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[sevenlayermuddle]

I'm in need of a new router, my ex-ebay DG834GT having become unreliable, probably attributable to badly bulging capacitors.   The Billion was mentioned by Eric in another thread, and has really caught my attention.  I've become so excited, in fact, that I'm about to make a purchase. Bit I would welcome any cautionary (or otherwise) advice before I hit the 'confirm purchase' button.   

Pros...

Proper, serious, 'SoHo' Configurablity.  Such as the ability (I think) to configure 'guest' WiFi networks that are isolated form my main LAN, thus allowing visitors to connect their (potentially) pox-ridden laptops and tablets to the evil Internet without putting my more precious systems at risk from their infections.

I'm aware the Billion is not the only router with such capabilities, but I do get the impression it is genuinely feature-rich, at the expense of simplicity (the user manual is 270 pages!).

Cons…

It's not cheap, in fact it's decidedly uncheap, at circa £130 upwards.   That's a lot compared to my previous £15 ex-sky Netgears of Ebay. 

It's overkill as regards connectivity, supporting all flavours of ADSL2 plus fibre and cable too, yet BT and the UK government, in their rollout plans, have declared that I can never, ever, expect anything better than ADSL 1. 

Its gigabit LAN is wasted on me, as I already have (and need) a separate 8 port Gigabit switch.

Opinions welcome…. 

[sevenlayermuddle]

before I hit the 'confirm purchase' button.   

Too late.   

I've had to stop using the Netgear as it seems to keep rebootng, leaving me with a choice of old routers to bring out of retirement.   But they all had defects, which is why they were retired in the first place.

Discussion still welcome, but break it to me gently if you think I'm about to regret the purchase.

[roseway]

I think you already know my views. I'll be surprised if you regret it.

[sevenlayermuddle]

I think you already know my views. I'll be surprised if you regret it.

Thanks for your support.

BUT.   I ordered from Amazon earlier today, paying extra for 'next day' delivery.  And now I've noticed, in the intervening few hours, they have stopped selling it, with a statement…

Item Under Review

This product is not currently offered by Amazon.co.uk because a customer recently told us that the item he or she received was not as described.

We are working to resolve this as quickly as possible. In the meantime, you may still find this product available from other sellers on this page.

 

Do you ever get the feeling that nothing's easy any more!      I've already had the order confirmation, but not dispatch notification.  I feel like its anybody's guess now, whether they'll dispatch the order and if they do, what will be in the box when I open it?   

[roseway]

The wording suggests that they've cancelled your order. Perhaps you should cancel it and order it from BroadbandBuyer (only slightly more expensive).

[broadstairs]

I suspect this is because Amazon dont sell it directly, it is sold by another trader via Amazon....

Stuart

[sevenlayermuddle]

I suspect this is because Amazon dont sell it directly, it is sold by another trader via Amazon....

Stuart

That is the case now, but not when I ordered it.  My order was with Amazon themselves, that was a deliberate choice on my part (despite being £5 more than Ballicom) as I have more confidence in Amazon than I do in the 'marketplace' merchants.  It all changed in the ensuing couple of hours after I placed the order. 

The wording suggests that they've cancelled your order. Perhaps you should cancel it and order it from BroadbandBuyer (only slightly more expensive).

I don't think so, the only communication I've had is the order confirmation which, as usual, promises to tell me again when they dispatch it.  I only discovered they'd stopped selling it by accident, as I happened to revisit the amazon page.

I'm going to 'wing it', and see what happens.  I really do want it quite urgently and, this way, there is still a chance that I will receive a Billion 7800DXL tomorrow.   Conversely, if Amazon cancel the order, or if I open the box and turns out to be a crate of digestive biscuits with a Billion 7800DXL barcode, I can still re-order from somebody else first thing tomorrow, and it'll likely arrive just as quick as if I ordered it now.    

I'm not too worried about returning it as I'm confident, from experience, that Amazon won't quibble about a prompt refunds if they've made a mistake, which is why I ordered from them in the first place.   

[roseway]

You could probably sell a crate of digestive biscuits and maybe even make a profit.

[sevenlayermuddle]

You could probably sell a crate of digestive biscuits and maybe even make a profit.

Alternatively, I could make a cup of tea to soothe my nerves at the disappointment, and enjoy a digestive biscuit too.  But I'm not sure what Amazon's return policy is for electronic goods, once you've eaten some of the hardware?

[broadstairs]

Alternatively, I could make a cup of tea to soothe my nerves at the disappointment, and enjoy a digestive biscuit too.  But I'm not sure what Amazon's return policy is for electronic goods, once you've eaten some of the hardware?

The new McVitie's Digestive Biscuits are much better for dunking in tea now since they put the fat back in!

Stuart

[sevenlayermuddle]

Just received...

Your Amazon.co.uk order of "Billion BiPAC 7800DXL..." has been dispatched

So there is hope.   

Ah, the excitement of it all, guest WiFis, LAN interface groups, I just can't wait.   I'll have a relaxing bath, cup of hot cocoa and turn in early tonight, need to be in good form tomorrow for that 270 page manual. 

But just in case of change of plan, I'll get the kettle on as soon as the van arrives, and my best dunking cups at the ready...   

[roseway]

Have fun

[sevenlayermuddle]

And guess what was in the box....?

Who knows, there was no delivery, there is no box.   Yet I chose to buy from Amazon largely because they offered a 'next day delivery'.   


I guess I'd forgotten that Amazon's current reputation for deliveries is not what it used to be.   Tracking shows it as 'out for delivery' with Amazon Logistics, no more detail than that.    It's quite hard work these days even finding out how to report a failed delivery to Amazon and even when I'd figured it out, it seems I have to go through the motions of waiting til 9pm before they'll even start to investigate.

I do sometimes wonder, these days, if Amazon are on some kind of suicide mission to destroy their own reputation for customer service?   That is not actually meant in jest, a business may well decide that they want to reallign customer expectations of service levels.

[sevenlayermuddle]

And quess what happened seconds after I hit post?

Yep it's here.   

I stand by my gripe about Amazon deliveries though, for 'next day' delivery to be any good it has to mean the normal working day, not the next evening when business premisses will in any case be closed and unable to take deliveries.

[sevenlayermuddle]

And now up and running   Looks good so far, and I've already achieved my goal of a separate 'guest' wifi that's denied access to the rest of my internal network.   Not too painful, though I must confess to searching various forums for clues, I'd have struggled without their help.

Interestingly, DS attenuation is reported as 53.5dB vs 55-56dB for every other router I've tried.   I know it's a bit arbitrary and academic, but the lower figure does make me feel better

I suspect sync rate is better by a couple hundred kbps than the Netgear though I'll need to try it again in the afternoon for a fair comparison.   Error counters look very steady anyway.

It's comforting to see SNR adjustment on the native GUI, even though I'm not a great believer in tweaking so shall probably never use it.

Only unresolved quirk is that both times so far I've powered it off, WiFi has failed to reappear until I ploughed through the set menus up again.    I'm hoping that was just a quirk of whatever state it was in at that stage of setup, and will be OK now its finished.    But I don't want to annoy DLM with unecessary power cycles, so I'll leave it til tomorrow and try again.