Fritz Box 7140



I use my Fritz Box 7140 (Annex A, Firmware version 39.04.47) as an ADSL
wireless router as well as for two VOIP phone lines as and a printer server.
The ADSL router sent by O2 (TG585) doesn't even have a single VOIP port and
so has not even been taken out of its plastic bag. I received very helpful
advice in advance of activation by O2 and this is summarised here along with
my initial (one day) experience of O2.



Setup



Transferring from previous ISP settings was very simple for my O2 dynamic
IP.



Go to Internet: Account information then

Select: No account information required.

Change: VCI from 38 to 101

Choose: Bridged encapsulation

Tick: obtain IP address automatically



Speed



With Pipex (actually BT Datastream) the Fritz Box showed an attainable
downstream data rate of just over 4Mb/s. (Actual rate was capped at 1 Mb/s)
For O2, attainable is over 5.5 Mb/s with an user rate steady at over 4600
Kb/s. Actual upstream is over 850 Kb/s. (Speedtest.net rates are marginally
slower.) No dropouts or any other problems.



Potential problems



1. Comments in newsgroups and a recent magazine have
suggested that all ADSL routers using the TI AR7 chipset may have sync
problems with Broadcom DSLAMs used in exchanges by ISPs such as O2/Be.
Whilst the Fritz Box is said to use the AR7, it is working fine for me.

2. The Fritz Box does not include Annex M which may permit
uploads to 3 Mb/s. My Fritz box does report Broadcom DSL in the exchange
with max possible uploads and downloads of 24 and 3 Mb/s, but these are not
relevant at my distance from the exchange.



Hope this helps anyone else think of using the Fritz Box.



Roger