The German company AVM, as do many other manufacturers, uses a DNS server integrated into their devices. When users type the address fritz.box in the browser’s URL bar, the FRITZ!Box router displays its login screen and allows you to access the administration panel.
The domain fritz.box in short, it is fictitious, in the sense that it is accessible only and exclusively through the local network to connect with the router’s administration interface. Or rather, the router’s local DNS FRITZ!Box create third level domains like nas.fritz.boxor server1.fritz.box and similar to directly reach the various devices present on the LAN, regardless of the private IP address assigned to them.
The advantage is precisely this: the FRITZ!Box takes care of maintaining a table updated with the correspondences between the addresses of the devices to which a mnemonic type name is assigned *.fritz.box and their respective ones IP addresses.
Fritz.box domain registered by an unauthorized party: this is why access to the FRITZ!Box router no longer works
Who, to date, has used the address fritz.box to quickly access the administration panel of the AVM routers, you will certainly have noticed an obvious anomaly: the router no longer responds to that address or a web page was offered that has nothing to do with the management of the FRITZ!Box.
The problem arises from the fact that an unauthorized person registered the domain in January 2024 fritz.box making it publicly accessible. At the beginning of March 2024, ICANN – evidently accepting AVM’s requests – took steps to suspend the assignment of the domain name.
Even today, however, opening the command prompt and typing nslookup fritz.boxthe response is a reference to an address that is not local but a public IP address.
The problem is the child of liberalization of domain names top level (TLD) desired by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names) several years ago now. Recently also the TLD .box has become registrable and someone has wasted no time in grabbing a domain name that is certainly “delicate” like fritz.box.
As we learn by consulting the documents shared online by ICANN, the record – i.e. the company responsible for managing the TLD .box it’s called Intercap Registry -. Using his servizio WHOIS, you can try to find out who the domain is registered to. In the case of fritz.boxwe only know that the provider (registrar) chosen by the person who requested ownership of the domain is Namesilo but all other data is obscured.
What AVM should have done and how it reacted
To prevent any abuse, such as the one that is currently taking place, AVM should have record in time the domain fritz.box. In this way he would have avoided any risk for himself and for the users using the address fritz.box.
As it was easy to hypothesize, the issue now seems to be in the process of being resolved: the dispute procedures relating to the assignment of domain names allow legitimate parties to assume ownership of “names” acquired by others without having any title.
It is precisely (also) to avoid situations like the one AVM encountered that ICANN recently proposed the use of the new .internal TLD for access to local devices. The mnemonic addresses referring to .internalIn fact, they will never be reachable via the Internet nor can they be registered with any person. They will remain valid, always and in any case, within the LAN.
According to the content of the information page displayed by ICANN regarding the domain fritz.boxAVM would leverage the system Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS). This is a procedure developed specifically to quickly and economically resolve obvious cases of trademark infringement. The mechanism offers trademark holders a tool to challenge the registration of domain names identical or similar to a registered trademark, which have also been used in bad faith.
In all likelihood this is the first step towards transfer of ownership of the domain fritz.box in favor of AVM.
How to access the FRITZ!Box administration panel
Using server DNS diversi from the one on the AVM device, access to the FRITZ!Box router using the domain name fritz.box It is not currently possible.
To resolve this, however, simply type the IP assigned to the FRITZ!Box router into the address bar of your browser. By default, the AVM router uses the private IP address 192.168.178.1. If it has been changed, in Windows just open the command prompt (type cmd in the operating system search box) then write ipconfig.
Next to the voice Default gateway of the Ethernet card or WiFi card, it will read theIP address of the FRITZ!Box router.
Alternatively, you can use – among the many available today – FRITZ!App WLAN which, as soon as it is launched on a mobile device, already on the first screen (tab My WiFi network) returns the router’s local IP address.
The opening image is taken from the official AVM website.
