7800DXL owners previously using 7800N

[Jayson_UK]

Hi all,

This is my first post on these forums so please bear with me. I recently just purchased a 7800N for my home network upgrading from a Netgear DGN1000 with D-Link dir 615 as an AP. I had seen the DXL model on the Billion website but ruled it out as I assumed it was out of my price range although now i realise it's only about £20 difference compared to the N. I set up the 7800N yesterday and so far everyone in the house seems very happy with it, i like the option of being able to change the antennas if i need to and my mates who has been struggling with band camp finally gets it to load with the new connection.

I live 1km away from the exchange (as the bird flies) - using a ADSL connection supplied by virgin. Current stats are as follows:

Downstream - 13972 Upstream - 1095
SNR margins: Down - 4.2 (reduced from 6.0 after just a small SNR tweak to see how it handles it) Up - 6.1
Line Attenuation: Down - 34.0 Up - 19.2

There is four of us in the house - five laptops, 3 smart phones and one xbox. I recently had a BT engineer come over and change the cable from the NID box outside to the master socket as the previous owner obviously had done it himself and used internal wires outside (which had cracked and corroded) and the wire was made up of three separate wires all with twisted connections *facepalm.* Looking to get the filtered faceplate very soon.

Anyways I would like to hear people's opinions (preferably from ex owners/ users of the 7800N) about the new DXL as i have 30 days in which to return the 7800N. I havn't come straight on here without researching and I've been on the whirlpool forums pretty much all night reading. From what i gather obviously the DXL is much more future proof with the dual band/ fibre ready etc - i hear it uses a new Broadcom chipset too. I read people are saying the wireless coverage is slightly less than that of the 7800N. I know they'll be plently of firmware updates in the future to Iron out these isssues but yeh would really appreciate people's opinions on whether i should return the 7800N (billion said this morning on the phone that it is pretty much at the end of it's manufacturing) and get the new DXL?

Thanks for reading,

Jayson

PS just to add my previous Netgear DGN 1000 stats before the 7800n installation:

Down - 13861 Up - 1120
SNR Margin - Down - 5.1 Up - 5.7
Line Attenuation - Down - 30.4 Up - 17.4

[JonathanN]

Hi Jayson,

I moved from 7800N to 7800DXL three months ago. Primarily, this was to have the separate 2.4/5Ghz networks and 3G USB modem support. I work from home and need to have fail-over to 3G. This works well and has ensured constant connection a few times when my BT line has dropped. I use the 7800DXL with Macs, PCs, iPads and iPhones. I also use Powerline adaptors as I live in a thick walled barn conversion.

So far, no problems other than a few odd issues with AppleTV streaming on the latest firmware. But, nothing major - as you say, I think the firmware is just settling down after some major upgrades.

I've not seen any real material performance gains over the 7800N in terms of download speeds, WiFi seems about the same, data transfers seems the same too. My connection has been rock solid in the past few months, just like the 7800N.

The 7800N was a fantastic router so I'm hoping the 7800DXL will be the same.

I would go for it for the extra money, personally, as I think it's worth the extra cash for the future proofing and additional features.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[Jayson_UK]

Hi Johnathan,

Thanks a lot for getting back to me so quickly. I think you've given me just enough to finally make my mind up. Out of interest can you get 300mbps wifi transmit rates on your macs using the DXL? My MacBook Pro is capped at 145mbps on the 7800N but I've read a few threads and it seems that this is a problem with apple rather than the router itself. Even though both are "N" capable the Macs only seem to sync at 300mbps on their own airport extreme/ base station routers or on the 5GHz signal - this is from what I've read.

Cheers,

Jayson

[JonathanN]

Hi Jayson,

I will check on Mac transfer rates and get back to you.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[Jayson_UK]

Cheers Johnathan,

Easy check for this is option-click the wifi symbol along the top bar then you get a nice break down of your stats. From this new drop menu you can also open "Wireless Diagnostics," enter your password and then when the introduction page pops up hit command-2 and a new window will appear where you can check wifi signal strengths/ wifi scans - it's pretty good with all the graphs etc. Apologises if you know all this already I only found it out last week when i was measuring signal strengths around the house.

Jayson

[JonathanN]

Hi Jayson,

I confirm my Macbook Pro (late 2010 model, so getting on a bit!) is connecting to the 5Ghz wireless with the following stats:

PHY Mode: 802.11n
Channel 36 (5 GHz)
Security: WPA 2 Personal
RSSI: -55
MCS Index: 15

Transmit Rate: 300

The above transmit rate is based on being close to the router, if I move to my office (a few rooms away) I typically get between 220-260.

I also never saw these sorts of rates on the 7800n, although for everyday applications I can't say it makes any noticeable difference apart from internal data transfers within the network between Macs - which seem much faster.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Jonathan

[Jayson_UK]

Hi Jonathan,

220 a few rooms away is some pretty decent stats in my book! Thanks for going to all the trouble of finding this out for me, it's greatly appreciated.

All the best,

Jayson

[JonathanN]

Happy to help.

Cheers,
Jonathan