The Fritz!Box is a six-in-one network device aimed at home users, home workers and small businesses. It combines a four-port hub, a 802.11g++ wireless LAN, a file and print server, a firewall and a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone system. The Fritz!Box has sold like hot strudel in its home country and AVM is a well known make in Germany, however in the UK it's an unknown quantity.

Installation for the Fritz!Box is actually very simple considering what it does. You start with loading the CD which includes a tutorial, a wizard to help you get started and a series of utilities to help diagnose any problems, plus some firewall software and a WebWatch connection monitor.

The connection tutorial is quite foolproof; it explains everything in plain English and includes helpful diagrams for what should be plugged into where. Plus the kit comes complete with most of the cables and adapters you'll need to connect the box to either a wired LAN or your PC - although we still needed a phone adapter as the box only contains a continental adapter.

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After showing you how to plug everything in, the wizard will then try to detect a broadband connection; if it does, it then installs the manual and launches a further configuration tool.

At this point things get a little complicated, as you're asked if it's a Router PPP or a "RFC 1483/2684" connection that you intend to make. 99 percent of users will opt for the former, but only after hurriedly reading the manual to find out what a PPP is.

The last thing you need to do is to put in your broadband username and password, and create a password and define the security level for the wireless LAN.

What differentiates the Fritz!Box from the rest of the broadband routers on the market is the array of extra things that the box is capable of. There's a USB port on the unit that allows you to share printers and any USB storage device over the network, and there's a VoIP system that allows you to take and make VoIP calls without needing to switch on your PC.

The VoIP system is almost a mini PBX system. You can route calls to either the Internet - it comes with 333 free minutes on VoIP supplier SipGate - or your fixed line. You can see who's dialled whom, you can click to dial from a shared telephone book and there's an automatic fall-back to fixed line when the Internet isn't available.

The Wireless LAN part of the Fritz!box is quite comprehensive and there's an enormous array of variables you can change, including reducing the transmitter power to improve security and only allowing registered users to access the WLAN.

Speed-wise it's OK: we managed to connect at 54Mbps most of the time, and by using an AVM 802.11g++ USB device the data rates improved enough to move signal strength from Good to Excellent. AVM claims data rates are about 35 percent higher than those available from an 802.11g device, and that certainly seemed to be the case in our tests. However we never got any where near the 125Mbps quoted on the box.

Probably the best thing about the box is the advanced level of diagnostics available to the user. Via the browser interface you can see all the names and IP addresses of the devices attached to the hub, and to the WLAN, where additionally you can see the throughput quality and status of the device. There are log files for all the different parts of the device, an online meter that gives you details of your online connection, and plenty of graphical and numeric information on your current connection.

The Fritz!Box is an excellent router and PBX in one small box. However, although the VoIP facility looked good we had problems getting it to work correctly out of the box, and it was only after a lot of tweaking that we got it to work satisfactorily.

The Fritz!Box is an excellent all-in-one router and VoIP device, either for the home or for a small office. Its installation wizards are among the simplest we've seen and most users could have a phone and Internet system up and running in less than an hour.