If you live in a big house or in your office the Wi-Fi signal of the router does not reach all the devices correctly, the solution is quite simple: a signal repeater. These small devices can amplify the signal to provide a good connection everywhere. The problem is that they do not always offer the quality one would expect .
Devolo GigaGate is a high-end repeater that not only offers to amplify the signal in a large area, but also promises connection speeds of up to 2 Gbit/s. Of course, as long as your Internet contractor supports it. The price? According to the benefits, for about 230 dollars the Starter Kit that includes base station and satellite. Worth?
Premium in both design and performance
The devolo GigaGate Starter Kit is the minimum pack to use the system. This includes two apparatuses that are virtually identical, although if you look at small details are different. One of them is the base station, which will be connected to the router, the other is the satellite, and we will place it where we want to intensify the signal. Do you need to amplify the signal in different areas? You can get more satellites (a total of 8 connected to the base) for about 140 dollars each.
The stations have an elegant rectangular and sloping shape that have on their sides a shiny black surface (which spreads just by looking at it). On the front panel, they show a series of LEDs to indicate the status of the connections (if it is on, if the Wi-Fi network is working or if there are Ethernet cables connected). The rear obviously contains slots for these Ethernet ports or for power.
What does the devolo GigaGate promise us? A high-speed Wi-Fi bridge for fast transmission (using a 5GHz band) and secure (thanks to AES coding) between the base station and the satellite. In addition to connecting devices to the satellite via Wi-Fi, you can do so over LAN using 4 Ethernet ports and through a Gigabit high-speed port.
These are the limits that devolo GigaGate puts you, now just need that your Internet connection is high enough that you are limited by devolo and not by your operator. We are getting used to the connections of 30 Mbps, 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps. The devolo GigaGate can even with the 300 Mbps that some operators offer.
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The devolo GigaGate installation
In addition to performance, one of the biggest fears of getting one of these devices is the difficulty of installing it. To roam with the router and to modify the home network is not something common for all the users, reason why many times we throw ourselves back for a reason as simple as that one. Fortunately devolo GigaGate does not make it difficult.
When removing the two stations from the box you must follow some very basic steps
- Place the base station near the router and connect it to the mains.
- Add a LAN cable from one of the router ports to the base station port.
- Place the satellite where you are interested and connect it to the electricity grid.
- Add a LAN cable from one of the satellite ports to your device or directly look for the Wi-Fi signal called “devolo” among the available ones.
Unpack, connect and enjoy. You do not have to configure any parameters on the router or install any software from the manufacturer or driver. Everything must be said, devolo offers its own software with which to analyze the state of the connection and to see additional information of the same as can be the codification or the configuration. You will not need it for anything, but at any moment, you can download it for both Windows and MacOS and Linux.
What is the real performance of devolo GigaGate?
The important part of any Wi-Fi repeater, what are the actual speeds you get? In this case I have performed two different tests to check the data in two different situations. The first one was in an office, where the base and the satellite were on the same floor but at a distance of about 15 meters. The second test was done in a house with a distance of about 20 meters between the satellite and the base, in addition the satellite was on a higher floor.
As you can see in the results, the devolo GigaGate effectively fulfills the promise of offering the maximum Internet connection. You can connect multiple devices at the same time and continue to offer high performance. Of course, you used to warm it. In normal situations, it has a slightly higher temperature than the ambient (which is logical) but in situations where it is squeezed to the maximum with several devices making use of the network, the temperature increases considerably. An over-stress? Poor ventilation? Whatever it is fortunately does not affect performance.
