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FortiSpain
FortiSpain
Explorer
February 15, 2026
Solved

Wireless Controller activated + Wireless Controller up - How to turn it off?

  • February 15, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 334 views

Hello to everybody,

 

Two days ago, the following system events appeared:

 

WIRELESS CONTROLLER LOADED.pngWIRELESS CONTROLLER UP.png

 

I haven't activated this and I do not know how this could happen. My FortiGate does not support WiFi (or this is what I thought...). Please, what do I have to do to turn off the Wireless Controller? Thank you for your help.

 

Best answer by ede_pfau

What @funkylicious is hinting at (but I cannot follow ATM because the doc site lags...) are these global commands:

config system global    set wireless-controller disable    set switch-controller disable    set fortiextender disable end

 

 

This would disable the functions in FortiOS to control external peripherals, that is, WiFi, switches and FortiExtenders.

Why you would want this is a bit obscure to me - enabling the management will not bring the necessary hardware into existance, so the FGT would not start to transmit WiFi then. Also I don't really see any way to exploit it from within your local LAN. True, some ports would be open and listened to, like 5246 or 25246.

By default, only the WiFi controller is enabled.

2 replies

funkylicious
SuperUser
funkylicious
SuperUser
February 15, 2026

try, https://docs.fortinet.com/document/fortigate/7.4.11/cli-reference/339914554/config-system-global#:~:text=set%20wireless%2Dcontroller%20%5Benable%7Cdisable%5D 

"jack of all trades, master of none"
    FortiSpain
    FortiSpainAuthor
    Explorer
    February 17, 2026

    Thank you

    ede_pfau
    SuperUser
    ede_pfauAnswer
    SuperUser
    February 16, 2026

    What @funkylicious is hinting at (but I cannot follow ATM because the doc site lags...) are these global commands:

    config system global    set wireless-controller disable    set switch-controller disable    set fortiextender disable end

     

     

    This would disable the functions in FortiOS to control external peripherals, that is, WiFi, switches and FortiExtenders.

    Why you would want this is a bit obscure to me - enabling the management will not bring the necessary hardware into existance, so the FGT would not start to transmit WiFi then. Also I don't really see any way to exploit it from within your local LAN. True, some ports would be open and listened to, like 5246 or 25246.

    By default, only the WiFi controller is enabled.

      FortiSpain
      FortiSpainAuthor
      Explorer
      February 17, 2026

      Thank you. I have ran wireless-controller disable. It worked. I understand your point of view but when I saw this on the events, I get afraid. Now I feel safer. 

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