Review: AVM Fritz!Box Fon voice-enabled router

This article is part of a group review of six voice-enabled Wi-Fi routers

AVM’s Fritz!Box is a very flexible and well packaged system with a comprehensive set of features. It connects to the PSTN using a Y-cable that plugs into both ports of the master phone socket. Regular phones plugged into the device can dial out using the PSTN or through VoIP accounts loaded into the box – and it is easy to use dialling rules to set up preferences.

With a flat-rate dialling plan from our PSTN provider, we preferred to have all ports dial the PSTN, and use VoIP only if our PSTN line was busy. Surprisingly, the Fritz!Box was the only product that allowed this.

Setting up Wi-Fi security is very straightforward using AVM’s Stick & Surf USB dongle. Plugging the stick into the Fritz!Box installs WPA2 security codes, while inserting the same stick into a PC loads drivers, security data, and sets up a connection.

Even without Stick & Surf, the Fritz!Box has an easy Wi-Fi set-up, as each box has a unique default key, which is printed on a label on the bottom of the device, that can be entered into a PC. Wi-Fi can be disabled by a button at the back of the box.
The VoIP support is comprehensive, with excellent logging. Phone calls and usage are stored on the box, and can be emailed regularly to a specified email address. It is also possible to use the box as a gateway – dial it from another number, and it can use the internet to dial you through to numbers abroad.

The Fritz!Box does have a firewall but AVM keeps the standard settings under cover, so that users cannot turn it off by mistake. This may be a drawback for companies that want the to be able to apply specific settings on a firewall, but over the course of our test, we did not find that this feature inhibited us in any way.

Next review: D-Link DVA-G3340S