Foreword

In the summer of this year, Carsten Albrecht read the exciting news that AVM and the Deutsche Telekom a field test for new DSL hardware start and would for this search still reliable beta tester – the tested product should be the brand new and still officially not on the market AVM Fritz! DSL card be. He was lucky and made it into the select circle of the tester. In the following article, which he has kindly made us available, you will learn the first impressions on the new DSL card to be installed in the PC, which replaced the DSL modem. I would like at this point again when Carsten Albrecht and thank the continuity, have provided us this article available.

What’s that for a show?

I signed immediately on the form page to do so provided and fortunately got a few days later know to be under the 500 select subjects. Some days later a parcel I received then with all required materials. This new hardware is the point that one needs no DSL modem – this falls out Yes from the first January 2002 from the DSL service of Telekom, so to worry itself to appropriate hardware, if you want to use DSL, and explains the interest of Telekom this field test.

On the map is an adequate substitute for this DSL modem and at the same time a fully functional AVM Fritz!Card PCI 2.0. Because you no longer need the DSL modem therefore, one has free in addition also the NIC, you even needed to connect of the DSL modem to the PC.

Scope of delivery

The final deliverable of the now officially available only for a few days show is slightly different than that of my trial. The complete package consists of:

• a PCI card to be installed in the PC – the actual controller
• a manual in German
• a CDROM with all driver for Win98/ME, NT4, 2000, and contrary to the press release on avm.de for Windows XP, this includes the complete Fritz!-Edition software including Fritz!Web ISDN and Fritz!Web DSL
• two ever 6-meter-long CAT5 RJ45 cable to connect of the card splitter and NT

The installation

To use the card, you must Windows use on his PC – currently the only supported operating system family with Linux support by some makers already in work. The card must be installed in the PC, requires a free PCI slot in the computer. The PC is equipped with a map should be at least a Pentium II 300 MHz according to AVM – I have tested the map with a dual Celeron 433 as well as with an AMD Athlon 1400.

The installation designed computer from pretty simple-, computer on, open PCI slot, card in, screw, PC, ready. Now, you must connect the DSL-Jack with the ISDN/DSL Splitter and the ISDN socket with the ISDN NTBA and then can enable the computer again. When you restart after installation, the card is automatically detected by Windows and the user will be prompted to insert the driver CD. These are automatically found on most systems, and installed. After the installation of the driver – Windows 2000 comes out for the time being even without rebooting – is first tries the DSL operator to connect, what immediately and successfully works in most cases. There should be an error here, advises the Setup to do this simply to ignore them and continue with the Setup – you can quietly heed this advice as it is the settings for the DSL hardware at any time to catch up with a small utility.

It will then automatically after the Setup for the DSL-specific software and the Fritz her well-known from the ISDN cards! software started. It simply followed the instructions on the screen, then you can go wrong. After the installation of the software a restart is then also under 2000/XP. It has done this also, the show is ready for use.

The included software

Beginners can simply the two dial-up connections set up by the Setup for ISDN and DSL named Fritz!Web DSL or Fritz!Web ISDN use, here you will prompted to enter of his user data only once and from then on, the connection to the Internet goes automatically and how by itself – as I said for beginners sure the recommended way.

As a nice gimmick on the edge, you can with this Fritz!Web software similar to monitor the throughput of your Internet connection the “T-Online Speedway Manager”. In the first beta versions of this software there were amusingly problems relating to games and professional graphics software, unless you put graphic cards with NVIDIA (TNT2, GeForce series etc.) chips and more recent drivers – as soon as we moved through the launch of the listed software products in the Direct3D or OpenGL mode, an existing Internet connection broke down and was also the next 5-10 minutes to restore not – the show lost the Syncsignal with the operator and was usually only by a reset of the computer revive – a driver bug, but was fixed in the final version, so here are no such problems more. Fritz!Web DSL is also capable of more space, which means, you can repurpose the computer with the DSL map to the router and the Internet connection so that a house/corporate/family-internal network make available – very handy, I think, because dealing with the Internet connection sharing of current Windows versions or appropriate routing software like that thing is not everyone’s / fraus.

The supplied software package called Fritz! in the current version 3.01 consists primarily of the following sub-programmes:

• Fritz!Fax – a fax software
• Fritz!Vox – an answering machine
• Fritz!FON – a telephony software
• Fritz!Data – data exchange via the ISDN line
• Fritz!Version – to the review of the software package
• ISDNWatch – monitoring of ISDN channels

On each programme, I go not a ISDN cards are known from the well-known AVM and differ from these in any way.

The ISDN of the card

The same also applies to in principle the ISDN of the card – beginning already described how this relates to a full-fledged Fritz! card, only just with the DSL controller on a single card – if you have already an ISDN card in the computer, you can (and should) this einmotten.

This is the only serious drawback which has struck me – you can use the ISDN of the new card not in addition to an existing ISDN card, you must choose one of the two. However, it is of course possible to use only the part of DSL and shut down the ISDN area, to avoid problems, for example, with active ISDN cards in a dial-in server. The part of the ISDN dominated all the usual and familiar features including ISDN channel bundling, uses CAPI 2.0, is eligible for PBX, uses fast Internet over ISDN (a type of compression by AVM) and is not blind to GSM/HSCSD. Both areas of the map are the installation also as NDISWAN driver installed, so that one easily without Fritz!Web can use directly to set up its own network and dial-up connections.

What I lack of software for AVM Ken! so far unfortunately not test could is the question of whether also the part of ISDN is capable of multiple space – distributed CAPI would to be able to take advantage of even unbeatably awesome. You knows something better in the Windowsgefilden and its own dial-up connection to the Internet, tinkering itself rather than that you Fritz!Web used can combine DSL and ISDN part also wonderfully with each other and use such as ISDN as automatic fallback, if the T-DSL Internet access once again should fail. With the possibility, as easy to build is a router under Windows, the map even in the semi-professional, play also for medium-sized companies interesting not only for home users and students shared.

Daily operations

Card and software have proven from the outset quite reliable and stable, however the VLIW microprocessor used on the map is quite warm – one halst up an additional source of heat in the computer.

While at the beginning of the trial, some partly violent bugs were stuck in the drivers, may be drivers and software to the official release now confidently considered stable and mature. Very positive highlight here is the excellent cooperation with the developers and programmers at AVM, which basically very fast and motivated have responded to bug messages. Sometimes I had an adjusted driver in the mailbox after reporting a bug a few hours later – on this excellent communication between developers and testers / customers more than just a disc should cut a number of companies. The performance of your Internet connection is available to the conventional method of DSL-modem/network card in nothing; the CPU is my experience to even slightly lower than the previously used method. Downloads flutschen at the maximum DSL speed through the pipe, if the provider supports it. I did the Fritz! software already with the first ISDN cards made by AVM met and always like to used – small, resource-saving and very practical tools that totally sufficient for most applications and unnecessary eating buying more expensive megabyte software appear.

Conclusion

AVM has proven once again successfully its reputation as a manufacturer of excellent PBX hardware in my opinion this card – I use the product for months now and I am thoroughly satisfied and with the retail drivers, the last in the beta test of accumulated bugs have been corrected. How do I find, to good product that has earned the top rating of good faith.

We want to thank once again at this point Carsten Albrecht for the provision of this article.