RE: Checkpoint Question

["Oxenreider, Jeff" <jox () safelite com>]

Seeing how I just got done taking the CCSA/CCSE with Michael as my teacher,
I guess I'll just sit back and be quiet... :)

Seriously though, the courseware that ISS taught for the CCSA/SE course was
pretty nice.  Mike's not as much of a bonehead as he'd like ya'll to
believe, but I agree completely.  Not all courses/teachers are alike, having
taken a fair number of professional courses, ISS's was pretty darn good.  I
feel pretty lucky ending up in Mike's class, because he had a good amount of
knowledge on the Checkpoint software, even if he did miss a routing table
problem.....but even that wasn't really his fault. <laugh>



Jeffrey Oxenreider
Network Security Analyst
Safelite Glass Corp
Columbus, Ohio

-----Original Message-----
From: hermit1 [mailto:hermits () mac com]
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2000 11:49 AM
To: Cannella, Michael (ISS Southfield); 'Sachdev Neal';
firewall-wizards () nfr net
Subject: RE: [fw-wiz] Checkpoint Question


Pick your class carefully!  I took a class a couple of years ago after I 
had been working with FW-1 for a month or two.  The instructor gave us the 
course materials that consisted mainly of photocopies of the slides he 
showed, and he read the slides to us.  I got the feeling he was learning 
the material at the same time.
hermit


At 07:26 PM 4/20/00 -0400, Cannella, Michael (ISS Southfield) wrote:
> <Caveat>I teach the Checkpoint classes sometimes.</caveat>
>
> Like many questions about security, the answer to this one is: "it
depends."
> A few questions to consider:
>
> -How important is having the firewall up and working in a hurry to you/your
> organization?
>
>      Tight security firewall a high priority?  The vast majority of people
> can get it up and effective a lot more quickly by taking the course.
>
> -Will you be "allowed" to dedicate the required time at work to the
firewall?
> -Will inoperative NAT or VPN cost you money?
>
>      The cost of the class is often cheap compared to the cost of being 
> down....
>
>
> You _can_ get the information on your own that you would get in the
classes,
> and it's all available free on the internet.  But how much do you know
about
> firewalls to start with?  How much time will you really have at work to
lock
> yourself away with the firewall and get comfortable with it.  How many
> archived FW1 list posts do you want to sort through?
>
> Like Chris, I have issues with the courseware. Some people don't learn well
> in a classroom environment.  And not all instructors are created equal.
But
> as I tell my students, even with a bonehead like me teaching, at the very
> least the courses give you a combined four days in a lab with
> pseudo-real-world conditions--time enough to:
>
> --try a lot of different settings and configurations without real-world 
> repercussions,
> --get familiar with the firewall, the gui, all of its features (even the 
> ones nobody uses)
>
> In a typical class, lots of people make lots of mistakes--an observant
> student will realize that these mistakes and the symptoms they cause are
> valuable troubleshooting experience for the real world.