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Devolo Powerline AV500+ network problems (2)

In a recent post I wrote about the persistent network problems that I had with my Devolo Powerline and that I solved it.

Wrong ! Turns out that the firmware update was not the answer – I now have anywhere between 1 and 4 days before I have to pull the devolo plug. I have contacted Devolo support, but they only sent me a faq about what to do when you have a slow network connection and how to solve it.

But this is not my problem – everything works fine, at reasonable to very good speeds, when *suddenly* the network connection drops. Bam, no more network connection. Usually when I’m copying something to the NAS. Like I’ve suddenly reached a limit on file size or file transfers and everything is cut off.

The only way to solve it is to remove the devolo powerplug (that is downstairs and connected to the router) from the mains, wait 10 seconds or so and reinsert it. That does the trick just about every time (sometimes it is the Telenet router that hangs, but that only happens once in a while).

Update : in the comments on this post people have found an alternate solution : using the devolo management software, you can restart the device remotely, and then it works again (the connection over the powerline keeps working so you can reach the device that way).

I’ll try and keep a count here on how many times I have to restart the devolo plug.

20121118 : reset devolo powerplug
20121125 : reset at least 4 times (doing heavy moving of content to NAS)
20121128 : reset 2 times (telework today, only citrix connection)

Update December 29 2012 : this problem has kept on appearing intermittently – either after a week or several times a day. It seems to indicate that there is a problem with the amount of data throughput.

Update April 09 2013 : I’ve received a new firmware from Devolo to test out, and applied it to all the Devolo AV500 devices I have. The problem is *less* when the network is stable (ie low usage, mail check and such) but worse when actually *using* the network. I now need to reset the AV device about 5 times on a work-from-home day instead of 1 or 2 times.

Update April 14 2013 : received another mail from Devolo to test out the devolo boxes. The test consisted of plugging in 2 devolo boxes on an extension cord so that they are connected via the same socket. A good linkage apparantly is that both the “power” and “home” icon on both devices give a “green” light. I’ve taken a picture of this and added this to the mail I sent back to them. I honestly don’t think I’ve gotten to the second level support as yet, all the things I’ve done until now have been the basic “check this, do that, there is a bad connection, you must be doing something wrong” type of answers that a typical first level support tends to give. I am persisting in keeping in contact with them, and hopefully I will get some more technical requests…

Update April 28 2013 :  I’ve received a few more questions about how my devolo boxes are setup, what type of modem that I use (a eurodocsis 3.0) and so on. I’ve sent those on, and they have now asked me to switch the devolo’s about to see if the problem is located in one physical devolo item or if this problem is caused by a network situation. I have yet to do so, but will do that in the following days. The questions have become more technical, the solution (switch em around) not yet, but it’s a logical thing to test.

Update May 19 2013 : on request of devolo support, I’ve switched my dlan AV500 plus around with my dlan AV500 Triple plus. So the dlan device with the 3 ports is now connected to the router and the single-port dlan which was connected to the router  device is now on the other end. For two weeks I have not had a single crash !  For me that confirms that the problem lies with the single-port AV500 plus. Maybe it has to process all the other traffic and can’t cope while the 3-port device can ? I don’t know.
I’ve informed Devolo of the results and am awaiting their reply. I hope they take this serious and do an in-depth investigation and fix this with a new firmware release. After all, I’m not the only one that is having these problems, seeing all the comments below this post. And putting a 3-port dlan switch on your router where only one port can be used is a bit useless to me.

Update June 9, 2013 :   Devolo support thinks that it is just one faulty device and have asked me to reswitch back the devices to the original locations to confirm that this is the case. I’ve done that and do have the same problems again. This is on the latest published firmware. I’ve also pointed them to this blog and have asked them to read the comments in this post. It seems very unlikely that it is just one faulty device when all the people below leave comments with a “me-too” message – or perhaps there is a whole batch of them ? I still hope a firmware update will solve the problem.

The problem evidently still has not been solved. And there are now 5 6 11 19 people who have left a comment saying they have a similar problem…

Update August 4, 2013 : Devolo support has concluded that the device has a hardware fault and that it needs to be replaced. They told me to bring it back to the shop and ask for a new one. They determined that it was faulty because when it crashes it does not show it on the device (!) as all the lights stay green. I’m disgusted by this lack of customer support and have written a (long) blog post about this. I’m also solving my problem at my expense by buying another device from D-LINK to replace my faulty devolo with.  No more devolo or devolo support for me.

Update November 12, 2013 : in a comment below, Arturo has found that the devolo 500 units have a cooling problem – they shut down when too hot. Removing the cover as he did so they can get more air (or alternately, perhaps drilling holes in the cover) could also be a solution for you. But be careful – don’t get electrocuted !

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308 replies on “Devolo Powerline AV500+ network problems (2)”

Hi! I’ve the same problem! And not only with a pair of 500 AVplus. Also in other house with a pair of 200 AVplus. I thought Devolo had fixed this problem in newer versions than 200 AVplus, but not.

I’m very disappointed with Devolo. I know people with other brands and cheaper than Devolo and they’re happy.

Regards.

Same problem here, also using Devolo AV500+ Wireless… If anyone has found a solution that would be very much appreciated. Devolo are you reading this???

I’ve contacted Develo again, but they only asked me if I applied the update, which I did. I’ll be sending them an update again, with a link to this article to show them I’m not alone experiencing this problem. A shame really, cos when it is working it works very well.

Same issue here, what I did notice is that the connection speeds start degrading. shortly after that i’m getting disconnects for a few seconds to a minute. I started checking with the devolo dlan cockpit. And instead of physically unplugging them, I just reset them to factory defaults in dlan cockpit. For a few days, I get good bandwith and stability, so it is a firmware problem.

Hello Wim and other fellow devolo owners, I am happy that I’m not the only one who has this problem, while at the same time I’m peeved that this keeps dragging on.
I’ve just resent a mail to devolo support, and included a link to this blog page so that they can read the comments. Hopefully they will release a fix for this soonish.

Further update : I received a request to update the AV500 to the latest inhouse version of their firmware, which I did. All 3 Devolo’s are now running on the same firmware version. If this helps I’ll report it here.

I have the same problem. Devolo Powerline AV500+ drops connection from time to time for about 40-50 seconds for no obvious reason. At first I thought that it as an internet related problem. However I noticed that my internet TV works all right during disconnection time and my Notebook does not. By the way, I have all 3 Powerline AV500+ Plus with the latest 5.2.3.03 firmware

I’m having the same problem as well – network falls over during times of large data transfer – so count me as another. I have found that going into the Devolo control panel and then looking at the properties of the plug connected to my router and disabling and then re-enabling the plug LED on the properties page re-establishes the network without having to physically power down or unplug any of the AV500 devices. Hope it gets fixed because it’s limiting using my home network fully. I continue to read your updates with interest.

I´ve the same problem in a medical network. They use an microsoft access database that constantly crashes, probably due to that problem.

Me too. I have lots of plugs all devlolo. My AV500’s were never stable, but I think my older ones were. I possibly introduced the issue by upgrading the firmware.

Also mailed devolo, not holding out much hope though.

Symptoms are similiar it looses connection if I wait it will often sort itself out after a minute or two, bouncing the plugs also works. Also I can have very poor performance, again reset the plug and it’s back to normal.

Mee too, wish i had input from a thread like this before i wasted my money on gadgets that does not work properly….
Really annyoing …..
Not so much the money down the drain, more the hassle with the gadget.

In my opinion every oe of us should contact devolo and send this link to them. They should fix this situation. I’ve bought 6 devices.

Having the same problem using Devolo 500AVmini 3xPLC.
Devolo support just said that the problem is from electrical circuity of the house!

Similar problem here…. I’ve got 2 devolo 200av+ and 2 500av+, each time I start eMule on a computer connected to a 500av+, the unit hangs and I have to unplug and plug it again.
This does not happen to me with the 200av+ unit.

Hope they publish a fix for that soon !!

I do have the same problem as Alex mentioned at the begining of this post, my problem it is even worst, I bought two sets, one dLan 500 AVmini, and second set dLan 500 Avtriple, same problem, when streaming video at hight resolution, I loose the conection, or some units enter in a standby mode. Besides the network speed is hopeless.

Have the same problem. With me it usually occurs when network has been idle for a while, as if the screensaver somehow increases the chance for the connection to die.

I’ve tried with all sorts of power settings. It’s definitely a firmware problem, and I’m amazed they haven’t been able to fix it so far.

Same is happening to me, 2x 500av and one 500av triple, the connection between the 500av’s seems to go dead once a while, but comes back up after around a minute. At the same time the connection between the 500av on the modem and the 500avtriple is fine. All on the latest firmware 5.2.3.3.

Hello everyone, try to disable QOS (quality of service) in the ethernet card properties,
see what happens, try it, it may help, cannot guarantee it though. At least it seems to have helped me (I keep my fingers crossed) so far, I used to have disconnections several times a day on a Av500plus connected to my notebook. After I ticked off QOS in the ethernet adapter properties, it seems to be working all right for a couple of days. Your cases may be different from mine though. Wish you all luck!

The QoS trick seems to reduce the amount of outage, but does not fully remove it.
What seems to work is setting a command window (run -> cmd ) and running a ping in the background.

I ping my modem/router using: ping -t

This means it will go on forever. A bit silly, but it seems to work. Seems to relate to the fact that I only get freezes when there is very little activity. Could this stop the powerline adapter from going into standby?

Got the same issue as you all. Drives me crazy as I use my devolos to connect my cable box with my TV. Last Saturday I lost the signal during a soccer game – hurts even if one only misses 3 mins. Do any of you have experience with a different powerline product that works flawless?

I have installed and been trying the new firmware published on the devolo site (version 5.2.3.04) and so far the plugs seems stable – will report again after more testing.

24 hours later and still stable and no crashes – still crossing fingers it stays this way, but so far so good!

No luck for me. Upgraded firmware yesteday night, started emule and in few hours the devolo unit was totally freezed again… as usually.

Yeah I did more extensive testing and when I push large files across the network the whole thing fails again – have gone back to using my wireless card until this is properly fixed. Will keep watching the blog for any further updates.

I’ve updated the main post – I switched back the devices to their original locations and it’s back to restarting them every day or so… I’ll be recontacting devolo again to ask what the next step is.

I have a similar problem with Av 200’s and AV 200 wireless. It will lose all are part of the network. I have 10 devices on the system.

Exact same problem here with same config, two AV500 plus on modem and pc, and one AV500 triple on tv+ps3+xbox.
My NAS is connected on the modem.
Need to unplug AV500 plus on the modem every few days, even with low bandwidth usage.

Thought i would add my comments too.

Purchased the dlan500av+ triple, av500+ and av500mini.

All look fine on the devolo “dashboard” but when using to stream to my media player (av500+ beside the router, tripe at the tv) I get about 20 minutes into the movie and then the screen freezes as the connection is lost. I then have to come to the av500+ at the router unplug it and pop it back in again before I can continue. The home electrics are not the problem – the dlan 500’s are! Considering these are the most expensive of the available powerline adapters you would think they would get their act together a sort it out :o(

Hello,

I have the same issue on dlan 500 AVplus with 2 dlan 500 AV Wireless. A single reinit of the 500 AVplus resolve the issue in the cockpit.

I’m trying to fix a password with the cockpit just in case.

Same problem here with the same configuration (av500+ triple with av500+). Router/Modem is a FritBox (which is definitely not the source of the problem, since devices not connected over dlan work fine).

Need to unplug the av500 triple at least once a day, didn’t observe any dependency on the volume of data transfer. Very, very annoying.

My electric heater uses the PLC protocol for communication between appliances. This is what troubles probably the communication. It seems that using a password in cockpit solved the problem for me. The communication is encrypted and less perturbated.

Please let us know if this does solve your problems in the long run or if you run into similar problems again but less frequently – this might be usefull for other users.

In my case, I don’t think this would help since I’ve switched devolo dlan devices around and things ‘just worked’ for 2 or 3 weeks straight. But I don’t *want* to put my 3-port switch on the router, that’s not what is was meant for… 🙂

I have a Devolo dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ kit which comes with a dLAN 500 AVplus. The dLAN 500 AVplus boots with a green home LED and the dLAN Cockpit reports speeds around 100Mbps (note that the speed reported in the dLAN Cockpit My dLAN screen is usually smaller than the reported speed in the data rate dialog). After some time (usually a day) the dLAN 500 AVplus starts displaying a red home led and the connection speed drops to an order of tens of Mbps. This is for no apparent reason.
If I unplug and plug the dLAN 500 AVplus then everything starts to work again at speeds of 100 Mbps.
The dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ rarely displays a red home led, it’s just the dLAN 500 AVplus. The dLAN 500 AV Wireless+ doesn’t need to be plugged/unplugged (it’s always on).

I’ve upgraded the dLAN 500 AVplus to the latest firmware available on the Devolo support site (5.2.3.04) but the situation is the same.

Looks like a problem of the product if just unplugging/plugging it solves the problem.

I’ve argued exactly the same thing to the devolo support persons : if I can do a reset using the admin dlan interface, and I immediately get back full service, then it looks to me it’s not a hardware problem but a software problem. However, I do not get a red home led, it’s always green. So your problem might have a different root cause.
For now, they are just sending me the same documents they send before, which is not helping at all.

After a _lot_ of troubleshooting and trial and error, I’ve found at least two sources of problems for my Homeplug installation:
– one is a Meanwell power supply for a LED strip in my office
– the other is a Fibaro Wall Plug (z-wave controlled plug)

I have three Meanwell power supplies in my lightning circuit ring but only one causes my dLAN 500 AVplus to slow down and show the red home LED whenever I switch it on.

The Fibaro wall plug causes the same effect when plugged near the dLAN 500 AVplus. It doesn’t matter if the Fibaro plug is on or off, the network slows down after some time and the red home led shows up.

All of this makes me think that Homeplug AV is not up to consumer’s expectations. They use misleading rates to advertise their products (the maximum PHY rates instead of the actual data rates) and their products simply become unusable in real worlds scenarios.

If you want to avoid wasting your money (in filters…) and your time (troubleshooting the electrical installation whenever your homeplug network slows down) just go head and use Ethernet wiring.

Just surfing to find people with same problem I have, and bam found this page…

Yes me too, same problem.

One week that I have installed 1 dLan 500AVTripleWireless where my Mac is connected, and 2 dLan 500AVplus (1 PC connected, 1 Cable Modem). Even with latest 5.2.3.04, I have 1 or 2 connection drops per day, each takes 1 minute or so and then connection is restored without doing anything.

I’m in contact with french support. Will let you know…

Hello Alain,

J’espère qu’ils t’aident plus que ceux avec qui j’ai contact (l’allemagne).

I hope they’ll provide more help than my contacts did. You could always give them the link to this page, so that they can ‘link’ the issues together.

Alex

Hello,
Did you try to set a password protection in the Cockpit ?

Bonjour,
Avez-vous essayé de positionner un mot de passe dans le cokpit ?

Thank you for any feedback.
Merci de vos retours.

Kind regards
Cordialement

Philippe

Hi. In earlier firmware versions I tried putting a password without success, because of the cuts carried on. But with the last version I don’t know the result.

I’ll do the same here to test if this helps for my problems. Perhaps it helps in separating the data from other inference ?

Nope – upgraded the firmware on all 3 of my devolo dlan 500’s and still no joy. Started to watch a show from my NAS (pc turned off) NAS connected directly to the router as was the dlan 500av mini. The tv is on the lower floor and I have tried both the dlan 500 av triple+ and 500av+ and after playing a show flawlessly for about 20-30 minutes the picture on my media player freezes and I have to unplug whichever dlan adpater is plugged in. Plug the adapter back in again and I can then watch the show for a while longer. It is as if the dlans go into sleep mode and only by unplugging them are the “woken up”. Have been in touch via email with Devolo and they are asking me to return them to Germany!! Considering they are only 1 month old I think this is going to be a rather expensive exercise and now wish I had gone with another companies product.

Has anyone else tried the Solwise, netgear or other devices and if so so they also drop the connection??

Same here guys.

Mine drop the connection 4/5 times a day.

Ranging from 20secs to a couple of minutes. Latest firmware didn’t change anything.

Puzzling

I’ll be updating this blog post, and/or writing a completely new one, with the info below.

The mail has come from devolo support Germany that my adapter is broken/defect and that I need to return it for a new one. This is apparantly based on a screenshot of the adapter in failed mode, and it’s still showing the green LED’s that all is alright. Except it is not passing data anymore.

How am I going to a explain to a stressed out shop guy that this adapter is no longer working according to devolo, when the thing works when he plugs it in ? All the leds works, the data will transfer, but if you pump enough data through it’ll stop working – would you mind testing that for me ? I’ll print out the mails, but I’m not holding my breath.

I am so not a very happy camper… I always try to be polite, but at the moment I’m thinking that devolo support is not really “support” but more a “go away and don’t bother us any more”.

At no time did they ask me for more technical details. I mentioned at the beginning of the email exchange that I know LAN’s and network, and that if necessary I could do a network capture. They only thing I mostly got were pdf documents with the message to follow the instructions.

Several times I mentioned that I am not the only one who is having problems + linked to this post. At no time did I get any feedback about the 20 other people who have reported similar problems.

If, as a a company, you want to make a difference, you make products that work, and if they don’t work, you do your damndest to help those people out, not tell them to get a refund/exchange and this is not your business.

Well I took the plunge and bought a starter set of the solwise NET-PL-500AV-SMT-TWIN adapters. Totally given up with Devolo and their customer service team who told me to send the 1 month old faulty (or badly manufactured) dLan 500+ to Germany (that’s about £18 insured so not happy).

So far with the new adapters not a single drop out – they are specifically designed for “noisy mains” which could have been the issue with the Devolo ones but why did the cockpit software always tell me I had a great connection (all 3 green on each of the adapters).

Sorry but I am thinking more along the lines of just bad equipment from Devolo and with more and more people complaining about these adapters there is something far wrong with them!

Hi,

I am having the same problem. I thought it was my old router so i bought a new one but unfortunatelly the problem is still there. I’ve invested a lot of € buying the 500 AVmini and the 500 AVplus but I’m so dissapointed now.

I am experiencing the exact same issue as eveyrone else above. I replaced my router for a new netgear router and still experience the issue. My connection drops and I am unable to connect via wifi without resetting the plug connected to the router.
Absolutely ridiculous considering these plugs are the most expensive out these!
Devolo really need to up their game.

Exactly the same problem here!
I am using a Devolo 500 AVmini connected to a an AV Triple+ (small module with 1 Ethernet Large module with 3 Ethernet).

All works fine, for about 2 or 3 weeks. Then suddenly, the network connection is broken. Unplugging BOTH plugs and plugging them again solves the problem in 100% of the cases and in 1 minute.

I have given up updating the firmware each time. This blog post confirms the product ist just defective (thank you for posting this!).

Given the horrible reports (here and elsewhere) about the quality of the support at Devolo, I am not going to bother. The problem is obviously known, and they do not want/can’t do anything about it.
Devolo, if you read this: goodbye.

Oh how I wish I had found this blog BEFORE I started down the ‘Devolo road’…

I was assured by friends (we work in IT) that Devolo was the best Powerline Ethernet product you could buy…

Before I purchased my adapters, I emailed the support@devolo.co.uk with a ‘pre-sales’ question about running multiple separate networks using the dLAN products. I want ‘network #1’ to be the link between my BT OpenReach Modem and the WAN port on my Netgear DGND3700 router and ‘network #2’ to be from the ‘inside’ of my Netgear router to my Smart TV, Sky HD boxes, NAS and my ‘soon to arrive’ work Cisco VPN concentrator (about 7 devices in total, all in different rooms)…

I had to chase and chase them for 5 days for an answer… I had the Devolo sales people chase their own support people (and support still did nothing)… I had sales email the director of support (in Germany) and still no immediate reply came… I should have walked away there and then..!

Eventually support did come back to me and they said ‘yes’ it will work if I use different passwords for each network… I purchased a pair of dLAN 500 AVplus @ £90+ for ‘network #1’ as my BT master socket and router are in different rooms and I don’t want a long Ethernet cable running round the skirting board as it will get chewed by one of the dogs…

The package arrived and they were very simple to setup…I upgraded the firmware to the latest version (5.2.3.4) and even secured them with a new password… I quickly tested them by copying movies (10-15 GB) from my NAS to my laptop using just the dLAN 500’s… The transfer speed was really good and I was happy…

This afternoon I was switched over to BT Infinity (about 40 minutes – painless!) and I pretty much have had drop outs from the get go… I have now found that unless I have a continuous PING to the BT default gateway the dLAN link stops passing traffic after about 10-20 mins… If I power cycle one of the dLAN 500 AVplus units about 30 seconds later all is working again…

I am thinking there is some weird compatibility issue with my OpenReach modem and these dLAN 500’s…

Anyways, I think I will be returning them to Amazon as ‘not fit for purpose’ and I will look to order a set of Solwise adapters (as per Andy’s post above) to see if they work any better…

Devolo – please sort your products AND your support staff out as currently your attitude kinda sucks..!

PinPin…

Well, I got the exact same problem here.

I’m really interested to see if Devolo can find a solution to this problem.

Please keep us updated.

Just thought I’d add something I noticed. The latest firmware has made things even worse for me. If I watch a 30 min youtube movie, it will typically stop working 3-4 times. If I continue to hit the refresh button in the browser, the devolos will never come online. If I just wait some 30 sec and hit refresh, the unit will come online again.

Not sure why this happens, but thought I’d throw it out there for any tech savvy dudes to ponder. Using Chrome/Win7 64bit.

I’ve set up a password in dLan Cockpit as Philippe suggested (on June 27), and it seems that I don’t have connection drops anymore. I’m still not 100% sure as I didn’t have a lot of them, may be 2 or 3 per day, always restored after a minute or so… May be I missed some…

Pehaps other people here could try it as well and report here… ?

Same issue for me,

I have 2 plugs : the 500 AV+ on the modem side, and the 500 AV Triple on the other side (with 2 devices attached : one samsung Smart -internet connected- TV, and also an Apple Airport which plays music to my Audio amplifier, no third device is attached)

I have to replug my 2 devolo plugs every one to 5 days, I recently found that it is ok (solves the issue 90% of the occurence) to only replug the 500AV+ CPL plug, no need to replug the Triple (or this is by exception)

Mr DEVOLO, if you think there exist faulty plugs, just send me another 500 AV Triple and i will send you back my 500AV+

No, really i would prefer a new firmware solution …

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