Check Point Remote Access VPN Reviews

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. 

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. 

We primarily use the solution for work from home. Our main goal is to provide users with the ability to access their workstation from anywhere in the world.

We provided remote access to more than 500 users during the pandemic. Check Point Remote Access VPN has worked smoothly as our appliance is capable of supporting 1000+ users.

We deployed a VPN client-based solution with multi-factor authentication. The compliance check feature is useful.

It is compatible with several operating systems, and it has great protection against malware.

It offers a simple configuration and setup.

We developed work-from-home policies for our organization during the pandemic due to the rise in COVID cases. As network security engineers, it's challenging for us to manage users' personal laptops and computers which are not up to date (OS, Antivirus ..etc). However, when it comes to the Check Point VPN solution, we overcame all the challenges and successfully implemented our infrastructure. Logs are helping us to monitor each user's activity. We can also isolate user laptops or PCs from the internet when its gets connected to our network.

The remote access blade is built in on the firewall, so it is easy to activate through the Smart Console.

Only the VPN client supports only the Windows and Apple Mac operating systems, which also support iOS and Android mobile platforms. The Check Point development team deserves praise for a flawless experience.

Multi-factor authentication and compliance checks help us to ensure maximum security.

VPN logs give us complete visibility and track unusual activities.

The VPN client user interface is simple and perfect.

The VPN client software is lightweight.

It's difficult to configure on Linux workstations as Check Point Remote VPN clients support only Windows and Mac devices.

The configuration of a VPN requires a distinct VPN Tab. Once the VPN blade has been activated, after activating VPN blade, we need to make some configurations in the gateway option settings and others in the VPN communities section. It would be preferable if these two things came together in one place.

Apart from this, it operates flawlessly. To improve our IT Services, we poll our users. The majority of people say how excellent the remote access VPN service is. Additionally, they stated that once connected to a VPN service, they never experience connectivity problems.

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

The product offers excellent customer service and support.

Positive

We used a different solution that did not satisfy us in terms of security. As a result, we decided to deploy Check Point for enhanced security.

Before migrating to the Check Point firewall, we conducted market research and solicited feedback from my contacts who are already Check Point NGFW customers. We decided to use Check Point.

The VPN Setup and initial configuration are tricky and not straightforward. For example, you need to:

1. Do some configuration in the gateway option, then:

2. VPN Communities

It would be preferable if step 1 and step 2 were available in one place.

3- Lastly, you must apply the firewall policy

We implemented this solution ourselves.

We now have a reliable VPN solution to offer our staff, which is a significant return on investment.

This product provides a secure connection to the corporate network from anywhere and safe traffic of data regardless of the possible threats in the WAN it's connected to. It also provides secure access to company apps and controls the traffic depending on each company's policies. Through it, we create layers that control or limit data traffic for specific users. I've been trained in the product and know it's one of the most effective in the business and admit to facilitating my customers to get it from our Check Point partners.

A clear example of the positive impact this license has had in my organization was back in 2020. The software was in use since before the pandemic hit so our personnel was familiarized with the product; the transition was smooth and secure from the office to work from home. Access policies were run through the active directory applied on all kinds of end points, from cell phones, tablets, laptops, desktops - you name it. Access could be restricted by location and using network security assessments that prevented connecting to corrupted networks. 

We already use the Check Point Firewall and those are the ones the organization's employees connect to for the remote VPN and it made it really easy to activate this function as new hardware was not needed. 

The team has full visibility of the users that connect allowing them to keep control of who is in the network and what data they are allowing to come in and out. Be it if our users are at home or in the office the same policy applies to them allowing us to view the traffic within our organization.

In my organization, there aren't Linux users, however, I know it has difficulties offering secure access for customers who use this operating system. 

Also, this product has limitations with headcount addition, as there are performance limitations in each security gateway the software has. 

The ability to allow split-tunneling while still following our corporate policy should be offered. 

Some things like the compliance aspect of the VPN Client can be updated so the product stays up to speed with the ever-changing environment in software security.

For the past eight years, I've been working at a company where I was first in software security sales for three years and then five years in hardware sales. Since I have a background in security, I've been part of training and sales where Check Point products are involved. I have tested most products Check Point offers due to our partnership.

Remote Access VPN (Remote Access VPN) allows users in our organization to connect to a private network to access services and resources remotely. This connection is secure and is made through the Internet. It came to support us so that users, whenever they were outside the organization and were supporting customers from any region, could have secure access to the corporation's data. 

Another important point is when our executives travel to regions where certain access to services is blocked. The VPN helps us bypass that block. Since a VPN can hide your real IP address, it can help you bypass geo-blocks, as the platform the one you want to access will think it is from the “correct” geographic region.

The solution is giving us security when it comes to sharing our data safely through the private and secure tunnel that is created when creating the VPN. The VPN hides your IP address and encrypts your online traffic and it essentially ensures that your fingerprints cannot be traced on the Internet. Online hackers won't be able to use your real IP address to discover your personal data, and government surveillance agencies and ISPs won't be able to monitor what you do online by snooping on your traffic.

In addition to helping you avoid government surveillance, it also helps keep your privacy safe from advertisers.

In terms of the way they ensure traffic, an example is when we use Wi-Fi in public areas.

WiFi is everywhere nowadays and it is extremely convenient to use, especially if you have a tight mobile data plan. The only problem with free WiFi is that it's often unsecured, which means you're putting your personal data at risk every time you use it. After all, cybercriminals can find out a lot about you, which can lead to them stealing your:

• Credit card details
• Bank account details
• Email login credentials

However, if you use a VPN, you won't have to worry about those dangers. A VPN uses encryption to protect your online communications, making sure no one can monitor it. Basically, if a hacker tried to see your connection traffic, they would just see nonsense.

That the level of Remote access VPN was higher by default as other brands do it that way. In the case of Check Point, they are not like that. The maximum it is giving us is only 5 licenses and if you need more, they must be purchased separately. From my perspective, it should be added to the same cost as the general license, and that well explained makes the product more attractive. Many organizations would have this need, as many are moving off-premise. We have great executives and entire corporate teams that perform work tasks from home.

I've used the solution for about 2 years.

Check Point Remote Access VPN allows organization users to work remotely. Especially in the pandemic period, work-from-home demand has been higher than ever. 

I have a remarkable case about the solution. That is for a bank. They want to have remote access VPNs that can provide connections for internal users who work remotely, partners who have restricted connections to the bank environment and ATM machines that connect to core banking applications. All VPNs acted in the same internet connections but still ensure these three VPNs were separated from each other. For the requirements, deploying the VPN in VSX appliances helped to solve issues. I created three virtual instances: one for corporate users, one for partners and one for ATM machines. 

Applying security policies for three instances is different. Corporate users must pass two-factor authentication layers and then have access to common corporate services (like email, and chat) and the right business applications depending on their working role, and their department. Partners after authenticating successfully only have limited access to the right place that they are allowed while being unable to connect to other places. 

ATM machines that act 24/7 need to have continuous connections, thus, they must authenticate using a certificate and their VPN clients must be configured to re-authenticate automatically after a timeout.

Check Point Remote Access VPN supports almost all common devices, from Windows to macOS, and from Android to iOS. Connection methods are flexible, including browsers and VPN clients. 

With such an approach, the solution can solve every remote working problem from anywhere, on any device while maintaining security features. The solution allows us to integrate with external systems like directory servers, email servers, and RADIUS servers for using directory users (a unified user instead must remember many usernames and passwords), adding multi-factor authentication via an OTP certificate. VPN users will have controlled access based on who they are and where they are by security policies. 

The solution offers flexible authentication methods to control access by policies and compliance. 

Check Point can integrate with external systems and third-party solutions to provide multi-layer authentications. This helps secure the user accounts from leakage of passwords and also protects corporate from unauthorized access damage risks. 

Security policies help to convert access regulations to policy rule configurations after authenticating. Setting policies allow, block, and limit users' access. 

With the compliance feature, Check Point can define what conditions user machines should have to authenticate the VPN. This feature helps to add more security to the network.

Endpoint Security on Demand, or Compliance Check is a good feature. It allows the creation of compliance policies and adds more security to the network. Machines will be scanned once they connect to VPN to make sure all of them are compliant. Conditions to configure compliance checks are Windows security (hotfixes, patches), Anti-Spyware, Anti-Virus software, personal firewall, or Custom (application, files, registry). These are not enough in a complicated environment. Almost of them are supported for Windows machines, however, are just limited conditions for non-Windows. In fact, using mobile devices on Android, iOS, macOS, and Linux is very popular. Compliance Check on Check Point should be improved by having more configurable conditions to support multi-platforms and adding more granularity. 

Besides compliance scanning sometimes causes consumes machine resources. 

I also suggest scanning operations will consume fewer resources and increase speed time.

I've been using the solution for more than five years.

As mentioned in my use case, the solution is running for thousands of corporate users, partner users, and ATM machines. The performance is very impressive. 

With Check Point VSX, the virtual instance extension is just an additional license, thus, it's very easy to add VS for other purposes. Besides Check Point also developed Maestro technology to allow hyperscale, increase throughput, and maximize capacity.

The Check Point Support Team is very professional and has technical expertise. The team is online 24/7 to make sure their customers always be supported. Response time to the customer is quick enough when they provide a solution to fix the issues or when they need some time to investigate or when they need some time to investigate they stay up to date.

Positive

I had used Fortinet Remote Access VPN before. At that time, other security features like Firewall, IPS, Application Control, and URL Filtering had been added to the same box running Remote Access VPN. The Fortinet appliance was overloaded all the time - although specifications in the datasheet could be OK. After changing to Check Point (using Remote Access VPN with other security features), the performance was amazing. CPU and memory usages were always at an average level.

Since SARS-COV2, most users went to work from their home office, so we needed to have an robust, secure, and stable VPN connection. We implemented Check Point VPN and we have had no problems with it. We are almost 50 users working from home securely. Also, the access rules based on VLANs have helped many users get access depending on which connection they have. For example, some users with VPN connections can only access some specific servers and ports, however, when they are on an internal LAN, they have access to the entire network.

We have more control over the activity that users have on the internal network, thanks to the monitoring offered by Check Point and the security provided by the gateway. 

I'm the IT manager for the company, and my work has been improved due to the fact that, in conjunction with VPN, we implemented the Endpoint Security client so we can manage our client's computers even if they are not physically in the office. When we need to remove some users from a VPN connection we just need to lock the account and use the assets console to disable the feature from the client's computer.

The combination of the user accounts for the VPN with the access rules provided by the security gateway gives you more control and specificity about who has access to what. For external users, we can offer a solution based on the internet needs and we are able to share information on a secure channel. We can specifically point to the desired resources in the organization without the need to install any additional software on external client machines.

It needs to improve the capability of the Secure browser VPN connections. Some in-house applications didn't work due to the use of JScript and the backend and front end technology for the applications. In the case of URL translation of the VPN Web portal, the requests made from the front end to the back end weren't valid (due to the use of dynamic subdomains). In the case of host translations, the request was made to the same host, however, we cannot specify the ports, which, in our case, are used to redirect to different servers.

I've used the solution for over two years.

It's very stable, however, I recommend some scheduled restarts for cleaning connections and processes.

It is very easy to manage the solution and also the integration.

I have had a good experience with the support tickets that I have dealt with.

Positive

Previous to Check Point, we didn't have any gateway security.

The initial setup was a little complex as it was the first time working with Check Point.

The implementation was handled by an in-house team.

We expect that investments is recovered in two years.

The pricing is fair and the support team is good.

We were evaluating Fortinet as well.

Check Point is very reliable and secure.

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.

In our environment, we have many users working remotely. It's important to control the flow of traffic coming and going to these remote employees, and isolate traffic when used for business purposes. We have to allow our remote users to access services from home as though they were in the office. However, at the same time, we need to control that traffic and make sure it conforms to our policy. Our environment is complex and requires advanced policies to look at traffic in very unique ways from different users. Check Point's policy management has allowed us to do that.

At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone rushed to get their employees working from home. Luckily for us, we already had a strong structure around how remote access would work and had it set up for many employees. 

With the groundwork in place, the transition to remote work was made easy by simply adjusting the policy (configuration). In part, this is because we were already prepared for a remote workforce, and that preparation came from within our organization, however, if it weren't for Check Point enabling us to adjust rapidly, then it would not have been an easy transition.

The unified platform view is great. Being able to manage NGFW alongside our Remote Access Policies allows us to control traffic in one way. Be it if our users are at home or in the office the same policy applies to them allowing us to have one corporate view on the traffic within our organization.

Being able to integrate the policy with things like Active Directory groups, Azure cloud objects, RADIUS integration, and load balancing capabilities is wonderful. All of these things are built into their NGFW policy which we leverage to implement on our Remote Access policy.

The ability to allow split-tunneling while still following our corporate policy needs to be on the table. Right now, in order to allow the same policy to apply, the users' traffic must be routed up to our NGFW before going out to the internet. Having a method to apply the same policy to the client for outbound traffic while connected to the VPN would be huge.

Some things like the compliance aspect of the VPN Client can be updated to bring it a little more modern. It's very useful for checking things like Windows Updates levels before connecting, however, it could use a facelift since it's still quite old-looking.

I've been managing Check Point's Remote Access VPN for five years at my current employment, and had used it before at a previous employer.

The solution has been solid for me for over five years.

I get the impression this could scale up to whatever you need. Scaling issues might only be moving to clustered resources and setting up load balancing on gateways. Once you get big enough you should be able to scale up to your needs.

Support has been great 98% of the time. There's always one bad experience, yet, overall I wouldn't rate them based on that. If they need to get their experts online to help solve a problem, they have plenty and are willing to work through really deep subjects. I never worry with their support.

Positive

At our organization, we did not use another solution before this. That said, I have used other products in the past. It's been many years, so I'm sure those other vendors have had time to update their products too, however, since I've been managing Remote Access with Check Point, I've always been really impressed.

Setting up the VPN Clients is simple once you've already got the gateway in place. If you have to setup the Gateway, it will take a bit of knowledge and expertise.

Our in-house team set it up. That said, I have been working with network devices for a long time.

ROI on the VPN User license itself returns within a couple of months of you using it. However, if you have to make the investment into buying gateways for the product, then the ROI could be one year (if your whole organization is working from home), or up to three years if you barely use it.

You need to be an NGFW customer already. Otherwise, you'll need to purchase the gateways in order to terminate the VPN. That much should be obvious to anyone. Once you have the gateway in place, there is a VPN User license you need to purchase, however, it is very minimal in cost compared to other infrastructure.

We inherited the Check Point when we took over. Then, when the topic of remote access came up, it made sense to use what we had and just buy additional licensing rather than buy a whole new product.

Check Point products are typically not cheap, however, I've found it's often due to the fact that you can do a lot with it. 

I recommend Check Point products to anyone who is going to have the time and expertise to administer them. You're going to be able to do what you want to do, engineer a design that works for you. If you want to just plug it in and forget about it, then this might not be the product for you. That said, for those who do just want to plug something in and forget about it, I warn you to be cautious. When it comes to Remote Access, you don't want to ignore this. You want to be looking at it and you want to monitor it, otherwise attackers will take advantage of that weakness. This is where Check Point allows you to monitor the edge, while granularly controlling it.

We have always worked within the office. However, the COVID pandemic changed the course of our work in terms of where we had to implement new solutions so that we could all work from home. That was when I encountered Check Point; we had years with this solution in the facilities, yet, only during the pandemic did we have to innovate for a home environment. Today we have more than 6000 users working from home thanks to Check Point. This is possible due to the fact that, with a certificate and the client for this connection, every person can connect to our environment as if they were at the office.

We still have many areas of opportunity in which we must work, however, this has required us to improve our infrastructure in order to accommodate remote work. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have had this solution and we have had many challenges since there are more than 6000 people who work from home. For security, we have an expiration time of the .p12 certificates and that requires updating passwords. Today, we are integrating this solution with a 2MFA system to give much more security to corporate.

The IPSec VPN, Mobile Access, and Identity Awareness are three of the blades with which we have been working with since the pandemic. This has given us great mobility, making our network more dynamic for connection to corporate due to the integration we have of Check Point via our AC or LDAP. 

We are creating rules by user and not by IP (which could be done both ways). We stick more to mobility inside and outside the corporate environment. Since then, corporate has been increasing security and keeping our workers happier.

The authentication that we handle is through a .p12 certificate, however, we have integrated it with a 2MFA service through another provider. Something that could improve Check Point is if it had its own 2MFA service through a blade or some sort of application. We'd be able to give a better experience to companies that already have a contract or Check Point services that deal with a work-from-home environment, giving greater scope and coverage from a single centralized dashboard.

I've used the solution for more than two years

The stability is the best.

The scalability is great.

 We have witnessed a fast response from the support team.

We did not use a different solution.

The initial setup was not overly complex.

We handled the installation in-house.

We've witnessed a 40% ROI.

The price is a little high, however, the solution is something that we recommend often.

We did evaluate other options.

We use Check Point Remote Access VPN to provide access to employees, vendors, and advisors. They access the company resources - especially now that most people are working from home over the course of the last year. We also use it for specific companies that give us remote support to some applications, such as our parent company. Our admins access our company servers and resources. We're using Remote Access VPN with specific profiles for them that only give access to some resources.

We have three distinct environments. Server, DMZ, and User/SHOP. The firewall connects to the internet and those firewalls are the ones that the people connect to for the Remote VPN. We have the Blade enabled and they access the company resources as if they were working at the office.

The headache of connecting has been removed. It's very stable and we don't have any issues with it connecting. We have a large majority of people that were using nothing and always coming to the office. However, since the last year, we have a whopping 75% of users that have switched to using Check Point Remote Access VPN. The biggest advantage of Check Point Remote Access VPN is that we already use the Check Point firewall. We only needed to enable the feature and do the configuration in order to enable the VPN feature. We didn't need to buy or manage new hardware. This was a big advantage.

The biggest advantage of Check Point Remote Access VPN is that we already use the Check Point firewall. We only needed to enable the feature and do the configuration in order to enable the VPN feature. We didn't need to buy or manage new hardware. This was a big advantage. 

The integration with two-factor authentication for remote access users is another valuable feature. In our case we use RSA.

Those two are the most valuable aspects that we have on the solution. It also gives us the possibility to securely connect to the company resources, without Check Point security measures.

Another great thing is that we already have all the logs from the firewall on the SmartPortal as the remote VPN also integrates into the firewall. We can see all the logs on the same tool because we also have a fully secure solution for Remote Access VPN. For full operational security, we need to manage the different hardware from the firewalls and the logs that are not in the same place. This is another valuable aspect of this solution.

Having access to those logs affects our security operations because if a user calls the support but does not have access to the VPN, we can see on the same tool on the SmartPortal and troublshoot. 

We don't have any specific complaints. We are very happy with the Windows client. You log in with the VPN for the full client, you do the log in right from the software itself. For Linux machines, they don't have a full client to install. For the users that utilize Linux, there needs to be an equivalent. The documentation of the software needs to be more accessible. If an end-user wants to have access to customized training from the company, that should be able to be built-in. I would add that feature. 

I've been using the solution for around 1.5 years.

The stability is good. It's a never-fail.

The scalability is great. We deploy to 5000+ users.

It's second to none but we haven't needed it a lot. 

We used to use Fortinet. We switched because it was hard to deploy. 

Just pull the trigger on a 3rd party. Not complex at all. 

We used both a vendor and in-house talent. 

The ROI was instant and around 54%.

Go with a third party and get it set up correctly. It may be costly but it's worth it. 

We didn't evaluate anything else. I knew a vendor and had used the software before. 

Get this software installed as soon as possible. It's a smart move.