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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)”

I had the AV500 minis and the 500 WiFi’s as I live in a tall house – the connection would regularly drop for about 2 minutes before magically coming back. Drilling holes in the top of the minis did help a bit as it happened a bit less often but still annoying if you are watching Netflix. The other annoying piece was that the adapters would occasionally get confused and lose the network meaning some or all needed to be restarted which meant running all over the house. Didn’t like the user interface much either when it came to configuring the network, very unintuitive. I have just switched to the bt whole home WiFi mesh and am blown away by the difference – I get 30+ mbps over WiFi now instead of 8-12 and the signal is so much stronger all over the house, even in places the devolos never managed to reach. I know you can’t compare the latest tech with older devices from a few years ago but I have to say that the devolos feel like an evolutionary dead end compared to the WiFi mesh product and I am sad to have wasted so many hours (and good money on buying even more of them) trying to get them working to my satisfaction. Based on my experience I would suggest avoiding them.

It worked!, after 3 hours of trying everything – your solution to unplug the devolo connected to the router was spot on.
Thanks
J Toro

Today is 11 May 2018. After about 4 years our dLan 500 AVplus single port has stopped working. The TS provided above helped immensely – the device overheats.
Will now research options to replace with a compatible product. Any suggestions?

Found this thread after searching for DV DL500 issues which I had. Tried drilling the back cover (10 x 7mm holes) – improved the situation but not by much. 38C here on the Côte d’Azur so probably not helping! Temporarily switched to a couple of old AirPort Express devices ’till the ambient temp drops. All good so far.

I have wasted so many hours with these crappy devices. Everything people mention sounds familiar – t all is working fine when BAM, suddenly no internet because several of the devices cannot ‘see’ the one connected to the router.
When you have a large, old awkward house, it’s hard to find a solution and powerline adapters seemed to be the solution.
I’ve just bought a reel of CAT6 cable and i’m now laboriously connecting distant parts of the house physically, which involves a lot of crawling through tiny spaces with 300 year old cobwebs and mouse shit. Thanks Devolo for wasting my time and money.

IMHO Devolo devices are overpriced. My dLAN 500 AV plus is overheating, and dLAN 500 AV triple+ is behaving odd.
Theoretically it works constantly. To first socket I connected my VDSL modem (service port) and indeed – I can log in to modem management page anytime. Another socket used for laptop and here problem appeared. After laptop wake up from a sleep – always there is no internet – no connection even to modem page that is connected to another port – in the same time from another laptop I have access to modem – so problem is located in switch itself – because plug works itself. Problem seems to be related only to outlet that was in sleep – this one can’t refresh connection – I need to unplug laptop and plug it in again.
Generally – german quality is no longer the same as years ago.

BTW. In the same network I tested 4 different devices.
D-Link 200Mbps, TP-Link 200Mbps, TP-LINK 500Mbps, Devolo 500Mbps.
Devolo is worst – while its priced highest on the market.
D-Link works fine, however it behaves odd in configurations with different brands. Specially it likes to be invisible for configuration tools. TP-Link 500mbps is probably the best of these what I have, and works with anything in the network, but TP-LINK software is probably one of the worst. Current version of software (that works on Windows10) doesn’t support older devices like 200MBps – for new software its unknown device! Same brand just, a bit older model – and unknown. They are winners in support category 🙂
Tool that would work with 200MBit – of course can’t recognise 500Mbit version, but in this case its not surprising.
Its worth to mention that Devolo tool seems to be only one that works on Linux (ubuntu), It cant be used for firmware upgrade or configuration anything else than Devolo, but is good enough to add device to a network (can be PowerPlug device of any manufacturer) and to check if there is no spying devices in the network.
Actually any powerplug software can do that. Personally I prefer TrendNET Powerline utility – gives lots of information about any connected device.
Bye

Thank you for the interesting feedback and the link to Trendnet Powerline utility.
Unfortunately, since I’m running mostly macs and this seems to be Windows only, I can’t use it, but it might come in handy for other powerline users that read this !

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