If you have booked your cable connection through one of the major providers such as Telekom, Vodafone or O2, you will usually be provided with a Fritzbox. Actually, you don’t have to do much more on the device. In fact! If difficulties do arise, we will help you in this article on how to connect a Fritzbox to the cable connection.
Every cable provider in Germany has its own requirements for setting up a Fritzbox router. The manufacturer therefore puts AVM on its website a list of the various providers and the respective instructions available for setup.
You also have the option of doing without the supplied Fritzbox and using your own Fritzbox instead. However, AVM itself then recommends only using the Fritzbox 6490 Cable with item number 20002778. Because only this device can be used universally with every cable connection available in Germany. Other models from the Fritzbox Cable series may not be compatible with the interfaces of all cable providers. AVM has to posted an information page.
Therefore, the following steps only apply to the 6490 model.
Step 1: Have the device unlocked
A commercially purchased Fritzbox must first be activated by the provider for your cable connection. Exactly how this works depends on the cable provider. Some have set up an online activation portal for this purpose. Others do this via a telephone hotline. In any case, you should make a note of the serial number and the so-called CM-MAC address. Both information are on the back of the Fritzbox.
Also read: Fritzbox 6690 Cable – new top model with Wifi 6 for cable connections
Step 2: Connect cables
Take the one intended for the cable connection coaxial cable and connect this to the Fritzbox at one end and to the multimedia socket in the wall at the other end.
Step 3: Establish internet connection
At this point again the note: The next steps refer to a commercially purchased Fritzbox. A Fritzbox provided by the cable provider is already automatically configured for your cable connection.
Log in to the Fritzbox user interface on your computer. To do this, call up the address in your browser http://fritz.box on. To do this, you need the password from the back of the device. Then click on “Login”.
After logging in, the item “Set up Internet access” should automatically appear in the menu bar on the left-hand side. If this is not the case, then select the item “Internet” and click on “Access data”. Then activate the item “Internet via the cable connection”.
During setup on the cable connection, the “Power / Cable” light on the Fritzbox starts to flash. The entire configuration can take up to ten minutes. The process is complete when the lamp lights up continuously. If the light flashes constantly, the connection may not yet be activated or there may be a fault on the part of the provider. In either case, contact your cable provider.
If the cable connection is actually not yet activated, simply call up any website via the browser. This will automatically take you to your cable provider’s activation portal. There follow the instructions.
Then save the settings in the user interface of your Fritzbox by clicking on “Apply” or “Next”. Finally, restart the Fritzbox.
The configuration of your Fritzbox is now complete and the router is connected to the Internet via a cable connection.