6s wifi issues with Devolo dLan 500

Hi Rich,

Did you solve this problem, as I have exactly the same issue that you have with the Devolo dLan 500, right down to the fact that my wife has a 5 and gets full speed whilst I'm getting under 1mbps. If I move the powerline adaptor to a different socket my iPhone 7 will often connect at full speed, but within minutes, it's back down to under 1mbps. It was the same with my previous 6s phone. It's as though there is something in the iPhone software causing it, or something in later iPhones that is not compatible with the Devolo units.

Cheers,

Geoff

I have the same issues with the Dlan500 Wifi. I have spoken to Devolo who cannot advise any solution and even got them replaced, thanks to their customer service, but I still get the same problem.

Symptoms are that I get maybe 20% of the full speed initially and then it decays to 0.5-1 mbps speed (using Speedtest). As a result, the signal often drops out and I lose connectivity altogether.

I can connect my other devices (android phones, tablets, Amazon Fire, windows laptop, Windows surface) all successfully to the Dlan500 wifi, but the iPhone 6s plus will not. I have even changed the base homeplug (from Devolo Duo to Zyxel) and even changed the router in case it was that, changed the SSID, removed all encryption, changed the channel. Still the same problem.

I can connect the iPhone 6s plus to either of my routers and I get full stable speed.

Some of my friends Apple devices also have this problem, but not all.

The only thing I can conclude is that there are some Apple devices which just do not work with the Dlan500 wifi.

It is really frustrating as both the Apple and the Devolo are premium priced products!

"Symptoms are that I get maybe 20% of the full speed initially and then it decays to 0.5-1 mbps speed (using Speedtest). As a result, the signal often drops out and I lose connectivity altogether."

Same issue here.

Devolo were unable to help. Anyone find a solution?

I am on an iPhone 8 Plus.

Hi People

I have had exactly the same issue since buying Devolo DLAN 500 plugs in August. Apart from a 2 minute speedy burst immediately after resetting the plugs, the wifi slows down to 1-2mbps and remains there on my iPad Pro 10.5 and my wife's iPad Pro 9.7. On our phones (iPhone 5S & SE), however, the wifi is usually 4 to 5 times faster than the iPads and on the iMac it's always good. Also, the connection is fast on a 1st gen 12.9 iPad Pro..!

I contacted Devolo and after trying everything recommended and more they conceded the plugs were faulty and sent a new pair - which have exactly the same problem!!!

I am very relieved to discover I am not suffering alone but I am surprised there aren't more reports about this issue on the web. Perhaps many people had this problem and simply returned their devices as faulty without investigating further and it is more widespread than it appears?

Is this specifically the DLAN 500 wifi? Has anyone tried a different Devolo wifi plug?

Does this problem only occur with iOS devices made after a particular date (that might have had a different wifi receiver installed)? Has anyone else tried an iPad Pro 9.7 or 10.5 on their DLAN wifi? If I get a chance to test out an iPhone 6S or 8 Plus on my wifi I'll give you all an update.

There is a serious issue here and (except for us )no-one is even confirming the fault let alone addressing it.

Just to clarify, I get full consistent speed when wirelessly connected direct to the router (bypassing the Devolo plugs). I have separate SSIDs now so I know which part of the network I’m connected to.

I think I resolved it by using another router though. (It’s complicated, divorce thing etc)

So it’s definitely an incompatibility between a particular brand of router, some Apple products and Devolo.

I can also confirm I’ve connected directly to the router and enjoyed a decent speed WiFi connection with the devices that were running at a snail’s pace via the DLAN wifi.

I have tried on 3 routers over 2 different houses to eliminate the electrical interference issue. The routers I’ve used have been Sky routers; a couple of SR102 (upright black box) and the current ER110 (flat black box).

These routers are working with the DLAN wifi as I’m able to get a fast connection through it with various iOS devices, just not an iPad Pro 9.7 or 10.5. (Perhaps I’d have the same issue with the 6s plus and the 8 plus? I’d love to find out. Maybe every large iOS device released since the 12.9 Pro is effected?)

I‘m absolutely sure it’s the iOS device and/or the Devolo plug. The iOS versions changed since this problem was first highlighted so we can rule that out and the router can be eliminated a suspect if any devices can connect successfully and run at a reasonable speed on DLAN wifi.

If there were a detailed breakdown of the WiFi components/part numbers in various iOS devices we might discover that certain batches used a different brand part?

The investigation continues...

That's good to know.

I am pretty sure as well that there is nothing on the router set up/components that can adversely affect how a DLAN Wifi transmits. So I agree, its purely how the DLAN500 transmits.

Also I have connected the devices directly onto the Ethernet port of the DLAN500 and its OK.

As I mentioned, Windows and Android devices connect to the DLAN500's very well.

Also I am pretty sure that the Apple devices that don't work with the DLAN500 now, used to work well before. I am not aware that the Devolo units have had a firmware upgrade since then, whereas the iPhones have had loads. Its been a problem for me since Nov 2016, so which ever iOS was applied then is probably the culprit. I know my ex also has problems with her iPad, but I don't know details and I do not have one to test.

It is very frustrating as I recommended this brand specifically for the good reputation that it had!! It is very strange that Devolo play dumb on this problem.

At my own home I use Zyxel and that has no problems at all. I have never seen this with any wireless brand before.

I have been wondering about the variation of components on iPhones and iPads. You could imagine that there would be and that the iOS relies on the hardware firmware following guidelines so that the Apple programmers could get consistent behaviours on their devices. This could affect the connectivity stability as well as other issues banded about, like battery life...

I have tested an older iPod Touch with iOS 9.3.5 and newish iPhone SE with iOS 11.1 and both work perfectly.

However, my iPhone 6S Plus has had loads of problems since 10.x and is as bad with iOS 11.1.1. It was OK prior to 10.x, so it seems to be dependent on the hardware primarily but iOS software as a secondary cause.

I cannot confirm whether or not the iPod Touch would have a problem with 10.x and above, as that cannot be upgraded beyond 9.3.5.

I have this same issue of much too low download speed using Devolo dLan 500 Wi-Fi but with my iPad pro 9.7 running IOS 11.0.2. The max download speed reached is ca 1 to max 2 Mbps, very very slow. Upload speed is however the same as with other devices (iMac, iPad2). With my old iPad2 running IOS 9.3.5, download speed is fine, the same as with my iMac, more than 10x the one with the iPad pro !! I could not find a setting to improve this, it is maybe linked with the IOS newer versions. I hope Apple could tackle this question and hopefully correct this in future IOS releases ... ;-)

I'm having the same problem at the moment with my Devolo 500. Has been like this for a while - used to be able to switch on and off and see improvement (did this for about a year), but not anymore. I connect to the adapters with laptop and get 30mbps (which is what I'm supposed to be supplied with). Connect on seemingly ANY Apple device and it gives out no more than 3mbps when in same place as laptop which is getting 30......very strange. Have tried resetting Devolo to no avail.

I'm almost convinced it's an Apple/Devolo software compatibility problem. My girlfriend can connect on her Samsung S8 and gets good speeds, when stood in the same place and test on my Iphone SE I get 1/10th - ridiculous

Have just ordered a set of TP-Link powerline adapters which my friend uses. I went round to his the other day and connected absolutely fine with good speed to one of the powerline adapters so hopefully the swap will work. Will update on Monday.

It's a shame Devolo seem to be in denial about this issue.

TP-Link powerline https://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-WPA4220KIT-Powerline-Broadband-Configuration-UK/dp/B 01LXOZ4EN/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1

Working great. Must be a problem with Apple/Devolo compatibility with some Apple products. I guess this could be fixed in a later IOS update but I'm not hanging around to find out. Anyone having this problem just buy a different brand of powerline. Annoying from a cost point of view, but the Tp-links were half the price of the Devolo and work better in my opinion.

True, thank you, same for me with my iPad pro 9.7, normal speed with BT off ! BT is however much used with iPad pro, for the Apple pencil and also external speakers, etc ... But this finding shall help Apple to make a correction as the use of the Devolo dLan 500 WiFi as a priori nothing to do with BT being on or off ! no ?

Even with BT off, it still didn’t work for me! Changing the brand of the powerline adapter worked however. I think Devolo have a glitch with some models of iphone.

Am glad to hear you found a solution, but shouldn’t really have to turn BT off to use decent wifi! Hopefully Devolo will release a patch for these issues!

Same thing here. BT on/off doesn't change anything. Interesting thing is, that it is only one IPhone 6s, all other devices work properly. And on this device it is recognizable, that watching youtube is ok, but even the apple-store or downloading new ios-update didn't work at all.

Definitely no issue to ISP or to Devolo device in general. Only in combination with particular IPhone 6s plus new iOS (probably, because it used to work fine for months).