Anthony Caruana02 July 2008, 8:00 AM
Billion's BiPAC 7300N is packed with enough features to support the needs of almost every home or small office user.
Billion's range for home and small office continues to expand with the BiPAC 7300N. Combining an ADSL 2+ modem, 4-port 10/100 Ethernet switch and wireless access point, it covers most of the bases for home users and small offices.
Starting at the beginning, we found that there was no documentation of any use in the box. There was a sticker on the plastic wrapper around the BiPAC 7300N directing us to a Quick Install guide but that was on the accompanying CD - not a very friendly approach for inexperienced users. Once we found that document on the CD we found that the instructions were clearly written and allowed us to configure the internet connection and enable basic settings such as Wi-Fi security.
The BiPAC 7300N can support either ADSL or cable modem connections. There's a line filter, phone lead and Ethernet cable in the box meaning that most folks won't need to head back to their reseller to buy any extra bits and pieces. For ADSL users, connection is straight to the RJ45 socket on the back of the router. Cable modem users will need to use an Ethernet cable to connect to the first Ethernet port meaning that their 4-port router is now a 3-port device. It's not a big deal and unlikely to affect many users as the BiPAC 7300N is really pitched at ADSL users.
Billion's setup utility is easy to use. There's little clutter on the screen with options laid out logically under a hierarchic menu that has both a Simple and an Advanced mode. However, without the User Guide, many of the options would be, in our view, too complex for most users to comprehend. There are a lot of acronyms and substantial, unexplained jargon on the screen. For example, if someone wanted to prioritise VoIP traffic so that their phone calls didn't suffer poor quality when a large download was in progress, the settings for this are very hard to determine from the information on the screen.
The upside of the BiPAC 7300N's complexity is that it delivers immense flexibility. There wasn't a configuration option we were looking for that the BiPAC 7300N didn't have. On the hardware side, there wasn't quite the same number of options. 802.11b, g and n on the 2.4GHz frequency were supported but there's no 5GHz radio or Gigabit Ethernet. For most consumers those are major omissions at the moment but very few mid to high range PCs are shipped without gigabit adaptors and dual-band Wi-Fi potentially delivers greater signal strength and certainly suffers from less interference than the 2.4GHz band.
Wireless range was very good. With our test system, a Toshiba Portege R500, we managed about eight meters before the signal dropped from full strength to one bar down. We did find that a brick wall automatically cost about one bar of signal strength although at about 15 meters through a single brick wall, we still maintained "Fair" signal strength.
ADSL performance is always a little tricky to assess as there are many intervening factors that determine whether the modem is operating optimally. We connected the BiPAC 7300N to an ADSL service provisioned by Telstra and found that the connection speed was not significantly different to that of the standard modem supplied with the connection. At the very least, we're confident that the BiPAC 7300N won't slow your internet connection.
The BiPAC 7300N is a well featured ADSL modem/router. It has plenty of features and ticks all the boxes we'd expect from such a product. Usability could be better but we’re seeing a steady improvement through each product generation.