Billion BIPAC 7800N - wireless router - DSL - 802.11b/g/n - desktop

Having had problems from a few free wireless routers that have been given me with broadband packages, I decided it was time to buy something that would eliminate these issues. The issues primarily were:

1. ADLS line dropping, thus causing lower sync speeds
2. Wireless network dropping and then refusing to reconnect
3. Unable to handle streaming video efficiently to give good viewing experience without stuttering.

After much research I eventually bought the Billion BiPAC 7800N because the price seemed reasonable for the features that it boasted; these features being:

• 1GB Backbone (I wanted to hard wire some devices, and keep a 1GB wired network throughout the house)
• Dual WAN (I am currently on ADSL2+, but the possibility of having fibber to the house means a different modem that can plus directly in the second WAN socket)
• ADSL2/2+ and backward compatibility (If I was to move house there remote areas are still on standard ADSL)
• Wireless Speeds up to 300GB (supports 802.11n), with 3 times the coverage (I do a lot of file transfers on the network, and this speed is acceptable through wireless)
• WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK security for wireless; Firewall Security with DoS Prevention and Packet filtering on the WAN side.
• Quality of Service Control (This was a must for streaming video, so that it was given a priority over other less important network traffic)
• UPnP (Great for automatic configuration from an OS that supports this)

Opening the Box

Everything came neatly packed in the box, all the required cables where there. The Quick Installation Guide was of very clear and simple. The actual Modem Router was bigger than any other I had 230mm x 150mm x 43mm; it also had 3 antennas which needed to be fixed on (very simple and easily screwed on). It does not please my wife as she think it looks a bit ugly, but I have wall mounted it out of the way; so from my point of view this was not an issue.

Installing and Configuring

This was so simple and straight forward. All I needed was my ADSL username and password! It is worth noting that there is no USB port, connectivity to this Modem Router is only via RJ-45 and Wireless. I hard wired by RJ-45 for initial setup. The configuration interface is via the browser like most of these devices and it was a simple, clean and intuitive layout. Configuring the Wireless network name and security was again very straight forward. I also required some open ports for web sites, MS Exchange etc., I allowed the server to open these via UPnP, which it did and everything was up and running in only a few minutes!

After Using for a Few Weeks

My experience has been brilliant. There was a slight issue where the ports that had been configured by the server in UPnP disappeared and I had to run Modem Setup on the server again. After this had happened twice (this could have been a bug on the modem or the server), I manually opened the ports. Again this was simple and straight forward. Some routers have been so long winded to do this, but this was a walk in the park. Since then I have had no problems with open ports.

My Broadband speed has increased. I was not getting the full potential down my line on the old modem, and this had caused a fault on the line which had capped my speed to about 6000bps. My sync speed was about 13000bps at this time. When I checked the sync speed on the line with this modem it immediately went up to around 16000bps – Great!! And now because of the stability on the line my actual download speed is between 13000 and 14000 bps.

Wireless network speed, connectivity and stability have been brilliant. I have not had any wireless dropouts; albeit I have not really got 300mb on my ‘n’ wireless network devices, but usually get around 170+mb. The wireless coverage around the house is much greater (what do you expect with 3 antennas!)

I have not had to contact the manufacture for anything; I did look on their website to make sure I had the latest firmware (I did). The site was easy to find and navigate around; I quickly found the information I needed; so I do not feel as though there will be a problem in this area.

Conclusion

This device may not look pretty, but it does everything it says on the box and does it well.