Billion 7800N
Billion BiPac 7800N
This ADSL router has 4 normal gigabit ethernet ports and an EWAN port which enables it to be used as a cable router. It has a wireless-N interface and a robust SPI firewall.
It uses a Broadcom BCM6358 ADSL chip, and the firmware supports some features which are not available in lesser routers:-
- PhyR impulse noise protection
- QOS
- IPv6 support
- The target noise margin can be adjusted in the web interface, using a hidden page
- Comprehensive information and control via the telnet interface
PhyR impulse noise protection
PhyR (pronounced 'fire') is a unique Broadcom technology which improves the router's ability to hold a connection under conditions of high impulse noise. Unfortunately it depends on the DSLAM/MSAN in the exchange also being a Broadcom model, so is not generally useful to every user.
QOS
(Description to be added)
IPv6 support
Full support for the IPv6 protocol is provided in firmware version 1.06d and later. At the time of writing (Nov 2011) the latest version is 1.06e: http://www.billion.uk.com/firmware/78xx/7800N/UKBillion7800n_1.06e.zip
Tweaking the target noise margin
From the web interface, go to the hidden page http://192.168.1.254/snr.cgi . Enter the required value in the box and click Save. The router will drop the connection and reconnect with the new noise margin. The values which you enter increase or decrease the current target noise margin (set in the exchange) by the following approximate amounts:
- 200 = +6dB
- 150 = +3dB
- 100 = +0dB
- 50 = -3dB
- 25 = -4.5db
- 1 = -5.5dB
Telnet interface
From a command line window, type:
telnet 192.168.1.254
You will be asked for the router login name (default name: admin) and then the router password (default password: admin) and then the telnet interface prompt is shown (a > symbol).
Now you can enter commands to obtain data from the router, or to change its configuration. To get a list of commands type 'help', and to get the specific help for a command, type the command without any parameters (e.g. 'adsl' will give you a definition of the adsl command).
One useful command is 'adsl info --stats' which provides a long list of stats including error rates over different periods.