Devolo dLAN duo Starter Kit review

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Verdict:

Devolo's dLAN duo Starter Kit is a cheap way to get a computer online, but too slow for any other practical use.

Review Date: 10 Aug 2009

Price when reviewed: £48

Buy it now for: £36
(see more store prices)

Supplier: http://www.dabs.com

Reviewed By: Kat Orphanides

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

User Rating

Devolo's dLAN duo Starter Kit is one of the cheapest HomePlug kits around at just £48. This seems a bargain for two HomePlug adaptors, but the low price is achieved by using the old HomePlug 1.0 standard.

Capable of a theoretical maximum of 14Mbit/s, these adaptors are a lot slower than 200Mbit/s HomePlug AV adaptors. In our tests the dLAN duo Starter Kit managed just 6Mbit/s. This is fine for web browsing, but too slow for most other applications, such as file sharing.

You can connect each adaptor using either USB or Ethernet cables, both of which are provided. There's no push button security, so you'll have to use the provided configuration software to set up a secure network. Configuring requires typing in each adaptor's unique 16-digit device ID, which is printed on the side of each device. It's a bit of a pain, but you'll only have to do this job once.

HomePlug 1.0 adaptors aren't compatible with the newer HomePlug AV standard. You can run both standards at once, but the different adaptors will be unable to talk to each other. This means that the dLAN duo Starter Kit will be redundant if you later decide to buy faster adaptors.

That said, if wireless networking doesn't work well in your home and you want a cheap way to get a single computer on the internet, the dLAN duo Starter Kit will do the job. However, D-Link's DHP-303 200Mbit/s kit is only £20 more expensive and much faster if your budget can stretch that far.

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