Customer Reviews

Essential Checkpoint Firewall-1: An Installation, Configuration, and Troubleshooting Guide

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mr. Welch, aka "PhoneBoy", moves from strength to strength, with this book. If you are new to CheckPoint FW-1: buy this book. If you currently use CheckPoint FW-1: buy this book. "PhoneBoy", did not just write, this book, he has been writing this book -- through his massive FW-1 FAQ -- for some time. Hence, the quality of this work is beyond that of a mere 'book' in the common sense and traditional view.

Dameon really shows his experience, and cuts right to the heart of _all_ the critical issues covered. Most 'computer' books (besides TCP/IP Illustrated (1,2&3) , O'Really Unix & a few Worx Press books) are total lame, marketing-slick filled tripe; as we all know that's why we have jobs ;)

Most Tech books are made by Cor(e)Pirate losers who listen to some wanker pitch lame re-Hashes of the already subpar vendor docs (& Web site slicks). This book, on the other hand, is a high quality Tome, guaranteed to be an overnight `classic', in the feild. Visit, the Web site of the Master, his nickname .com, or that of the publisher AW to get a .PDF version of Chap 9, this is the VPN Chap and, as stated in a review here, one of the strongest Chaps in the book. Actually, all the chapters are strong, it's just that VPNs within the CheckPoint context are very important, and can be complex. If manuals are fine, its time to Read This new Fine Manual for CheckPoint FW-1.

With this book and a copy of the FW-1 GUI run *local, you could pass the CCSA and CCSE: without ever actually touching a real CheckPoint FW-1 install.

CheckPoint should ship this with every firewall they sell, that's how good this book is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Checkpoint FireWall-1 has become one of the top firewall software products in the industry. There are many reasons for its predominance. It was the first commercial
firewall on the market, but more importantly, the FireWall-1 GUI and its ease of use impressed corporate CIO's.

Although FireWall-1 is easy to use, some users face difficulty in configuring the product correctly and appropriately. In fact, one of the biggest dangers of a firewall is that it can
provide a false sense of security; if not properly configured, a firewall may have so many holes that it actually functions as nothing more than a router. Firewall expert Marcus
Ranum notes that, "...eventually, if enough data is going back and forth through your firewall, it is no longer a firewall -- it is a router."

Many times, firewall administrators are hired not because of their expertise in information security, but because they know network and systems administration quite
well. Many FireWall-1 administrators start with zero experience and knowledge. This is good from a job security and training perspective, but terrible from a security perspective.
Despite the proliferation and ubiquitous nature of FireWall-1 over the past decade, it is only in the last few months that any worthwhile books on FireWall-1 have become
available. One of the best is Essential Checkpoint Firewall-1: An Installation, Configuration, and Troubleshooting Guide by Dameon Welch-Abernathy. Welch-
Abernathy maintains a Web site, ..., which contains information on anything and everything related to FireWall-1. In fact, many FireWall-1 administrators have
... bookmarked as their prime site for FireWall-1 information, even before the Check Point support site.

Although the documentation that comes with FireWall-1 is quite good, Essential Checkpoint Firewall-1 often surpasses it. This is what makes Welch-Abernathy known as
the man for FireWall-1. Even Nir Zuk, who was a principal engineer at Check Point, stated that Welch-Abernathy's knowledge of FireWall-1 in many cases surpassed the
knowledge of Check Point's own engineers.

As its title implies, the book covers the installation, configuration, and troubleshooting of FireWall-1. Whereas the product itself is pretty straightforward to install (except for the
software license information), the real challenge is in the post- installation arena. The book has 14 chapters and, by Chapter 3 (page 34), the book is already into FireWall-
1. Other books often include up to 100 pages of filler on topics such as computer secrity, cryptography, threats, etc., and don't get to the main subject until half way through the
book. Chapter 4 of this book provides a thorough overview of how to build a rulebase. The chapter describes the various fields and objects that need to be created for the
firewall to be effective. Although the simplicity of the Check Point GUI is obvious, the definition of names, network objects, and so forth, must be carefully planned -- especially
for rollouts of FireWall-1 in large enterprise environments.

Chapter 8 provides an excellent overview of content security. FireWall-1 is built on its patented Stateful Inspection capabilities, but it has other security facilities including CVP
(Content Vectoring Protocol), UFP (URL Filtering Protocol), and others. The chapter describes much of the secondary content protection capabilities of FireWall-1. Such

capabilities are crucial in light of the volume of information that passes through corporate firewalls (including streaming media, email, files, Java, etc.).

Essential Checkpoint Firewall-1 covers all the crucial topics that any FireWall-1 administrator needs to know. From authentication, VPN, logging, high availability, and
more, it is all there. This is what makes Essential Checkpoint Firewall-1 the book of choice for FireWall-1.

This is one of those rare books that delivers what the title claims. It gives in-depth instructions on Firewall-1 installation, configuration and troubleshooting, and also includes additional material on security and networking that goes beyond what the title promises.

What I especially liked about this book are the little details that have a big impact if they're overlooked. Notable examples include:

(1) Quick, but thorough, introduction that provides an overview of firewalls at a general level, and the key features and benefits of Firewall-1 in particular.
(2) Issues, such the need for a security policy, are addressed early on. This is an important consideration and the author goes beyond merely highlighting the need by giving you a brief template to use in creating one.
(3) Guide through the labyrinth of Check Point's Firewall-1 licensing schemes - this is a nice touch because mastering the technology is a less daunting task then figuring out Check Point's sales strategy.
(4) Strengths and weaknesses of candidate operating systems, and a straightforward process for installing and configuring Firewall-1. The latter is a strong point because you'll benefit from the author's extensive experience and will save time by having a strategy instead of getting bit by obscure issues and learning painful lessons.

I like the way that each section ends with frequently asked questions. The author anticipates and answers common questions about installation, configuration and troubleshooting. Because of the way this book is structured it can serve as an off-the-shelf implementation and maintenance guide, eliminating the need to develop this material in-house.

This is one of the best written and well thought-out technical guides that I've had the pleasure of reading. It sets a high standard for similar books, but more importantly, it so completely covers Firewall-1 that you won't need anything but this book to implement and support this product.

This is the single best resource I have ever read on the subject of Checkpoint FireWall-1. The chapters on VPNs and NAT alone are worth the price of the book. Dameon Welch has done the firewall admin community a huge service through his website, [...], and now through this book. You simply cannot find a lot of the information contained in this book anywhere else - everything is covered, from planning and installation through content security, VPNs, SecuRemote and Client and high availability. Not only does he cover the hows and whys, there is an extensive amount of troubleshooting at the end of every topic. I really can't recommend this book enough!

Phoneboy hits a home run with this solution-filled engineer's guide to the Check Point FireWall-1 software package.

This is the book that the industry has been begging for as it fills in the gaps that everyone who uses FireWall-1 need to know about.

As a Certified Check Point Instructor, I recommend this book to all of my students who attend any of my classes, as this book gets down deeper than any other book on FireWall-1 to-date.

Highly recommended and easy to read. Novice and expert alike will learn more than he or she knows what to do with.

I have been setting up many firewalls (Linux...) and sooner or later I crashed into Firewall-1. I wanted to know more about it and its benefits compared to Linux iptables based firewall for example.

So I bought this book and started to read it (without actually using Firewall-1 at all). I was very impressed by the chapters that describe everything from the first steps on.

Like how to talk to company that need's a firewall, hot to analyze it, which OS to choose, how to prepare OS, how to licence Firewall-1....

A must book even for those that do not directly deal with Firewall-1 software.

Thank you Phoneboy for this really excellent Firewall cookbook that made my life easier in all aspects of thinking on firewall's!

I have to say, this is one awesome book. If you need to learn Firewall-1, look no further. When reading the book you feel like it's a friend taking the time to explain the topic. It was very well laid out and a really great read. It's not very often that you find someone who is not only knowledgeable but able to get that knowledge across. I don't care if you're a beginner or an expert. You will enjoy this book and get a lot out of it. I think it's safe to say it's the best book out there on Firewall-1. Buy it! You won't be disappointed.

Thanks Phoneboy.....5 Stars....

I got thrust into having to install a Checkpoint firewall with zero experience. I had a lot of other networking experience and understood all the concepts but had never installed a firewall. This book is the ONLY one that explains what you need to do. All the other books on Checkpoint are either too old or too vague. The book walks you through the concepts in an easy to understand manner and gives lots of examples. I've never written a review before for a book but this one made me want to tell everyone interested to buy it.

Training classes for checkpoint was'nt an option for me and there is no clear and understandable documentation available from Checkpoint.The book goes into detail and covers a lots of areas with examples, it cleared up a lot of issues very quickly.

Without a doubt this book covers all of his information from phoneboy.com website on installation, maintenance and troubleshooting all aspects of FW-1 and EVEN MORE in the addendum that you cannot find anywhere else!

Although it is not meant to be an "all-in-one" study guide to take the Checkpoint CCSA and CCSE test it amply takes up where Checkpoint is not. I'm a CCSE now and it helped me tremendously. It is a concise bible for Checkpoint implementation.

Very well written and tons of information. Excellent reference book. 5 stars easily.