[Christofer Hoff]

Hello again. I will try to answer these questions from
multiple posts in somewhat of a relevant order:

1. Thanks for the kind words, Ringbuffer. I've actually
been at Crossbeam for almost 7 months, so my first few 28+
weeks have been very interesting and rewarding ;) By the
way, I purchased both X and C Series products at my prior
place of employment.

2. BGP has not been offered or supported on the C-Series. I don't know from
whom Tomsite obtained the routing code he refers to, but I show no
EA releases for any sort of 'beta routing code' for the C-Series
in out ticketing system. I will personally continue to query our field engineers
as well as support staff and I would be more than glad to research
this further to clarify/resolve, however. It just seems odd to me.

Onto the more pertinent issues:

3. Can you deny the C10 and C30 had disk problems?
No, as the C10 did have disk problems, but the C30/C30i did not.
We have remedied the faulty equipment by replacing any identified or affected
drives with a more robust drive unit from a different manufacturer. Further, we also
cleared all distribution stock to make sure no customers received a
unit with the faulty drive. As to the software issue you referred to
this was fixed in COS 3.6.

4. Can you deny that the Dual-CPU C-series had a crippled kernel that did not support SMP?
Yes, as your statement is inaccurate. This issue is not an issue of a "crippled kernel"
but rather an issue where the Dual-CPU C-Series did not support SMP with Check Point FP3
due to an application incompatibility. The newest versions of Check Point's products (R55, R55W, R60
(NGX) and R61) are fully supported and working with SMP kernels. It was a bug. It was
fixed. The workaround (see #5) is no longer required.

5. Can you deny that the support fix was to boot the UNI kernel?
No, as this was the most prudent response until we found the root
cause and fixed it. See above. At this point, any C-Series that includes dual
processor support is fully qualified for dual CPU and Check Point firewall.
Just to be clear, dual-CPU is beneficial only for security servers, logging
and VPN acceleration.

6. Can you deny that the NP on the C30 cannot be used with CHKP ClusterXL?
Yes, as your statement is inaccurate. To make sure everyone is on the
same page, there are three basic acceleration options available:

a) CheckPoint Performance Pack – software based acceleration coming from
CKP, available on all C-Series for an extra license cost.

b) Crossbeam NIM, hardware accelerator on C30 – hardware based acceleration
from CBS, available on C30 for no extra cost

c) Crossbeam FAM, software based acceleration on NIM less C-Series -
available from CBS for no extra cost

You cannot utilize Crossbeam’s NIM, SecureXL and ClusterXL simultaneously
on the C30 in “High Availability” and “Load Sharing Multicast” mode with R55 and
NGX. VPN-1 and FloodGate-1 are not supported together with any SecureXL enabled
– this is a limitation from CKP.

The C30 and NIM acceleration can be used with CHKP ClusterXL in “High Availability”
and “Load Sharing Multicast” modes.

Crossbeam’s SecureXL implementation does not include the ClusterXL module
for acceleration. Therefore SecureXL would have to be disabled to run ClusterXL
on the C30. ClusterXL works on all other C platforms.

7. As to the issue regarding support of Check Point products, I believe there
may have been a misunderstanding depending upon your level of support. If you can
PM/eMail me with your case number, I will research this issue.

To be clear, our support engineers will actively work with a customer and their Check
Point installations inasmuch as the Check Point issue at hand can be related to an issue
with their supported Crossbeam hardware (such as in the Nokia examples above.)

I trust I have answered all of the outstanding questions and clarified those issues
raised above. Should you have any issues, please feel free to contact me at your convenience
and I -- or anyone on the Crossbeam team -- will make sure to get anyone the answers they
need, quickly, accurately and truthfully.


Regards,

Chris