I acquired the Z100G from a colleague a few days ago, and I wanted to make sure the device works before I pay $70 for the subscription. My colleague had issues connection to the LAN from the WLAN and decided not to use the device.
I have configured the Z100G and I am having issues with the wired LAN connections. The wireless works great, even access to the wired LAN (NAS & other systems) & the printer work without problems.
But the wired connections are very temperamental - works good, then flaky and really slow / dropping packets, and even no connection. I enabled logging for http & dns outbound traffic from the LAN, until I resolve the issue. The Z100G shows permitted (green) http & dns connections from the LAN to the internet. The connections are logged as permitted, even if I cannot get to the internet, my.firwall, or ping any other internal system. This happens from any of the wired systems (xp, vista, 2008, ubuntu ). I have rebooted the entire network and I have tried static & dhcp ip addresses, dhcp usually has limited or no connectivity at times. I have tried several different Ethernet cables. I have noticed, if I only have port 1 occupied only – the connection is mediocre. For instance, I started a download of Fedora and the speed started at around 100KB/sec which reduces to a range of 40 – 60kb/sec. The wireless ranges from 400 – 450kb/sec. I would expect the opposite. If I occupy another port or plug in the usb printer, the wired connection drops to a range of 1.5 to 4kb/sec. When I ping the Z100G, at this point – I there are several drops. What is going on here?
The Z100G does have 6.5.48x firmware, because I had to reset the device. I really like the device, but I am hesitant to purchase the subscription if I do not know updated firmware will help the issue. Could it be possible the device or the ports are bad. Has anyone had problems like this? I read the support subscription includes extended hardware replacement. If I purchase support, would I qualify for hardware replacement? If not, I have also considered buying a brand new Z100G, so I have support and a warrantee. I have heard that the device is flaky, but compared to a production CheckPoint – you can't beat the price, but you get what you pay for. Does a new Z100G come with a year subscription or 90 days? Also, does anyone know what the newest hardware version is? This device has the 1.3T – about a year old.

Thanks in advance for any feedback or answers.

SchroE46

Normal Release level is 7.6.s something.
I'm in the 8.024 early release program.
Big jump from version 7 to 8.
Last year mine came with 7 I think.

As far as a Checkpoint product - it's a far cry from a NOkia running REAL checkpoint software. I personally have a problem with the Anti-virus slowing down downloads. I turn it off.

For the wired ports to be giving you such a hard time - check out the PORT SPEEDS. It sounds like you got the device used. Maybe the person had a 10/HALF network speed. Maybe your wired computers are using 100/FULL or autodetect. Try making sure the PC and the firewall ports are all 100/FULL DUPLEX.

Report back the findings.

Thanks Stan, The port speed & duplex may have been the one thing I overlooked. I know I was going to check, and I must have gotten sidetrack. I know the Z100G is a grain of sand in a ocean compared to the Real Checkpoint, I was just referencing to the price factor.

Now that the wired speeds are improving, the wireless is stalling on downloading pages. Each time a web page is clicked on, the page will display as white and after a few to many seconds the entire page appears at once - almost like the page is being cached. Since I do not have a subscription, I do not have a virus database. Therefore all Anti-Virus on the device is disabled/off.

I am having issues with a Dell A940 USB printer plugged into the device. When I print from the wired desktop, there is a status page I tried to get rid of. Regardless, at 99% complete the status page hangs around and I click cancel and the job remains in the printer queue as deleting. But never does, the job prints every time I reboot. And I have tried resetting the print server through the Z100Gweb config. The job never leaves, needless to say - the only thing I can print is the original job. I believe printing from the wireless laptop seems to work ok.

Stan, Thanks again for you help.