devolo dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ Add-On Powerline Adapter (500 Mbps via Power Line, 300 Mbps WiFi, 1 x PLC Homeplug Adapter, 3 x LAN Ports, WiFi Booster, Wireless Range Extender, whole home wifi) - White

I had been thinking of running these around the house for a while. I have 120Mb broadband wired straight to the router but my Daughter and Wife use wireless and were always complaining about the lag when playing games on the internet. The router was upstairs and they were downstairs or elsewhere in the house. I initially purchased wired Develo 500 units locally to connect the wife's and the Daughters laptop and PC and they were very happy with the results The wife was getting the full 120Mb bandwidth directly below where I had plugged in the unit / router connection and the Daughter, 70Mb in the far corner of the house, so they were now getting no lag and a strong reliable signal.I now wanted to put a unit in the lounge but wanted wireless and wired so purchased this unit. The 3 wired connections now feed my Sky HD box, PlayStation 3 and Home Theatre surround system and use the 5.0 GHz wireless purely for Wi-Fi connection to my mobile. The phone is running at 52Mpbs download and 12.2 Mbps upload which is pretty impressive compared to the Virgin Media Wireless. It is a bit more directional being so low to the ground when compared to the router but it is much faster when downloading apps etc. The wired connections stream music and films to the Home theatre when required and allow the PlayStation to run smoothly and download quickly. Sky Any Time also downloads quickly.The units run fairly cool and so far have been reliable. I have not detected any RF interference (audible) and they sleep when not in use to keep running costs down. The other great thing is that you don't loose a socket outlet. The only slight issue is that they are quite wide and bulky so tend to obscure the power switch on some wall sockets. Another good point is that the outlets are at the top so if you have low mounted sockets you can easily make a connection. I would have preferred the connections at the bottom as it makes routing cables neater but one can't please everyone I guess.

What can I say? We've been using Powerline (Home Plug) systems for years, ever since they first came out. This Devolo system beats them all. However, there are a few caveats:a) before you install them, scamper to the Devolo website and download the manuals for the AVplus and Wireless+ plugsb) also download the astonishingly good Devolo Cockpit app for your PC or Mac (don't bother with the iOS app; they've done something dreadful to it which means that the current version can't find the network; hopefully an update will solve that in the near future).I bought a couple of starter kits, so a total of two AVplus plugs and two AV Wireless+ plugs (we have quite a large building).I'm a reasonably experienced network administrator, so I started by sitting down with the manuals and zipping through them (they're nice and clearly written; it didn't take me long).I then installed the Devolo Cockpit app on my MacBook Air.Then I put the plugs where I wanted them (switched off), and once they were all in place with the appropriate cables plugged in (we have a couple of broadband routers and various switches/machines that use Ethernet), I walked round the building switching them all on. I had an Apple AirPort Express plugged into one of the AVplus plugs; my MacBook Air was connected to it wirelessly.To my considerable surprise, as soon as the plugs were switched on, the Devolo Cockpit utility launched itself and offered to update the firmware of the two AVplus plugs (not the Wireless+ plugs, for some reason, but hey, you can't have it all; I updated those separately via the Wireless+ plugs' configuration web pages after downloading a firmware update from the Devolo website – very easy). The Cockpit app showed all four plugs in place and immediately started analysing network speeds between them. Very impressive!The network was available immediately. I was going to use the built-in encryption switches to generate a random network password, but the Cockpit app let me enter my own preferred admin password very easily. So all the hardwired network was immediately available. I suspect the wireless network was also available, but I didn't bother using the WiFi settings programmed into the two Wireless+ plugs (although they were eminently sensible ones); I set up my own instead.The Cockpit app allows you to launch configuration pages for all the plugs; these appear in your web browser.There are a lot of settings. They're very clear and straightforward to use if you've got some network experience. Possibly a little scary for a beginner (in fact, yeah, they are scary for beginners!). The good news is, you don't need to access them if you don't want to: you can use the plugs – ideally with encryption enabled – straight out of the box.Best of all, you can name all the plugs individually, based on their location. The names show up immediately in the Cockpit app. They also appear in the configuration web pages. This is just so convenient!Finally, the Cockpit app constantly monitors the flow of data to/from the plugs. You can click on any given plug in the network diagram to see what the connections between it and the other plugs are like. If the data rate seems a little low, you can move it to another socket and see if anything improves. It's amazingly simple and convenient.Despite the relatively high price, I'm absolutely delighted with these. They've speeded up the flow of data across the network, talk flawlessly to both our broadband routers (hint: definitely a good idea to disable the WiFi Move function if you've got a relatively complex network setup), and picked up from where the older, failing network left off without a murmur. Totally recommend!

Very easy to set up just plug and play, but the transfer rates in the real world do not really work well in the modern world, with most of us downloading and streaming on the likes of love film and Netflix, its a little slow and it buffers from time to time and the picture quality can drop off. I do not get anywhere near 5oombps more like 80-100. If its just internet surfing then its great. On the plus I do get a signal in my room now and the strength is very very good. I just which it was a little faster. My verdict.... I am glad a brought it but it was expensive and I searched around a lot and devolo came highly recommended. Just needs to be as fast as its advertises it self.

I have previously tried 2 different Wi-Fi repeaters with indifferent results. They significantly reduce the speed as measured on Speedtest and they drop out frequently, requiring to be reset.This product is a revelation' just plug in and it works - and with the same 30mb speed I get from the Virgin router. I had it running less than 5 minutes after the postman delivered it. It really is that simple.It is significantly more expensive than a cheap extender but you get what you pay for and this is a far superior product.There is a cheaper option from the same company but you don't get the pass through power socket, which I needed. I will connect my smart TV to the device with an Ethernet cable which should work much better than Wi-Fi.I have checked the Wi-Fi signal strength it produces and it is so good that I hardly need the virgin router!After a week of use I can only confirm that this is an excellent piece of kit. I have had no problems with overheating that another customer reported here. The connection is there 24/7 with full speed. I know this is expensive but it is worth it for something that actually works so reliably. My smart tv is now connected to it with an ethernet cable and streams video with no interruptions.If only all things worked this well.