We've never seen as much excitement surrounding a router/modem as there's been around the Fritz!Box. Long before its release people were excited by the specs alone, and they do read very well indeed. It's a good thing that so much enthusiasm preceded the Fritz!Box's arrival, as it came in a box that looked like it belonged in a crazy bargains shop, the first part of the name in English usually means something that's broken down and the cheap plastic design didn't bode well at all. Good thing it defied expectations then, eh?
Specs at a glance
| Firmware tested | 84.04.88 |
|---|---|
| ADSL2+ modem | Yes |
| Annex M | No (firmware update available to add this) |
| 3G modem | Through USB |
| IPv6 | Yes |
| Wireless protocols | 802.11b/g/n |
| Dual-band | Simultaneous |
| Highest wireless security | WPA2 |
| WDS | Yes |
| Ethernet ports | 4x gigabit |
| USB print sharing/storage | Storage, printers, 3G, passthrough |
| Accessories | Ethernet cable, phone cable, PC Range ADSL/phone splitter, RJ45 Y cable, RJ45 > RJ12 converters |
Connections
Connections? The 7390 has a few. This is a fully fledged VoIP-enabled modem/router, with many features above the norm. One thing it doesn't have, though, is a power button, requiring you to pull the power cord to force restart it. You can even tell the first LAN port to act as a WAN port if you so desire, meaning that if one day the fabled National Broadband Network does come to your house you'll potentially be able to pull the fabled 1Gbps that should one day be available using this very box.
The two USB ports are flexible by router standards, understanding storage, printers and 3G broadband sticks. It even has a "remote" feature if the router doesn't understand the device, making it act as if it's connected directly to a machine on the network. However, you'll need to install AVM's software on the intended client computer for this to work.
DSL/telephone line in, phone 1 and 2 connections, ISDN connection, USB port, 4x gigabit Ethernet ports and power socket. There's another USB port on the right-hand side.
(Credit: AVM)
Telephony
What you can't see is perhaps the most interesting part of the Fritz!Box 7390: a DECT base station, which can sync with up to six phones. While the Fritz!Box already commands a hefty fee, if you want a Fritz!-branded phone that handles both PSTN and VoIP calls it'll set you back AU$129 per handset and base station (although if you buy a handset with a 7390, the first one will only set you back AU$100). The Fritz!Fon is excellent, with an easy to understand key layout, high resolution screen and the ability to make phone calls using the G.722 codec for higher quality audio — so long as the receiver's handset is also capable of this. The weedy ear speaker on the Fon doesn't do G.722 justice over the standard telephone call quality; however, if you pop it into speaker mode or use your own headphones through the 3.5mm jack, you can gain an appreciation for new-found quality. It's not a revelation by any means, but it does make phone calls much more pleasant.
Fritz!Fon abilities, like the Box, go beyond the norm. On top of the usual phone book, call history and answering machine settings, you can check your email on it, get internet radio on it, read RSS feeds or playback podcasts. You can even control the Fritz!Box from the Fritz!Fon, allowing you to turn off the wireless, or update the firmware. We're not finished yet, though — you can also get the Fon to act as an alarm to give you a wake-up call (with two separate alarms available, scheduled on specific days if necessary), and a baby monitor that reacts to sound. Exceed a certain noise level for long enough, and the Fritz!Fon calls a predefined phone number.
The Fritz!Fon is a lovely piece of equipment, but sure isn't cheap. Internode sells them for AU$129 each, or if you bundle one with a Fritz!Box, it adds an extra AU$100.
(Screenshot by CBS Interactive)
If all this isn't compelling enough for you, the Fritz!Box will talk to a number of existing DECT phones, supports SIP calls, and there are even apps available for Android- and iOS-based devices so you can make calls through your mobile phone. While it doesn't pull in your mobile phone's phone book (AVM, consider it on our wishlist), it does list your most recent calls and pulls the phone book you've created on the Fritz!Box itself.
Everything attached to the Fritz!Box will be treated as part of an internal network as well. Sick of yelling to the kids upstairs that it's time for dinner? Just ring their phone for absolutely no charge, as everything's being conducted over your local network.
The modem/router offers more options on top of this. Call diversion is included as is call through; that is, you can call the Fritz!Box first, enter a PIN and then a destination number to be routed to. This is mainly used as a way of turning a fixed line call into an internet call, potentially reducing costs.
There are a myriad of other options for the configuring and setting up of voice services on the Fritz!Box, but the remaining big feature is simply blocking: allowing you to either block incoming numbers, or block phones that are connected to the Fritz!Box from calling certain numbers. There's even support for ranges, so you can easily prevent calls to things such as premium phone services (yes, those ones on ads after 12am) or the local Domino's pizza.
Oh yeah — want fax capability? It's here too.
UI and features
Sit with us, this might take a while.
Unlike the garish blue, yellow and red design of the cardboard box, the FritzBox's user interface (UI) is comparably muted, allowing the three disparate colours to work well together. Beyond that, it's also an extremely easy and useful UI to use. If you're stuck, there's usually a help button in the bottom right, too, that gives you access to the manual ... so long as you're online. While we like the idea that having a manual online allows the company to update the documentation, if your problem is that you can't get your modem online, well, you're screwed. Our review sample included no software or printed manual.
AVM loves stats and details, and so do we!
(Screenshot by CBS Interactive)
Live updated diagnostic graphs are everywhere, as is information you'd usually have to pull out through SNMP or set up some sort of intermediate Linux box to grab. Even stuff you usually wouldn't see, like who the manufacturer of your DSLAM is. For diagnostics, the Fritz!Box also separates your logs into Telephony, Internet, USB devices, WLAN and System, so you can quickly track down your problem. It's all incredibly readable and useful. The AVM engineers deserve a round of applause.
Stat, stat, stat
(Screenshot by CBS Interactive)
AVM is also mindful of upgrades — while the German version of the router gets firmware in advance of Australia, it's interesting to see what's down the pipeline, and AVM has recently allowed international users to test the features earlier, if they feel ready. With the tested firmware, the limit of "child protection" was a per-device schedule for when the internet was on or off. With an upgrade to newer firmware, you now have access to block specific websites or ports, or set up a whitelist — something sorely missing at the time of testing.
Live updated throughput of your net connection. It's just a little bit rad.
(Screenshot by CBS Interactive)
It can also measure internet traffic for those who are mindful of their quota — with our tested firmware, though, it was oddly limited to 99GB. We have been told this has been fixed in the latest firmware, along with the addition of a South Australian time zone — which, considering the distributor (PC Range) and the ISP partner (Internode), are SA based, is quite a thing to have omitted.
We'd love it if AVM took it a step further, and upon say, 80 per cent of quota being exhausted, certain MAC addresses could be throttled. Alas, it is information only for now.
You have more information here than you'll likely ever use. But gosh will it make ISP support calls easier.
(Screenshot by CBS Interactive)
There's a huge load of power-saving features, too, although considering a router doesn't pull that much energy, you likely will want to turn them off, as they can affect performance. Especially notable is the power saving for the Ethernet ports — if you leave it on, you'll be throttled to 100 megabit speeds instead of gigabit, not something that's fun for the whole family. Because AVM loves stats, you can find CPU and RAM usage, along with a temperature log here.
The two USB ports are highly featured too. Stick in a USB stick, and you can make it available through FTP or SMB (by acting as a NAS; it also offers 512MB of internal storage). It can also make them available to UPnP devices for media streaming, or spin down hard drives with a power-saving mode if supported. WebDAV is supported and can use USB drives as cache, USB storage and printers can be remotely connected to by a single device at a time and act as if it's directly connected, and the router can use 3G wireless dongles as well.
Really, the logs, stats and graphs are never ending.
(Screenshot by CBS Interactive)
Impressively, the Fritz!Box also shows you your neighbouring Wi-Fi networks, their relative strengths and what channels they're on, and auto selects the best Wi-Fi channel for you. It'll even run a guest account on your Wi-Fi for you, so people can access the internet, but not your LAN.
The usual smattering of features are otherwise included, such as QoS, network and router configuration tools — but this is by far one of the most powerful routers we've seen to date.
Performance
After analysing the spectrum with InSSIDer, an empty channel of either 1, 6 or 11 is chosen for 2.4GHz wireless testing. Usually the router is restricted to the 20MHz band if the option is available.
We use iperf to determine throughput, running eight streams, with a TCP window size of 1MB, and an interval of one second. The test is run for five minutes in three different locations, on two separate occasions. The locations are in the same room as the router, one floor down around spiral stairs and with concrete walls and floors, and two floors down under the same conditions.
The wireless throughput is tested using three chipsets (the Atheros AR5008X, Ralink RT2870 and Intel Ultimate-N 6300) and then all results are averaged.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
The Fritz!Box dominates the 2.4GHz wireless charts in impressive form.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
The Linksys remains the only router we've tested so far that is able to connect at 5GHz from the bottom floor of our testing area, and even then only to a Linksys-branded USB dongle. The Fritz!Box otherwise provides good 5GHz performance.
ADSL performance is simply measured by the sync speed on an Internode ADSL2+ connection to the St Leonards exchange, on Internode's very high speed profile. If the connection remains stable over a period of time, the sync speed is recorded.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
While the downstream is within the margin of error, we didn't get as good upstream with the Fritz!Box as we usually do. This is likely the last time we'll include ADSL sync speeds, unless there's a serious problem — the variability of line quality on any given day and the unexciting results means these stats just aren't all that important.
There's one more thing we need to note in terms of performance: every time we tried to reset the router using the web interface, it hard locked, forcing us to manually power cycle. We asked other 7390 owners if this happened to them as well, but it seems like we're the only one with this issue — still it was frustrating to have to hard reset so frequently.
Warranty
The Fritz!Box carries a rather huge, industry-leading five-year warranty, showing that the companies behind it are serious. The Fritz!Fon, however, only gets two years.
Conclusion
The Fritz!Box 7390 is overkill in a plastic shroud. The fact that it does almost everything is bound to make people want even more out of it. With an industry leading warranty, excellent UI and a crazy feature set, it comes highly recommended — if you can afford the outlay.
Still, our perfect box, as we're sure many others would be, would be the 7390 without the DECT component, cutting unneeded cost out of the equation. AVM does offer a junior version, the 7270, which comes with 100Mb Ethernet (ow), selectable dual-band (ow), one USB port and 3MB internal storage compared to the 7390's 512MB (ow), but it still has DECT. What do you reckon AVM — could we have a 7350?
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