devolo Magic 2–2400 Wi-Fi 6: Powerline Starter Kit | 4k/ 8k UHD streaming | Stable home working (Up to 2400 Mbps powerline & 1800 Mbps Mesh WiFi 6, G.hn, 3x Gb LAN ports)

I had been using TP Link devices, to get cable bandwidth over my mains sockets at the other end of my house to where the router is located. However, I started to get low signal strength and disconnecting, which rendered them useless. Having done some research, I decided to take the plunge, and try these powerline devices. Initial setup failed completely, so I decided to follow the manual process for pairing the devices, which worked perfectly. I did notice you must have them not all on the same circuit, especially if there are lots of other mains devices connected, as it will cause a weak signal warning over the cables. I placed the 2 Wi-Fi/LAN devices in the same sockets where my TP-Link devices were, and they both connected to the device at the router end perfectly. To configure the Wi-Fi on them, I strongly recommend you download the app 'Devolo Cockpit' onto your mobile first. It will automatically detect the Wi-Fi and allow you to configure and make changes to SSID and password, so you will not need the key from the back of the devices. It is a brilliant app, and easy to use, but sometimes you need to keep re-connecting until it recognises the devices, so be patient. I get nearly 100MB on Wi-Fi, and full bandwidth of 200MB over the cables. Expensive, but well worth the money, as you are paying for superior performance and signal quality.

I have had previous generations of Devolo tech so this was a next step into full mesh home setup. They’ve made the setup of the products and network really simple and effective through the Devolo Home Network app and in 10 minutes, I had both a three and a two unit set paired up to be a home network of five of these really easily. (Devolo setup used to be a nightmare of trial and error, so they’ve really sorted this out).What’s important to know is how Devolo achieves its ‘mesh network’ and that’s through powerline connection and wifi hotspot units that broadcast the powerline connection and mesh it together that way.The unit that connects to the router with ethernet sends the powerline connection to all other mesh units and these each create their own meshed wifi zones.Lots of other companies use wifi rebroadcast to create a mesh network. There are pros and cons to both approaches but I expect the Devolo mesh network to be pretty stable (a speed test on each unit is reporting maximum up and down mbps). From experience with older Devolo units, the odd power demand from an appliance (a boiler starting, for example) can cause brief outage; but only for a second or two).Watching which unit my phone is connecting to as I walk around the house (using the Devolo app) shows it switching efficiently to the nearest unit without dropout of connectivity.Where the system falls short for me is that you have to have a house and grounds where everything is on the same electrical circuit. I needed one of the units to give a wifi mesh zons in our garage (gym space) but because the garage is on its own electrical circuit, the powerline doesn’t work).I had (mistakenly) thought that Devolo Mesh used powerline and/or wifi rebroadcast to give a double layer of network connectivity and so assumed (though to assume makes an ass out of ‘u’ and ‘me!) it would be possible to disable powerline connection to just have that garage unit take a wifi rebroadcast.No such luck - this isn’t possible and so is something to be aware of if having multiple electric circuits in your home/grounds applies to you.My own solution in the end was to add a TP-Link Mesh Extender in the garage gym that is now successfully rebroadcasting wifi from the nearest Devolo unit in the house. Not perfect but working well.My only real negative in the whole Devolo setup was the brief call to Devolo’s customer support number. I explained my want with the garage gym and asked if it were possible to disable the powerline connection on the garage unit to just achieve wifi rebroadcast connection. A German company has a German call centre which is expected and fine but the person didn’t seem to understand the nuance of my query and sort of mansplained me saying ‘powerline is how mesh networks work’.In truth, that’s how Devolo’s mesh networks work and mine works very well thus far but it’s not how all mesh networks work so I felt a bit patronised and ‘told’ rather than helped.On balance though, so far this is a solid and efficient setup that was easy to get going with. (Just note the point about outbuildings and potential of separate circuits).

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.