Billion BiPAC 7800N Dual WAN ADSL2+/Broadband Wireless-N Gigabit Firewall Modem Router

So impressed. Had it running more or less just a few clicks out of the box. Set it up on O2 LLU (ETH0A) broadband no trouble at all. I get a better SNR, web pages load much faster (whereas previously I had been thinking it was my ISP's slow DNS servers). Even my PING time has improved!

I previously wasted money (by trying to 'save money') by buying a separate gigabit switch and then attaching that to a flakey modem/router. By going 'cheap' you ALWAYS end up spending more in the long run! So I'm glad I bought this.

This just 'feels' professional (OK, it looks like a brick) but it feels solid.

As I work from home, I use VOIP for conference calls, Lotus sametime for powerpoints, while my son spends half-term break hammering the line with World of Warcraft! This box prioritises my calls (QoS) and doesn't bat an eyelid, like some other routers I've had. Many a time, I've had to reset previous routers, when they got overloaded or decided just to lose wireless connection when for no apparent reason.

The start-up screen was so easy - its even the first page the PC opened before I could even type in: 192.168.1.254! All menues are intuitive. Ok, as a man, I don't read manuals, but within 4 clicks and I was online. It even picked up the correct TIME for the event and security logs. There's loads of advanced menues, if you need them: dynamic DNS, Virtual server (port mapping, DMZ, ALG), IGMP, Wake-on-lan, time schedule, intrusion detection, UpNp, SnMp, Remote access, packet/mac/URL filtering, QoS, firmware upgrade, flash config save, the list goes on and on.

But if you want it simple, the default is BASIC and easy. No, really.

If you want super fast LAN and ADSL2+ (24mbs) internet, dazzling gigabit LAN speeds and wireless that climbs over walls, runs down the garden and tickles your toes in the garden shed - then this is for you! I wish I'd have bought this in the first place instead of wasting money.

It's Annex A hardware. Connection choices are:

1. MP0A (RFC 1483/RFC 2684, Multiprotocol, Encapsulation overAAl5) - - O2/BE use this one with VPI/VCI 0/101
2. PPP0E (RFC 2516, PPP over Ethernet)
3. PPP0A (RFC 2364 PPP over AAL5)
4. MP0A (RFC 1483/RFC 2684 Multiprotocol Encapsulation over AAl5)
5. IP0A (RFC 157, Classic IP and ARP over ATM)
6. Pure Bridge

This is the best ADSL wireless modem router - especially if live far from the phone exchange.

In the last 4 years I've been through 6 mode routers, D-Link, Netgear, Zyxel, Belkin.
All of them but Belkin (F5D8636-4 v2) broke over time but even the Belkin was very frequently (every few minutes + fluctuating speeds) disconnecting internet during moderate/heavy wireless activity (not sure why to this day - but it's well know problem with Belkin wirelless, fine over cable).

I live ~4.8km (attentuation 64-65db with SNR 6db) from the exchange and according to every broadband checker I should have 0,5 to no more than 1MB.

D-Link, Netgear, Zyxel got me 1.2-1.3MB
Belkin initially got me 1.4MB
Belkin with iplate, removed bellwire and extension wire got me 1.8MB

Guess what. Billion got me 2.4MB, rock stable, no more disconnecting no matter traffic (I have 5 WLAN clients and 2 LAN),I guess it's their PhyR technology which reduces noise - important on long lines.

Now all the good and bad points:

Good:
1) Fantastic ADSL performance on very long line
2) Excellent wireless (802.11n) performance
3) Rock stable with heavy ADSL and wireless traffic
4) Very easy setup
5) Lot of features

Bad (well I would say these are comments rather than bad points):
1) Large and rather ugly comparing to other brands (I don't care though, I need broadband to work as well as possible so I value function only)
2) Couldn't find option to turn off DHCP with static IP configuration for the devices
3) Not very flexible in MAC access configuration
4) Couldn't find option to change it's MAC address

Overall it's 5/5 with no hesitation.
What I expect from the modem router is best and stable broadband speed possible, with fast network for my devices.
This box does it more than well, it does it perfect and it's much, much better than any other access point I've ever head.

So once again it's worth paying more for best device. Great investment, worth every penny, recommended.

UPDATE:
It got even better - with tweaking I got 3.1MB! This is nothing short of amazing on my line!

Here are the changes I've done after some research
1) ADSL mode from ADSL2+ (untick) to ADSL2
2) Annex M (untick) to Annex L (tick)
3) SNR tweak -3db (value on the settings page = 50, page address is 192.168.1.254/snr.cgi)

This improved my attentuation to 61.5db, SNR stable at 3.5 to 4db (6.5 to 7 minus 3db tweak value) and got me 3.1MB stable connection. Fantastic!

UPDATE 2:
I've tweaked SNR some more (value 30) which took it to 2.3db and my connection is now stable @ 3.25MB.
Any lower SNR does not improve speed so this is my final settings. Excellent.

UPDATE 3:
After long months running without a single line drop reset, router started being unstable - started dropping connections, resetting, sometimes required power off/on cycle, up to a point where it was happening couple times a day.
Exactly the same thing I've had on my last Belkin router (the high end one, with Broadcom chip).

When I realised what's going on, I've raised a support ticket with Billion and within a week I've had a brand new router - fantastic service and I can enjoy best ever internet connection/stability again.

I think now that there was a large batch of faulty Broadcom chips which after heavy usage started to degrade - and chat with Billion support confirmed it in a way.

Hopefully the new one will have some new batch which won't degrade, but either way I'm not worried yet - still plenty warranty left so will watch this space.

My rating is still 5/5.

Purchased one to replace my second failed BT Home Hub 2. What a change. Instead of flaky connection at 150 Mbps, I now have solid 300 Mbps Wifi across my entire house. And its never dropped yet. The setup was done in about 2 mins flat. Sure, it's ugly compared to some routers but what you want is it to work. The only drama I had was assigning a fixed IP to a device on my network. Seems somewhat difficult for no particular reason (you have to copy and paste a MAC address from the DHCP allocation table. In other routers you just click and select the IP you want). That said it does work when you've set it up.

2 week update

Since installing this router I have noted the broadband speed has gone up from 3 Mbps with the BT HomeHub 2 to 5 Mbps with the Billion. BT really are peddling some crap kit. Never again.

4 month update

Unbelieveable. It just works. Never a dropped connection, never a stutter. Speed has crept up another meg too! It is what technology should be...fast, reliable and better than expected. I wish my Dyson vac was like that....instead its slow, broken and crap!

1 year update

Still solid. The latest firmware update 1.06d was easily done and adds IPv6. The system has beautifully mated up to a Synology and I shall be getting another one of these to replace my Dad's crap BT home hub.