Fortinet FortiWifi 81F-2R-POE

The Fortinet FortiWifi 81F-2R-POE is a compact, fanless desktop next-generation firewall with secure SD-WAN, a 128 GB onboard SSD and eight PoE/PoE+ ports, 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 "-POE" designation means all eight internal GE RJ45 ports (including the two default FortiLink ports) deliver Power over Ethernet, with a total available PoE budget of 96 W — enough to power external FortiAPs, IP phones or PoE switches directly from the firewall.

The unit also carries two GE RJ45/SFP shared-media WAN ports. 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
• 8× PoE/PoE+ GE RJ45 ports — 96 W total PoE power budget
• 128 GB onboard SSD — local logging and storage
• 10 Gbps firewall throughput, 1.4 Gbps IPS, 1 Gbps NGFW, 900 Mbps threat protection
• 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

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 do "-2R" and "-POE" 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. "-POE" means all eight internal GE RJ45 ports supply Power over Ethernet, with a 96 W total PoE budget, so the firewall can power access points, IP phones or PoE switches directly. The wired FortiGate equivalent has none of the radios or the PoE ports.

Which 81F variant do I need?

The 80F-2R, 81F-2R and 81F-2R-POE share the same firewall and Wi-Fi 6 radio performance. The 81F variants add a 128 GB onboard SSD that the 80F-2R lacks; the POE variant additionally replaces the standard internal ports with 8 PoE/PoE+ ports (96 W budget) for powering nearby access points or phones without separate injectors.

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