Fortinet FortiWifi 81F-2R

The Fortinet FortiWifi 81F-2R is a compact, fanless desktop next-generation firewall with secure SD-WAN and a 128 GB onboard SSD, built around a dual-radio, dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) access point. System-on-a-chip acceleration delivers 10 Gbps of firewall throughput, 1.4 Gbps of IPS and 900 Mbps of full threat protection.

The built-in dual-band, dual-stream access point provides the latest high-speed Wi-Fi 6 wireless access alongside a dedicated scanning radio for rogue-AP and spectrum monitoring — the "2R" in the model name. It reaches up to 1201 Mbps on 5 GHz or 574 Mbps on 2.4 GHz across three SMA antenna ports, with a 2x2 MU-MIMO radio.

The unit carries eight GE RJ45 ports plus two GE RJ45/SFP shared-media WAN ports, and the FortiLink ports let FortiSwitches join it as a logical extension of the firewall. A dedicated hardware module generates, stores and authenticates cryptographic keys, hardening the appliance against malicious software and phishing attacks.

Key features

• Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) — dual-radio, dual-band, dual-stream access point plus a dedicated scanning radio
• 128 GB onboard SSD — local logging and storage
• 10 Gbps firewall throughput, 1.4 Gbps IPS, 1 Gbps NGFW, 900 Mbps threat protection
• 8× GE RJ45 ports + 2× GE RJ45/SFP shared-media WAN ports
• Up to 1201 Mbps wireless on 5 GHz, 574 Mbps on 2.4 GHz, 2x2 MU-MIMO
• IPsec VPN at 6.5 Gbps — 200 gateway-to-gateway and 2,500 client-to-gateway tunnels
• 1.5 million concurrent sessions, 45,000 new sessions/second
• Manages up to 16 FortiSwitches and 96 FortiAPs

Works with

• FortiGate entry-level firewalls
• FortiGuard licences & renewals

Frequently asked questions

Hardware only or a bundle?

Hardware only includes the appliance; the FortiGuard security services that power IPS, web filtering and threat protection are subscriptions. The bundles pair the hardware with FortiCare Premium support plus either Unified Threat Protection (UTP) or Enterprise Protection for 1, 3 or 5 years — usually the simpler and cheaper way to buy the first term.

What does "-2R" mean, and how does this differ from the wired FortiGate 81F?

"-2R" refers to the two radios built into the unit: a dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) access point radio plus a dedicated scanning radio for rogue-AP detection and spectrum monitoring. The wired FortiGate equivalent has neither radio. Firewall performance figures and the 128 GB onboard SSD are shared across the platform.

FortiWifi 80F-2R or 81F-2R — which one?

Both share the same firewall and Wi-Fi 6 radio performance. The 81F-2R adds a 128 GB onboard SSD for local logging; the 80F-2R has none. If the site also needs PoE for access points or IP phones, the 81F-2R-POE adds PoE+ ports on the same platform.

Sizing a FortiGate deployment? Call 0333 242 1314 or email sales@clisecure.com.