Configuring a WiFi LAN

VLAN assignment by VLAN pool

In an SSID, you can define a VLAN pool. As clients associate to an AP, they are assigned to a VLAN. A VLAN pool can

l assign a specific VLAN based on the AP’s FortiAP group, usually for network configuration reasons, or l assign one of several available VLANs for network load balancing purposes (tunnel mode SSIDs only)

To assign a VLAN by FortiAP group – CLI

In this example, VLAN 101, 102, or 103 is assigned depending on the AP’s FortiAP group.

config wireless-controller vap edit wlan set vlan-pooling wtp-group config vlan-pool edit 101 set wtp-group wtpgrp1

next edit 102 set wtp-group wtpgrp2

next edit 101 set wtp-group wtpgrp3

end

end

end

Load balancing

There are two VLAN pooling methods used for load balancing: The choice of VLAN can be based on any one of the following criteria:

l round-robin – from the VLAN pool, choose the VLAN with the smallest number of clients l hash – choose a VLAN from the VLAN pool based on a hash of the current number of SSID clients and the number of entries in the VLAN pool

If the VLAN pool contains no valid VLAN ID, the SSID’s static VLAN ID setting is used.

Configuring user authentication

To assign a VLAN by round-robin selection – CLI

In this example, VLAN 101, 102, or 103 is assigned using the round-robin method:

config wireless-controller vap edit wlan set vlan-pooling round-robin config vlan-pool edit 101 next edit 102 next edit 103 end

end

end

To assign a VLAN by hash-based selection – CLI

In this example, VLAN 101, 102, or 103 is assigned using the hash method:

config wireless-controller vap edit wlan set vlan-pooling hash config vlan-pool edit 101 next edit 102 next edit 103 end

end

end

Configuring user authentication

You can perform user authentication when the wireless client joins the wireless network and when the wireless user communicates with another network through a firewall policy. WEP and WPA-Personal security rely on legitimate users knowing the correct key or passphrase for the wireless network. The more users you have, the more likely it is that the key or passphrase will become known to unauthorized people. WPA-Enterprise and captive portal security provide separate credentials for each user. User accounts can be managed through FortiGate user groups or an external RADIUS authentication server.

WPA2 Enterprise authentication

Enterprise authentication can be based on the local FortiGate user database or on a remote RADIUS server.

Local authentication is essentially the same for WiFi users as it is for wired users, except that authentication for WiFi users occurs when they associate their device with the AP. Therefore, enterprise authentication must be configured in the SSID. WiFi users can belong to user groups just the same as wired users and security policies will determine which network services they can access.

If your WiFi network uses WPA2 Enterprise authentication verified by a RADIUS server, you need to configure the FortiGate unit to connect to that RADIUS server.

 

user authentication

Configuring connection to a RADIUS server – web-based manager

  1. Go to User & Device > RADIUS Servers and select Create New.
  2. Enter a Name for the server.

This name is used in FortiGate configurations. It is not the actual name of the server.

  1. In Primary Server Name/IP, enter the network name or IP address for the server.
  2. In Primary Server Secret, enter the shared secret used to access the server.
  3. Optionally, enter the information for a secondary or backup RADIUS server.
  4. Select OK.

To configure the FortiGate unit to access the RADIUS server – CLI

config user radius edit exampleRADIUS set auth-type auto set server 10.11.102.100 set secret aoewmntiasf

end

To implement WPA2 Enterprise security, you select this server in the SSID security settings. See Configuring user authentication on page 49.

To use the RADIUS server for authentication, you can create individual FortiGate user accounts that specify the authentication server instead of a password, and you then add those accounts to a user group. Or, you can add the authentication server to a FortiGate user group, making all accounts on that server members of the user group.

Creating a wireless user group

Most wireless networks require authenticated access. To enable creation of firewall policies specific to WiFi users, you should create at least one WiFi user group. You can add or remove users later. There are two types of user group to consider:

  • A Firewall user group can contain user accounts stored on the FortiGate unit or external authentication servers such as RADIUS that contain and verify user credentials.
  • A Fortinet single sign-on (FSSO) user group is used for integration with Windows Active Directory or Novell eDirectory. The group can contain Windows or Novell user groups who will be permitted access to the wireless LAN.

WiFi single sign-on (WSSO) authentication

WSSO is RADIUS-based authentication that passes the user’s user group memberships to the FortiGate. For each user, the RADIUS server must provide user group information in the Fortinet-Group-Name attribute. This information is stored in the server’s database. After the user authenticates, security policies provide access to network services based on user groups.

  1. Configure the RADIUS server to return the Fortinet-Group-Name attribute for each user.
  2. Configure the FortiGate to access the RADIUS server, as described in WPA2 Enterprise authentication on page 49.
  3. Create firewall user groups on the FortiGate with the same names as the user groups listed in the RADIUS database. Leave the groups empty.
  4. In the SSID choose WPA2-Enterprise authentication. In the Authentication field, select RADIUS Server and choose the RADIUS server that you configured.
  5. Create security policies as needed, using user groups (Source User(s) field) to control access.

Configuring user authentication

When a user authenticates by WSSO, the firewall monitor Monitor > Firewall User Monitor) shows the authentication method as WSSO.

Assigning WiFi users to VLANs dynamically

Some enterprise networks use Virtual LANs (VLANs) to separate traffic. In this environment, to extend network access to WiFi users might appear to require multiple SSIDs. But it is possible to automatically assign each user to their appropriate VLAN from a single SSID. To accomplish this requires RADIUS authentication that passes the appropriate VLAN ID to the FortiGate by RADIUS attributes. Each user’s VLAN assignment is stored in the user database of the RADIUS server.

  1. Configure the RADIUS server to return the following attributes for each user:

Tunnel-Type (value: VLAN)

Tunnel-Medium-Type (value: IEEE-802)

Tunnel_Private-Group-Id (value: the VLAN ID for the user’s VLAN)

  1. Configure the FortiGate to access the RADIUS server.
  2. Configure the SSID with WPA2-Enterprise authentication. In the Authentication field, select RADIUS Server and choose the RADIUS server that you will use.
  3. Create VLAN subinterfaces on the SSID interface, one for each VLAN. Set the VLAN ID of each as appropriate. You can do this on the Network > Interfaces
  4. Enable Dynamic VLAN assignment for the SSID. For example, if the SSID interface is “office”, enter:

config wireless-controller vap edit office set dynamic-vlan enable

end

  1. Create security policies for each VLAN. These policies have a WiFI VLAN subinterface as Incoming Interface and allow traffic to flow to whichever Outgoing Interface these VLAN users will be allowed to access.

This entry was posted in Administration Guides, FortiGate, FortiOS, FortiOS 6, FortiWLC on by .

About Mike

Michael Pruett, CISSP has a wide range of cyber-security and network engineering expertise. The plethora of vendors that resell hardware but have zero engineering knowledge resulting in the wrong hardware or configuration being deployed is a major pet peeve of Michael's. This site was started in an effort to spread information while providing the option of quality consulting services at a much lower price than Fortinet Professional Services. Owns PacketLlama.Com (Fortinet Hardware Sales) and Office Of The CISO, LLC (Cybersecurity consulting firm).

2 thoughts on “Configuring a WiFi LAN

  1. Tony

    Hi Mike,
    Since I know by following your posts that you are really good the Fortinet in general, please allow me to ask you a question. In a Fortigate, FortiAP and Radius scenario, can I dynamically assign the VLAN to the WIFI users based on their device type? More specifically, I would like to move any iOS/Android to a different VLAN than a normal Windows Client would get. Thanks

    Reply

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