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FireWall-1 FAQ: "fw logswitch" Does Not Work on Windows

Please note: This content was from when I was operating my FireWall-1 FAQ site, which I stopped operating in August 2005. For some reason people still have links to this stuff on the Internet that people are still clicking on.


I am making this information available again AS IS. Given how old this information is, it is likely wildly inaccurate. I have no plans to update this information.


If you're still running versions of Check Point VPN-1/FireWall-1 where this information is still relevant to you, do yourself a favor and upgrade to a more recent release. If you happen to be running a current release and the information is useful, it's by happenstance :)


There are two possible causes to this problem:

  • The service is not running as ‘Administrator’
  • ‘fwd’ is not running

Using the Task Manager in NT, verify that more than one fw.exe is running. If one or no fw.exe processes exist, it is likely that the fwd process has died. You will need to stop and restart the Check Point FireWall-1 Service to resolve this. You need to make the CheckPoint FireWall-1 service run as Administrator instead of as the System Account. Go into “Services” in the Control Panels, select “Check Point FireWall-1” and click on “Stop” to stop the service. Now click on “Startup.” In the resulting dialog box, select “Log On As This Account” and select Administrator. Enter in the Administrator’s password in the dialog boxes. Click on “OK.” Click on “Start” to restart the service.

#Cybersecurity Evangelist, Podcaster, #noagenda Producer, Frequenter of shiny metal tubes, Expressor of personal opinions, and of course, a coffee achiever.