Fix for Checkpoint VPN tunneling option being grayed out on Check Point Endpoint Security Client

I noticed that my Windows VPN client on my computer was forcing all traffic through the gateway of my VPN endpoint. Something that in most cases would be fine however this limited my ability to access local network resources in addition to browsing the internet via my local internet provider (Split Tunneling).

What I soon noticed was that I could not remove the setting that encrypted all traffic, routing it to the gateway

To make these changes to the client the following needs to be done.

Step 1: Modify configuration allowing for trac.config to be edited as it’s obscured for security purpose.

1. Exit the Check Point Endpoint Security Client
2. Stop the “Check Point Endpoint Security” service
3. Edit c:\program files (x86)\checkpoint\endpoint connect\trac.defaults

Change the top line from:

OBSCURE_FILE INT 1 GLOBAL 0

to

OBSCURE_FILE INT 0 GLOBAL 0

Step 2:

1. Start the “Check Point Endpoint Security” service
2. Start the Check Point Endpoint Security client
3. Verify that the c:\program files (x86)\checkpoint\endpoint connect\trac.config file is de-obscured.
4. Shutdown the Check Point Endpoint Security Client
5. Stop the “Check Point Endpoint Security” service
6. Edit c:\program files (x86)\checkpoint\endpoint connect\trac.config

Search and edit the following line:

From: <PARAM neo_route_all_traffic_through_gateway=”false”></PARAM>

To: <PARAM neo_route_all_traffic_through_gateway=”true”></PARAM>

Step 3:

1. Delete c:\program files (x86)\checkpoint\endpoint connect\trac.config.bak
2. Start the “Check Point Endpoint Security” service
3. Start the Check Point Endpoint Security Client

Notes: Pros and Cons of Split VPN you should know about

Pros

If you are going to split tunnel, then you are going to reduce the overall bandwidth impact on your Internet circuit. Only the traffic that needs to come over the VPN will, so anything a user is doing that is not “work-related” will not consume bandwidth. In addition, anything external to your network that is also latency sensitive will not suffer from the additional latency introduced by tunneling everything over the VPN to the corporate network. Users will get the best experience in terms of network performance, and the company will consume the least bandwidth.

Cons

If security is supposed to monitor all network traffic, and protect users from malware and other Internet threats by filtering traffic, users who are split tunneling will not get this protection and security will be unable to monitor traffic for threats or inappropriate activity. Traffic to websites that use HTTPS will still be protected, but other traffic will be vulnerable.

Ref: https://www.cpug.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-14545.html