INTRODUCTION

   Most of us are well aware that the majority of hotels around the globe use Wi-Fi to provide their customers with internet access. However just recently i stayed on the 3rd floor of a hotel which used Powerline adapters instead of the usual Wi-Fi something which really surprised me since the cost of having at least one Powerline adapter in each room (that particular hotel had 6 floors with 8 rooms on each) is naturally a lot higher than using a couple of Wi-Fi signal boosters/repeaters on each floor. It seems however that Powerline adapters have become quite popular lately amongst home users as well (judging by your feedback) and so one of our goals will be to build a long performance database with as many Powerline adapter models possible by the leading manufacturers in the field. So today we will be taking a look at yet another Powerline adapter kit and specifically the dLAN 500 AVPlus starter kit by devolo.

   devolo AG is the leading European company on the market in Powerline communication solutions. The company's core product is dLAN®, a technology that allows flexible networks via existing wiring like electrical and coaxial lines. Powerline solutions are employed in private households as well as commercial environments and they lead the way in future-oriented energy data distribution and home automation. devolo invests its development resources into improving dLAN® technology through its own patented solutions. The globally operating company has been the world market leader in the Powerline segment since 2009. Numerous top-product test reviews and distinctions, not to mention over 16 million shipped adapters, substantiate devolo's success. Through sustainable market practices, devolo upholds its responsibility to customers, employees and the environment.

   Devolo may not be amongst the most well-known manufacturers in the field of network peripherals but I’ve come across their name quite a few times in my life (mostly in enterprise environments) and judging by the quality of materials used with the dLAN 500 AVPlus starter kit i finally know why. Specs wise the dLAN 500 AVPlus Powerline adapter follows the latest standards and so not only can it achieve maximum speeds of up to 500Mbps but also comes with an integrated electrical socket so you don't have to worry about losing one in the process. The dLAN 500 AVPlus is the 5th 500Mbps Powerline kit to reach our test bench so without further delay (since we're also curious) let's see just how well it does compared to the other 4.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Devolo ships the dLAN 500 AVPlus starter kit inside a medium sized box with a product image at the front alongside with its main features and a very cute face.

The product features are also showcased at the bottom of the box.

A table comparing the features of the dLAN 500 AVPlus unit with other similar devices by devolo is placed at the top.

Some of the unit’s features are also listed at the right side.

Once again the main features are listed at the rear of the box, this time however in 15 languages.

Both Powerline adapters are safely placed inside a secondary cardboard box.

The bundle is made by the two Powerline adapters, two Ethernet cables, software CD, installation guide and a piece of paper with warranty and support information.

THE DLAN 500 AVPLUS

Largely thanks to its size and glossy exterior the dLAN 500 AVPlus Powerline adapter looks a lot better than most similar units in the market.

Powerline adapters with integrated sockets are never small so size is not much of a problem but as you can see the devolo unit is somewhat larger than its immediate competition.

I really like how devolo engraved the company logo at the front instead of just printing it.

The electrical socket comes with the typical safety feature (can't put your fingers in it the two holes).

Three activity LEDs (power/connection quality/Ethernet) are present at the front lower section.

The Gigabit Ethernet port and the encryption button are placed at the bottom of the unit.

The unit’s electrical specifications, mac address and serial number can be found on a large sticker placed at the rear.

USING THE DLAN 500 AVPLUS

Prior to using the units i strongly suggest heading over to the official devolo support page to download and install both latest software and firmware versions (even our CD came with a previous version).

The control software is called devolo cockpit and i have to admit that it's by far the best I’ve ever used with such a device. It even shows the current bandwidth transmission between unit A and unit B which as you can see at the time of testing was 137Mbit/s. However since I’ve never encountered such a high number when testing Powerline adapters this put me on alert. You see there were 3 possible explanations for such a high number so either the devolo dLAN 500 AVPlus was the best unit to reach my test bench (quite possible actually), the devolo cockpit program was only counting maximum bandwidth and not average or there was something seriously off with my testing methodology. Because of that i added an extra step when testing similar devices which will be mentioned on the next page.

The devolo cockpit program also allows you to rename the adapters, reset then back to their factory state, record and send statistics back to devolo (for product improvement) and finally you can check the troubleshooting guide in case something goes wrong.

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   As already mentioned plenty of times in the past the performance of Powerline adapters is directly linked to the quality of the buildings electrical grid/wiring so the output speeds from such devices will most probably vary between new and old structures. Still the results recorded when testing Powerline adapters inside the same building should easily point out the best one and so to that end we used the well-known Passmark Performance Test to measure the data transfer rate in wired, wireless and Powerline modes with a fixed (for every test) distance of 15 meters between our Netgear DGN3500 Gigabit modem/router and the primary and secondary systems (30m in total between both systems). The network data transfer test was set to duration of 40 seconds and was repeated a total of 5 times after which the average numbers were recorded into our charts. As a secondary test we are also using QCheck by Ixia which is considered amongst the top measuring tools of its kind. Tests were also performed a total of 5 times at throughput mode with a data size of 1000Kb and in the end the average numbers once again get recorded into our charts.

TEST RESULTS

   Passmark didn't seem to like the dLAN 500 AVPlus Powerline adapters at first, something which coupled with the number in the cockpit program (137Mbit/s) really made me think that something was wrong. So i also used the latest QCheck version by Ixia with all the units i have here and although it did offer a slight performance jump still it was nowhere close to the performance displayed by the cockpit program (i really can't say why that is).

CONCLUSION

   From the moment i took the devolo dLAN 500 AVPlus Powerline adapters out from their box i had high hopes for them mainly because i felt that the quality of the exterior would reflect their performance. Unfortunately it's quite obvious that this was not the case and so in both tests they were outperformed by all of the 500Mbit/s Powerline kits we have here. Now i really can't say what would happen if i was to test every single Powerline adapter kit in a brand new structure with brand new electricity cables (i really doubt the end results would be any different) but at least in our scenario the devolo dLAN 500 AVPlus starter kit didn't live up to our expectations. As mentioned already however I really did enjoy both the quality of the units and the devolo cockpit software which is not something we see often, at least not with similar devices.

   Although products manufactured by devolo are not currently available in the USA (not online anyways) their presence inside the EU is very strong and so here the dLAN 500 AVPlus Starter Kit (2xPowerline Adapters) retails at around 140Euros. Unfortunately however our scenario leaves little doubt as to how good this particular kit is and because of that we really can't recommend it, at least not to people who want the best and currently the best between all the 500Mbit/s kits we've tested to date is the TPL-402E2K set by TRENDnet. Like i said i really don't know what the results would be had the electrical cables at our office been brand new but with the results we did get (and with two different tools) we feel that the price tag should be a lot less in order for us to justify recommending the dLAN 500 AVPlus kit instead for example the TRENDnet TPL-402E2K one. Perhaps a future firmware update may improve the performance of the dLAN 500 AVPlus units, anything's possible, however right now numbers speak for themselves. 

PROS

- Build Quality
- Integrated Power Socket
- 500Mbit/s Compatible
- AES 128bit Encryption
- devolo Cockpit Software

CONS

- Performance
- Price (For Some)