Computer Shopper - UK (2020-01)

ISSUE383|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JANUARY2020 35

WHILEWIRELESSMESHnetworks can
improvethe signal throughout your home,
they’re typically only any good if you have a
decent Wi-Fi or Ethernetconnection between
the wirelesssatellites.The Devolo Magic 2
WiFi is designed to be different, using
Powerlinenetworkingtoconnect theWi-Fi
satellites around your home,producing, in
theory,amore stable connection.

PLUGGINGAWAY

The Devolo Magic2WiFiisavailable in two
kits.Bothhaveasingle Powerline adaptor with
asingle Ethernetport that plugs into your
home router.The difference is that the Starter
Kit (£161) hasasingle Wi-Fiadaptor, while
the Whole Home kit (£263)has twoWi-FI
adaptors to giveyou greater coverage. Both
kits work in thesameway;it’s merely a
question of how much coverage youwant.
All kits comepre-paired, so you just need
to plug in theadaptors and you shouldbe
good to go.Wesay ‘should’, as it’s important
to connectthe adaptors in theright order:
startwith the wirelessadaptors first, then
plug in the Powerlineadaptor that connects
to your router. If youdon’t, youcan endup
with an adaptor that doesn’t work, as we
foundout. Once all the lights on all the
adaptors are white, the network is ready
and you’re good to go.
On the back of the wireless adaptors, you
get awireless key, whichisthe default
password forthe wireless network. If you’ve

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VERDICT

Asmart idea forwhere traditional mesh
systems won’t reach, but the app and
interface are frustrating to use

MESH POWERLINE SYSTEM

bouggght akit,,,then yyyou ggget two different

passwords, which is atouch confusing.The

system takes the passwordfrom the main

device,whichwould appear to be theadaptor

thatyou pluginfirst, although the quickstart

guide isn’tclear on this. Luckily,wemanaged

to enterthe correctpassword the firsttime

around, purely by luck.

POWEROFF

Onceyou’vegot the Magic 2running,you’re

supposed to be abletomanage it using the

smartphoneapp or the Devolo Cockpit

software forWindowsorMac. We foundthat

on our iPhone, the softwarewouldn’t discover

any of thePowerline adaptors. Switchingto

the Mac version, we discovered one adaptor

but not all three,which wasstrange, as they

wereall definitely workingand connected.

In theend, the easiest optionwas to

connect directly to eachadaptor’s IP

address usingaweb browser.Toget the IP

addresses, we had to connect to ourrouter

andlookatthe listofconnecteddevicesfor

any Devolo products.

Thedevice you connect to defines the

options available.Connecttothe standard

Powerlineadaptorand you don’t get any

wireless options. If you want to

adjust the wireless settings, you have

to connecttoone of thewireless

adaptors; it doesn’t matter which.

Forsome reason, selecting

theWireless option in the web

management page automatically

jumps you to theGuestnetwork,

rather than themainsettings. That’s

alittleconfusing, as is the fact that

Devolo callsthe wireless password

‘Key’under the guest network

settingsand ‘Encryption’under the

main network settings.

Underthe main wireless network

settings, you canchange the name

of the networkand the password,

and youcan manuallychange the

wireless channels usedbyboth the

2.4GHz and 5GHz networks. Changes

made to any wireless adaptorare

changedonall of them.

As withother mesh syyystems,,,Devolo uses

roaming to push devices to the strongest

wireless adaptor and band steering to direct

incoming devicestothe best network. There’s

an optiontoschedulewhenthe entireWi-Fi

networkisavailable but youmiss outonsome

of the more advanced features, such as user

profiles foradvanced parental controls.

GOTTHE POWER

The Powerline networkruns at up to

2,400Mbit/s, but your wiringwillaffectthat.

Testingwith alaptopplugged into awireless

adaptor’sGigabit Ethernet,wesaw upload

speeds of 47Mbit/s and download speeds of

72Mbit/s.That’s finefor streaming video,but

farslowerthan using an Ethernet cable.

The Magic2has 5GHz speedsof867Mbit/s

with twostreams, and2.4GHzspeeds of

300Mbit/swithtwo streams.Again,it’s worth

pointing outthat thefinal speed limitwill be

limitedbythe overall speed of thePowerline

networktoyour router.Inour home,the best

we managed to get was upload speeds of

44Mbit/s and downloadspeeds of 73Mbit/s.

Plugging the Magic 2adaptors intothe same

ring main,wesaw slightlyimproved results of

78.3Mbit/s upload and 97.4Mbit/s download,

so the quality of wiring makes adifference.

If you needtopushWi-Fi outtoadead

spot,the DevoloMagic 2will do thejob,

but it’s aconventional meshsystem will be

better formost people.For similarmoney

as theStarter Kit, you canget the Netgear

Orbi RBK20(Shopper375),which is faster,

andhas both parental controls and optional

networksecurity.For the cost of the Magic 2

WholeHome kit, the Netgear Orbi RBK50

(alsoShopper375)iseven more powerful.

DavidLudlow

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See page 84 forperformancedetails

MODEMNone•WI-FISTANDARD802.11ac•STATED

SPEED867Mbit/s(5GHz), 300Mbit/s(2.4GHz)•USB PORTS 0

• WALL MOUNTABLENo•WARRANTYTwoyears RTB•
  DETAILSwww.devolo.com•PART CODEMagic 2

SPECIFICATIONS

5GHz 2m

0200 400 600

59Mbit/s