the best available solution in the market for providing endpoint management solutions by ensuring adherence to strict compliance and multiple scanning of the data to ensure no data theft or leakage and security and compliance are maintained at the highest level possible.

Also, we have multi-authentication so there is no chance of leakage.

Check Point Remote Access VPN provides multi-factor authentication layers.

We can make Data transfer more strict with Data Integrity, Encapsulation, DES,3DES, and Hashing Algorithm so that the level of security will be higher.

Also, they provided a multi-level authentication support system for continuous scanning and compliance management throughout the IT system.

Multiple VPN connections can be established and share the data in a secure possible way.

It is easy to install the Endpoint Remote Access VPN client on different platforms. Within the company, we use it for Windows and macOS.

Built-in, centrally managed Compliance blade. We check the client OS for the presence of the latest security updates and that the corporate antivirus software is up and running, and do not allow the client to connect to the office site in the case where these rules are not satisfied. That prevents the infected computers from connecting to the company's location and spreading the threats.

The stable VPN connection and uptime are also very good.

We have a centrally managed Firewall blade, which allows filtering traffic on the rule base to protect the requirement.

Bug Fixes and enhancement requests should be remediated earlier, as we have multiple dependencies and Auditors are forced to have the latest patches in place.

Checkpoint Major version should have an extended time than the default time mentioned in the end-of-life policy document with additional prices.

Tools must be introduced and supportive in analyzing the data, flow, and threats.

We have to introduce the scripting part to work seamlessly.

I've used the solution for more than four years.

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable. 

The company offers the best support overall and we can trust their advice.

Positive

This is the first time we are using this type of solution.

The initial setup is straightforward, simple, and centralized. 

We handled the setup in-house.

The product is better than any other product in the marketplace. Technically sounded techies all over the place. It is cost-effective and most importantly stable and secure.

We trust the Check Point Software technology.

We use Check Point Remote Access VPN to connect to the back-office applications.

Check Point Remote Access VPN could be more user-friendly.

I have been using Check Point Remote Access VPN for approximately two years.

Check Point Remote Access VPN is a stable solution.

We have approximately 2,000 users using this solution. We have plans to increase the usage of the solution.

My internal team does some technical support for our employees. I have not contacted the support from Check Point Remote Access VPN.

I have used Microsoft Defender Endpoint previously. I found it to be much more user-friendly than Check Point Remote Access VPN.

The installation of Check Point Remote Access VPN is straightforward. The time it takes for the client installation is two minutes. It is a standard installation.

I did the implementation myself. We have our IT department that is supporting and doing the maintenance of the solution.

There is a license required for this solution.

I rate Check Point Remote Access VPN a seven out of ten.