Fortinet Everything (firewall/switching/wireless)

[titch]

 

Sorry question spans several forums but I thought it was best placed here.

 

Anyone have any experience of going in 2 footed with fortinet. The demos look really good and I like the simplicity of a unified gui etc. I know the firewalls are good but the wireless seems to get mixed reviews. Not heard anyone using the switching. We haven't got a huge network but all the kids have 1:1 devices so wifi it's needs to be reliable. 

 

Any reviews positive or negative would be really helpful. 

[KDW1987]

It depends on what you are moving from. Their solution is not on par with enterprise wireless solutions like Aruba, Cisco, and Extreme Networks.

 

Before you go ahead after a slick demo, ask them about the Level 9 CVEs they have had in the last few months and how that could give someone access to your firewall, switches, and wireless by brute force.

 

CVE-2026-24858, the FortiCloud SSO flaw, enables attackers who have a FortiCloud account and a registered device. Fully patched FortiGate firewalls were compromised via CVE-2025-59718 in January, and Arctic Wolf had an article on CVE-2025-25249, which allowed a Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in FortiOS and FortiSwitchManager. The flaw was in the CAPWAP Wireless Aggregate Controller Daemon and could allow an unauthenticated, remote threat actor to execute arbitrary code or commands.

[speakercon]

Avoid the wifi/switches like the plague unless you enjoy misery and endless problems.

[titch]

On 07/03/2026 at 07:20, KDW1987 said:

It depends on what you are moving from. Their solution is not on par with enterprise wireless solutions like Aruba, Cisco, and Extreme Networks.

 

Before you go ahead after a slick demo, ask them about the Level 9 CVEs they have had in the last few months and how that could give someone access to your firewall, switches, and wireless by brute force.

 

CVE-2026-24858, the FortiCloud SSO flaw, enables attackers who have a FortiCloud account and a registered device. Fully patched FortiGate firewalls were compromised via CVE-2025-59718 in January, and Arctic Wolf had an article on CVE-2025-25249, which allowed a Remote Code Execution Vulnerability in FortiOS and FortiSwitchManager. The flaw was in the CAPWAP Wireless Aggregate Controller Daemon and could allow an unauthenticated, remote threat actor to execute arbitrary code or commands.

Currently moving from old Aerohive wireless which is now extreme. Its about 10 years old so it's on its last legs. Would probably dont use half the features but it does need to be reliable. Also on Palo Alto firewall which has had a few CVEs after the past year as well. 

 

On 07/03/2026 at 16:40, speakercon said:

Avoid the wifi/switches like the plague unless you enjoy misery and endless problems.

Would you mind expanding on this if you have some experience, please? Thanks

[psydii]

If it's still based off the Meru stuff, that platform had gone in a unique direction for the first 15 years of wifi (up to the point of acquisition), so pivoting to the more usual multi-channel architecture their software stack was starting from a disadvantage at the point of acquisition.  Unless of course they still persist with SCA, in which case, I'm sure they've sorted out the problems by now otherwise no one would recommend it.

[psydii]

The two wireless networks I've looked after that have absolutely rocked are Aruba (twice) and Extreme (at the time based on Chantry)  Aruba are still basically who they were, and Extreme moved away from Chantry until they got the engineers and IP via the acquisition of Enterasys (which bought out HiPath from Siiemens, who in turn had bought Chantry). They then bough Aerohive who had the people who wrote the spec and the cloud management piece. I've never heard a bad word spoken about their wifi (other that the warranty isn;t as good as th *old* Procurve/Aruba warranty). Which is to say I remain convinced it still pays to buy best-in-class Wifi and not tie it to the switches or firewall.