I’ve just acquired a handful of home/small business networking products – the AVM Fritz!Box Fon WLAN 7390 router, AVM Fritz!WLAN Repeater, and AVM Fritz!Powerline 500E Set – and I’d like to share the experience.
AVM Fritz!Box Fon WLAN 7390
Like any broadband router, the 7390 connects your local area network (LAN) to an ADSL-enabled phone line – but there’s far more to it than that. It’s probably the fullest featured product of its kind.
At its heart, the 7390 runs Linux but you never need to know that unless you like tinkering. It provides a huge range of information about your DSL connection, not just speed but signal to noise ratio, error stats, and a graphical representation of the line’s carrier frequency spectrum.
If your line is noisy, you can adjust the sensitivity of the device to accommodate that, in order to trade off stability for speed. My phone line was very crackly for a few days which at first resulted in the router disconnecting and retraining frequently. Using the 7390’s line settings, I was able to achieve a stable, albeit slower connection until the line cleared.
And as well as the more common ADSL/ADSL2+, it will also connect to a VDSL line, useful for small businesses with a need for high speed uploading.
Telephony is one of the 7390’s fortés. It includes a DECT base station that allows all GAP-compatible cordless phones to connect to it, and you can also use with a SIP service to call over the Internet, with full logging and call quality data available. The telephony module includes an answering machine, a phone book, alarms, call blocking and diversion, and a call logging screen.
WiFi support includes all modern 2.4GHz standards, plus the 5GHz 802.11a standard, all with a full set of security controls, as well as the ability to avoid channels being used by nearby WLANs. Its four LAN ports are now Gigabit Ethernet enabled – its predecessor supported only 100Mbps – so the 7390 is now useful as a full participant of a home or small business network. It also includes a USB port into which you can plug storage, such as a NAS containing video and audio files, to be shared over the LAN via UPnP.
Other features include an energy saving mode, a night service, and daily, weekly or monthly email reports.
Any downsides? It’s expensive at around £185 from Amazon, and some users have complained of poor English language support from the German parent company.
There’s a lot more the device can do but in summary, it’s a highly capable router and a whole lot more.
AVM Fritz!WLAN Repeater 300E
A simple-to-use device, this extends the WLAN, connected either via the WLAN itself or using a wired network connection. Connection is simple, using push buttons on both the router and repeater, and the link is fully encrypted so, unlike some products, you don’t have to drop strong encryption to extend the WLAN. A good way to get a wireless connection in the workshop.
AVM Fritz!Powerline 500E Set
Fritz!Powerline adapters are an alternative to running network cables: instead, use the mains system for networking. The main drawback compared to a standard Ethernet connection is speed: the max theoretical throughput is 500Mbps but much less than that in practice. A batch file-driven data transfer showed a data rate over the Powerline network of 171Mbps, compared to a rate using gigabit Ethernet of 392Mbps.
The pair of devices in the box each sport an Ethernet port, and a security button which enables 128-bit encryption. You must use this or your data could be visible to everyone else connected to the same circuit – including your neighbours. You also get a pair of Ethernet cables, and the adapters are IEEE P1901 compliant, and so should be compatible with adapters from other vendors.
Summary
Both the Powerline devices and repeater are useful for extending your network, or you could combine both for a faster, more robust connection.
Annoyingly, though, the Vigor 2850n can’t transmit on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands simultaneously, which puts it at a severe disadvantage in comparison with other high-end routers such as AVM’s Fritz!BOX WLAN 7390 – if you have 2.4GHz-only devices such as many smartphones, you’ll need to do without the super-fast 5GHz mode to get them online. However, it does compensate with other impressive features, such as its web portal option. This lets you redirect users to a specific URL when they first log on to the router. It also has a web content filter, which prevents users accessing specific URLs. Even though the controls reside on the router, letting you block or allow access to certain content for any connected computer, you need to subscribe to DrayTek’s GlobalView service in order to use them. The Vigor 2850n’s firewall is also of note, being extremely customisable, and there are comprehensive bandwidth controls to help you get the most out of your internet connection and control your network traffic effectively.
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