iiNet's BoB Lite: Review

Renai LeMay
Monday, 21 February 2011 02:05

Your IT - Home IT

review In late 2010, national broadband provider iiNet released the second generation of its popular BoB (broadband in a box) integrated router, dubbing junior the 'BoB Lite'.

The device is the first to be designed in the company's fledgling engineering labs, and looks set to be rolled out to at least tens '” or even hundreds '” of thousands of Australian households, with iiNet recently blitzing Optus to become the nation's second-largest provider of ADSL broadband.

But the question remains '” can iiNet's first in-house developed device compete with the big boys '” Linksys, Belkin, NETGEAR, and even the FRITZ!Box being marketed by Internode, or is this first effort from the Australian company a lemon?

Design
Like the original BoB, the BoB Lite is built from black plastic '” shiny and curved on top, and flat and matte on the back. It comes with a stand, although we honestly can't see most people using it '” as it seems a little superfluous to the device's design, and may even make it slightly unstable when you plug half a dozen cables into it.

On the top of device are a series of embedded LED status buttons, covering all the usual areas for an integrated router '” ADSL sync, internet connectivity, wired and wireless connections and even telephone status. One unusual light shows the status of the router's USB port '” which can be used to connect up storage devices or 3G mobile broadband dongles. When you turn the BoB Lite on, the lights will show either a dull red (not working) or blue (working) light to show status '” or simply nothing if that aspect of the router has not been set up.

On the router's right-hand side can be found its collection of ports '” 1x ADSL, 4x 10/100 Ethernet, 1x PSTN failover (in case the normal Voice over IP line stops working), 1x VoIP line for iiNet's iiTalk service, 1x USB storage/3G port and 1x 12W/1.5A power input. There are also two buttons '” one to reset the router back to base settings, and an on-off toggle. It's all pretty standard for an ADSL router in 2011 (or even 2009).

On the bottom of the device is a 'WPS' button, which we believe is to support its Wi-Fi Protected Setup feature. The actual device comes with two telephone cables, a yellow Ethernet cable, the small power supply unit and an ADSL line filter for those that don't have naked DSL.

Overall, the BoB Lite is more stylised than most routers; Its stand-out black finish (you can see yourself in its top!) and curves will help it to fit in unobtrusively with a home entertainment system setup, for example. Avoiding the PC industry's obsession with beige cases is definitely a good thing.