So today I swapped out my trusty old router – a Fritzbox 7590 AX – and replaced it with the slightly shinier, ever-so-slightly sexier Fritzbox 7690.
Yes, yes, I know… “But your 7590 isn’t even that old!” – well, tell that to my tech-hoarder soul. I needed a new toy, and the old box gets to retire to my “Apocalypse Tech Backup Shelf”, where all elderly but not-yet-dead devices await their second life. Usually next to a box labeled “Cables That Might Be Useful Someday”.
🚀 Performance & WiFi 7 (Kinda, Sorta, Not Really)
The new box is faster, cooler (literally, not socially), and supports WiFi 7, which is great in theory — except I don’t use WiFi from the main unit anyway.
Each floor of my house runs on LAN-bridged repeaters, like good little mesh soldiers. Unfortunately, AVM hasn’t released WiFi 7 repeaters yet. So basically I bought a Formula 1 car for my daily commute through a pedestrian zone.
🔁 The “Totally Smooth” Migration Process
- Backed up the config on the old box
- Yanked it out and plugged the new one in (1:1 cable swap, baby)
- Booted it up
- Restored the config
Boom. Done. Except… nope.
Sure, internet came back, WiFi settings looked okay, phones started ringing again… but as I soon discovered — not everything was transferred.
Cue rage. Cue cursing. Cue me yelling “Verdammt!” loud enough to scare the cat.
📶 WLAN Mesh – The Button Olympics
AVM, in all their UX wisdom, doesn’t include mesh pairing info in the config backup. So I had to do the good old button-dance:
- Pressed the Connect button on the main Fritzbox
- Then on every single repeater
- Felt like I was doing tech CPR on each device
Eventually, mesh was back. WiFi lights steady. Sanity somewhat restored.
🌐 MyFRITZ Account – DNS Voodoo & VPN Hell
I use a MyFRITZ! account to expose my Fritzbox to the world — basically AVM’s take on dynamic DNS. That’s how my mom’s PC connects to my home via VPN, because, you know, I don’t have a static public IP like people in fiber-optic fairy tales.
But surprise: The MyFRITZ URL is tied to the hardware.
Let me repeat that:
Swapping the box = different MyFRITZ address = broken VPN = broken mom.
🧱 VPN Mayhem – The Domino of Doom
So yeah, VPN tunnel? Dead.
And here’s the weirdest part: I had configured WireGuard on her PC to only route specific backup traffic through me. Everything else – straight to the big bad internet.
But as soon as the tunnel died, her entire internet went down with it.
Like some kind of VPN black hole that sucked all packets into oblivion.
No clue why. Possibly quantum networking. Possibly gremlins.
Either way: Not cool.
🛠️ Recovery Mode: Activated
So I rebuilt her VPN config, shipped it over, imported it, crossed fingers… and boom. Back online.
Internet works. VPN works. I work.
Now, before something else explodes, I’m off to back up the config on the new Fritzbox.
📝 Lessons Learned
- Backups are good
- Buttons are dumb
- Fritzbox configs don’t include the things you actually need
- WiFi 7 is just a sticker if your mesh is stuck in WiFi 5
If you ever need help running a homelab without breaking your mom’s internet, I’m your guy.
Just don’t ask me to press that Connect button again.
🛜👨💻📡