devolo Magic 1-1200 Wi-Fi 5 Starter Kit: Stable home
devolo Magic 1-1200 Wi-Fi 5 Starter Kit: Stable home working, High Performance (Mesh Wi-Fi, Up to 1200 Mbps Via Powerline, Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi Anywhere, Access Point, 2x Fast Ethernet Ports)
Compatibility
To date, only devolo Magic uses the innovative G.hn technology, which offers the highest transmission speeds.
Magic therefore only takes advantage of full output in a pure G.hn environment.
The simultaneous use of other PLC adapters – even those of the outstanding devolo dLAN devices – impairs performance.
 |  |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power (Max. Data Rate) | 1200 Mbit/s | 1200 Mbit/s | 1200 Mbit/s | 1200 Mbit/s |
| WiFi | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – |
| Device Connections | 2x 10/100/1000 | 2x 10/100/1000 | 2x 10/100/1000 | 1x 10/100/1000 |
| G.hn Standard | ✓ | ✓ | – | – |
| Compatible with | devolo Magic Adapter | devolo Magic Adapter | devolo dLAN Adapter | devolo dLAN Adapter |
| Connects Smart TV, Media Box, Receiver, Game Console | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Weight: | 890 g |
| Dimensions: | 9.2 x 18.8 x 23.1 cm; 890 Grams |
| Brand: | Devolo |
| Model: | 8361 |
| Colour: | White |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | Devolo |
| Dimensions: | 9.2 x 18.8 x 23.1 cm; 890 Grams |
Great wifi extende
Really pleased with this. We are using it to extend our wifi to our newly built summerhouse which is at the bottom of our garden. Make sure to do the mesh network set up. This seemed to make a big difference to the strength of signal.
Devolo Magic 2 2400 Starter Ki
Very simple setup – basically just plug in and the adapters do the rest. Surprised that my extension lead should be plugged into the adapter rather than the socket next to it but I bow to their greater wisdom. Certainly they work with no problem. Only slight surprise was that the ethernet cables come out of the top so they don’t look as neat. However, they are pretty much out of sight so I can live with that. I bought them so I could give my older Devolo adapters to my daughter and even these have greatly increased the speed to her computer. Very pleased indeed with Devolo products.
This system is a magical WiFi extender. I have extended myWiFi to my garden office that is 200 feet away from the main house and I have perfect coverage. I have used it fir a few months now and it has been outstanding.
Thank you very much for a great product.
Works perfectly with essentially no speed los
Easily installed it after a couple mins of effort and now the other end of my house that previously just lost signal completely from my wifi box, has full signal and the speed loss is essentially 0.
I tested both spots and got 71mbps in both locations.
Great product that solves the problem perfectly.
Excellent product!
This was excellent! We have an old house (very thick walls) and even with a different device the WiFi was poor in most of the house.
These have fitted it – full WiFi throughout.
They were a little tricky to set up but now are excellent!
Works very well
eally easy to set up with clear instructions. My only slight gripe is that this purchase was to replace the previous one which died after 3 years. I’d expect a little more life than that.
easy set up. Will work on a completely separate circui
Easy set up straight out of the box less than10 minutes and ready to go.
I had no idea if these would work as the master wouldn’t be on the same circuit as the secondary unit, not even on the same consumer unit.
My shed / garage is on its own circuit, it’s on a different consumer unit to the house. the common point is the meter tail junction box at the meter.
Master unit is in the house hooked up to the router and powered by the house ring main. Secondary unit is in the shed running off the ring main in there.. However it seems to work like a dream, took a minute or two to sort itself out and then white lights and full wifi. 36Mbps in the house, 30Mbps in the shed. To say I’m happy is an understatement…… Recommended !
We’ll see if it lasts !!…..
Update. A number of days later and this is still working well.
Amazing device & doubled speeds throughout network
Having had a Magic 2 system already, but with speeds poor in one particular location, I decided to buy this DIN Rail module to centralise the powerline data source and it has been so worth while.
Speeds to all devices more than doubled and we can now stream 4k in all locations without buffering or any glitching at all. Even the unit in my workshop, remote to the house (0ver 40m from building and on its own consumer unit) now achieves superb speeds. For reference, our source is a 1gb fibre broadband service.
Super worthwhile investment and now I have a happy household with no moaning about broadband and no more congested wi-fi either.
Very easy and fast from 55mbps to 110mbps
I brought a cheap netgear plp1000 and when I done an Internet speed test I was getting an average of 55mbps. After a year I thought I would go for a faster one. Plugged in waited 15 seconds and wired it to the router. Then plugged the second one upstairs waited 15 seconds then plugged it to my pc. Internet straight away. Done a new speed check and it went from average 55 to 110 mbps would 100% recommend
I bought these to replace the other leading product by Tp-link which kept disconnecting.
These are easy to install, plug them in and away you go. Set up for me was a breeze and no disconnection issues in the first few months (tp-link would have disconnected at least twice in the same time. Rated at up to 2400Mbit/s I get 330Mbit/s which is a little slower than the tp-link which hit around 500Mbit/s on the same install points. I guess my house wiring eats the rest of the bandwidth, in both cases, but at least it’s a stable signal.
Reliable and decent performance - make sure you enable power saving.
I got a set of these to wire up an Aruba Instant-On AP22 at the other side of my house. Theys show a connection speed of 650 – 800 Mbps. They are more than adequate for maxing out my BT 80 Mbps FTTC connection with the Aruba AP. They do run hot, initially I was getting CPU temperatures of over 95C. I then enabled power saving and this reduced the temperature greatly and they now idle at around 60C. It did say this can increase latency but I’ve not noticed any difference. You can also easily update the firmware of the homeplug in the management interface. Devolo support them well and release regular updates. The built in VDSL frequency mitigation also seems to work well and I haven’t noticed any problems or reduction in sync speed with my broadband. Overall pretty happy with them, only downside as mentioned earlier is the hot cpu temps when power saving isn’t enabled.
Mine are LAN only single port – starter kit and an extra plug. House has tricky wiring as had been extended twice and the attic conversion wiring is also behind an RCD which is known to be tricky for powerline.
Install was easy just waiting for them to sync on nearby plugs. Once happy – move to the right locations. They didn’t want to out of the box – I used the sync button. That worked.
Note these are note compatible with older standard powerline as it is new standard so you need to be mindful what extra plugs you add.
Note, YOU MUST NOT PLUG ANYTHING ELSE into the socket next to your plug to give it the least interference. Plug an extension/splitter into the plug pass through socket instead.
My virgin Wi-Fi from the room above the router is 300/60mbit down/upload (1gb virgin). On the old devolo 500 plugs I used to get 15by10 mbit in the attic wired and 8by2mbit on other side of the house Wi-Fi via another router. Both with nasty subjective latencies and the latter dropping often. Clearly limited by powerline.
On magic2 I now have 50by40mbit in the attic and 60by40mbit on the other side of the house with what feels like no latency subjectively as websites just jump onto the screen – it feels as good as direct off virgin router right next to it. I’ve not done any NAS tests as my use case is internet. But it is nearly order of magnitude faster for me. It is night and day vs the old powerline so if you have tricky wiring highly recommended.
I would not get multi-socket or Wi-Fi enabled ones to reduce possible problems. Each product should do a job it excels at and not aspire to be jack of them all. Need extra LAN sockets get a switch for a tenner and plug it in for extra 6-7 sockets. Need extended Wi-Fi – get an extra router which almost definitely will outperform integrated plug solution.
I have had a Devolo DLAN 500 system running constantly for over 10 years. Totally reliable, always reconnects automatically after being unplugged, but my internet and WiFi has been upgraded over the decade and the old DLAN 500 was too slow. The Devolo Cockpit app said the connection between devices was 211Mbps (42% of its ‘perfect world’ maximum of 500). However an actual speed-test website indicated a download speed of 62-69Mbps. Pretty poor considering I can download over WiFi-6 direct from the router at 134-137Mbps.
I upgraded to a Magic 2 system because it has a new chipset and a higher speed rating. Devolo cockpit said the connection now ran at 1,100Mbps (46% or its ‘perfect world’ maximum of 2,400). Speed tests now indicated a download speed of 136-137Mbps. A big improvement. It’s now compatible with WiFi-6 speed and is faster than my service providers quoted speed.
Upload speed has not changed. It still is 21Mbps (service providers limit).
Setup was dead easy, just followed the instructions. Then opened the Cockpit app and let it download and install some firmware updates.
I have read some moaning’s that one of the adapters in the starter kit has only one socket – That’s the one that you attach to the router. Most routers have more than one output socket so you don’t need extra sockets near the router.
I did not get the WiFi-6 DLAN kit because my routers WiFi-6 is a good signal throughout the house anyway. My old DLAN 500 v new Magic 2 tests were conducted within one hour, using the same plug sockets, the same speed test site and the same speed test server, on both a Win-10 desktop & Win-11 Laptop. So the jump in download speed from 62-69 to 136-137Mbps is definitely due to the new Devolo kit.
If it is reliable as the old kit then I’m happy.
Fabulous piece of ki
I’ve had a cabin installed at the end of the garden, about 40 metres from the house, and needed an Internet connection there. After a little research the Devolo was added to the planning list. I left a message with the tech support and had my call returned about 10 minutes later. I wanted to confirm the Powerline devices were suitable for use with the way my electrical circuits are laid out, and was able to get that confirmation. I have a 50metre 10mm armoured cable running from a mcb on the main consumer unit, to a smaller consumer unit in the cabin. My concern was that the two Devolo devices being either side of two different consumer units would prevent connectivity or diminish the performance.
My concern was totally unfounded. I had the units up and running in about 10 minutes with a perfect wi-fi signal at the remote location. How it works I don’t know, but it does. I haven’t tested/compared throughput in the main and remote locations, but everything I’ve needed to do has worked so far.
Very impressed !
Impressive
Layman review. I’m quite IT savvy except when it comes to anything to do with router and Wi-Fi settings, but this was relatively easy to set-up following the quick setup guide. It basically sets up a parallel sub-network on your Wi-Fi that you can connect devices to either wirelessly or using an Ethernet cable. Wireless connections are hopeless upstairs in my house but using this I can connect my TV and Bose SoundTouch wirelessly and the connection is rock solid with the best speeds my BT router is capable of. There’s also a guest network which simply involves your guests scanning a QR code for instant connection and ensures they can’t connect to any of your devices. Overall, I’m very happy with this. There is a firmware update available.
I have 6 x Mesh WI-Fi and 3 x LAN Magic 2 adapters on a single encrypted powerline network. They all run at LAN speeds above 100Mps (Up and Down), the ones nearest the router at over 1200Mbps, and are proving very stable and reliable.
These are excellent adapters, but be aware that they use the G.hn network standard and are not compatable with dLAN Powerline adapters and other HomePlug AV products. If a network of these adapters is used on the same power circuit as a network of adapters running the dLAN standard, they interfere with each other. Both networks will run slower and all adapters will need regular resetting.
However, the G.hn standard easily supports 8 compatible adapters on a single network, rather than the dLAN standard which only work reliably with 5 adapters. My house has 0.5m thick stone walls, so I need a large number of wi-fi transmitters to get good coverage. Now, for the first time and after 15 years of trying different products and network configurations, I have a single network of the Magic 2 adapters with a powerline backbone that provides excellent WI-Fi, as well as LAN, coverage thoughout.
In addition, to reduce local electrical equippment interference, I followed the installation advice and use the interference filtering in the passthrough socket, if necessary with an extension lead, to connect all other electrical devices plugged into the same socket outlet block and I no longer plug anything into immediately adjacent power socket outlets. This has significantly boosted the powerline LAN network speeds.
I had the significant expense of replacing all my top of the range dLAN adapters, but now, my entire LAN network runs more than 10 times faster, I hardly ever have to reset the adapters or router, and I finally have full Mesh Wi-Fi coverage throughout my house.
It works brilliantly
I used this product to take WiFi signal around parts of the house plus an outbuilding where the Wi-Fi signal from the router couldn’t reach. Rather than extending or boosting the Wi-Fi signal this product uses the existing domestic electrical circuit to take Wi-Fi to different parts of the house. I’ve tried similar products that haven’t been particularly effective. My neighbour has this set up and his works brilliantly – now mine does too.
Excellent!!!
I have a huge backlog of reviews yet to be completed (some of which I might never get to review), but this one had to be done now. I recently purchased the tp-link AV1300 3-Port Gigabit Powerline starter Kit (TL-PA8033P Kit) to provide network connectivity to our study room and it worked well for the first two months, after which it started causing connectivity issues. After some troubleshooting I was sure it was the tp-link kit causing issues. I then started looking for a replacement kit. After doing a few repeated searches online (to filter out bogus reviews), I decided to try out the devolo Magic 2 LAN 1-1-2 Starter Kit. I made this decision despite some of the reviews saying that the devolo option is a nightmare to install. Surprisingly, it was pretty easy to install. I did not even have to press any buttons for pairing – pairing happened automatically. I even managed to download the mobile App which helps with monitoring connectivity status etc. It’s been three days working extremely well so far (I installed it on Wednesday the 2nd of March 2022) and I have no doubt it will continue to work well till the end of its natural life cycle. And if that doesn’t turn out to be true – I’ll update this review immediately. I would highly recommend this option for your powerline network extension needs in the home.
Maybe the Best WiFi Adapter, but It is NOT Easy to Install
Reading the instructions I was initially under the impression that I would have the system up-and-running quite quickly. The instruction book is a flimsy affair, giving the impression that there isn’t much to the setting up process. Unfortunately NOT so!
It has taken me several attempts to set things up, each time becoming increasingly frustrated when I could manage to get the system only partially working.
Eventually, after reading and re-reading the instructions (and finally locating the correct oassword, – which WASN’T where the instructions said it should be) I have two adapters working.
I have a third adapter but I won’t bother trying to install it until I have calmed down a bit.
The resultant signal strength, – in an old house with thick walls, is strong and is what I purchased the Devolo kit for.
But beware that it may NOT be as easy to set up as you would like.
Seamless wifi
Love that once plugged in, it can be meshed, so it shares the password of the router. I found the tech assistant fantastic and helped solve a connection issue very quickly.
Devolo Magic 2-2400 Lan Triple Starter Kit: (Up To 2400 Mbps For Your Powerline Home Network
Fantastic product, does exactly what it says on the label. I had sue a similar product from a different manufacturer and the speed were terrible. This one from Devolo delivers excellent speeds. The previous product had to be unplugged to reset it frequently, this one gives no problems at all so far. It is a bit more expensive but well worth the money.
Excellent option for garden room wifi
We live in an old Victorian with our router at the front of the property. The house has thick walls that reduces WiFi access in the back of the house. I purchase the starter kit with hub + two receivers. I wanted to improve the WiFi in the back of the house and patio plus we recently built a garden room ~15 meters from the back wall of the house.
I had to do the installation a couple times as I didn’t realize when you’re initially installing the devise you need the receivers close to the hub/router. Then once it’s set up, you can move it anywhere.
The signal is great and the speed is perfect for normal computer usage (checking emails, social media, research, streaming music etc). Haven’t tried streaming movies or gaming as it’s not what we’re using it for.
It’s expensive, but it’s a great product!
Works Perfectly
Bought this set up for a Victorian house as the router wifi signal was lost in certain areas due to the thick brick walls.
It’s an absolute doddle to set up. I set it up as a mesh network – which means the adapters essentially serve as an extension of your router – meaning no need to enter new passwords. Now have strong wifi in the kitchen at the back of the house and upstairs.
Blown away at how good this is
I read all the mixed reviews but decided to go ahead and try it.
I was having issues getting wifi into a detached workshop in the garden. The brick walls was killing the signal and a 100mb connection in the house ended up at 2mb in the workshop even with wifi boosters.
The Workshop is on a separate breaker fuse to the main house sockets so read this would affect performance, it also goes through a second small consumer unit in the workshop but a speed test shows I’m getting around 90mb speed in the workshop now which is way above anything I could have hoped for.
Wifi is also stronger in the house, I have turned off wifi on my router and have one of the Magic 2 boxes that feeds the house and the other in the workshop. An amazing piece of ki
Worth The Premium
Bought to replace a TP link power line unit. Original brought from Costco. This was incredibly unreliable and would drop out for no reason requiring constant rebooting. The interface and user experience was terrible.
Watching anything via Amazon fire stick or catch up content via TV would be a luck of the draw if it would jam up or totally drop out. Phones and tablets were more forgiving as cellular to use as a backup.
The Magic 2 arrive and straight away I knew it was of superior construction weighing 3 times the old unit and built to last. Made the TP link look like a plasticity toy.
Set up was super easy with the latest firmware uploaded by the app on set up.
Have been using constantly for 3 months now. Not a single drop out. No rebooting no issues.
So you do in this case get what you pay for.
Get the same speed as I would get sitting by the Router on the wifi 2.6 or 5 and the two Ethernet connections I haven’t even bothered with as the wifi is so stable.
Would recommend to family or friends with large homes to extend the wifi and have a great experience.
Worked straight out of the box
I have had a problem for a long time getting a good (or any) signal to my garden studio which is about 25 metres from the house with its own circuit breaker. I had an older dLan system which seemed to work initially but in the last couple of years ceased to function. After a lot of thought, I decided to but this Devolo system and I am so happy that I did. It couldn’t be easier to set up and I have full speed in the studio and everywhere else in the house. Most of the set up was automatic. I just plugged the first box into a wall socket and let it do its thing for a couple of minutes and then connected with an ethernet cable to the router. The other two nodes just needed to be plugged into wall sockets and left for a couple of minutes while they connected. The wifi part was set up just by pressing a button on one of the nodes and the WPS button on the router. Then the nodes can be moved wherever you want in the house and switched on and off as you wish to save power. If it proves to be reliable then it is well worth the money. I should say I am on a maximum internet speed of 70Mps as there are no ultra fast connections in my area. However I am now getting the full 70Mps throughout and even in the studio. In fact the wifi from the nodes provides this speed so I have no need of ethernet cables to the nodes. My PC works exactly as expected at these speeds as does my iPad whether attached to the charger or not. We also have a Surface Pro which behaves a little oddly. Via wifi alone it gets maximum speed but if it is connected to its charger then the speed drops to about a third as it does if the ethernet cable is attached. This has to be something to do with the surface pro as this behaviour does not occur with any other devices.
Hope this is of some help.
Finally! Something that works
Firstly this was chosen by a tech geek friend as we had no idea what we’d need, we live in a flat with thick walls and 4 bedrooms, we have virgin as our supplier and a good few gaming kids, the wifi didnt go into any room previously but this has worked a treat, 8 kids all using phones, tablets, consoles you name it and its not disappointed, updates are installing flawlessly at a fantastic speed too! Would highly recommend this, we got the starter kit and its outdone itself! Well worth the price, easy to install (we found a video on youtube) and you still have the plug socket to use! BONUS!
Expensive ...but worth i
We have been building our network of Devolo magic at home for the last 18 months.
This latest purchase was to add an extra line. However, setting this one up was more difficult. Eventually all three power lines had to be totally reset.
All working very well and would thoroughly recommend.
Fundamentally great idea
Because these use power line networking to spread the network signal amongst the access points, it means each one of them can serve at full speed. Even one in my shed 100ft away at the bottom of the garden is able to deliver the full 110Mbps of my broadband. Other mesh networking systems use a third wireless band for spreading the signal and so the speed tends to fall off as the access points get further from the source of internet.
The manual, setup and software to control them is a bit weird and difficult to understand, but once you get things going they work pretty well and stably. However they are quite large chunks to stick in a plug socket, so be aware of this. It’s fine if the plug sockets you plan to use are hidden away or you don’t mind the giant hot lump.
Excellent if a bit Pricey
Even with my reasonable technical skills this was a bit tricky to set up for mesh coverage in a large house but once set up the coverage is excellent. The advantage this system has over many others which depend upon existing wireless quality is that the signal is distributed over the power circuit in the building so there is very little of any loss of bandwidth.
Down side is that it is not compatible with existing power circuit devices I already had in place. But the existing did not provide wireless, only hard wired access points.
Excelle
I have used lots of different powerline network adaptors over the years, and these are by far the best. Not the cheapest or smallest, but they perform far better than others and the build quality is excellent. Very easy to set up with a very user-friendly app and an easy to use GUI. Network speeds with vary with the quality and type of wiring being used and no two sites will perform the same. Always connect direct to a wall socket for best results.
Well, that was easy
Add-on extender installed easily into the network via the Devolo app. Just follow the instructions and wait for all the lights to do what they are supposed to.
Top tip: update the firmware after installation.
Superb speeds..!!
No fuss, auto connects, superb speeds compared to my older BT 600 devices.. I use in an outdoor man-cave at the bottom of my garden & it works great for streaming & online gaming at anytime of the day where the BT 600 device would (obviously) struggle at times
An effective way of getting internet at speed to places where WiFi doesn't cut the mustard
These units work effectively and reliably when eventually configured, but there are a couple of things which are not or very badly explained in the instruction booklet.
As an explanation, I already have one of these starter kits and with an additional extra ‘receiver’ already installed and I wanted to add another additional ‘receiver’.
I decided to buy another starter kit, as the price difference to the receiver on its own was relatively minimal. This would effectively give me a spare transmitter, should the original one ever fail.
I followed the instructions for pairing the new receiver to the existing transmitter, but unfortunately all my other devices lost their connection and all had to be individually re-paired. Not the end of the world, but it was very annoying.
All looked great for a while with the new unit showing phenomenal throughput using the ‘Devolo Cockpit’ App on Apple OSX. Unfortunately two firmware upgrades later to the new receiver, the advertised speed dropped significantly and I guess that the out-of-the-box speed was incorrect.
Unfortunately, I kept finding that the new receiver unit kept disconnecting and disappearing from the network. I went round the house plugging it into various mains sockets and the same thing would happen. I then plugged it in to a socket in the same room as the transmitter and once again it vanished. I then re-paired everything, but still it kept vanishing.
It seemed at this point that I had a defective unit, so I began the Amazon return process and stated that I wanted a replacement unit.
The following day a thought struck me. I had not got any device plugged into any of the new receiver’s three LAN ports. Once I had a powered-up and connected a gadget wired to one of the receiver’s LAN ports, the receiver instantly lit up steadily it’s previously flashing white LED and connected perfectly and didn’t drop off the network any more. This seems perhaps that the receiver was operating a power save feature, but I had deliberately switched off the receiver’s power save feature.
If it had mentioned in the manual that there must be an active device connected to a receiver, it would have saved me a lot of time.
The manual relies of the pretty picture approach and unfortunately the naming used of the devolo devices is totally confusing. Whats the difference between a Magic 2 LAN 1-1 and a Magic 2 LAN triple for example? The answer is that the former is the ‘Transmitter’ attached to the router and the latter is the remote ‘Receiver’. If Devolo had made this simple adjustment to their naming, all would be really much more obvious.
Amazing quality and speed!
I usually don’t write reviews, but I felt this product deserved some attention, especially to help other people struggling with Wi-Fi coverage at home.
After moving to a place well served with fast fibre broadband, I subscribed to a 200Mbps plan and can’t complain about it. However, getting the benefits of this internet speed around the whole house (two floors) was quite challenging. I spent months trying to find a decent solution that would not require me to cable the house with ethernet.
Having my connection entry point on the ground floor and my office on the first floor was a big issue. I knew that a mesh solution would be the best for wireless coverage and mobility at home, but I *really* didn’t want to pull cables even to the access points.
I had used powerline (ethernet over electrical cables) solutions from other brands in the past, with limited success and much lower speeds.
After doing my internet research on Devolo and this product, I decided to give it a try.
My only regret was not having tried it earlier 🙂
After receiving the kit three days ago, I took a quick lunch break, rushed and plugged the equipment into far-below-optimal conditions: double-chained power extensions on the ground floor, a single power extension on the first floor. I knew I had only myself to blame if anything went wrong. To my surprise, after completing the setup of the mesh and turning off the WiFi on my original router, I immediately noticed a huge improvement in several devices at home, what I confirmed later with metrics showing stable speeds slightly over 200Mbps anywhere in the house! Even my Ring doorbell stopped “stuttering”.
Fabulous product! Super fast and stable powerline and WiFi. Well engineered and spot-on for what I needed. Thanks Devolo!
Very Impressed - good at range
I bought this to replace my TP-Link AV600, I’m using internet over powerline to get out to my cabin, which is about 40m from the house with my router at the far end of the house. I was getting about 10Mbps with my AV600 and that was causing issues when my wife and I were both working from home. This thing is consistently over 50Mbps and is adding far less latency. Very impressed. I didn’t go for the WiFi version as it works out cheaper to buy a Netgear WiFi access point and plug it in to the ethernet port – you get better antennas that way as well. Setup is very easy.
Excellent Produc
From having difficulties with speeds throughout my house (varied from 100+ to under 10), the whole house now has three figure speeds in every room.
Easy to set up (but follow instructions – set up in room with router before moving plugs to other rooms), then it’s plug and play.
Highly recommended
Easy setup, quick results.
Very impressed. Paired in seconds & now my home office has a wired connection.
I’ve run speed tests at various times to check how the neighbourhood contention radio is affecting it – reported speed never went below 69.1Mb (copper line, advertised speeds 60-80Mb).
The connection is much more reliable than the WiFi signal I was relying on before.
A fanstic upgrade
Even though we have a very capable router it could not cope with the configuration of the house. This upgrade of our devolo dlan 500 network was transformational. Gamers will love this product.
Expensive but worth it.
Does what it says
Was recommended this product to sort out poor connectivity from my home office causing my IT platform to drop out during training sessions. Relatively straight forward to install (biggest challenge was switching off the wifi from my router). Sorted the issue by giving me wired connection options throughout the house.
Works Perfectly in Minutes
Brilliant devices that literally took minutes to set up. You just plug them in and they do everything themselves, even syncing my current wifi to the mesh network was easy. The inputs being on top is a little annoying but they’re mostly hidden away anyway. I’ve got full coverage over 3 floors. They’re pricey but were totally worth it.
Did exactly what I needed it to - great purchase
I bought this set of Devolo Magic 2’s when a move around in my home office appeared to have affected the stability of my usually good wi-fi connection. This became acutely apparent during video calls/conferencing.
Whilst I have only seen a small increase in my upload and download speed (but to be fair, my wi-fi remained a good data transfer speed and I am running at the maximum expected from my ISP) the Devolo kit provided the much needed stability of signal and I have not had a single problem since.
Interestingly, although it didn’t ‘appear’ to show a great speed enhnacement (for the reasons quoted previously), my internet (web page loading) definitely appears quicker and clearly the signal is much more stable.
I have had these for a few weeks now and they have been reliable and consistent with no drop-out or requiring rebooting which is superb.
I am now considering getting some add-on units for other areas of the house.
So in summary, it was a great purchase, did exactly what I needed, well made units, plug and play – I couldn’t be happier.
Easy to install
Just plugged it in and ‘paired’ it with the other Devolo Magic 2 adapter and within a minute was up and running. Connected 2 PCs by LAN cable and established good connections which have stayed stable for several weeks now.
Perfect for extending to garden room
Very easy to set up and gives the same speeds as in the house. This is used in a garden room over an external power cable run of approx 10m.
Expensive.... really REALLY expensive. But it does work!
I guess you get what you pay for but this is a really expensive powerline adapter kit, even if it does work and work well. Good throughput, low latency, and a stable, reliable connection are positives. Compared to the equivalent TPLink product which I used to use, and hated for being useless junk, this is a solid piece of kit.
Just so expensive.
Easy to install and works brilliantly
Installation could not be easier – patience (only a few minutes) required!
Instructions for activating Mesh looked a bit daunting, but not at all. Again some patience needed (less than 5 minutes) but it worked (did need to turn one of the plugs off and on again to fully activate the Mesh feature).
Result: 70 Mbps at router now repeated throughout the flat (despite steel reinforced concrete walls which were previously severely affecting router wifi signal)
Fantastic
Well worth the money. Bought this on advice from a tech savvy friend.
I was out off by the price but he assured me it is what I needed.
I first bought a cheap one and it did nothing. So bit the bullet and got this.
Signal is required in log cabin about 40m away from the router. Perfect
Well worth the money.
Works a trea
Needed WiFi up in the new annexe, a separate building about 30 metres away from the main house, this worked perfectly and standing in the annexe is like standing next to the router. Forget WiFi extenders, this is the product to get. And so easy to set up.
Great product but B!tch to setup
Installing these adaptors by following the instructions is not IMHO recommended as they are a mess. It took me three days before I finally had them working the way it was intended and that is with previous experience of Devolo wifi adaptors because the adaptors kept losing the settings. I ended up resetting both WiFi adaptors and starting over and doing them one at a time with the Devolo Cockpit software installed on my computer. Once it is setup you will not be disappointed the trouble is getting there. The Devolo helpline is very good as is the AI helper on their website. I am now looking to buy an extra single WiFi adaptor to increase my coverage due to very thick walls. If you like a challenge and have the patience then these are the adaptors for you, good luck.
Fast, but hot...
I’ve previously used Powerline devices from Netgear and TP-Link and they were great but once you try Devolo you’ll switch over and not go back. That’s partly because the Devolo Magic 2 system is so good and partly because you’re forced to switch over completely because you can’t run standard Powerline devices on the same circuit as Devolo’s without degrading the performance of the Devolo system, which is obviously counter-productive. Worth being aware of that before you begin though because Devolo devices are pricey. They’re also big and a bit clunky and they get quite warm, in the case of the wi-fi enabled units they get properly hot, and so you need a wall socket (like all Powerline devices you can’t use them with a mains adaptor) that’s got some airflow and space around it. The size and weight means that they can also tip forward out of the socket if they aren’t held tightly enough, but this is more of an issue for ageing sockets fitted decades ago and most recent sockets should be fine. The pass-through mains socket on the front of the Devolo units is really handy and means you don’t have to lose a socket while using them, but again be aware that extra weight will only tend to tip them out of a loose socket more.
Once you find a suitable place to plug them in they’re fantastic and probably the easiest to setup of all the Powerline systems I’ve tried. There’s a very good app for your tablet or smartphone that walks you through the process but it’s basically automated and the devices will scan and find each other and then establish a Powerline connection without you having to do much. It’s slightly more complicated with a wi-fi-enabled unit because you have to decide if you’re creating a new discrete network or extending an existing one, but it’s not difficult. Once they’re setup there’s very little to do and I find I very rarely have to reset Devolo units manually, whereas with other systems it was a slightly regular occurrence. They take care of themselves, update their own firmware and can be configured with a power saving mode that slows or shuts off the service when it’s not being used. You can also set schedules manually in the app and switch it off at night or any other time you don’t need it. For tinkerers the app has lots of security and performance settings you can configure to suit yourself. The only time I’ve had any issue was with mirroring my existing wi-fi network and I found that the optional ‘Fast Roaming’ feature was incompatible with a couple of my devices and caused them to drop off the network, I unchecked the option in the Devolo app and it was fine thereafter.
The throughput is mostly excellent and for things like streaming video or music it’s a non-issue and everything just works most of the time. It is worth trying different sockets to see which delivers the best throughput, I find that sockets even within the same room will deliver different results and of course it’s ultimately dependant on the quality of the mains wiring in your home. So experiment, especially if you’re hoping to do large file transfers and need every byte of data throughput. Devolo claim their system is the fastest and I believe them, at least for now. I wish the units were smaller and ran a lot cooler but that aside they’re probably the best you can get right now.
Fast but premium price
I have a few powerline adapters at home which I invested in when the COVID lockdown in the UK started as my wifi connection in my office at home wasn’t the best. This adapter is the most expensive of the few sets I own and there is a difference in the speed I can see on speed tests but this does come at a cost with this single adapter costing 75 at the time of this review.
Another feature of this product is the triple LAN outputs which means I’ve got my laptop and PS4 hard wired and still have a spare port – very handy.
Don’t forget these items are limited by the quality of the wiring in your home, I notice some reviews where the reviewer is not impressed with the max speed being able to measure but if you have old wiring or there is any interference on the line it can drag your speed down – if you think these aren’t giving you a great speed compare with another powerline adapter to get a true measure of how much better they perform.
The passthrough 3 pin socket is a great added benefit if you are short on sockets in the room you need a wired connection in.
4 stars from me, as although it does measure a greater speed it comes at a cos
Works well first time.
My old powerline modules were slow and limited in range. They did not not work very well in distant power sockets. These new modules make BBC iPlayer on the TV work well in previously problematic locations. These modules do not have WIFI as I do not require the feature. The 3 data connections save me from buying a separate switch.
Provides WiFi access around the house
I have used Devolo products before and the mesh WiFi provides additional benefits of a more stable and reliable WiFi signal across multiple floors of my house.
It was quite easy to set up, but you need to read the instructions very carefully to understand the full capabilities. For example, there is no physical WPS button, instead there is a “soft” button that must be set up via the Devolo console application on your PC. I would have preferred the Ethernet sockets to be on the bottom of the plugs, as in the previous generation of Devolo products.
Lightning fas
I bought these as the kids were leaving their gaming PC on all the time to download games. These units replaced some older powerline adaptors which were pulling about 5 mbps and a recent internet upgrade to Virgin cable made this snail-paced speed more obvious.
Installation was so easy – just plug the units in (replacing the older units) and out of the box they were pulling the same speed as the router (over 200 mbps). The only slight issue is the ping is high (about 25 – 30 ms), but much quicker than the units these replace.
Everyone is amazed by these! OK, so they are not the cheapest but are very quick.
Excellent over small area
Excellent inside the house and services each room quite well. Tried it in the garage which means it has to pass through a second circuit Breaker box. Was very poor here but this is to be expected as outside the scope of this product. Found the dlan 500Mbps better in this situation.
It works.
Our broadband is capable of 59mbit according to the router. And from anywhere in the house, garden, office and driveway, our speed test results are consistently above 50mbit. Very often 54/55mbit.
Latency is always below 30ms.
We have x3 wifi adapters and x1 router connector.
The diagnostic software would suggest that out to the garage (furthest away and over 2 consumer units), we could achieve 200mbits. Within the house, it’s reporting 1400mbits.
Would be tempted by the DIN rail add-on, but no one I’ve found can demonstrate a before/after comparison.
Overall, very happy with total and complete broadband access through the entire property.
Expensive but works a trea
Had tried a number of cheaper products to get ethernet and wifi around a very old house with very thick walls. Needed 4 of the cheaper products but they kept failing. Have now installed just the Devolo Stater kit and the whole house now gets a strong wifi signal. Hassle free to set up with a very useful Devolo app. Has been installed for over a month and so far very pleased. Fully deserves 5* from me.
A genuine best buy
Love this product, so simple to set up and use as my tech skills are as bad as it gets. Previously, I had poor to no internet signal throughout upstairs and in the garden, but I now get in excess of 40Mbps all over upstairs and a reasonable signal outside. The pass through and powerline sockets are a welcome bonus should I need to use them. This is genuinely one of the best buys I’ve ever made.
A good but expensive option if WiFi is an issue in an older house
We live in an older house with solid brick walls, even hanging a picture frame is a nightmare with many a drill bit sacrificed over the years. Having recently switched to Virgin broadband we had issues getting a good strength signal in certain rooms upstairs. Despite Virgin apparently being the best on the market we weren’t getting the speeds we pay for so I was intrigued to try this adapter.
I’ve never used one before so can’t go into the technologies but have to say that set up was fairly easy and within a couple of minutes low and behold we have a very strong connection in our gaming room which has struggled since switching. It’s relatively early days but in around 10 days we haven’t had one issue yet.
Only downside is the price, it’s an expensive bit of kit bit when it comes to being able to work from home without your internet blacking out it’s a God send. The unit itself feels well made and doesn’t take up much room or the plug socket! So far so good.
I use a pair to provide 'wired' backhaul to my mesh wifi routers
Works great for my use case. No effort to install – just plug and play. Installing software smoothly upgraded the firmware.
I have a mesh router upstairs and another downstairs, joined by these powerline devices (Magic 2-2400 LAN).
Whilst the speed of the connection is obviously well below the theoretical 2400Mbit/s, it is comfortably fast enough for the gigabit internet connection it is distributing. It’s been really stable too; I’ve had no need to restart them so far, after several weeks of intense use.
Faster than older powerline products, but expensive and lack of backwards compatibility is a shame
So you want to connect up devices to the network, youre options generally are:-
– hard wired ethernet cable
– wifi
– powerline adapters
I’ll assume that hard wired is not an option for you (since that’s always the 1st option you should pick if available), and I’ll asume that wifi is also no go – either device doesn’t have it or you have thick walls, or you want consistent sustained connection…
So Devolo in my opinion is one of the very long standing companies in this space, and I’ve had various Devolo devices in the past ranges from the 85Mbit, 200Mbit and 500Mbit adapters. I’ve also had similar adapters from other companies.
So this Magic 2-2400 starter pack came as an exciting thing to try out. The 1st thing was to plug it into my existing network. They’re bigger than the very small DLAN 500 adapters I have, however these come with 3 ethernet ports, so do negate the need in most cases for a separate ethernet switch.
In terms of speed, I’m seeing about 500mbit speeds where I was previously getting about 150mbit speeds on a 500 adaptor with both plugs close by on the same ring. Further away I could get about 200mbit speeds where I would be getting about 80mbit before…
One big dissappointment though is that these new adapters are not backwards compatible with the old adaptors, thus you’re talking about having to effectively decommission all your old adaptors.
Another point of potential concern is that these adapters got pretty warm in usage, though unlike my old 500’s, they didn’t (yet) suffer from intermittent issues with them freezing or anything else like that. Though I will be monitoring this longer term.
The other issue is at 125 at time of review, they’re not exactly cheap…
Overall I think these are decent powerline adapters, but do be aware you’re very unlikely to achieve the advertised speeds, however they’ll still be better than the old gen kit – but you can’t use these alongside the old kit – you’ll have to bite the bullet and do a complete replacement.
Finally.....
Great item. Using for both Powerline and Wifi in a rental.
Great coverage with the Wifi Mesh 2. Allows for a second SSID for guest IOT stuff. It also supports WPA3 as well as WPA2 etc and 2.5/5ghz Wifi. There is also support for 802.11r ‘Fast Roaming’ which works fine. It also has parental controls (not used) and wifi schedules (not used), along with some basic neighbor detection logging.
To configure, I did not use the app as its pretty awful on Android and Windows. You can use http/https to access the device when it has an address. You can use HTTPS but it does not force redirect. Some settings are synced between devices others are not. I’d really like to find the API as think that would help.
Support appears to come from Germany and is not so good. I had an issue where the first adaptor had updated to the latest firmware and the other two would not (was DNS related) The product seems to be called Mesh Wifi 2 sometimes and the product support page as little or no firmware downloads
Easy to deploy, stable and has pretty decent speeds.
I’d like to see a CLI, logging (even syslog) and additional SSID support, even if it were multiple guests.
Took a while to set up but works reasonsably well once sorted
This should have been a straight forward product to test – I have been a user of Devolo products for years and so thought this would be a doddle to get setup and working. It wasn’t. It took me around half an hour to actually get the two devices to talk to each other bouncing between the app, the router and each of the adapters. It didn’t help that the instructions weren’t that intuitive either.
I finally managed to get all of the lights showing white – excellent – all systems go. As I mentioned I have got other Devolo products before and so was able to compare what broadband speeds I was able to get via each set. So with a Cat 8 network cable I tested the existing set up and got a speed of 54mbps. With eager anticipation I moved onto the Devolo Magic and tested and got ….. 54mbps. Clearly the home wiring etc contributed to the general speed of this, however it was clear that there wasn’t a significant increase in speed offered by this product.
That said, it’s faster than the wifi and does offer 3 LAN sockets which is rather useful. Overall a reasonable product.
Brilliant Wifi in the most far away place
This is the first time that I have ever written a review without being prompted so impressed am I with this product.
I have struggled with WiFi signal at furthest points from the router since moving in years ago. I have tried various different repeaters / extenders with varying results, not of which have been satisfactory.
This product gives me the same speed as if I was standing next to my router wherever I need it. It even gives me great speed outside in the patio area which none of the other products ever have.
I will never buy TP Link products again.
I cannot understand the comments about difficult to set up. I plugged them in did nothing else, they paired. I then downloaded the app clicked the menu, clicked the WiFi Settings and entered my WiFi details for a seamless network. Absolutely no problems
I cannot recommend enough
Best stand alone Home Wi-Fi extender system
Simplicity itself to install
Rather than set up the base plus 2 satellite plug in boxes in their intended locations, I plugged all 3 into the same room for ease of setup , the base in its intended plug socket with my Wi-Fi router then plugged into it al, then using 2 other wall sockets I had in that room plugged the other 2 in.
Set up the whole system , auto updates the firmware & software in the base and software in the 2 satellite units, once this was done pulled them out to plug in where I wanted them to be sited.
Keep the same password as your router makes life so easy but you can choose another to act as a stand alone network
All in all well impressed by the ease and straightforwardness of the whole system, it cuts down on long lengths of Ethernet cabling you may already use to get to your switch or route
You get what you payfo
Both the build quality and technical spec is what you would expect at this price. I get 90Mbs download and 35MBS upload throught the house. Not the headline theoretical speed, but about as good as you can get for this type of tech – oh for the gamers, a 10 second ping!!!!
Reliable brand
I have used the Devolo adaptor for more than ten years. I find it always reliable. This is an add-on to my second set of adaptors with their speed up to 2400mbps fast enough for my 5G optic fiber internet service at home. I have bought this add-on to connect my smart TV and TV box in my bedroom which has no LAN or Wifi port. I am so impressed by the performance after connecting with this adaptor even though it is a bit pricy. I am using 1 main adaptor that connects to the LAN wall socket + 2 supporting adaptors for my son, who is using one adaptor to connect to his computer playing games, and for work. 1 supporting adaptor for my room’s smart TV and TV box, and the Main adaptor for a TV and TV box in the sitting room. They all run smoothly without slowing down each other devices.
Brilliant piece of kit.
I was sent the Devolo Magid 1 whole home kit to get the full Devolo experience. I have been using a TPlink powerline setup for a very long time now and it was in need of upgrading as it was dropping out regularly. I live in an old Victorian home with very thick walls and my house goes very far back. So even when I have my router in the middle of the house I struggle to get a wifi signal in the front and back of the property.
Setting up this Devolo network was pretty easy. You just connect the base station to your router using the ethernet cable that is supplied. You then plug the wireless access point into a socket somewhere else in your home and your all good. It was pretty straight forward and the speeds I am getting are not a little bit faster than my previous setup. This has been a lifesaver as I now have stable wifi in my kitchen and front room.
If your device/computer is close enough to one of the wireless access points, you can use an ethernet cable to plug in directly and get even better speeds. This is very easy to set up and I would highly recommend this if you are in need of full wifi coverage in your property without breaking the bank.
Reliable so far, but not magic
Despite our house being a 1990’s build which I thought would be OK, we’ve had imperfect results from BT powerline adapters over the last few months, with occasional complete drop-outs, but more frequently, massive speed drops where the connection has been hanging on but with speeds that make life feel more like dial-up again. I was hoping that the Devolo system would prove to be an improvement, and while it’s still early days, the signs are currently good.
There are certainly advantages in the hardware compared to our old powerlines. Power pass-through and more ethernet ports at each end were certainly welcome in our set-up. Installation was quick. The devices found each other quickly and I was up-and-running promptly. I didn’t contact Tech Support during the process, so I can’t comment on that part.
Our area is prone to occasional power cuts, and we had one just this morning. I was pleased to see once the power came back that the devices reconnected automatically, unlike our older powerlines which would sometimes need to be turned off and on again near-simultaneously in order to be persuaded to start talking to each other again.
The speed is, ultimately, not as magic as I’d hoped. Other factors mean that I won’t give any figures as they probably aren’t all that reliable- internet generally has a bit of a ‘voodoo factor’ in our village- but compared to the previous Heath Robinson solution I’ve had to adopt in the past, of physically running a CAT8 cable from the router downstairs to the computer upstairs, the speeds through the ethernet part of the powerline were adequate rather than amazing. For casual browsing or for streaming one TV show, they are fine, but if you are downloading large media files for work (like I sometimes have to), that’s when you realise that it’s all getting rather bottlenecked. I see this as a limitation of the powerline concept generally, not necessarily the fault of any one brand or manufacturer- it just is what it is.
For running the internet to a shed, a WiFi dead zone or some other unusual set-up then these will do the job, but whether they warrant the substantially higher price than other powerline adapters, I haven’t been completely convinced.
Well worth the expense
This was a bit of a leap for me as I have been using other powerline adapters for a few years. These gadgets add WiFi and it does seem to be working well. I wandered around the house watching the signal strength a good result.
I got a little lost with the instructions, but the kit seemed to understand my incompetence and got itself configured anyway.
I’m thinking that instructions translation could be improved.
They have a tough feel and keep going when the router and/or line goes down.
An easy solution...
We have had problems streaming video via wifi from a device in an upstairs office. Had previously used mesh wifi and more recently wifi 6 mesh units. They worked ok but were a bit flaky running 4K content, possibly due to neighbours wifi but not sure.
These units were VERY easy to install, literally plug and play. They made a connection to each other (at 170Mbit/s) in seconds and have been rock solid, no problems at all.
Your mileage might vary due to household wiring, follow the instructions regarding extension cables.
Highly recommended!!
Better signal in my son's bedroom, no lagging on his online gaming , happy teen, happy household 😂
It comes with an installation booklet to show you how to get it all up and running, but to honest it’s all pretty self explanatory and straight forward to set up.
A plug and play device that helps boost WiFi signal when you have areas of the house that lag and struggle to get WiFi signal.
My 13 year old son is now happy as our sky WiFi signal strength wasn’t the best in his bedroom but now he has a much better signal thanks to the devolo magic 1 and his online console gaming isn’t lagging and interrupting his gaming sessions due to the WiFi lagging.
There’s Nothing worse than a teen losing WiFi signal when playing on a console , this device isn’t the cheapest but if you have a slow WiFi signal in parts of the house then it’s definitely worth a try , it works by magic and is easy to set up.
You can also connect your static devices such as smart TVs, pc , consoles via the two ethernet Lan connection ports , it also has an integrated socket.
It also works well at long distances up to an impressive 400m so you will even get a strong signal in the garden as well as every floor in the house.
Great for large households that use a lot of electrical appliances that use WiFi like our house, you can surf the net wirelessly with speeds of up to 1200 Mbps.
It also comes with a 3 year warranty for peace of mind which is great!
QUICK SET UP AND VG SUPPORT
Bought this to replace a TP Link system where it became impossible to link the 3 units so that they showed as one system throughout the house. The Devolo (2 units plus the main wall/pc unit) set up within minutes and the mesh system within the 3 mins suggested.
The ‘Cockpit’ software allows you to manage the system and there’s both a smartphone and a PC verison (the PC version is better). Check the clearance you have if fitting behind a desk, because the system is the size of a Volvo estate! The only downside is that the ‘brick’ comes up above the mains socket (German plugs can be fitted either way, but Devolo haven’t changed the plug so that the ‘brick’ drops down from the socket, but that’s a v minor issue.
The additional 3rd unit was quickly incorporated into the mesh network as easily as the kit did. Good wifi throughout the house and having set up as a Mesh system, our phones automatically move to the strongest signal as we walk aimlessly around the property. Netflix and YouTube stream really well.
Not the cheapest, but excellent kit and an on-line review said that it was the best in the UK for 2021.
Supposed to be automatic on setup but in fact it was not! After rechecking the setup sequence and still no joy I turned to the Devolo website. There I found an updated install sequence, my instructions had missed out one vital 1 second push on a the side of the LAN unit.
Now the LAN and and wifi units synchronise fine.
On to where I needed them – we have an outside building about 50 metres away and has an armoured underground power cable to it. The outdoor store has it’s own consumer unit and a ring main off that. So the I was nervous in moving it to the new location it would lose conductivity. However all was ok it connected across my home consumer unit on to the outside building and consumer unit and on to the ring main the wifi unit was plugged into. End result it works perfectly.
Initial wifi speed test on the unit gave me 20 MB up and 12MB down. My main house router speed is 70 down and 18 up, but for the outflow building the speed I got was fine.
Over the next few days i will check the speed linking via ethernet cable to the plug and do a proper check on speed. Also early days on reliability so will see on that. Very worth while downloading the app to rename the units and in particular updating the units firmware which was out of date on the units I received. Yes units are a bit more expensive but I needed the best I could get connectivity wise, and hopefully adding wifi modules with mesh will be easy for weak wifi spots in the house.
I would have given 5 stars but I wasted an hour trying to find out what my initial connection problem was, so 4 stars.
Excellent Produc
Built an office in the back garden and WIFi boosters were not giving me a good enough signal. This powerline WIFI adapter has excelled at the job, perfect WIFI not glitches what so ever. Easy to install and 170 is steep but worth it for the result. Couldn’t be happier.
Patch first then off you go!
I think I started tackling this too late at night, as it’s a slightly older version it’s probably worth patching it before you get into it. Power pass through is very useful and even though my house is old the powerline side is fine.
These things are the absolute business. Spend the extra - it's worth it.
I’m in shock at how good these devices are. I bought the three-pack. First unit plugs in near the router and you cable the router to the unit. This puts the internet on your mains. The other two units can be placed around your house and they take the Internet off your mains making available as WiFi. The really amazing thing, is that they also work as mesh access points so you have a single WiFi network in your house and devices automatically connect to whichever access point has the strongest signal. I have a 400 year old stone and cob house so there is no way I’m running cable through a 4ft thick wall. with one unit downstairs and one unit upstairs, all rooms are covered. The web admin interface is really good, as is the Android app and Windows program. I’m absolutely stunned how good these things are. I’ve got 100Mb fibre to my router which and these devices are maintaining a 200+Mb connection to my router over the mains wiring meaning my local network isn’t a bottleneck. Even the instructions are really good and the manufacturers website has everything you need. If only all home devices were like this. I want to buy everything this company makes.
Not cheap but amazingly effective
We had terrible WiFi at the back of the house (6mbps) and after installing this I was amazed at the WiFi network created by this giving us just over 60mbps. Haven’t plugged anything into it using a patch cable, but logic would suggest it would be faster than the WiFi network it chucks out. It’s not a cheap solution and if you can run new cables that will be better with less financial outlay – but it’s quickly given us really usable speeds in an essential part of our house without having to put time into running in new cables.
So nearly decade later and AV2 Homeplug Powerline has moved over for the ITU G.hn standard. I decided to buy the wired version (too many reviews of pain with the WiFi) and give them a go. They worked out of the box, and I had no issues during set-up. They did require a firmware update, but that was about it.
To be clear, I bought a Devolo Magic2 LAN Triple. This contains ONE triple port, and ONE single port adapter. I think the box art on this is very deceptive. The triple port adapter is slightly bigger than the single port, both are bigger than AV2 and both run much hotter – for better or worse. Also, I ordered an Amazon Warehouse deal, and the first one Amazon sent didn’t actually have any triple port Magic2 in the box (just two single port ones) , so I had to return and re-order.
I’ve discovered they’re happy to run in parallel to AV2 adapters without any noticeable loss, and bizarrely the Devolo Cockpit software even spots AV2 and Magic2 adapters. There’s also web-page access to the adapters via their ip address, and the ability a set password if you don’t trust people on your network. The iPhone Home Network app is okay – but it doesn’t display any link speed information despite telling you it will.
In tests at range I discovered a few surprises. AV2 is in the same location for reference, tests using iperf3:
– TP-Link AV2 600 Two-Port ~16Mb/s (appears to split bandwidth across both ports rather than share it)
– TP-Link AV2 600 Single-Port ~32Mb/s
– Magic2 Single and Triple Port ~80Mb/s
If range is reduced, speeds jump quite quickly up to 200Mb/s and then on to about 350Mb/s if distances are close. As a rule, expect 150 to 200Mb/s in a new-build four bedroom, but be prepared for slower.
You’ll still beat an AV2, but it might only be on range, or a factor of two. And in some cases, I suspect AV2 1300 will beat the Magic2, but not necessarily if you have older AV2 kit mixed with new stuff, which is why I was testing the Magic2.
Will I keep them? Well that depends on whether they’re stable. They solved my problem and increased my setup by speeds by about 7 or 8 times. I’m concerned about the temperature they run at (50C on the back, 35C on the front, 0.3A@240V = 7W), but they do have a three year warranty in case they melt down though.
Note – if you’re looking for adding WiFi Access Points to parts of your house, I wouldn’t recommend the Magic2, simply because you’ll be crippling any broadband gains you may be looking for, go for WiFi Mesh and Access Points with a dedicated third back-channel, or run Cat6 cabling (budget vs effort).
The Magic2 is about easy of use, and getting the best out of something while doing very little. It does achieve this very well. Better than AV2 600 for sure, but it’s not a “magic” bullet (sorry – groan now).
Worth the extra for performance
Excellent signal improvement over and above a sky q set up. Increasing from 25mbps across most of house to 40mbps in most locations.
Set up easy though user interface on app could be nicer.
Not had to call tech support yet, but they are poor with my magic 2 powerline which died after 3-years and these replace
Finally solved my Zoom problem.
I invested in a mesh network which by and large significantly improved coverage in my property. Unfortunately I still found that for brief periods of time I’d experience degradation and slight drop outs. My business is based on Zoom videoconferencing, so this was a major issue.
The Devolo product really was plug and play for me. I give the details of my setup for review, but it would work just as well if you only have the Superhub from Virgin and none of the other stuff.
I have a tp-link mesh network and that’s connected directly to my Virgin Superhub (think it’s a 2). I then have a tp-link switch connected to the mesh network. The switch allows me to connect my Sonos, Apple TV and xbox via ethernet.
The Devolo plugs into the wall and the switch. I then plug the other Devolo unit into the wall near my MacBook Pro 2019. The ethernet cable goes to my Caltech hub which then connects via usb c to my laptop.
I get c. 150mb/s down and max up (30mb/s).
No dropouts, no problems. One happy customer.
Great, but touch and go setup and socket spacing issues.
This product is very good, but you need to follow the installation instructions to the letter. Even then, it does not always work. You must have the Devolo App, without it you are blind. It takes a bit of getting used to, and if you are changing settings, you need to know what you are doing. Once set up, using the mesh, then all is good.
Another weakness is that if your power sockets are close together on a ring, then the WiFi units suffer from propagation reflections, causing interference on the Power Line Network. Consequently, speed is reduced, or the WiFi unit in question loses connection with the LAN unit. Best to connect all units to single “Spur” sockets for best results. This makes a big difference. Do not connect any of the units via an extension power strip. This has the same effect. Often just trial and error if your house is wired with only a ring main to find a socket that is far away enough from others to prevent interference. Otherwise, all good. Good product, made with solid materials, but time will tell.
D.
Works well but set up instructions are useless.
Does exactly as it says on the box BUT trying to follow the set up instructions included was impossible and took me two days. The booklet enclosed with the item was confusing and useless. The Devolo Cockpit software I downloaded to my PC was only slightly easier to follow but the Devolo Home network app downloaded to my phone was the only one that had instructions that made sense enabling me to complete the set up and monitor and manage my system. Thank goodness I had the patience and perseverance to work through this app. The set up process is why I did not give this item 5*, otherwise I am delighted with the booster signal throughout my house on both floors. I highly recommend using the Devolo Home network app on your smart phone.
Worth the extra!
This is amazing! Does what it says on the box! A bit of isiues here and there but 98% of the time, works like a charm! Nothing a bit off/on won’t fix! It’s like magic!
Works well. Setup tricky.
Once installed and working it is very good, fast and reliable. Getting it set up is exasperating as there are two similar units and two separate manuals, almost identical (but not quite identical in crucial ways) one for the wlan and one for the wifi. The units did not link automatically and there was the usual dance between them. It worked out okay but was very annoying while it was happening.
Good Signal
This was recommended to me and it has lived up to its billing. It is easy to set up and works extremely well. I have 100mps delivered to my TV & Box giving uninterrupted streaming. I now have a strong Wifi signal and buffering on sport and films is now a thing of the past. It is not cheap – but looking back the results do justify the expense – just not to buffer when a shot on goal is imminent – wonderful. I recommended to a family member who is now using the unit happily.
Outstanding connectivity
Top drawer product. Expensive but definitely worth it. Very easy to install. The ‘wired’ connection is as good as directly connecting to the router and the Wi-fi mesh is easy to connect with a very strong signal.
I cannot recommend this highly enough.