Devolo dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ Starter Kit review

Powerline technology is the great unknown wonder of the digital home. Powerline technology allows you to create a network using the existing mains electrical wiring in your home or office. Its more efficient than laying down metres of ethernet cable round the house and faster and more reliable than wi-fi. Heres our review of the Devolo dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ powerline starter kit, and also advice on what speed powerline adaptor you need.

If a room has a spare power socket you can simply plug in a small powerline adaptor and from there connect whatever device you have (laptop, PC, smart TV, Sky+ box, Tivo, printer, games console, etc) to your internet connection via ethernet. It makes fancy features such as catch-up TV as simple as channel hopping.

iPlayer downloads taking too long or breaking up over wi-fi? Connect your player or set-top box via ethernet powerline and its like plugging it straight into your router.

The real joy is the simplicity of the whole thing. A starter kit like the 130 Devolo dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ includes two HomePlug adaptors. You connect one via ethernet to your router and plug in to a nearby power socket. You take the other one to the room you require a fast internet connection in, and plug that into another power socket. You can then link that adaptor to your nearby device (TV, etc) by ethernet cable or wi-fi.

Bingo. Job done. Thats it.

You can buy additional compatible adaptors (around 85) and add one in every room if you want. Garden shed connected to the same power lines as your home? Get fast broadband speeds there, too.

The Devolo dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ adaptor features three ethernet LAN ports so you can connect TV, set-top box and games console, for example, via just the one unit. It works with Macs and Windows PCs.

Devolo gets extra points for including an integrated electrical socket in the adaptor so you can still use the host socket for other power connections. You could even connect a power strip to it.

The Devolo dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ comes with management and monitoring software on a CD but none of it is required to get going straight away. It's pretty much a case of take it out of the box and plug it in for immediate gratification.

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Devolo dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ Starter Kit review