What is the Forticlient used for?

[jasetcs]

Hi, Im new customer to Fortigate and purchased the Fortigate 60E for a small business, in the past I've used Draytek Firewalls.

Im just a little unsure exactly the purpose of the FortiClient is? Is it a antivirus? Do the PCs on the network need this or is it recommend?

Just looking for some advice from the experienced users. Thanks

[SteveG]

FortiClient can be used as a VPN Client (IPSec and SSL), an AV client (it does ok in security benchmarks) and a host vulnerability scanners. It's free too, but does come with a small advert bar at the bottom. We use it as the corporate AV solution and for VPN remote access. It works on Windows and Mac but there's no Linux version.

If your customer wants remote access to their office then FortiClient would be a good solution.

[jasetcs]

great answer Steve, thanks.

In that case might look at implementing it as we have <10 users so its not going to cost us. We dont need Remote Access but will save us with Antivirus costs each year and Host vulnerability scanner too. 

[SteveG]

I'd suggest disabling the feature that allows FortiClient to register with the FortiGate as it's not a feature you'll need and will result in the FortiClient configuration being locked down. This feature tends to be used in enterprises where they don't want users uninstalling or disabling the AV client.

Just make sure 'FortiHeartBeat' is not ticked under any of the FortiGate interfaces!

http://cookbook.fortinet....orticlient-profile-54/

[stuberman]

Some additional aspects for FortiClient:

FortiClient is free if you do not want to manage the settings with a firewall and supports several operating systems.

In addition to anti virus and VPN and vulnerability scanning it also acts as a web filter and can support more features.

Since you have a FortiGate 60E you get 10 free licenses if you want to manage those clients from the firewall such as pushing scanning schedules and web filtering policies. FortiClient is not required but is very valuable in a network you are trying to protect and manage. I use FortiClient on all of my family's machines (Windows, macOS and Apple IOS) as well as suggest it to our corporate employees since they do not need to pay for an annual license or go through the hassle of entering in a new key each year.

[jasetcs]

thanks for that stuberman, it makes sense for us to use forticlient then especially as we have < 10 employees on this network. 

Does the web filter work without FortiClient however, just wondering as having issues setting it up and not applying right but I havent got round to doing the FortiClient setup. Id of thought it should work without?

[stuberman]

"Does the web filter work without FortiClient however, just wondering as having issues setting it up and not applying right but I havent got round to doing the FortiClient setup. Id of thought it should work without?"

The web filtering component is part of FortiClient and can be enabled or disabled. You can use a registered FortiClient to manage web filtering through a FortiGate or you can manually configure.