The FRITZ! Box is undoubtedly the best home modem that we can place at home, with any type of Internet connection (ADSL or optical fiber). Among the lesser known but very interesting features of this German modem we find a integrated VPN service, which allows, in a few simple steps, to access the home network even when we are away, using our faithful smartphone as an entry point to the local network (obviously using a secure VPN tunnel).In this guide we will show you in detail how to use the FRITZ! Box's VPN to access the home network, configuring the modem to receive new VPN connections from the mobile devices in our possession and how to configure the app to start the VPN anywhere in the globe (therefore also when we are abroad).
READ ALSO: Advantages of using a FRITZ! Box for your home network
How to use the FRITZ! Box's VPN
As already mentioned in the introduction of the guide, we will have to configure the FRITZ! Box's VPN both on our modem and on our smartphone or tablet, using the access credentials that we will create during the procedure. This VPN is offered by AVM and does not require the payment of any subscription, since in fact it only creates a VPN tunnel between our mobile device and the modem, without going through any intermediate server (we cannot therefore use it to have a new different IP , as seen in the guide Best VPNs for Android, iPhone free and unlimited.
How to configure the modem
On the modem we will first have to set up a MyFRITZ! Account, which will be very useful to be able to quickly configure the VPN connection once the app is installed on our device. We first open a web browser on a PC connected to the FRITZ! Box network, type in the address bar http://192.168.178.1 or http://fritz.box. Once connected to the modem control interface, let's go to the menu Internet -> MyFRITZ! Account and enter the requested data (an email address and a password).
Once this step has been carried out and the email that will reach you will also be confirmed, we will be ready for the next step, i.e. the configuration of the VPN directly inside the dedicated app.
How to set up the app for Android and iPhone
For the first connection to the VPN, we strongly recommend that you connect to the FRITZ! Box's Wi-Fi network so that you can carry out all the necessary steps correctly. After the first connection, just use the app even outside the home to start the VPN immediately.
We download the app on our smartphone or tablet MyFRITZ! App, available free for Android and iPhone. Once downloaded, open it, wait for the end of the scan (it will immediately search for the FRITZ! Box modem in our network) and, when requested, enter the password to access the FRITZ! Box control panel.
A welcome screen will open with the name of the FRITZ! Box in our possession, the assigned IP address and a list of already connected devices. In order to create the VPN we will have to press the button on the top Configure home network connection, which is needed in order to immediately establish the secure connection between our mobile device and the modem.
Pressing the button will open a window in the foreground, where it is sufficient to press on Configuration, follow the two-factor confirmation procedure (basically just press any key on the modem) then wait for the confirmation window to appear.
We press the button end to finish the configuration. Now we are ready to connect to our modem via VPN when we are away from home; we can immediately do a test by turning off the Wi-Fi connection, starting the LTE connection and opening the MyFRITZ! App again. In the initial screen we will see the button appear Idle: just press on it to quickly activate the VPN connection with the modem.
A confirmation window may appear on Android and iPhone to establish a VPN connection: we confirm where necessary in order to proceed.
We have finished configuring the FRITZ! Box's VPN! With the VPN icon active on our smartphone, we will in fact be connected to our home network even when we are away from home: we can access the files shared on the network by other PCs, access services and Web servers by simply typing the internal IP and being on Internet as if we were still at home (in fact, even on our smartphone we will have the same IP as at home, as verifiable from the whatismyipaddress.com website).
The speed is very high and in fact we will be able to navigate with the same fluidity and flexibility as when we are connected in Wi-Fi to the home network. To end the VPN connection, simply open the MyFRITZ! App app again and press the button Active, present in the upper part of the interface.
Conclusions
Personally, the FRITZ! Box never ceases to amaze: when we believe we have learned all its functions, here comes a new feature much sought after by professionals and by those who have been chewing on computer networks for years!
Without having to configure certificates and clients on PCs, laptops and smartphones, using the FRITZ! Box and the dedicated app for mobile devices we can quickly create a VPN to access our home network wherever we are, so we can retrieve the files stored on the NAS or on a server PC without configuring an FTP service or a dedicated WebDAV service. The FRITZ! Box guarantees maximum security of the connection thanks to a proprietary certificate and the possibility, for truly geeky users, to add their own certificates, so as to obtain a very high level of security.
Still on the subject of VPN we can deepen the discussion by reading our guides How to create a VPN from home is Configure VPN on Router; if instead we wanted to manually configure a new VPN connection on Android, just read the guide on How to set up VPN on Android.