I came up with this because of various experiences I come across from time to time. Since I got fed up looking for the info on google each time I figured I would collect the information here to so I have it handy. So this page is intended to be a location for getting the info I need to deal with fortigate devices.
Cabling the box
When using the box the first time, connect cables to Port 1 and to the WAN port. Both ports I found work with DHCP and the IP of the firewall in port 1 is usually 192.168.1.99
Port 1 in most cases has a DHCP server assigned to it.
Serial Connection
Login information for Serial connection is the same as for Cisco devices.
- Baud: 9600
- Data bits: 8
- No parity
- Stop Bits: 1
Default Username/Password
Once that is done you can connect via the serial cable
- Default login: admin
- Password: Blank
Resetting the device
I tend to reset the configuration after logging in on the serial port. This done by running the following command: “execute factoryreset“. This is all good and well if you have the physical access to the box. But what if you don’t?
Then it gets a bit more complicated.
If you do not have the CLI access, you need physical access and you need to power down the device. You need a paper clip and to locate the reset hole on the back of the device.
Next do the following:
- Connect to the device via console cable.
- Power on the device and connect with your favourite terminal program
- Within 20 seconds Press and hold the RESET button with the paperclip After a while the system will tell you it is resetting to factory defaults and you can release the button again.
- Access the device using the default username and password as listed above.
Help!
You have the option to press ? for help anywhere in the CLI, similarly to Cisco devices. this gives you help for what commands you have available from the location where you are. Note that the ‘?’ is not printed when you hit enter.
Additionally a useful resource can be the Fortinet document library.