To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more

Billion BiPAC 7800N review

Billion BiPAC 7800N
Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £115
inc VAT

The BiPAC 7800N is expensive but its wealth of security features and dual Ethernet and ADSL WAN ports make it a good choice for home and small office users, even without load balancing.

Specifications

draft 802.11n, 4x 10/100/1000Mbit/s Ethernet ports

http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop

We’ve reviewed PCs smaller than this router, but this chunky grey box does plenty to justify its size and price. Billion’s reputation for stability and consistent uptimes has served it well in the SME market, which makes this router attractive to companies. The BiPAC 7800N has features that an ordinary home user will never need, but could be just what you’re looking for if you’re setting up or expanding your small or home office.

The router support both ADSL and Ethernet WAN connections, so you can use it with almost any internet connection available in the UK. In the default ADSL mode, the EWAN port defaults to being a 5th LAN port, although it’s only 10/100Mbit/s, while the other four LAN ports support Gigabit Ethernet.

The BiPAC 7800N doesn’t come with a configuration CD but has both Basic and Advanced web configuration modes, as well as a quick start mode which takes you through configuring your ADSL settings and securing your wireless connection. Wireless defaults to channel-bonded mode – you’ll need to use the wireless options in Advanced mode to set it to 20MHz only.

Firewall settings include packet filtering, port redirection and intrusion detection. You can also filter web content by URL or keyword or, block active content like Java applets and ActiveX scripts and set up scheduled hours during which these restrictions apply.

QoS can be configured in a dedicated menu interface, but there are no preset options to make life easier for beginners. Like the site blocking feature, you can set a schedule, which is handy if, for example, you only want to give a high priority to your BitTorrent client during off-peak hours to avoid having your connection speed throttled. Other features include DDNS via numerous free and paid-for providers, remote admin access, a VPN pass-through, wake on LAN and a telnet configuration interface.

The router’s wireless performance is outstanding, with speeds of 46.6Mbit/s at 1m, 45Mbit/s at 10m and 27.7Mbit/s at 20m using our Centrino 2 laptop. Tests using Billion’s own BiPAC 3010N adaptor (£25 inc VAT) produced speeds of up to 74.1Mbit/s but were slower in our longest range test. The BiPAC 7800N justifies its price with a wealth of features that make it a stand-out choice for a demanding home office.

Basic Specifications

Rating *****
Modem type ADSL2+
802.11b support yes
802.11g support yes
Draft 802.11n support yes
Draft 802.11n 5GHz support no
MIMO yes
Turbo mode channel-bonding
Stated speed 300Mbit/s

Security

128-bit WEP yes
WPA2 yes
Firewall yes
MAC address filtering yes
DMZ yes

Physical

Size 37x230x155mm
Antennas 3
Internal/external antennas external
Upgradeable antenna yes
Number of WAN ports 2
Ethernet ports 4
Ethernet connection speed 10/100/1000Mbit/s
Other ports none
Wall mountable yes
Power consumption on 8W

Other Features

Dynamic DNS yes
Universal Plug and Play support yes
DHCP server yes
MAC spoofing yes
Port forwarding yes
WDS Support yes
USB device support no
QoS yes

Buying Information

Price £115
Warranty two years RTB
Supplier http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop
Details www.billion.uk.com