FortiGate Local-Out Routing: Controlling the Traffic the Firewall Sends Itself
Manny FernandezEvery FortiGate is two devices wearing one chassis. One of them is a firewall: it inspects traffic that arrives on...
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The Complete FortiGate execute Command Reference
Manny FernandezEvery FortiGate admin knows execute ping. Most know execute backup config. Almost nobody knows what else is sitting in that...
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Is your FortiGate vulnerable to Management Access when using a FortiToken Push Notification
Manny FernandezEvery few months the same question lands in my inbox. A scanner report flags TCP/4433 open on a customer's WAN...
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Securing the Purdue Model: A FortiGate OT Reference Architecture
Manny Fernandez1. Executive Summary Objective: This guide provides a production-grade reference architecture for retrofitting Fortinet OT security controls onto an existing...
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Deep Dive QUIC Explanation
Manny FernandezExecutive Summary Objective: This guide breaks down QUIC (RFC 9000/9001/9002) at the wire-format level, showing exactly how the transport establishes...
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The Cisco Engineer’s Guide to FortiGate: A Side-by-Side CLI Rosetta Stone for IOS Veterans Landing on FortiOS
Manny FernandezYou have twenty years of muscle memory. You type conf t before your coffee finishes brewing. Then someone hands you...
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Cisco Packet Tracer equivalent in FortiGate Firewall?
Manny FernandezI deployed thousands of ASA firewalls when I was with the different partners. One of my favorite features on the...
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Using host file equivalent on the FortiGate Firewall
Manny FernandezHave you ever wanted to do some testing on a FortiGate using an FQDN verses an IP address? While FortiOS...
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The Different Types of Networks: A Practitioner’s Field Guide
Manny FernandezAsk ten engineers to define "a network" and you will get ten answers that are all correct and none of...
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Demystifying FortiAuthenticator: Deploying FortiAuthenticator as an LDAP Server for Centralized FortiGate Authentication
Manny Fernandez1. Executive Summary Objective: This guide turns a FortiAuthenticator (FAC) appliance or VM into a standalone LDAP directory that other...
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Need to know information about FortiBleed
Manny FernandezDISCLAIMER: Please see link above for the official Fortinet response on "FortiBleed" as of this writing 20260703 FortiBleed, in short:...
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Is your FortiGate vulnerable to Management Access when using a Let’s Encrypt Certificate
Manny FernandezThe underlying assumption that Let’s Encrypt requires you to expose your FortiGate's management console or administrative GUI via plain HTTP...
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Building Custom Application Signatures on FortiGate
Manny FernandezFortiGate ships with thousands of built-in application signatures, but eventually you will hit traffic it does not recognize: an internal...
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iTerm2 Deep-Dive Configuration Guide for macOS
Manny FernandezA practitioner-grade reference for configuring iTerm2, with emphasis on the powerful and rarely-documented features that separate a default install from...
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Deploying FortiGate Dynamic Device and OS Identification for Network Visibility and Asset Inventory
Manny Fernandez1. Executive Summary Objective: This guide walks through enabling and operationalizing FortiGate's Dynamic Device and OS Identification (device detection) so...
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Demystifying Regular Expressions (Regex) in Fortinet Environments
Manny FernandezA Comprehensive Deep Dive, Best Practices, and Ready-to-Use Cheat Sheet 1. Introduction to Regex in FortiOS Regular Expressions (Regex) are...
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DNS Demystified: Lookup, Caching, Zones, Records, and Security from End to End
Manny Fernandez1. Executive Summary Objective: This guide explains exactly how DNS resolves a name into an answer, what happens at every...
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Mastering Routing Administrative Distance: A FortiGate and Multi-Vendor Engineering Guide
Manny Fernandez1. Title and Executive Summary Objective: This guide explains how administrative distance (AD) governs route selection when a router learns...
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FortiGate-to-FortiGate GRE Tunnel Deployment Guide
Manny FernandezOverview A FortiGate can build a strictly GRE tunnel to another FortiGate with no IPsec involved. FortiOS implements Generic Routing...
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Blocking Scribd Uploads on FortiGate Using Built-In FortiGuard Controls
Manny FernandezCustomer asked us how to block scribd uploads. I figured I would write an article and share with everyone. Executive...
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