Reports of vulnerability related to WPS are currently appearing in the media. The models of the FRITZ!Box family are not affected by this, as they do not feature continuously activated WPS.
In order to connect the FRITZ!Box to another WLAN device, the user has to temporarily activate WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) – this can be done using either the WPS button or the FRITZ!Box user interface. A secure connection can then be established within two minutes.
WPS disabled automatically after connecting
Once the connection has been successfully established or the two minutes have elapsed, the WPS function on the FRITZ!Box is once again automatically deactivated. If multiple devices simultaneously attempt to establish a WPS connection, WPS is immediately deactivated, preventing any external access to the FRITZ!Box.
WPS makes it simple to establish a secure WLAN connection
WPS, the standard developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance, serves to simplify the setup of an encrypted wireless home network. This method makes it much easier to add new devices to an existing WLAN, relieving the user of the often burdensome task of entering a complex encryption code.

This week I write a shot tutorial on how to use FRITZ!Box behind a cable Modem.

You have to connect your FRITZ!Box via Network cable on the “LAN1” Port of FRITZ!Box and connect your computer to FRITZ!Box either via LAN or Wi-Fi.

To see all the following settings please activate the Expert Mode in the System folder first. Now copy the settings in the screenshot.

For upstream / downstream please insert the Internet speed data for your line. Save the settings.

Last but not least you will need to restart your cable modem & FRITZ!Box by unplugging them from the power mains for a moment.

Now everything should be working!

VDSL stands for (Very-High-Bitrate Digital Subscriber Line). The VDSL protocol was standardized by the ITU in February 2006 and is now being deployed in more than 30 countries.

In Thailand True telecom offers VDSL with 50Mbit downstream and 20Mbit upstream for currently 3599 Baht/month.

FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN 7390 is one of the very few VDSL Modems available on the Thai Market. With integrated high-speed Wi-Fi N and 4 ports Gigabit LAN the FRITZ!Box is certainly the most outstanding VDSL Product in the market.

Your employees enjoy checking the latest comments on their Facebook and chatting via Windows Messenger? That’s fine if they need a short break or if there are no tasks pending. But sometimes, depending on their personality, they get easily distracted and have problems to concentrate on their designated duties.

If employees are spending unacceptable long on these sites the P-word (productivity) will pop up:

For example, if every employee in a 50-employee company spent 30 minutes on social networking every day of a working week, that would total a cumulative productivity loss of 6,500 hours in one year. Now when you factor in how much each hour costs in salaries, you get a better and convincing picture.

Recent surveys found out that nearly 60% of work interruptions involve either using tools like private email, social networks, text messaging, instant messaging or switching windows among different standalone tools and applications.

And, not to forget, using social networking sites with their posted video links may take a high amount of bandwidth depending on your internet line. Furthermore there is still the threat of web-borne viruses and malware finding a way to your business computers via Facebook applications to infect it with malicious codes to collect commercial data.

Soon AVM will have a solution for this problem. The upcoming firmware for the FRITZ!Box 7390 and 7270 will enable you to monitor and control web surfing activities of your employees. So if needed, you can easily block certain websites for dedicated persons working in your office.

At the moment there is a Beta version available but I suggest that you wait for the final firmware as we noticed some stability problems when testing it at our office. I will let you know in my blog as soon as it comes available.

What do you usually do if a guest comes to your office and asks you to access the Internet? Most of us would just share the WLAN Key with our visitors. However, if we have shared folders in our office network EVERYONE within the same Network can access them. So it’s very easy for any guest to get insight into confidential data from your company. To prevent handing out the WLAN Network key and still allow guests to go online FRITZ!Box 7270 & 7390 now offer a WLAN guest access for visitors that is completely separated from your Network, meaning that visitors can surf the Internet without passing on the WLAN network key for your network. You can offer a Guest WLAN Key and even define how long they can use this access.

Sorry for taking a dive for the last few weeks. However we had so much work on some big projects that I had no time to take care about properly updating the blog. Now I’m back with some good news. AVM just released a long awaited firmware update for the Fritz!Box Fon 7270. Now the 7270 is catching up with the FB 7390. Outstanding new features are Wi-Fi Guest access, allowing you to separate your WLAN network from your guests or customers coming to your office or home. Furthermore Fritz!Box now allows you to hook up your Android or iPhone via WLAN and transforms them into an extension phone within your PBX. The New Dashboard offers an improved navigation through the Fritz!Box settings. You can find the firmware here.

 In future, the FRITZ!Powerline 500E will help in situations where a network connection is required but new cabling is to be avoided. The small adapter extends the Gigabit LAN cable via the house power line, meaning that each socket in the house becomes a network connection. Startup is incredibly simple – plug in, connect the PC or network device and that’s it! The user interface provides an overview of the whole Powerline network. FRITZ!Powerline 500E is fitted with a 128-bit AES encryption ex works and is based on the standard IEEE P1901, supporting speeds of up to 500 Mbit/s. P1901 is compatible with the forthcoming HomePlug AV 2 standard.

Fritz!Box 7270 & 7390 allow to share data stored on a hard drive or USB Stick within your Network. This allows you to have consistent data in your office as you can work right on the files of the drive. Even better there is only one version of the document and not many in different stages on every computer.

In an office surrounding you would usually share some documents more than one person needs to access. If you share a folder on one computer these documents are only available as long as the computer is running.

Fritz!Box in online 24/7 and only consumes 6-8 Watt so it makes sense to save data right to your Access point rather than using an old computer that runs up your electric bill as Server. Even better you can even access the files over a secure connection when you are out of the office.

To set up the drive as a normal hard drive in all computers in your office just do the following steps:

1.       Go to MyComputer

2.       Go to Map Network drive

3.       Choose a Drive name: I would recommend to choose a letter in like Q, T, X etc. in every computer

4.       In folder you copy \\fritz.box\fritz.nas

5.       Username:  ftpuser

6.       Password:   your password

7.       Press Finish to connect

8.       Repeat this on every computer in your Network

If you want to access your Fritz!Box Dashboard you don’t need to remember any cryptic IP Address. Just type fritz.box into the browser and the Fritz Dashboard will open up. To make it even easier AVM offers a great little plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer. After installation the plugin will show up at the far right of your browser.  Just click on the Fritz Logo to open the Dashboard. Download the plugin here.

AVM just released an updated Software version to integrate a USB Printer within an Office Network. USB printers can now be better integrated into a  home or office network. The new USB Remote Connection allows to "print on demand" .  If a new print job is sent to the USB printer, the printer hooked up with FRITZ!Box is automatically connected to the given computer and placed at the disposal of all participants in the home network as soon as the print job has been completed. The update is available for Windows 7, Vista and XP (32-bit and 64-bit). The software can be installed via the user interface of your FRITZ!Box or updated using the "Update Program" function (context menu of the software).