We installed Dorothy’s FortiGate Firewall. It works! Not only that, but we can see network traffic. What online apps are we using? What websites do we go to? Once we have this information we can plan for better security.

Note: We’ve given up on FortiClud Manager and FortiAnalyzer Cloud. For now.

It Works! Well, sort of. Our stack of Fortinet equipment is working. Unfortunately we’re not sure why. We just know it works. Another bit of good news is that we managed to do all the configuration from FortiManager Cloud. This is a big step in the right direction. We might make our April deadline after all.

We still have a long way to go.

Another Saturday, another issue with our Fortinet project. We’re not sure what happened. We had plans to configure the switch and the wireless access point. It wasn’t meant to be.

The firewall lost its connection to FortiManager Cloud. We had to call support for this one. Then our switch configuration wouldn’t work. Couldn’t push the change from FortiManager Cloud to the device.

Again, two steps forward, one step back.

Can we do a basic Fortinet firewall configuration? Yes we can. The trick is to start simple and work your way up to fancy. We still have no idea how to use the FortiManager Cloud configuration tool. We don’t know what to do with hardware switch interfaces. We’re not sure why vlan’s weren’t recommended. This is a two steps forward, one step back kind of episode.

At least we can create a basic configuration on the local device. That’s a big step in the right direction.

Time to get things connected to the cloud. FortiManager is Fortinets enterprise management solution. They have two versions. On prem and cloud. We went with the cloud version. Getting things connected was a bit tricky. Lucky for us Fortinet tech support is awesome.

We’re unboxing and connecting our Fortinet gear. There’s a lot to do before we start configuring our new Firewalls. Once again, we chose to go with the FortiGate 60F. This is the device we’re starting with. We will be going over each devices as we get to them.

Our FortiNet gear is on the way. It’s time to start thinking about our network design. What kind of traffic do we want going in and out of our network? Where do we place our servers? Do we need new IP space? Lots to think about before we deploy anything.

After carefully examining our options, I ordered our Fortinet equipment. How did we choose this hardware? What factors go into selecting a firewall? This is an expensive perches. Make sure you do your home work before you buy anything.

We’re moving forward with our Fortinet firewall project. We’ve picket out a firewall, switch and access point. There’s still a lot of work to do before we order anything. We’re working with the Cisco Network Life Cycle. This will help us organize the project. We don’t want to miss anything.

We’re getting a new firewall! That’s one of several projects happening early next year. Also on the list is our Azure migration and our certifications. We’re applying our relaxed company culture to these projects. We don’t want any unnecessary pressure on us. A lot of companies are go go go, get it done yesterday. We’d like to take our time. To do that, we’re giving our selves a lot of time. Time to make sure we get these projects done right.

Did I mention we’re switching from Meraki to Fortinet?