Up until now, the Fritzbox routers have been rather mediocre smart home hubs because AVM only offers a few controllable components. But now a gateway has been added that integrates dozens of smart home devices with the Zigbee wireless standard, initially mainly switchable sockets and lights. In the c't uplink podcast, we discuss how far the FRITZ!Smart Gateway brings the Fritzbox forward. First, Dusan and Sven, smart home experts at c't, classify the current capabilities of the Fritzbox routers: They use the DECT-ULE wireless standard, and AVM mainly offers switchable sockets, heating thermostats and an E27 lamp. But DECT-ULE has not established itself well as a cross-manufacturer standard. Zigbee, on the other hand, is a wireless standard that many manufacturers use for smart homes. AVM's new gateway integrates such components quite transparently into the Fritzbox hub. We explain the details and whether the gateway is also suitable as a WLAN or DECT gateway [--] Spoiler: no. One advantage is that you can not only use the Zigbee devices in all groups and automations, but also control them via DECT telephone, at least the Fritzfons from AVM. Perhaps the biggest disadvantage: AMV does not make all the functions of the Zigbee components usable, for example the measured values ​​from the switch sockets that can measure power consumption are missing. Then we compare the Fritzbox expanded in this way with other smart home infrastructures: On the one hand, the locally operating [--] the Fritzbox also works without the cloud with Zigbee [--] such as NodeRed, ioBroker & Co.: The advantage of the AVM solution is that no additional hardware has to be running, but the Fritzbox, which is necessary anyway as an internet router, handles all smart home tasks in addition. However, the selection of components and the complexity of the control and regulation functions still leave something to be desired. One alternative remains to address the Zigbee components as before via gateways from the component manufacturers. We also discuss smart home controls via voice assistants from Amazon, Apple and Google [--] and Matter is also mentioned, although inevitably mainly speculatively. With: Dušan Živadinović, Sven Hansen Moderation: Jörg Wirtgen Production: Ralf Taschke Please excuse the sound problems from 1:04:18. #uplink #fritzbox #zigbee #smarthome #avm The articles of the cover story in c't 16/2023: https://www.heise.de/select/ct/2023/1... https://www.heise.de/select/ct/2023/1... https://www.heise.de/select/ct/2023/1... ► c't Magazin: http://ct.de ► c't on Twitter: / ctmagazin ► c't on Mastodon: https://social.heise.de/@ct_Magazin ► c't on Instagram: / ct_magazin ► c't on paper: wherever there are magazines! #fritzbox #avm #router