Fritz juggles VoIP phones nicely

THE BIZARRELY-NAMED named Fritzbox Fon Wlan 7050 is an ADSL VoIP router with built-in PBX (private branch exchange) that allows you to make calls over both the conventional telephone network and the Internet, writes Paul Monckton

You can connect up to three analogue telephones and, for those of you with the right equipment, up to eight ISDN phones. Ten simultaneous SIP-based VoIP numbers can be configured, with dialling rules applied to automatically select the cheapest tariff.

Different VoIP numbers can be allocated to specific handsets, and calls can be passed from one line to another.

You can either use the device as a standard wireless broadband router or alternatively plug it direct into your PC via USB. If you're using Windows XP/2000, Mac OS X or Linux the drivers are installed directly from the device.

The supplied CD contains a suite of programs including a very easy step-by-step routine for setting set-up your DSL connection and VoIP accounts. It also includes diagnostic, auto-update utilities and firewall management.

Alternatively, you can configure the system from any connected computer by entering the address in your browser and using the built-in web interface.

There are many different ways of setting up the Fritzbox and the excellent user manual explains all of them in simple terms with plenty of diagrams.

More advanced users will find the Fritzbox is highly configurable. For example, should you already have a ADSL broadband router up and running, the Fritzbox can be set up to act as a wireless access point, providing your network with VoIP access but leaving the Internet connection to your existing hardware.

Impressively, you can also use the Fritzbox as a call-through service. For example, if you want to make an international call while away from home, you can call up the Fritzbox, enter a PIN and then dial the international number using your VoIP account. An enhanced 802.11g mode is also included with the Fritzbox, allowing it to operated at a maximum 125Mbits/sec, although something in the region of 35-40Mbits/sec is what you'll actually achieve. As expected, ADSL2+ is supported.

The Fritzbox Fon Wlan 7050 is an excellent piece of equipment with a huge range of features, but we suggest saving around £15 on the £139 purchase price and going for the cheaper model without ISDN support (this has the same model name, but lacks the 7050 tag at the end). ?

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