Check Point Remote Access VPN Reviews

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 are hosting environments for our customers and ourselves. With Check Point Client, VPN users that aren't in their internal networks can connect via a secure connection into the internal network.

Remote users use different clients (Windows, Linux, and Mac OS) so depending on the customer, there is either a client connection or a clientless approach (using a web portal).

Users can also be identified if they use the Client VPN solution. If you want to identify them inside the network you have to use an IA agent.

Once set up, it simply works without issues.

The main advantage is that if you already have a Check Point Gateway in place you don't have to buy additional hardware. You only need to check if there are enough resources on the gateway for the additional load and decide how many concurrent users you need.

The installation was fairly straightforward thanks to the Admin Guide and the User Center.

Adding a Radius or similar to use for the user authentication can also easily be done so you don't have to create local users. Depending on the size of the user base I would also recommend MFA.

A normal Check Point Gateway has, with the base license, 5 concurrent users included. This means that in emergency situations you don't have to buy additional licenses.

During Covid, the license was increased and therefore it was easily possible to have several users working from home.

It's possible to either have a client installed on the user's machine, or have a clientless approach using the web portal. 

There is MEP functionality, so, based on the user's location, it minimizes the latency by connecting to the nearest entry point. 

The non-standard setup is quite complex as you have to do changes via GUI and CLI. Luckily, Check Point knowledgebase articles help you, however, there are so many resources you have to go through.

The Client VPN licenses are for concurrent users and there is currently no way to prioritize certain users over others.

There is no possibility to increase the number of concurrent users for a short time (except if you have unlimited concurrent users licensed). This could help during emergency situations where there are more client VPN users than anticipated.

I've used the product for over 7 years.

For a basic setup, implementation is quite easy.

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.

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. 

We use Check Point Remote Access VPN to provide access to our corporate network and resources to remote users in a secure way. Users have access that is limited or defined by the server.

Access is granted for identified devices post-posture validation. 

Access should be provided via VPN using multifactor authentication other than username/credentials. Users are able to connect from anywhere at anytime using both mechanisms (i.e. User VPN client or browser). 

This solution mitigates or minimizes data leakage issues.

It is stable and scalable and requires minimal management and access provisioning.

This solution has improved our organization by providing access to corporate resources in a secure fashion. It uses complete end-to-end encryption from the end-user machine to the VPN device.

Access policies are created on the firewall for restricting access to resources and applications based on the user profile/policy.

Our security gateway is integrated with Active Directory and access to resources/applications is provided based on the security group created in Active directory.

This product has inbuild/native integration with MFA solutions.  

It does not require any additional hardware in cases where the organization already has the Check Point NGFW. The mobile access blade and remote access VPN can be enabled on the same security gateway. Check Point provides a common dashboard and management console used in conjunction with the NGFW.

Multiple access can be provided using multiple realms, based on the user ID or security group, and access can be provided accordingly. Each realm will have a pool of IP addresses for which access will be provisioned on the firewall.

Organizations that already use the Check Point NGFW Solution do not require any additional hardware, which makes the implementation straightforward and reduces the time to go live. The only requirement is to purchase an additional license from Check Point, and then enable the mobile access blade. After this, the solution is ready to roll out and provide access based on the configured policy. 

Access is restricted based on user ID, security group, and device type. 

Access is provisioned post-posture policy validation and it offers protection against users connecting to the corporate network from non-corporate devices, which minimizes data leakage possibilities. 

Access is available from browsers or VPN clients using MFA. This is helpful in cases where the machine does not have the client installed or the client is corrupted.

We are able to restrict access based on geo-location and device type. Devices can be Android, iOS, Windows, or Linux.

It provides threat prevention capabilities while uses connect via VPN for Windows devices.

Access is provisioned based on a single L3 tunnel being established between the endpoint and the VPN device. If an attacker gains access to this session then all of the tunnel traffic is compromised. It needs to move to next-generation style access, provisioning such as per-app VPN.

The GUI interface for configuring the SSL VPN is not user-friendly and requires expertise. 

Devices are exposed over the internet and it can lead to a security threat.

When a critical patch needs to be applied to the VPN, downtime is required for the entire NGFW. This can impact the business when it has a single security gateway.

This product cannot manage sudden user growth, as each security gateway has limitations in terms of performance and throughput.

The fully-featured security module is only supported on Windows and Mac systems, which means that organizations with Linux will face issues providing secure access. Specifically, modules such as Threat prevention, Access control, and Incident analysis are supported only on Windows and Mac.

It's very stable in terms of downtime, although it required updates.

The solution can be easily scaled by adding a security gateway.

The Check Point technical support is excellent.

We used Aventail SonicWALL as a standalone product. We switched because it was expensive in terms of management and maintenance. As we already had Check Point NGFW, it was easy to enable the VPN on the same device.

Enabling the VPN was simple and straightforward with the purchase of an additional license from the OEM. Once we acquired the license, it involved enabling the module on the security gateway. The solution was ready to go live within 10-15 minutes.

The implementation was completed by our in-house team with the assistance of the OEM.

Organizations that already have the Check Point NGFW need to purchase an additional license to have access to the VPN functionality.

We evaluated Pulse and Citrix before choosing this option. 

Traditional VPNs that work on L3 or L4, with a single VPN tunnel, are typically hosted on-premises. As organizations are adopting cloud computing, it makes sense to have a VPN solution hosted on the cloud for better control and security.

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.

I use Remote Access VPN for clientless applications, setting up WireGuard tunnels, and WireGuard VPN as a service. It provides remote access for SIP setups, allowing users to connect securely through a VPN.

The most valuable features include application access, clientless application access, and WireGuard. These features make it easy to deploy and offer a user-friendly interface. The complexity is hidden within a full mesh network, allowing seamless user-to-application connectivity with minimal delay.

Automations for cloud integrations need to be expanded, and currently, developers have to manually configure APIs, which is not developer-centric. Improving this process could enhance the solution's scalability and efficiency.

I have used Check Point Remote Access VPN for two and a half years.

Some connectivity issues arise occasionally, especially when accessing the internet or using other applications. The installed client sometimes reconnects, possibly due to conflicts with existing VPN solutions.

The solution is extremely scalable, with an eight out of ten rating due to its mesh network and ability to build WireGuard tunnels. However, additional automation is required to enhance its enterprise features.

Customer service is excellent. Support is integrated into the product, making it easy to access without needing to search for contact information. There is an icon in the portal for online support, and Check Point local support promptly replies to queries.

Positive

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the initial setup of Check Point Remote Access VPN as ten because it is super easy to set up.

The pricing is rated eight to 8.5 out of ten. The costs increase with the purchase of advanced features. Licensing issues need to be sorted as different features require separate licenses.

The best solution for small to medium businesses. Licensing issues need to be sorted out. For example, features like CASB and browser security should be bundled. Having automations will help scale to other scenarios.

I'd rate the solution ten out of ten.

For remote work, Check Point Remote Access VPN connects, creates the site, and gathers information about the site in terms of the VPN domain, the public IP at that time, and so on.

The Check Point products provide solid detection and advanced malware protection, which helps safeguard the organization’s security infrastructure. The platform offers essential features like sandboxing that perform well in threat detection.

The advanced malware protection and the sandboxing features are very valuable as they perform well, with detection being very high. Additionally, the panel features are also solid.

There are some issues with the Check Point VPN, such as its complexity compared to other VPN clients. Another downside is related to performance, which lags behind similarly priced products like those from Palo Alto. The platform becomes layered with add-ons, moving away from its original simplicity, which poses a problem.

I have been using Check Point since version 4.1, which amounts to about 15 years.

I rate the stability of Check Point Remote Access VPN as a seven out of ten. I experienced an issue when there was a recent upgrade to address a vulnerability that required the use of both a VPN user and a password along with a certificate or another form of identity confirmation. This was not mentioned in the upgrade notes, which initially caused some problems.

The scalability of Check Point Remote Access VPN is decent. On a scale of one to ten, I rate it a seven.

Check Point's support has always been great. They are very responsive, and we always get technically capable people. I would rate their support a nine or nine point five out of ten.

Positive

I have worked with multiple vendors, including Palo Alto and Fortinet.

For someone new to Check Point products or coming from managing other products, the setup can be difficult. However, for someone familiar with Check Point, the setup hasn't changed much over the years.

I am on the technical side and do not typically consider the business returns or ROI of the product.

I am not familiar with the exact pricing details. However, the pricing for the basic remote access VPN is a lot less than that of other vendors, and it comes with many features within the basic package.

I have compared Check Point with Palo Alto. Palo Alto is more GUI-based, which makes it easier to use, but it requires more configuration knowledge.

For regular users, Check Point firewalls are easier to configure compared to Palo Alto's. In terms of detection rates and performance, both Check Point and Palo Alto are very good.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

This functionality is very practical to be able to connect to the business network from anywhere; the monitoring that can be provided and the granularity in the VPN to provide control to users is really good.

It offers excellent performance to be able to connect our users to business applications outside the company perimeter.           

It is easy to use and has an easy-to-use connectivity agent, and can be integrated with MFA to provide an additional layer.

In these times when the priority is telecommuting or working from home, it is essential to provide accessibility to the company safely. Through Check Point it was possible to provide this essential comfort to users who work in this modern format.

One of the features that draws a lot of attention is the integration of the remote VPN application in our Check Point gateway and management server, where it is easy to use.

The granular control and access under the Check Point policies made applying a zero trust policy much easier, providing greater security.

The integration with MFA through a configuration and integration with Azure is quite good, providing security to the user's identity. It is a very important feature where everything is tried to shield against modern vulnerabilities.

The license is included with gw licensing, however, in terms of the number of users that can be activated for use.                                                                                       

In our case, we quote additional licensing and it is quite expensive for remote VPN, other manufacturers are not so expensive.

The support provided is slow, in addition to the fact that the service hours are contrary to ours, which generates slower problem solving, I think it is important to improve this area.

This is a not-so-new tool that can be used in our gateways and management products. We have used these VPNs since we started using our environments with this manufacturer.

On a personal level, I had previously used Cisco and Azure VPN, among others, however, the control generated with Check Point is not the same. It is much better.

It is essential to validate how many remote VPNs are required, check costs, and see if they are within the scope of the company.

We validated the scope against other manufacturers and were satisfied with the security features provided by Check Point.

On a technical level, the tool is very good, and safe, in addition to providing a lot of control.

We use Check PointVPN to securely connect to our main office systems, which are behind a firewall. This ensures that all incoming and outgoing traffic is encrypted and secure.

The security of the solution is a good feature, the stability is a valuable feature, and the customization is also a nice feature.

The provisioning of VPN users has room for improvement.

The solution can improve by providing an option to centrally manage and upgrade client applications on a PC.

I have been using the solution for five years.

We found the previous checkpoint version to be quite unstable, as it would occasionally cause issues with the VPN caching every two months. However, we have since updated the solution and the stability has improved significantly, with no further occurrences of this issue.

The solution is licensed-based, so to scale up we only need to add more licenses.

The tech support isn't great. They take a long time to get to our ticket. Their initial response was fast, but after we provided the information they asked for, there was a month of silence before we updated the ticket again. Ultimately, the problem was resolved with newer versions without any response from tech support.

Neutral

I previously used Mikro Tik VPN which is cheap and includes enterprise features but is hard to configure.

The initial setup is straightforward if we are knowledgeable about the task at hand. However, it is recommended to consider a few things and to have a reliable technical support team to assist with the initial deployment. For a small company, the first step is relatively straightforward. However, if we are looking to scale up, we may need to enlist the help of a consultant to properly configure the necessary parameters, as there are many of them to consider.

Once we have configured users, access lists, written firewall rules, and deployed clients to endpoints, the next step is to educate employees on how to use the solution.

On average the deployment took around two weeks to configure all the certificates. This included preparing laptops and PCs. For just the VPN with central management deployment, it would take one week.

Our deployment was completed by two people.

I give the price of the solution a five out of ten. 

We have a subscription-based license.

I give the solution a seven out of ten.

We have 250 people using the solution in our organization.

Managing updates to endpoints can be a bit of a hassle, but there isn't much maintenance required.