Category: gripes

While I was in San Diego for the past few days, perhaps the biggest challenge–aside from never having more than 10 minutes to myself at a stretch–was keeping my iPhone’s battery charged. The Sales Kick Off meeting we had for …

Here is some feedback I have sent to Apple regarding the latest issues related to Apple killing “Google Voice” type applications in the App Store and Apple’s statements that jailbreaking your …

This past week, I have primarily been using my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic …

Seeing as how I have my Check Point CCSE again, and it’s likely I’m going to be working for Check Point at some point in the near future, I figure it’d be worth my while to get a “proper” Nokia firewall going again. I opted for the following:

NGX R65 HFA_40 SmartCenter on Secure Platform (SPLAT) installed in a VMware VM
NGX R62 HFA_01 firewall installed on a Nokia IP260

Yes, I realize that R62 is going EOL in May. However, the IP260 is by far the quietest machine I have around here, and if I’m going to have it on all the time, I want it quiet. That’s another reason I went with a management station in a VM: the machine the VM runs on is relatively quiet.

To frame my experience properly, it’s probably worth reiterating some facts:

At some point in my life, I was considered an expert on the Check Point VPN-1 product. Maintaining an FAQ and writing two books on the product gives people that impression, even today
The last time I did anything serious with Check Point was back in the NG AI days, which is about where my second Check Point Firewall-1 book goes up to. In other words, roughly 5 years ago.
I currently maintain the knowledge base for Nokia’s Security Appliance Business which, unsurprisingly, has a lot of Check Point-related stuff in it. Yes, I read a lot of stuff about the product even though I haven’t got a lot of recent, practical experience with the product.
I have never, prior to the CPUG University class I took recently, even seen SPLAT, much less installed it on anything.

With these facts in mind, I created a blank VM and loaded up the SPLAT ISO. How hard can it be, I figure?

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="202" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]

A while ago, I got a pair of …