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Checkpoint SecuRemote & Windows 7 64-bit Workaround
Hi All
I'm putting this in the public domain for anyone who wants to know! I use Checkpoint SecuRemote in WinXP and WinVista (both 32 bit) to access work, but decided to try Windows 7 x64 - it's a great OS and I can finally access all 4Gb of RAM - but I've had a helluva time getting SecuRemote to work. In the end I decided:
- SecuRemote is NOT compatible with 64bit Win7
- SecuRemote works with the XP mode install but is not worth the memory/CPU footprint (not to mention VirtualPCbeta won't let me use my old MSDOS/Win31/Win9x/Win2k virtual machines)
- SecuRemote only seems to work from WinXP when installed in virtual PC 2007
Here's what happened:
The "SR_GUI" process would not start up properly in my install of Win7x64 (even with clean install), and the gold key icon would not appear as it should in the taskbar notification area. After some digging around I found this was because the services that "SR_GUI" required were not started ("SR_Service" and "SR_Watchdog"). When I tried to start these services manually in services.msc I got "Error 1075: The service could not be started because the dependencies are missing or have been marked for deletion". I found out the dependent drivers these services needed were "VPN-1" (VPN-1 Module, file "vpn.sys), "FW1" (SecuRemote Miniport driver, file "fw.sys") and "CP_OMM" (CheckPoint Office Manager Module, file "omdrv.sys). These are all Checkpoint files and are copied over during the client install. By default these files were placed in the 64bit windows driver folder(C:\windows\syswow64\drivers) and did not appear in the dependencies tab of the service properties in "services.msc". I copied the files over to the C:\windows\system32\drivers folder and the "VPN-1" dependency was then recognised in the service properties but the other two dependencies were not. I tried dropping copies in various other folders but without success. I can only assume that "fw.sys" and "omdrv.sys" are not 64bit compatible and Win7 cannot Load them. I haven't downloaded Win7x32 to try it, but that kind of defeats the main reason for going 64 bit (ie: more RAM).
BTW I tried "SC_NGX_R60_HFA2_630000044" and "VPN-1_SecureClient_NGX_R60_HFA_02_Supplement_3_630002002" clients, both of which are later software revisions.
As a workaround I installed a spare copy of WinXP 32bit in VirtualPCx64 2007 and installed Client SC_NGX_R60_HFA2_630000044. At First the client wouldn't connect but changing the network card in the VPC settings to my network adaptor (instead of "Shared Networking") finally got the client to connect and work properly (I assume the extra layer of software when shared networking was enabled somehow prevented the client from connecting). For VPN purposes it doesn't matter that the Virtual PC emulated hardware isn't very fast, remote desktop still performs as expected.
From googling over the last week or so I got the impression a lot of people were having problems with the Checkpoint software, particularly the Error 1075 with Vista32/Vista64 and XP64 which confused me for a while.
Hope this helps someone.
Cheers,
Wil
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