It looks like iiNet has actually put a little bit of effort into their latest modem/router offering, and we don’t just mean the awesome name ‘BoB’.
The device, manufactured by Belkin, features your regular modem/router bits, including support for 802.11n, 4 ethernet ports on the back and a couple of USB charging ports. It’s a pretty stylish piece of kit, with lots of fingerprint friendly black glass. But the big selling point is the inclusion of a phone handset for VoIP calls.
You can get up to five additional DECT handsets, and BoB can support up to three separate phone lines as well, making it a great option for small businesses.
The base unit will set you back $369 outright including a single handset, or you can get it for 269 if you sign up for one of iiNet’s 24-month BoB contracts. Additional handsets cost $69 each, although if you happen to have a compatible DECT phone already, you should be able to pair it with BoB.
BoB (which apparently stands for “Broadband in a Box”, although it’s one of the weakest acronyms I’ve ever seen), is also OS agnostic, working with Mac, Linux and Windows flavours of software. It sounds like a pretty complete solution, so long as you’re with iiNet, that is.
[iiNet via Lifehacker]
Bhen Linton
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 5:25 PMBrilliant. I want one immediately.
anon.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 8:08 PMBillion 740X series anyday.. $260+ for a router without gigabit ethernet ports? ROFLLOL@$#$#
matt
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 12:36 AMagreed. Billion are pretty cool, you can get integrated gigabit, wireless, adsl modem router.
and you can get ones that support 3G dongles, perfect for the LAN with no net access.
Bruce'a'lingas
Friday, August 14, 2009 at 4:40 PMMmm, boxes, I love boxes, particularly waxed ones.
Llewellyn
Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 11:03 PMquick question, im guna be running 3 Xbox360′s, 1 deski and 2 laptops…it should be fine running that without lag assuming the deski and laptops aren’t downloading…or am i better of going with the billion for the gigabit ethernet, last billion i had gave me alot of shit but i didnt buy the highend one…so yea if anyone has any info for me that’d be great…otherwise im just guna get ‘Bob’ with my nakedDsl.
nadir
Monday, September 7, 2009 at 12:35 AMthinking of buying a BoB, cannot find ay specification about it anywhere. Does anyone know whether it has abuilt-in answering machine or not?
iiNet BoB
Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 5:15 PM@anon – I don’t understand why you would need a gigabit ethernet port when even ADSL2+ can only achieve 24 megabits max.
@Llwellyn – BoB only has 4 ethernet ports but if you plan on hooking up your laptops wirelessly to BoB, then it shouldn’t be a problem.
@nadir – BoB doesn’t come with an answering machine. Essentially it’s a router that provides you with a VoIP handset.
Did a brief review of BoB myself as it seems like a good idea for a christmas present.
iiNet BoB review
Naz Straughan
Friday, December 4, 2009 at 5:33 AM@ iinet BoB – Router ports are not just used for accessing the internet. If, like most house holds these days, you have multiple PC’s setup, Say for this example, a Family PC, Media PC, and Study/Gaming PC’s for the kids, and you are all sharing data, accessing files on the media PC or perhaps streaming files to the media PC, then a gigabit port will make life a lot easier then then the almost outdated 100 Mbps.
And if multiple (3 for this example as Bob only has 4) people need to access say, a home server, or Media PC. they are limited to a percentage of that 100Mbps, (for this example, 33 Mbps). having 1 Gbps ports allows that to be increased (for this example, 333 Mbps) Even if there was only 1 Gigabit Port, Having a file server or media pc connected would still provide users with full 100Mbps connection no matter how many people were accessing.
BoB is great though, I have to say I’m very happy with mine. There is no Answering Machine, but iiNet have a voice mail that will email you messages.
@Llewellyn, It shouldn’t give you any hassels. I’m assuming most these devices will be connected wirelessly. It may cause hassell if you try and copy/stream from say your Deski with both lappys, and the Xbox’s at the same time. But in terms of internet, the Port speed wont effect your experience at all.