The Devolo DLAN 500AV is part of a growing segment of the home networking market: the powerline adaptor. These adaptors allow you to use the wiring in your house as a data pathway instead of laying down ethernet cable around your house. This new offering has a claimed max gross throughput of 500 Mb/s when connected via ethernet. This means the product is aimed at the top end of the market; as opposed to the firm's base model, which claims only 200 Mb/s for its maximum data rate. See all Wi-Fi/networking reviews.
The kit itself consists of two adaptors. One plugs into an electrical socket near your router, then connects using the single ethernet connector. The second unit is plugged into a mains point elsewhere in the house, letting you connect to your network by either ethernet or Wi-Fi. So the kit's uses are in essence two-fold: to extend the reach of the wireless network to other parts of the house and/or to provide high-speed ethernet connections (to a claimed 500 Mb/s) to anywhere there is a plug socket. Take a look at our review of the TP-Link TL-WN8200ND: dongle that boosts your Wi-Fi performance too.
The units themselves are rather stylish and unobtrusive looking, coloured white and made of a high-quality plastic. The remote (client) unit has a smattering of indicator lights for power, ethernet, home (connection to the master unit) and power.
We tested this unit in a block of flats made in the 1960s with wiring of undetermined age. This is important, as it is in part the wiring that will determine the speed of your connection. These first tests were ethernet only (no Wi-Fi) with the master unit plugged into the router and the client plugged into a laptop via ethernet cable. We then varied the connection to the mains power, creating four different setups.
For setup 1 we used a 4m mains power-cord extension on both the router side and the client side, with the building's wiring in between the rooms (physical distance 10m). Using this setup the system reached a speed of 40 Mb/s. This is not a good result for a 500 Mb/s-rated system, although using two 4m extension cables was probably undermining performance here too.
For setup 2 we removed the extension cable on the client side and plugged the adaptor directly into a mains socket. Using this setup the data rate increased to 75 Mb/s, which is certainly an improvement – but lower than you might expect from a half-decent Wi-Fi setup at this distance.
For setup 3 we tried to give the system the best chance possible in a practical setup. Both adaptors were plugged directly into mains plugs in adjacent rooms, with no extension cords and no other devices plugged in to muddy the signal. Using this setup the data rate was just 60 Mb/s. We re-tested this result several times and the result was the same every time.
For a final setup we plugged both units into the same power block to test the maximum data rate, creating a range of less than 0.5m. This returned a rate of 280 Mb/s.
From testing it seems safe to draw two conclusions: firstly, that the data rate of 500 Mb/s is unlikely to be achieved between rooms if it cannot be achieved even across the same power block.
Secondly, that the data rate you get may be determined by the quality and the path of the mains power wiring in your house. Our testing showed greater speeds connecting at greater physical distances than in adjacent rooms, which may be due to the path or quality of the wiring between the two points.
The Devolo unit also provides Wi-Fi on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. We tested the Wi-Fi at 1m, 5m and 10m with several concrete wall occlusions.
On the 2.4GHz band the speeds were as follows: 93 Mb/s at 1m, 59 Mb/s at 5m and 18 Mb/s at 10m, the latter arrangement including reflective obstructions. These are respectable speeds compared with other modern routers we have tested using the same setup.
On 5GHz the results were 95 Mb/s at 1m, 95 Mb/s at 5m and 15 Mb/s at 10m, with occlusions. Here the maximum data rate at 1m was very surprising - at 1m a 5GHz signal should have a higher data rate. However, this was confirmed to be a 5GHz signal in the settings, while the Wi-Fi indicator light backed this up by turning blue (green is for 2.4GHz).
The lack of any drop in datarate at 5m was a good result but, as expected, the 5GHz signal did not fare well with walls.
