Forticlient Known Issues in Release Notes - Vagueness

[shocko]

We have been using Forticlient and EMS for the last 16 months. We have had a very mixed experience with Blue Screens, failure to connect, UI issues etc. In general support tell us to update to the latest client version. We have just started updating to 7.2.4 to addres another blue screen issue in Windows 10. Our confidence in this product is low and one of the key factors is the vagueness of the known issues on the release notes.

I look at the latest release notes for 7.2.4 here Known issues | FortiClient 7.2.4 | Fortinet Document Library and here Known issues | FortiClient 7.2.4 | Fortinet Document Library

I could argue we are being impacted by at least the following but there is no detail into what causes this (spefici conditions or otherwise :(:(

1. 994884: SSL VPN connections get stuck on 40%.
2. 909755: SSL VPN split tunnel does not work for Microsoft Teams.
3. 961079: New Microsoft Teams application does not work if application-based split tunnel is used.
4. 1002294: FortiClient does not reconnect to the VPN until restarted.
5. 1015381: FortiClient takes longer than usual to autoconnect.
6. 999256: FortiClient (Windows) blocks some HTTP exclusions that it should allow.
7. 998747: FortiClient does not block Gmail when using Gmail link in Chrome browser.
8. 1013487: Web Filter blocks WebEx as unrated.
9. 984763: NETIO.SYS/FortiWF2.sys causes blue screen of death (BSOD) on Windows 10.
10. 999139: Laptop Wi-Fi DNS setting gets stuck in unknown DNS server after FortiClient connects to and disconnects from IPsec or SSL VP

For example, 961079. Does this mean we cannot now split tunnel the new MS teams (which is no longer new and default on Windows 10/11 since March 2024)? I feel development or whomever really need to put some effort into getting detail into these release notes and  general enterprise grade stability into the product. Looking back through the release notes there seems to be a long running issue in split-tunnel and MS teams for example. 

[AEK]

I  agree with about the vagueness of known issues. To avoid this I always install for production a more mature version, like 7.0.12, where most known issues are fixed, and trying to balance between maturity and stability on one side, and modern features on the other side.

[shocko]

Thanks for the feedback @AEK . We have tried to stick to a version tat but we have had challanging issues on each iteration since we started on 7.2. Even on 7.0.12 815528 would not be acceptable to our security teams. On 7.2.3 we had our laptop fleet BSOD so had to update to 7.2.4. MS Teams split-tunnel still has issues as does local lan access (allowing when should block). Looking around at other solutions at the moment. 

[freddelm]

I concur here as well. I am experiencing many different types of issues with Forticlient  and EMs cloud. I have tried all the releases branch (7.0,7.2 and 7.4) on many sub versions.

The primary issues are not AlwaysOn tunnels not connecting at startup/user login/wifi disconnection or after some time period. The issue many times requires a manual connect, reboot or reinstall to fix. The user is then not protected (internet traffic bypass our Fortinet) unless we turn on Network Protection (which has it own issues with exclusions not working). We also have issues with ZTNA tags not updating quickly enough (we have them based of logged in User AD group). Put all these issues together with fact that we have a ticket open for many months without them being resolved (they keep on giving beta versions which don't fix the issues[Super amateur IMHO]) as I am forced to look at other ZTNA/VPN solutions. Fortinet really needs to up their game.