[Encryption]

Hello everyone!,

I am not sure what I am supposed to say here so I'll just give you a little run down of my Check Point certifications and some of the places I have worked and some of the products I have worked with. If I find out later that this is the wrong place for that then I'll come back and edit it.

Here goes:

I have been working with Check Point products before they had products with that brand. It was originally called Solstice when it was a co venture between Sun Microsystems and an unknown, back then, company called Check Point.

I got my first Check Point certification (CCSA/CCSE) 3.0 when it was a convert oxygen exam, meaning if you paid for the weeks worth of training you got the certification And I have maintained CCSA/CCSE through NGX. I am Provider-1/Site Manager-1/NGX certified, and VPN-1 VSX NG AI Release 2 certified. I am also Crossbeam COS/XOS certified ( a pretty good high volume appliance that has a partnership with Check Point).

I have way too many other certifications to list, this is just the ones related specifically to Check Point.

My last job I worked at Check Point on their Provider-1 / VSX support team. If you called in during the evening times between the begining of 2005 and the end of 2006 with a complex issue on a higher end problem there was a good chance I was the one answering the phone. They wanted to put me on their escalation team but I declined because it's a lot more responsibility without any additional compensation. I loved it there! The people are the greatest. I learned more about Check Point in those 2 years than the previous 12 I have been working with their products. In the end I left to pursue my Masters degree in computer science, which is what I am doing now.

I have worked at some pretty note worth places on teams that were responsible for the security of huge corporate assets.

I worked at Capital Group / America Funds (the world's largest mutual fund company), Cingular Wireless (the nation's -USA- largest cellular provider), Digital and then Compaq after they were bought out, and Bank of America (the nation's largest bank).

As far as network security goes I have seen and done a lot. I am sure I may be able to help some of the other members on here that have questions but we never stop learning so I might ask one or two myself.

When I first started using Check Point it was on Sun Solaris, as far as I know that was the only platform it would run on back then. As far as Sun hardware goes I have run CP all the way from a Sun ultra 2 to redundant Sun E10000. I have run CP on almost every version of Nokia appliance made. I can't even describe all the hardware I have run CP on with SPLAT (Secure Platform). I have been involved with VSX and standard CP installments and ongoing support on every version of Crossbeam's products.

My favorite product of all is Provider-1. I got a chance to beta this for CP when I was working at Bank of America. It was pretty good even back then but wow it has really grown up!

The one place where I don't have very much experience with Check Point is it's Secure Remote and Secure Client products. enough to pass the exams but I would need some brushing up if I had to work on an actual installation, other than using it as an end client.

Well, that's all I know to say. This is my first day on the forum and hope that I can meet some new people and see what's going on in the Check Point world while I am working on my MS degree.

Thanks for reading,

Nick Powers