TABLE OF CONTENTS Check Point FireWall-1 came out in 1994 and was an immediate success. It has been the market-leading firewall platform for over 10 years. It is no wonder the platform has done so well. The Check Point Graphical User Interface for managing firewall policies is extremely intuitive and easy to learn.
Check Point has come a long way since 1994. The first version of FireWall-1 ran only on the Sun Solaris operating system platform. Every year since then new features have been added to the product to keep up with emerging threats. In 1996 a Windows NT version was introduced. An alliance with Nokia, a network security hardware vendor, proved a perfect match and the hardware appliances are very popular. A Linux version arrived in 2002 and since then Check Point has released a hardened operating system specifically made for FireWall-1, and named it SecurePlatform.
Chapter 1 is a good starting point for new and existing VPN-1/FireWall-1 users alike. This chapter will discuss the various methods that are deployed among different firewall vendors and open source solutions. It is important to know the differences among firewall technologies to further comprehend the advantages of Check Point VPN-1/FireWall-1. This chapter will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each technology with a strong focus on Stateful Inspection, which VPN-1/FireWall-1 utilizes.
In the beginning of the Internet there were no firewalls. Computers on the network were directly connected to the Internet and everything seemed to be fine until November 2, 1998, that...
