AVM FRITZ!WLAN Repeater 1750E international

I bought this to accompany my Zen Internet-provided Fritz!box router. I have an old house with thick brick walls throughout and careful placement of this device has definitely helped with getting signal to some spots that were previously touch and go.Setup was wholly straightforward; a quick WPS button press on this and my Fritzbox and it was automatically configured for mesh operation.Only 4 stars rather than 5 simply because I wish AVM would release a version with a UK plug - this is a 2 prong Euro design which requires an adapter. Not a massive issue but just be aware if installing at floor level as it sticks out a long way from the socket as a result.

Did not work with my setup, Fritz!box, supplied by Zen, and Mac. Spent several hours on the phone with Zen but could not find a combination to get it to work properly. Did manage to get Mesh setup but the performance was rubbish and the routes power was also detrimentally affected. Zen recommended return which I did. To date I have not received a refund from the supplier.

Obviously can’t comment on longer term reliability but so far very good. I can now get 5GHz all over the house instead of just in the same or adjacent room. Or so I thought! Logging on to my Fritz!box router I find that the Fritz!WLAN is only connected to the router via 2.4GHz WiFi so my devices only connect to the repeater @5GHz and not the router. Apparently this is the default. You can change this but if the positioning of the 1705 is such that it receives a weak 5GHz signal, this may be counter-productive. There is of course the inevitable firmware update you might want to manage. The excellent Fritz!WLAN app tells me there’s an update available for the 1705E (OS 06.93 was what was installed when received) but it requires me to log into the 1705 with a password. The default given in the instructions “00000000” didn’t work because once you connected the repeater to your router it becomes ‘synced’ and so reflects your router settings. Basically you just login in to your router and access the 1705 from there.Unlike some others who seem to sell German language only devices this has English instructions and very handily is supplied with a euro to UK adapter. Be aware though that this makes the device stand proud of the 13amp socket by over 70mm.