Billion BiPAC 7700N

The Billion BiPAC 7700N Wireless-N ADSL2+ Firewall Router is an ADSL2+ Router that offers an integrated 802.11n Access Point, supports data rates up to 300Mbps and incorporates VLAN support capable of establishing reliable high-speed transmissions for wide bandwidth applications.

The BiPAC 7700N is compliant with worldwide ADSL standards, and supports download rates of up to 12 / 24Mbps using ADSL2 / 2+, 8Mbps using ADSL and an upload rate of up to 1Mbps. The integrated Annex M standard supports ADSL2 / 2+ for higher uploads by doubling the upload data rate. The 4-port Ethernet Switch incorporated into the BiPAC 7700N enables users to connect to multiple computers or wired-Ethernet devices easily.

The R2 model has two detachable antennas as the only difference to this model. The 7700 R4 is a different device to this.

The BiPAC 7700N has a similar CPU and wireless platform as the Sagem F@ST2704 V2 but has 32MB of RAM installed instead of 64MB and does not provide a USB port.

None yet but development snapshots are available.

The 7700N does not provide a JTAG interface. So installation via JTAG is not possible. → Install OpenWrt (generic explanation)

You can flash the device to OpenWrt from the web configuration or the emergency firmware mode if the device is running firmware bipac-7700n-vb038_n28_gh_uk-00-4300 (other firmwares are untested.)

cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00010000 00010000 "CFE"
mtd1: 00010000 00010000 "nvram"
mtd2: 007e0000 00010000 "linux"
mtd3: 0015d780 00010000 "kernel"
mtd4: 00682780 00010000 "rootfs"
mtd5: 00420000 00010000 "rootfs_data"

cat /sys/class/mtd/mtd*/offset
0
8323072
65536
256
1431680
3932160

Please ensure that you verify the downloaded OpenWrt firmware binary file (.bin) before proceeding to flash the device.
Note: Resetting the device to factory defaults before continuing is highly recommended.

1. Browse to http://192.168.1.1/ and login to the manufacturer's web configuration software
2. Access the firmware update\upgrade page via the menu on the left hand side
3. Upload the correct OpenWrt firmware .bin file for the device, using the device's upgrade page
4. Wait for the process to complete and the device to reboot
5. Browse to http://192.168.1.1 via a web browser and configure LuCI
6. Establish an ssh connection into 192.168.1.1 and set the root password

NOTE: If you experience Wi-Fi problems (random disconnection or connected but no data) try disabling “WMM Mode” in wifi settings.

NOTE: This is the recommended way to install OpenWrt onto this device.

Set your TCP/IP V4 protocol connection settings to:

1. IP Address: 192.168.1.2
2. Netmask: 255.255.255.0
3. Gateway: 192.168.1.1
4. DNS: (optional, can be blank)

Next:

1. Power off the router
2. Press the reset button under the device
3. Keep the reset button held down while powering up (for approximately 20+ seconds)
4. Access http://192.168.1.1 via a web browser and upload the OpenWrt .bin file
5. Wait for the process to complete and for the device to then reboot
6. Browse to http://192.168.1.1 via a web browser and configure LuCI
7. Establish an ssh connection into 192.168.1.1 and set the root password

If you intend to to use the Wi-Fi, it is recommended that you proceed to create a Wi-Fi configuration and then move on to the section entitled basic configuration.

Please first ensure that your configuration is backed up.

Due to the 4/32 warning (unoptimised use of flash, RAM and CPU in official OpenWrt builds,) upgrading the entire flash using a full sized image is the only way to use future OpenWrt builds and snapshots.
Flashing an updated release of OpenWrt can be done via luci or the command prompt via an ssh connection.



(If you would like to understand the 4/32 issue, please observe the amount of memory consumed by luci and the http daemon used to deliver luci's pages. It is almost one fifth of the total RAM the device has.
Include with that : two dhcp servers, an ssh daemon, an ipv6 stack running on all interfaces - which the device was never designed to handle and the device is fast approaching it's limits.)

Once you have an OpenWrt release installed, you can install a snapshot.
Installing a snapshot allows you to run the bleeding edge version of OpenWrt, test out new features and test for regressions or bug fixes.
Running a snapshot is not recommended unless:

• You are familiar enough with OpenWrt to configure it completely via an ssh connection (luci is not present in snapshots, you can install luci yourself, however.)
• You are testing a new feature, trying to check for a regression or other bug or feature.
• You check the sha256 checksum of the firmware download before flashing the device.
• You are confident you understand the risk involved in flashing a bleeding edge development version of OpenWrt.
• You are prepared to re-install any extra packages you have installed via opkg.

The following steps will allow you to download, check and install an OpenWrt snapshot from within an Internet connected device running OpenWrt. This is commonly performed while logged in via an ssh connection.

cd /tmp
rm -r /tmp/opkg-lists/
sync && echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
wget -O snapshot.bin http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/brcm63xx/generic/openwrt-brcm63xx-generic-FAST2704V2-squashfs-cfe.bin
wget http://downloads.openwrt.org/snapshots/targets/brcm63xx/generic/sha256sums
grep "FAST2704V2" sha256sums
sha256sum snapshot.bin
# Compare the two checksums which appear
# Confirm that they both match exactly - do not continue, if not.
rm -f sha256sums
sysupgrade -v /tmp/snapshot.bin

The device will reboot as per the usual sysupgrade method of installation and should come back online with the new version of the software installed.
The -v switch of the sysupgrade command means that the existing configuration should be preserved.
It's recommended to finally remote in via ssh and install any software which is not present inside of the default image, which the device requires to do it's job, as a final step.

→ generic.debrick
→ failsafe_and_factory_reset

A serial connection can be created using the pin outs on the board.
Please see the installation instructions to learn how to put the device into emergency flash mode.

→ Basic configuration After flashing, proceed with this.

By default the Wi-Fi adapter will not work. To enable the Wi-Fi, use luci to create the connection, then manually add the MAC address to the configuration and disable wmm.

You can find the MAC Address on a sticker on the back of the unit. But any MAC address will work. Just ensure that it is unique within your network.
Once you have a MAC address, You can then ssh into the device and use the command prompt to do the following:

wifi down
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[-1].macaddr=1F:48:1A:1D:E0:E9
uci set wireless.@wifi-iface[-1].wmm=0
uci commit wireless
wifi up

Ensure that macaddr= is set to the MAC address you want to use.

You can check the new configuration using:

uci get wireless.@wifi-iface[-1].wmm
uci get wireless.@wifi-iface[-1].macaddr

Proceed to the User Guide when you are ready to further configure your running instance of OpenWrt.
If you require further assistance; there is a guide to help with Internet connectivity and troubleshooting if you are experiencing problems.

You can make the same changes by instead modifying the file /etc/config/wireless and reloading the Wi-Fi :

config wifi-iface
        option device 'radio0'
        option network 'lan'
        option mode 'ap'
        option ssid 'OpenWrt'
        option encryption 'none'
        option macaddr '2c:e4:XX:XX:XX:XX' # ADD THIS LINE AND USE YOUR OWN MAC ADDRESS
	option wmm '0' # ADD THIS

Edit the file by logging into your device via ssh and using the command:

vi /etc/config/wireless

Once you have added the MAC address and saved the file, reload the Wi-Fi stack using:

wifi reload

For Wi-Fi stability, you absolutely must also disable WMM. Otherwise you may experience a problem where data stops (you are connected but there is no data flow.)

If you change the Wi-Fi configuration via luci at all, you should check that option wmm has not been removed from /etc/config/wireless.
There is not currently anyway to disable WMM via luci. It can only be done using the above two methods.

The default network configuration is:

→ hardware.button on howto use and configure the hardware button(s). Here, we merely name the buttons, so we can use them in the above Howto.

The Billion BiPAC 7700N has the following buttons:

Front:

Back:

Main PCB:

Note: This will void your warranty!

To open the device and access the main circuit board:

1. Flip the device onto it's back
2. Use a pin or the blade of a sharp knife to carefully prise up the black foam rubber feet (one in each corner)
3. Remove the four Phillips head screws (which you have now revealed,) by using a normal sized Phillips head screw driver
4. Flip the whole unit back over and then lift the top cover straight up vertically and it should come away cleanly from the rest of the body in one single piece
5. The circuit board can finally be accessed and even carefully lifted out if desired

Reassemble in the reverse order.

→ port.serial general information about the serial port, serial port cable, etc.

How to connect to the Serial Port of this specific device:

Warning! Be aware that you should not connect the VCC pin or the CPU will receive too much voltage when the DC power supply is connected. This will likely brick it.

Only connect GND, TX and RX.

→ cfe

The 7700N is the same platform board type as the Sagem F@ST2704 V2. So any mod which works on the F@ST2704 V2, should within reason stand a fairly good chance of working on the 7700N.
The Sagem F@ST2704 V2 has twice as much RAM (64M.) So if you are handy with soldering SoC\BGA then you may be able to increase the 7700N's memory by replacing the 32MB chip with 64MB.
The Sagem F@ST2704 V2 has a USB port, so in theory it may be possible to add (via soldering) a USB port to the circuit board to add USB functionality to the 7700N.

To configure the vlans on the 7700N use swconfig.

The model used for testing exhibited a Wi-Fi overheating or b43 driver issue which could be triggered by opening multiple encrypted connections via a web browser. The issue appeared to be related to hardware encryption overloading the device and appeared to be solved by disabling ipv6 for the Wi-Fi connection and disabling wmm. The 7700N is from an era before ipv6 began being pushed towards mass adoption and when ssl connection handling was not a default.
There is a Wi-Fi bug in OpenWrt 18.06.2. So it's recommended to use an up to date snapshot (where it is fixed) for now, until the next release.

The hardware Wi-Fi button is not enabled by default. Enabling the Wi-Fi button should be possible. kmod-gpio-button-hotplug is installed.
The same may be the case for the WPS button. It was untested.

The reason the Wi-Fi does not work without manually setting the MAC address, is because the device reports it's MAC address as 00:00:00:00:00:00 when probed via software.
This can be observed by using the command:

cat /sys/class/ieee80211/phy0/macaddress

I can recommend hardening your installation of OpenWrt, once installed.
But not installing luci-ssl due to memory constraints. In fact, You may need to remove luci and uhttpd altogether to free up memory and CPU cycles.
Removing luci and uhttpd reduces memory usage by around 20%. OpenWrt snapshots do not contain luci and this makes them ideal.

The following modules can be removed if you have no intention of hacking the USB header:

kmod-usb-core
kmod-usb-ehci
kmod-usb-ledtrig-usbport
kmod-usb-ohci
kmod-usb2

You may get an error like:

Collected errors:
 * pkg_run_script: Internal error: kmod-usb2 has a NULL tmp_unpack_dir.
 * opkg_remove_pkg: not removing package "kmod-usb2", prerm script failed

but keep going and all of them can be uninstalled via luci's package manager or opkg.

Not enabling ipv6 appears to bring resource (memory and CPU) usage down. Don't attempt to do so on the lan interface as it will take down the internal network unless you uninstall odhcpd-ipv6only and restart the network.
You can remove ipv6 dhcp from OpenWrt by removing odhcpd-ipv6only via opkg.

opkg update && opkg remove odhcpd-ipv6only
rm -r /tmp/opkg-lists/
uci del network.globals

Alternatively, you could replace replace dnsmasq completely.

You may want to apply the following patch to /etc/init.d/sysctl to ensure an out of memory (oom killer) crash does not occur as a result of memory over utilisation.

        if [ "$mem" -gt 65536 ]; then # 128M
                min_free=16384
        elif [ "$mem" -gt 32768 ]; then # 64M
                min_free=8192
        elif [ "$mem" -gt 28672 ]; then # 32M
                min_free=4096
        elif [ "$mem" -gt 12288 ]; then # 16M
                min_free=2048
        else # 8M
                min_free=1024
                frag_low_thresh=393216 # Depreciated after 4.17
                frag_high_thresh=524288
        fi

Depending upon the configuration of your OpenWrt instance, it may be appropriate to add

option flow_offloading '1'

to the

config defaults

section of the file /etc/config/firewall as doing so appeared to offer a slight improvement in performance.

You may want to install nano if you do lots of manual config editing via ssh.
The unit is a prime candidate for testing luci2.
Turning off Allow legacy 802.11b rates might be of use.
Lowering the dbm to 5 from 20 (depending upon connected client distance) might be of help to you: dBm
You may want to set the device's ntp pool to ones closer to your locality.
Some speedtest results for this device attached to this wiki page would be useful.

The following is a collection of diagnostic output collected from the BiPAC 7700N:

cat /proc/cmdline
rootfstype=squashfs,jffs2 noinitrd console=ttyS0,115200

cat /proc/cpuinfo
system type             : bcm63xx/F@ST2704V2 (0x6328/0xB0)
machine                 : Sagem F@ST2704V2
processor               : 0
cpu model               : Broadcom BMIPS4350 V7.5
BogoMIPS                : 319.74
wait instruction        : yes
microsecond timers      : yes
tlb_entries             : 32
extra interrupt vector  : yes
hardware watchpoint     : no
isa                     : mips1 mips2 mips32r1
ASEs implemented        :
shadow register sets    : 1
kscratch registers      : 0
package                 : 0
core                    : 0
VCED exceptions         : not available
VCEI exceptions         : not available

cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:          27856 kB
MemFree:            6176 kB
MemAvailable:      14664 kB
Buffers:            2332 kB
Cached:             8872 kB
SwapCached:            0 kB
Active:             8252 kB
Inactive:           4148 kB
Active(anon):       1800 kB
Inactive(anon):       28 kB
Active(file):       6452 kB
Inactive(file):     4120 kB
Unevictable:           0 kB
Mlocked:               0 kB
SwapTotal:             0 kB
SwapFree:              0 kB
Dirty:                 0 kB
Writeback:             0 kB
AnonPages:          1204 kB
Mapped:             2104 kB
Shmem:               632 kB
Slab:               5076 kB
SReclaimable:       1464 kB
SUnreclaim:         3612 kB
KernelStack:         328 kB
PageTables:          200 kB
NFS_Unstable:          0 kB
Bounce:                0 kB
WritebackTmp:          0 kB
CommitLimit:       13928 kB
Committed_AS:       4100 kB
VmallocTotal:    1032116 kB
VmallocUsed:           0 kB
VmallocChunk:          0 kB

cat /proc/devices
Character devices:
  1 mem
  4 ttyS
  5 /dev/tty
  5 /dev/console
  5 /dev/ptmx
 10 misc
 90 mtd
108 ppp
128 ptm
136 pts
180 usb
189 usb_device
253 watchdog
254 gpiochip
 
Block devices:
259 blkext
 31 mtdblock

ls /sys/devices/platform
Fixed MDIO bus.0       b53-switch             bcm63xx_enet_shared.0  bcm63xx_udc            gpio-keys-polled       leds-gpio.0            regulatory.0           uevent
alarmtimer             bcm63xx-wdt            bcm63xx_enetsw.0       ehci-platform          gpio-leds              ohci-platform          ubus@10000000

uci show wireless
wireless.radio0=wifi-device
wireless.radio0.type='mac80211'
wireless.radio0.channel='11'
wireless.radio0.hwmode='11g'
wireless.radio0.path='pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0/bcma0:1'
wireless.default_radio0=wifi-iface
wireless.default_radio0.device='radio0'
wireless.default_radio0.network='lan'
wireless.default_radio0.mode='ap'
wireless.default_radio0.ssid='OpenWrt'
wireless.default_radio0.encryption='none'

cat /sys/class/ieee80211/phy0/macaddress
00:00:00:00:00:00

iw phy0 info
Wiphy phy0
        max # scan SSIDs: 4
        max scan IEs length: 2285 bytes
        max # sched scan SSIDs: 0
        max # match sets: 0
        max # scan plans: 1
        max scan plan interval: -1
        max scan plan iterations: 0
        Retry short limit: 7
        Retry long limit: 4
        Coverage class: 0 (up to 0m)
        Available Antennas: TX 0x3 RX 0x3
        Configured Antennas: TX 0x3 RX 0x3
        Supported interface modes:
                 * IBSS
                 * managed
                 * AP
                 * AP/VLAN
                 * monitor
                 * mesh point
        Band 1:
                Frequencies:
                        * 2412 MHz [1] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2417 MHz [2] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2422 MHz [3] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2427 MHz [4] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2432 MHz [5] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2437 MHz [6] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2442 MHz [7] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2447 MHz [8] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2452 MHz [9] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2457 MHz [10] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2462 MHz [11] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2467 MHz [12] (20.0 dBm) (no IR)
                        * 2472 MHz [13] (20.0 dBm) (no IR)
                        * 2484 MHz [14] (20.0 dBm) (no IR)
        interface combinations are not supported
        HT Capability overrides:
                 * MCS: ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
                 * maximum A-MSDU length
                 * supported channel width
                 * short GI for 40 MHz
                 * max A-MPDU length exponent
                 * min MPDU start spacing

ls -l /sys/class/net
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root             0 Mar  2 11:48 br-lan -> ../../devices/virtual/net/br-lan
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root             0 Jan  1  1970 eth0 -> ../../devices/platform/bcm63xx_enetsw.0/net/eth0
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root             0 Mar  2 11:48 eth0.1 -> ../../devices/virtual/net/eth0.1
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root             0 Jan  1  1970 lo -> ../../devices/virtual/net/lo
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root             0 Mar  2 14:57 wlan0 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0/bcma0:1/net/wlan0

(install pciutils to be able to lspci)
lspci -vnn -d 14e4:
00:00.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Broadcom Limited Device [14e4:6328] (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 31
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
        I/O behind bridge: 00000000-00000fff [size=4K]
        Memory behind bridge: 10f00000-10ffffff [size=1M]
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: None
        Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [ac] Express Root Port (Slot-), MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Kernel driver in use: pcieport
lspci: Unable to load libkmod resources: error -12
 
01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Broadcom Limited BCM43224/5 Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:a8d8] (rev 01)
        Subsystem: Broadcom Limited BCM43224/5 Wireless Network Adapter [14e4:a8d8]
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 31
        Memory at 10f00000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 3
        Capabilities: [58] Vendor Specific Information: Len=78 <?>
        Capabilities: [48] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
        Capabilities: [d0] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
        Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
        Capabilities: [13c] Virtual Channel
        Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 00-00-00-ff-ff-00-00-00
        Capabilities: [16c] Power Budgeting <?>
        Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridge