by Timothy C. Hall
Featuring a New Foreword by Dameon Welch a.k.a. PhoneBoy
Fourth Edition
ISBN-13: 979-8188213398
Book Publication: September 8, 2026
Hardcopy Edition Purchase Links:
(Other Amazon countries & regions may be available worldwide; search your local country's Amazon site for "Max Power 2026".)
Click here to purchase the PDF edition from shop.shadowpeak.com
Max Power 2026 By the Numbers
Pages: 506
Figures/Screenshots: 226
SecureKnowledge Article Links: 384
CLI Commands Referenced & Indexed: 264
Links to CheckMates Articles: 107
CheckMates Users Mentioned: 14
Top CheckMates User Mentioned: Danny Jung (18)
Version R81.20 Specific Mentions: 76
Version R82 Specific Mentions: 67
Version R82.10 Specific Mentions: 123
Version R82.20 EA Specific Mentions: 18
"AI"-created Content: 0
"AI"-created Slop or Hallucinations: 0
Typical causes of performance-related issues on Check Point (R) firewalls are explored in this book.
This fourth edition has been fully updated for version R82.10 and Gaia kernel 5.14. You will learn about:
Includes an index of all CLI commands referenced in the text. This book has everything you need to ensure top performance from your Check Point firewall.
Q: What Check Point firewall code versions are covered in Max Power 2026: Check Point Firewall Performance Optimization?
The fourth edition content is fully applicable to versions R81.20, R82, and R82.10, which were all code versions still officially supported by Check Point at press time. Features added in R82 and R82.10 are clearly delineated in the book. Version R82.20 was in public Early Availability (EA) at press time and is covered as well, but more as a preview, since any R82.20 EA features were potentially subject to change.
Q: Are VSX and VSNext covered?
Somewhat. While VSX and VSNext optimization could easily be its own book, there is some brief coverage, and a number of very good SecureKnowledge (SK) and CheckMates references are provided for further study.
Q: Are Maestro and ElasticXL covered?
Yes.
Q: Is User Space Performance Pack (UPPAK) for SecureXL, which became mandatory in R82.10, covered in the book?
Yes, UPPAK is covered extensively in an all-new chapter.
Q: Is optimization of Check Point management components, such as the SMS, MDS, SmartEvent, and dedicated Log Servers covered?
No, although there is content covering the impact of Access Control & Threat Prevention logging options on firewall performance.
Q: What formats is the book available in, and how much does it cost?
Max Power 2026 is available in hardcopy from Amazon worldwide for $84.95 USD, and PDF format via maxpowerfirewalls.com for $49.95 USD. There is no DRM or copy protection on the PDF edition, and any PDF viewer on any device can be used to view it.
Q: Why did the price of the book increase for the fourth edition?
The price increase simply tracks inflation from when the first edition of Max Power was published in 2015. Without the price increase, the fourth edition would never have been made in the first place.
Q: What is the difference between the hardcopy and PDF editions?
The content is identical. The PDF version features “hot” clickable hyperlinks to CheckMates posts and SK articles; page numbers in the Table of Contents and CLI index of the PDF edition are clickable as well, and of course, the PDF edition can be easily searched.
Q: I want to purchase the hardcopy book from Amazon, is there any way to bundle the PDF edition with it in a single purchase? I want to purchase the PDF from shop.shadowpeak.com, is there any way to bundle the Amazon hardcopy edition with it in a single purchase?
No unfortunately, as these are two completely different distribution channels, and there is no way to link purchases between them. The book's author can't even see exactly who purchases the hardcopy edition at Amazon. The only possible way to make this bundling happen would be to distribute Max Power 2026 in DRM-protected Kindle format instead of PDF, which the author refuses to do.
Q: Are there any discount codes?
For hardcopies purchased directly from Amazon worldwide, the author cannot create discount codes. Amazon will sometimes put books on sale shortly after their release, or offer bundle discounts for purchasing multiple related items, but that is at Amazon’s sole discretion, and the author receives no notice whatsoever that they have or will be doing so.
Current Check Point employees with a @checkpoint.com email address are eligible for a special discount on hardcopy and PDF versions of the book purchased directly from Shadow Peak only. See the internal employee Check Point Wiki for details.
Q: Can I get a special discount for bulk hardcopy purchases or bulk author-signed copies purchased directly from Shadow Peak?
Yes, for minimum of 15 hardcopies. Please contact sales at shadowpeak.com.
Q: Was any "AI" or LLM used to generate any of the book's content, or the cover art for Max Power 2026?
No. The commercial product Grammarly was used to perform spelling and grammar checks and, in limited cases, to rephrase sentences already written to improve them. That is all.
Q: Can I use the content of Max Power 2026 to train "AI" or an LLM?
No. Using the content of Max Power 2026 to train an AI/LLM in this fashion is explicitly disallowed without a licensing agreement. To arrange a licensing agreement for this purpose, please contact sales at shadowpeak.com.
Q: What happened to the online 2-day Gateway Performance Optimization (GPO) course offered exclusively by Shadow Peak? Is it coming back?
The GPO course was on hiatus over the summer of 2026 while the book was being completed. Monthly classes based on Max Power 2026 and version R82.10 will resume in September 2026 (the September class date was already sold out at press time). Upon its relaunch, the course has been renamed "Firewall Performance Optimization: Max Power Live!" (FPO). The book's author Timothy C. Hall teaches all classes for Shadow Peak, including FPO.
Q: I took the original Gateway Performance Optimization (GPO) course online from Shadow Peak a while ago. How much of the book Max Power 2026 is new when compared to the course I took?
This will depend on when you took the original GPO course. If it was prior to January of 2026, there would be a significant amount of new content added from the Max Power 2026 book, along with a substantial amount of older but updated material that was not included in the original GPO course in the first place due to the time constraints of a 2-day class.
Q: If I already have the book, why should I attend the "Firewall Performance Optimization: Max Power Live!" (FPO) course offered exclusively by Shadow Peak?
While the FPO course lecture content will be based on the book with the very latest updates, the FPO course features a series of performance-based break/fix lab exercises, in which you will see and interact with performance problems firsthand and remediate them. Speed testing is used to measure the results of your optimizations. At the start of class, you have a working lab environment, but speed tests reveal dog-slow performance, due to a number of deliberate faults introduced before class. By the end of the class, after making all the optimizations, firewall performance tangibly improves by several orders of magnitude. Essentially, the FPO class is "Max Power Live" with Timothy C. Hall.
Q: It appears the online FPO class is only offered for an American timezone. Is the class ever offered for an EU or Asian/Australian timezone?
Occasionally, based on the level of demand. Please contact sales at shadowpeak.com if you are interested in attending the FPO course for an alternate timezone.
Q: Can our organization schedule a private online or in-person FPO class?
Yes, for a minimum of 8 students. Please contact sales at shadowpeak.com.
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