Multiple Entry Point (MEP)

Multiple Entry Point (MEP) gives high availability and load sharing to VPN connections from Remote Access Clients to the internal network of the organization.

A Security Gateway is one point of entry to the internal network. If the Security Gateway becomes unavailable, the internal network is also unavailable. A Check Point MEP environment has two or more Security Gateways for the same VPN domain to give remote users uninterrupted access.

MEP gives High Availability and load sharing with these characteristics:

• There is no physical restriction on the location of MEP gateways. They can be geographically separated and not directly connected.

• In Manual MEP gateways can be managed by different management servers. For Automatic MEP, gateways must have the same management server.

• There is no state synchronization in MEP. If a Security Gateway fails, the current connection fails and one of the backup gateways picks up the next connection.

• Remote clients, not the Security Gateways, find the Security Gateway to use. To find the Security Gateway to use, the clients use a mechanism called Visitor Mode.