Fritz!Box, stylised as FRITZ!Box, is a series of

residential gateway A residential gateway is a small consumer-grade gateway which bridges network access between connected local area network (LAN) hosts to a wide area network (WAN) (such as the Internet) via a modem, or directly connects to a WAN (as in EttH), ...

devices produced by the German company

AVM GmbH AVM, acronym for Audio Visual Marketing, is a consumer electronics company founded in 1986 in Berlin, Germany. The company produces communications, networking devices such as DSL, ISDN, Wireless and VoIP products. It had sales of €620 million ...

. In 2010 it was estimated the series had a market share of 68% of the

digital subscriber line Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric dig ...

(DSL) consumer equipment in Germany. Fritz!Boxes run FRIT
OS

Functionality

Typical functionality of a Fritz!Box includes: * a built-in broadband modem: ** a

DSL modem A digital subscriber line (DSL) modem is a device used to connect a computer or Router (computing), router to a telephone line which provides the digital subscriber line (DSL) service for connection to the Internet, which is often called ''DSL ...

(most models) ** a

cable modem A cable modem is a type of network bridge that provides bi-directional data communication via radio frequency channels on a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC), radio frequency over glass (RFoG) and coaxial cable infrastructure. Cable modems are pri ...

(6xxx series) ** a 3G or

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a mobile telephony standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement ** LTE Advanced Pro, a further enhancement * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers * Leukotrie ...

modem (68xx series) ** a fibre broadband modem (54xx, 55xx series) * a built-in LAN-WAN router, usually with a

network switch A network switch (also called switching hub, bridging hub, Ethernet switch, and, by the IEEE, MAC bridge) is networking hardware that connects devices on a computer network by using packet switching to receive and forward data to the destinat ...

supporting

Fast Ethernet In computer networking, Fast Ethernet Ethernet physical layer, physical layers carry traffic at the nominal rate of . The Classic Ethernet, prior Ethernet speed was . Of the Fast Ethernet physical layers, 100BASE-TX is by far the most common. ...

or, in newer models,

Gigabit Ethernet In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use in ...

* in nearly all models, a

wireless access point In Computer networking device, computer networking, a wireless access point (WAP) (also just access point (AP)) is a networking hardware device that allows other Wi-Fi devices to connect to a wired network or wireless network. As a standalone ...

: ** in the 2.4 GHz radio band, in accordance with IEEE 802.11b (11 Mbit/s), IEEE 802.11g (54 Mbit/s) and IEEE 802.11n (up to 450 Mbit/s) standards ** in many newer models, also in the 5 GHz radio band, supporting the IEEE 802.11a (54 Mbit/s), IEEE 802.11n (54 Mbit/s—450 Mbit/s) and IEEE 802.11ac (up to 1.27 Gbit/s) standards * a PBX, particularly in the 7xxx series models: ** a built-in SIP client for internet telephony (

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

) ** a

DECT Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications (DECT) is a cordless telephony standard maintained by ETSI. It originated in Europe, where it is the common standard, replacing earlier standards, such as CT1 and CT2. Since the DECT-2020 standard ...

base station to connect cordless handsets ** a SIP server to connect SIP-compliant phones or software devices ** support for physical phones (extensions) connected via

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the digitalised circuits of the public switched telephone network. ...

and/or

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

interfaces ** an

answering machine An answering machine, answerphone, or message machine, also known as telephone messaging machine (or TAM) in the United Kingdom, UK and some Commonwealth countries, ansaphone or ansafone (from a trade name), or telephone answering device (TAD), ...

and software-based

fax Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other out ...

* in most models since 2006, a

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

port to connect external storage or printer which may also be used to connect a e.g. a 3G or 4G mobile modem * a

NAS Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air (S ...

and a DLNA/

UPnP Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a set of networking protocols on the Internet Protocol (IP) that permits networked devices, such as personal computers, printers, Gateway (telecommunications), Internet gateways, Wi-Fi access points and mobile de ...

compliant media server in most models with newer firmware Many Fritz!Boxes offer

wireless repeater A wireless repeater (also called wireless range extender or wifi extender) is a device that takes an existing signal from a wireless router or wireless access point and rebroadcasts it to create a second network. When two or more hosts have to ...

functionality which, in earlier firmware versions, was compatible with the IEEE 802.11-1999 standard

wireless distribution system A wireless distribution system (WDS) is a system enabling the wireless interconnection of access points in an IEEE 802.11 network. It allows a wireless network to be expanded using multiple access points without the traditional requirement for a ...

before being replaced with a proprietary system in more recent firmware versions.

IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communication protocol, communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic ...

support was enabled from firmware version 4.90 onwards. Fritz!Box devices operate under the control of Fritz!OS, a specialized

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

distribution, which provides a graphical web interface for user interaction.

Domestic versions

Fritz!Box devices with an integrated DSL modem come in three versions. The version for the German market uses an ISDN interface for voice. For the Austrian and

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

markets the voice interface use traditional POTS and also has a German-language user interface. The international version has a multi-language web interface and provides support for POTS and usually ISDN for voice. While the international version supports both the most common ADSL Annex A POTS and ADSL Annex B ISDN, the German version offers hardware support for Annex B only, which is the sole standard used in Germany, with additional support for Annex J in newer models.

References

External links

* {{authority control Broadband Linux-based devices Networking hardware Telephony equipment