Billion 7800n Best router for my line?

Hi,

I'm looking for some feedback on the Billion 7800n, or actually and more specifically if it will be of benefit for my connection. I live in a rural area on the Doune exchange (esdou) which is market 1 ADSL Max only, and even though I live 1.20km from the exchange (according to samknows checker) my line quality seems very poor, at the moment I'm using a DGN2000 for connection to see if it makes a difference and can't get advanced stats on it but the DG834v3 I had been using for years used to show high error counts and that interleaving is enabled.

Sync speed varies (currently 5504 kbps) and I've included a picture (click here to view it) showing some changes from the Zen user portal - During that time the DG834v3 was running constantly and hadn't been restarted with only one of those changes due to power outage so as you can see profile can be as low as 3500 or as high as 5500 which is a significant change

Although I would like more speed, reliability is of more concern I don't get disconnections but my browsing, well all connectivity across all devices does seem to be interrupted by occasional 'spikes' where things don't download correctly, webpages don't render properly etc. I know its not device specific as it happens on my households Mac mini, netbook, Wii and phones. Its not the wireless as the Mac is using an ethernet cable and it happens on both mentioned routers.

Yet despite interleaving turned on, high error rates and slow(er) speeds my SNR seems locked at 12db and attenuation doesn't fluctuate much from the current 39db figure.

The master socket is a standard BT NTE5 with no extensions and a BT i.plate before a micro filter takes a double socket for phone and Sky box and the ADSL port is a RJ11-RJ11 cable to router.

Ultimately although I'd like to get better speeds (who wouldn't! ) I would much rather steady speed and improve the quality of the connection. Hopefully the information I've given can help someone provide good information.

Thanks in advance for any help

In my experience the the DGN2000 (broadcom chipset) will perform much better than your DG834 (v3=AR7 chipset) router.

The problem with the DGN2000 is that it can run very hot which seems to damage the LAN ports - wireless is unaffected. I would make sure you put it on a stand so that it's upright which seems to help with this.

I would also run RouterStats http://vwlowen.co.uk/internet/files.htm which will let you easily monitor your line/errors etc. You could try comparing your old and new routers to see what difference they make. If your new router runs nice and cleanly then you should see your TSNRM reduce (can take many weeks) which will increase your sync. When I've had line issues my TSNRM reduced in 3db steps roughly every 4 weeks until it reached the default 6db on ADSL.

Lot's of people here rate the Billion (which also uses a Broadcom chipset) and I'll give it a try no doubt one day. But if I was in your situation I would start by comparing your two current routers

Let us know how you get on.

Edited by b4dger (Wed 03-Oct-12 09:47:31)

Thanks for the reply

The DGN2000 is not new actually, I've actually had it for a couple of years but ended up going back to the DG834v3 as it kept having wireless drops on the DGN2000

From past experience I know that the DG834v3 gets faster sync speeds but has more reliability issues, hence my thoughts on the Billion given its reputation. I know it won't remove the errors on the line but I was wondering if it would manage things better giving less disruption to connection at the very least?

Give it a go if you can get your hands on one.
It's a shame the Billion is so expensive. The 7700n is half the price (but doesn't do IPv6) so may also be of interest?

You can also tweak the TSNRM if you don't want to wait for things to happen automatically. But you could still compare the line stats for a day running on each of your current routers to see if your line likes a Broadcom chipset like mine does

Checkout the SNR graphs in my signature link to see how it changed my line/connection...

You could use the DGN2000 for the connection and run the 834 off it as a replacement or second WAP.

Thanks for the replies.

I have now ordered a 7800n! Will update once it arrives and I get a chance to try it out

Edited by deleted (Thu 04-Oct-12 17:10:32)