Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(288)
4 star:		(58)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

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.

One of my work colleagues highly recommended this router so decided to try it out...and so glad i did! It uses the latest Broadcom 6358 chipset so is rock solid even on long lines; its kept me connected for more than 20 days so far. It has gigabit lan, superb wireless coverage, IPv6 compatible (with future firmware), cable and FTTC ready. But the best thing about it is that it allows you to decrease/increase your downstream SNR to increase sync speed or to increase line stability respectively; however this only works on firmware v1.06a and above so make sure you're using the latest firmware.

To adjust downstream SNR margin simply enter
192.168.1.254/snr.cgi
in your browser and enter one of the values below and save.

standard values are.
200 = +6dB
150 = +3dB
100 = +0dB
50 = -3dB
25 = -4.5db
1 = -5.5dB

The command does not accept negative numbers. However the command can be tricked into accepting negative numbers by entering high positive numbers.

65500 = -9dB
65480 = -9.5dB
65450 = -12dB

So for example if your current downstream SNR is 12db, entering 50 would give you a new SNR of 9db or entering 65500 would give you 3db.

I had a TalkTalk supplied Huawei EchoLife HG520s router before which was quite frankly pretty rubbish (but that's what you get for a free one I guess!). My ADSL line kept dropping and the wireless would intermittantly drop out too, so unfortunately this meant that TalkTalk's automated monitoring system decided to slow down my line speed to try to keep it a bit more stable... I ended up with little more than 3gig down and 500k upstream speed - not too good at all especially when the intial sync came in at nearly 8gig!

After many fruitless calls to TalkTalk trying to sort this out trying different manual line profiles etc I decided to take the plunge and get a new router myself to see what effect this would have on my overall experience. After all it couldn't be any worse than what I had been used to!

I did a lot of research and eventually decided to get this Billion BiPAC 7800N as it had both Wireless N and also the built-in ethernet switch is gigabit which gives me some added functionality for having say a NAS box in the future without needing to buy a seperate gigabit switch.

The service from Amazon was faultless as usual and delivery was very quick.

On unboxing the unit the first thing that strikes you is it's industrial looks - it's chunky and it's not going to wim any prizes for it's looks. But when you get it fired up and get into the menus etc you will quickly see that Billion have spent the money where it's really needed - on the inside!

The quick setup was very easy to use and within about 5 minutes I had both the ADSL connected and the wireless up and running. Once it was working I went through the advanced menus and was amazed at the wealth of features this router has - it is certainly well capable of running a small office let alone a household connection. I will not immediately use most of these features but it is nice to know they are there if ever needed - for example it has a secondary WAN interface which can be used for when 'Fibre to the Home' becomes available.

Having had this router in use for over a month now I can say that I am really impressed with it - my line is rock solid at 7gig down and 1gig upstream thanks to TalkTalk's automated adjustment system working in my favour now since things are so stable! The wireless N is miles better than the old 'g' standard - our house has thick dry stone walls and the coverage is five bars in every corner of every room (yes, I actually walked around with my laptop to check it!) Haven't tried to see what the full range of it is yet though as I don't really go in for the whole 'laptop in the garden' thing!

Overall this router has changed our home browsing experience from being a slow daily frustration to being a fast trouble-free pleasure.

Money well spent... and I don't have to make a weekly call to TalkTalk support any more either! Can't say any better than that!

I was looking for an ADSL router with Gigabit ports to reduce the complexity I had in my network. I had a Dlink ASDL router and an Apple Airport Extreme to give me good wireless coverage but the throughput on the wired network was capped at 100Mb between certain points.

With the new Billion I have gigabit at the core which is linking to my existing gigabit switch. This has made syncing of my Mac, Media Centre and Apple TV incredibly quick and almost instant when there are just an album of so of music.

The device itself is very easy to set up. Plug in the ASDL telephone connection, power on, point your web browser to 192.168.0.254 and you're in the setup. I chose the Easy Setup and just entered my username and password from my ISP and I was connected. It really was that quick. All the detailed setup of the DSL connection the IPS has provided were in there correctly (never the case when I had the DLink) so I'm guessing it Auto Detected.

Connection speed went from 8186kb / 1024kb on the Dlink to 12864kb / 886kb with the Billion. I've lost a little upload speed but gained a lot on the download the BBC iPlayer diagnostics confirm the results.

Wireless connections are much faster to initiate and we've had no dropouts at all and we have 6 devices connected wirelessly most of the time. Throughput is very good and although I've lost the 5Ghz frequency of the Airport Extreme the three position able ariels which come with the Billion allow me to get full coverage over the house and the studio outside. I'm very impressed.

When you're ready (if you want to) there are lots of extras in the Billion with a full firewall configuration available. I've blocked PINGs and asked it to log access attempts as well as securing to certain MAC addresses only, but there is much more in there if you need it. Certainly good enough for the small office.

I haven't tried the extra WAN port as we can't get cable, but I can't imagine it's any more difficult to install and configure.

In summary, it's a great device which is very easy to set up and get working. Wireless is great - fast and reliable. Wired connections again are fast running at 1Gbit.

UPDATE!

I feel I should update my review to reflect the fact that Billion Customer Service has in fact proved to be EXEMPLARY in this case. It turned out that I was in fact covered by a two year guarantee, which Billion honoured without issue even though I had opened the device (thinking it was out of warranty). After going through the RMA process I posted my unit on a Monday, received confirmation of the fault on Tuesday and a new unit on Wednesday. I'm willing to accept that there was a flaw of some kind in my original unit and what matters is that Billion stood by their product and sorted the problem. My understanding is that the replacement model has a different wireless card so this problem should no longer occur.

In my greatly annoyed state of mind my original review may have been on the harsh side. I'm hoping the wireless problems I experienced may have been due to the old wireless module, before it failed for good. I'll leave my review up for context, but perhaps take with a pinch of salt :)

I've updated my rating to a neutral 3 stars for now...

Well done Billion!! :)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

After my old Netgear blew up, I read numerous glowing reviews and ended up settling on the Bipac 7800N. When my Netgear was alive, I got tired of the way the performance would degrade over a couple of weeks until it became necessary to restart it. I just wanted something that would perform consistently, and that was what many of the reviews about the Bipac 7800n promised.

In my experience, this has not been the case. Just like every other router I've ever had, it has still been necessary to periodically restart the Bipac in order to clear up unexplained performance problems, or outright failure. The wireless range, whilst reasonable, has not proved to be stellar. I experienced erratic problems with the signal covering my two bedroom flat (and yes I tried many different channels). In the end I opted for an extender at the other end of the flat, to cover the balcony.

But the biggest problem is this: Having powered off the unit whilst away for a week long holday, I turned it back on to find there was no wireless signal. After much faffing around - factory resets, reflash firmware, restore settings etc - the problem remains. Worse, judging by reports in forums, it appears to be a common fault, with no resolution except to return the unit. Needless to say mine is two months out of warranty, so that's another £120 burned on apparently disposable networking hardware. Not impressed.

The 7800N seemed worthy of the 5 star reviews at first. Unfortunately it turns out that it's highly prone to wireless failure after a year or two, as a quick Internet search will reveal. Instead of having surface mounted Wifi chips, it contains a cheap Ralink mini-PCI card held in place by the liberal dollops of the notorious "brown glue" that slowly absorbs moisture from the air and turns into an acidic conductor that will either eat the circuit board or short it out. This process took a little over 2 years in my case, just long enough for the warranty to run out. Such shoddy construction is unacceptable in a premium-priced product. I won't be buying Billion ever again.

Just a truly amazing router, ADSL speeds did sync faster with this router however, i was more impressed with it's interface speed and UPnP port mapping with Windows 7 that my other router just failed to do. The gigabit speeds made a massive difference when sending content around my network while the router has a rock steady performance and stability.

The wireless works extremely well with my laptops allowing for draft-n connectivity that my old router just could never handle however I have noticed an increase in wireless coverage with this router so far, i've found no "blind spots" in my house or even a slight drop in signal.

Overall, a very impressive feature set and a very impressive router with a modem and extra WAN port.

I had very high hopes for this device and was looking forward to getting one for my new home and possibly for my local Air Cadet Sqn, to replace the one they have, which has pretty poor wireless coverage.

I have been keeping my eye out for a good price, read loads of reviews etc etc. But the Billion was dis-appointing from the start.

1. I started adding MAC addresses to the allow filter at the Cadet Sqn, where we have 13 laptops, about 7 wireless PCs and then various staff mobiles etc etc. We have always used MAC filtering as extra security, then the cadets can't spread the code around, it has to go through me.

You can imagine my shock when I got to 16 MAC addresses and the Billion started telling me that it was full!!! Seriously, it can only take 16 MAC addresses. The crappy Linksys I was replacing could take 50! This router is £120 and is huge, but it has less memory than my other "off the shelf" routers?

2. I then gave it a try at home, but straight off, the ADSL sync speed was even slower than on my Netgear router, I was hoping for the same or better, with this being such a "good" bit of kit, but no such luck in the speed dept.

3. Speaking of speed, I tested wireless transfer speeds before on my Netgear and after on the Billion, again, expecting the same or better. But no, the speeds were marginally slower (2.5MB/s compared to 2.8MB/s) on the Billion, it took 5 mins 39 seconds to copy a 790MB file from my wireless laptop to wired desktop, on the Netgear it took 4 mins 51 seconds.

4. As I was copying my various settings over from my old router, I copied the same WPA-PSK over, it is a full 63 character random code, upper and lower case, symbols, numbers etc etc. The Billion rejected this code however. I narrowed it down to not accepting ' characters! There may be others it doesn't accept, but I gave up at that point.

Considering the cost of this device and the small, stupid problems I had with it, I was massively dis-appointed. I really wanted to like the Billion after reading so many rave reviews, but I was not impressed at all. The hunt continues for a decent router