Powerline networking is the perfect solution to circumventing wireless networking's shortcomings, and the Devolo dLAN 200 AV Wireless N Starter Kit attempts to combine the best of both worlds.
It builds upon the existing Devolo product line offering the same 200Mbps networking over your home's internal power wiring, as it has with the rest of the Devolo dLAN 200 AV product line. The cherry on the cake is one of the two supplied adaptors happens to also be a Wireless-N 300Mbps router.
This ingenious solution enables you to plug an internet gateway in at the other end of your property, connect it to one Devolo dLAN 200 AV adaptor and then locate the Wireless-N equipped adaptor exactly where you need it, to maximise the wireless signal.
It's an interesting and practical solution for anyone that has their broadband router significantly distant from where they actually want the broadband, or your home has thick walls as are often found in older properties.
Alternatively, it enables you to create a wireless hotspot in more remotes areas of your home, especially if you have an outhouse or garage wired to the mains supply.
Benchmarks
To test transfers for both the powerline networking and the Wireless-N router, we used a number of standard file transfer tests. For the wireless testing, the first is a same room file transfer, while the second test places a brick wall and wooden floor between the router and laptop used.
For the powerline tests, the first uses sockets within the same room on the same ring, while the second uses sockets on different floors.
Wireless same room transfer speed
Wireless one room away transfer speed
Powerline same room transfer speed
Powerline distance transfer speed
Verdict
Devolo is an old hand when it comes to powerline networking and it's impressive that it has managed to cram in both a powerline dLAN 200 AV adaptor and a fully featured Wireless-N router (and let's not forget a three-port LAN router on top of that).
While it's larger than a standalone dLAN 200 AV adaptor it's the same size as the units that had a pass-through power plug. Setting up either a powerline network or a wireless one are both stupidly easy.
Devolo has added a WPS button so it's a simple job to connect new devices that support this to the wireless network.
You can get more hands on with the supplied Cockpit software. This is the usual tool for configuring the Devolo dLAN 200 AV powerline network, but it has been extended for helping set up the Wireless-N router.
The web-based interface is very fast, looks good and has the base options you'd want to see. This includes the ability to alter the SSID, WPA encryption, add MAC filtering and impose time limits on access, but not much else.
As a Wireless-N router, it's relatively proficient, offering good 9.7MB/s same-room speed. Moving to further distances sees this tail off to more moderate 4.4MB/s speeds, but it's still very acceptable.
We've tested the same line of dLAN 200 AV powerline adaptors before and if anything it seems performance has improved a little.
That said, even at its 8.4MB/s best it can't quite match 100BaseT Ethernet speeds, so if you have a very fast broadband connection, the Devolo units could be still potentially end up as the limiting factor.
We liked
We like the Devolo dLAN 200 AV product line, it's reliable and offers a good level of speed.
The addition of the Wireless-N router is excellent and the dLAN 200 AV Wireless N Starter Kit will make for a solid solution for certain homes.
We disliked
The Devolo dLAN 200 AV is certainly a mature product set, it's something of a shame the pricing hasn't dropped more, especially with HomePlug AV2 on the horizon for 2011.
The powerline transfer speeds are now looking somewhat weak, though still very much usable in the home. It's also a less feature-rich wireless router than we'd like.
Final word
A good way to get broadband and wireless networking to otherwise inaccessible parts of your home.
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