The FRITZ!Box 7530 AX router was supplied by my ISP and it’s OK, but I had a few minor problems with it It has a modern well-organised GUI and is easy to set up. But I had a few problems during the short time I was using it. Firstly, it occasionally refused to accept my user name’s password, so I had to log in with the default password to regain access. One other slightly-annoying problem I had was that if a device was connected to the guest network (such as my Honeywell Evohome Controller), I couldn’t change its name. The only way I could do it was to connect it to the main network first, change the name to what I wanted and then connect it to the guest network. Another problem was that the network list also included the powerline adapters I use for one of my security cameras, but at times it got confused and was showing my daughter's iPhone being connected via a powerline network! There was also a mystery device supposedly connected to my powerline devices, but I couldn't identify it by its MAC code, so very confusing at times. One main limitation was the provision of VPNs. In the official firmware, there was only one choice (IPSec), but that wouldn’t work with my Android phone. Wireguard has now been added to the official (non-beta) firmware and is easy to set up. However, I decided to stop using this router because when I carried out a security test via the GRC ShieldsUP website, it showed one of the ports as not stealthed and therefore failing the test. That's never happened with any of the ASUS routers I've owned. I had given this device a neutral score, but I've since downgraded it to 2 stars. The reason: I decided to give it another try, but within 12 hours I was already having a problem. It refused to allow me access to the GUI, either using the account I had set up or the default account supplied with the router. Even after using the log-in recovery procedure (which did allow me access to the router's GUI) and changing my password, after logging out I was once again unable to log back in. I tried this procedure several times, but no change, so I decided I'd had enough and put it back in its box. I'm sure glad I hadn't had to pay for this device or I would have been most unhappy. Not recommended, based on my own personal experience. Update 27th Dec 2024: I decided to give this router one more try, after the firmware had been upgraded to the latest version. Initially, apart from still locking me out of the GUI from time to time, it seemed to be working OK, but then I noticed something odd: there were about half a dozen network devices listed as being offline. I was only able to identify one of them as being one of my family's own devices, so I just deleted them. A few hours later, they were back again, so it occurred to me that if they weren't devices in my home, they must have been external connections, perhaps to AVM or someone else. This made me nervous about security, so I decided to go back to using an ASUS router, which has no such issues. Incidentally, while I had the FRITZ!Box running, I decided to try one of their mesh devices (3000 AX repeater) to boost the Wi-Fi signal for my Canon printer, which is in a different room and sometimes goes offline. Well, that was a disaster: It connected to devices right close to the FRITZ!Box router but didn’t connect to my printer in another room. Also, when I tried to force connection by changing the SSID name, only the 5 GHz DFS channels were available for the new SSID and many of my devices can't use those. I contacted my ISP for support but they couldn’t resolve the issues, so I had to send it back. Life’s too short for all this hassle.
