Information about Check Point VPN-1/FireWall-1

The latest version is R76. It integrates the Multi-Domain Security Management (aka Provider-1), the Virtual Systems (aka VSX) as well as the Endpoint Policy Management Blade in one version. SmartConsole comes with a new look and feel, as R75.40VS did before. 

Version R75 introduced the Application Control Software Blade, Identity Awareness, the Integrated DLP Software Blade and Mobile Access blade. 
Before, R71 has been published in May 2010. New Software Blades for DLP and SmartEvent have been published with it. It's based on the latest major release, published in March 2009: R70. This version introduced Software Blades, making the licensing very modular. Because R7x is a new major release, a new license is needed to get access to all new features. Please contact your reseller to obtain it.

Please be aware that Check Point has changed the licensing for RAS - today, you need an Endpoint Security Container with Service Blades for the use of e.g. VPN, Full Disk Encryption or Endpoint Security Secure Access.

Licenses for NGX and earlier will only work with R70. Since R71 the new licensing scheme using Software Blades is strictly enforced. If you haven't updated yet, please do it. In most cases you can do it for free in your Check Point UserCenter account.

Other versions (NGX R65, NGX R62, NGX R61, and NGX R60) were officially supported until March 2011 and May 2009, respectively. If you cannot upgrade, please contact your reseller to obtain (restricted) support. A quarterly fee per system is due. If you still have NG AI (e.g. R54/R55) in production, please upgrade as soon as possible!

R75:
In July 2012, Check Point has released R75.40VS. This version has integrated VSX which is now also licensed by using Software Blades. Besides this, a modified GUI comes with this version.
The latest hotfix of the regular version is R75.46. Please be aware that currently no direct upgrade from R75.46 to R76 is possible. It includes many fixes and has all features of R75.40. This release delivered many new features as well as the new Operating System called GAIA. It includes all bufixes that were published with R75.30. The release before (R75.20) started offering many improvements regarding URL filtering combined with new features regarding DLP as well as SSL inspection for IPS, APCL, URLF, and DLP. The earlier published R75.10 delivers some improvements like e.g. better performance for the GUI, support of Edge Firmware 8.2 and SecuRemote R75.10.

R71:
In May 2012, version R71.50 has been published. It shows some improvements in comparison with the earlier version R71.45, e.g. support of Security Gateway 80. These versions deliver more functionality and compatibility, as also R71.40 does. These two versions offer direct upgrade to R75.40, but R71.50 does this currently not. When using the SSL VPN Software Blade (i.e. Mobile Access Blade), please use at least version R71.10, since there is a security problem when using SSL VPN in R71 without patch. 

R70:
The latest version of R70 is R70.50. If you plan an upgrade to R75.40, a direct upgrade is possible (but not to earlier versions). Using R70.30 might still be useful if an upgrade to other version as R75.40 is planned. Some important improvements as well as more features (to be licensed) have been introduced with Version R70.20. It's available for all users of R70. At least this version should be used in productive environments. As usual, please regard that the GUI needs to be of the same version as the Security Management, e.g. SmartConsole 70.30 for the corresponding versions of R70.

NGX R65:
When using this (outdated and no more supported) version, you should use HFA_70 for NGX R65. Since December 2007 the corresponding GUI für Microsoft Windows is SmartConsole NGX R65 HFA_01. Please be aware that neither this nor elder versions are supported any more.