Billion UK Forum

Due to forthcoming FTTC I changed my BiPac 7700n to the 8800Nl. The set up was straightforward but I'm finding that the wireless on the 8800 is not as good as the 7700. I'm connecting using a billion usb realtek RTL 8191SU which previously supplied me with 100% on signal strength and line quality but now the signal strength is down ,and varying, from 69- 90%. I'm only about 15 feet from the 8800.Also the speed of Rx dropped from 300Mbps to 144.5 Mbps. Any of you users have any ideas?

Apart from trying different channels this is my advice.

Do not buy the 8800NL for wireless, it is the best VDSL2 modem on the market, let it do its job, turn off the wireless. This advice goes for any modem.

I say this as a modem is never where you really need it to be, where as you can situate an access point where you need it apart from any other reasons.

If you are into tweaking:
Pick up a TP-Link TL-WR841ND's from argos and load on some DD-WRT firmware (I have 2 of them either side of the house same ssid and different channels, DD-WRT lets you see whos on what channel too) for 20 quid they do the job.
I have had 200 quid wifi routers, never kept one of them.

Find DD-WRT firmware here ftp://ftp.dd-wrt.com/betas/

Choose your exact model and version printed on the box (should be V9)

load factory-to-ddwrt.bin first
then the tl-wr841nd-webflash.bin once it has booted up into the dd-wrt firmware for the first time.
switch your channel width to Wide HT40 (20+20)

The default IP's are different between TP-LINK and DD-WRT firmwares so you will need to change your ip ranges as you go.

Please remember to turn off any DHCP service on an access point, your 8800nl has a DHCP service already.

If you are not into this, still just get a TL-WR841ND and set it to an access point mode (and turn of DHCP service).

Other tips:
Always hard wire what you can using cat6/cat5e cable, use gigabit switches.
Forget 5GHz (unless you absolutly cannot hardware and the access point is in the same room as what you are serving) focus on getting as much out of 2.4GHz as you can.

Thank you Swatboy79. I have tried other channels but none of them match the 7700N wireless performance. As for the speed between Bipac 3011N usb and on this router there seems to be a problem with the 40Mhz bandwidth not working hence the low transfer speed compared with the 7700N.

I too am disappointed with the WiFi on my new 8800.

My previous setup was HG 612 + Netgear router running dd-wrt.

I'll bring the Netgear back into service for the WiFi as you can ramp up the signal power through dd-wrt.

I changed my channel to 3 and now my signal strength varies between 90 and 98 so I reckon that'll do me. I'm still waiting for a reply from Billion about the Bandwidth problem. Upgrading to FTTC soon so if anyone out there has already done it, in particular with Plusnet, please share your views.

I have a 8800NL chugging away happily on +Net. I am happy with the wireless and it seems to hold the line well, although sync has dropped recently a couple of times resulting in interleaving being applied

I don't need it to do much apart from run the Sky catch up and general internet use. Wife works from home and has no problems with it. For the price, it was a good buy.

Mark

The 40Mhz problem solved by Billion..they supplied me with an updated afw and now I have wireless transfer rate of 300Mbps. Hope this helps other users.

edited by billion_fan Link removed and firmware added