Devolo Gigagate Wi-fi Bridge

Struggling with slow Wi-fi at home? Devolo’s Gigagate could be the answer. Five Computeractive readers tell us the difference it made to their devices

Earlier this year devolo teamed up with Computeractive to offer readers the chance to review the Gigagate Wi-fi Bridge. Comprising a base and satellite units, it can boost your speed by up to 2Gbps (2,000Mbps), potentially improving your multimedia experience. Playing games, streaming TV and listening to music could become lightning fast. Up to eight satellite devices can be connected, not only from one room to another for a complete home-network solution.

Our readers were impressed by it, as these reviews testify…

Devolo’s Gigagate Starter Kit (modelled by my son Josh, below) transforms a lacklustre broadband experience into a satisfactory and stable communication environment. When you are in the garden trying to upload nature pics to cloud storage and the service times out or just stops, this kit is a blessing.

The base unit connects to the router with ease, then you place the satellite in the best position you can find in your property. The result is uniform, highspeed coverage in even the deepest, darkest corner of your home and garden.

I’m not a wizard with hardware, but all I needed to do was connect the base to a spare port on my router with the supplied cable, select a password once the software was downloaded and then position the satellite. My phone, tablet and wireless laptop broadband meters were at maximum throughout the property with nothing more to be done. Very happy! Phil Cookson, Bury The increase in speed upstairs where I placed the satellite unit has been amazing. Pretty much all the devices in the house now connect to one of the Gigagates, rather than the Sky Q router, and as a result we now have a house full of happy kids who can play online games on their Xbox without connection problems, or watch Youtube videos on phones and tablets.

The connection speed to the base unit is so good that I’m considering buying another satellite to place in the lounge (even though it is only metres away from the Sky router which lives in the hall) so I can connect the smart TV and Xbox One via the ethernet ports to improve Netflix streaming speeds.

My parents, who are foster carers, have a large six-bedroom bungalow with a huge footprint, and struggle to connect to their BT Home Hub in parts of the house. They are now looking into buying the Gigagate, having seen it in use here. Thank you again for giving us the chance to try this magical piece of kit.

Carl Broomfield, Bury St Edmunds

Before setting up I used a phone app to check the signal strength in my house, garden and shed. I set up the Gigagate with the base downstairs next to my router and the satellite unit upstairs. On checking my signal strength again there was no noticeable difference. Later, I moved the satellite downstairs to the porch at the opposite end of my house and there was a significant improvement. I could even watch a Youtube video in my garage, where previously I had no signal.

I also had a good signal all over my garden, which is important because I use

The result is uniform, high-speed coverage in even the deepest, darkest corner of your home and garden

nest-box cameras and adapted CCTVS to monitor wildlife there. At present, I can only use cameras connected by wires, with the danger that one day I will forget to lift the cable when I’m cutting the grass.

The one major problem I had was that the satellite dropped the connection to the base three times while I was testing it. This may have been caused by the signal from the base to the satellite passing through three internal walls, or it may be a problem with my router. However, I discovered later that it could also be because I connected the Gigagate to a power strip (the FAQS state this may cause problems).

Overall, I’m very pleased with the Gigagate as it gives me access to Wi-fi in areas of my property where previously I had none.

Frank Ritchie, Forres (pictured below) I have a 17Mbps broadband connection, desktop PC, Lexmark print server, Synology NAS for media and file sharing, Iomega NAS for backup and a 300Mbps Tp-link network and Wi-fi extender. Attached to the extender I have a laptop that I use as a media player to my TV and a Humax HDR-FOX T2 Freeview digital recorder running customised firmware. Until recently, performance has been fair with occasional dropouts on the media player.

What has changed to make it worse? My daughter has returned to the nest. She has two rooms, one to use as a study at the opposite end of the house from the main router. Her needs are Wi-fi for printer and phone, Ethernet for an Apple Mac, a Synology DS215J NAS and Humax T2000 Freeview digital recorder. She also has a Netflix addiction to feed.

I tried a second Wi-fi extender but my media player became unusable accompanied by regular complaints of dropouts at my daughter’s end of the house. Possible salvation arrived in Computeractive, with the offer to review devolo’s Gigagate.

Within minutes, everything was up and running, showing the units connected at 1173Mbps in both directions – excellent! Moving the satellite unit to my daughter’s room revealed a disappointing transfer of 7Mbps from the satellite and 65Mbps from the base, over a distance of 14 metres. I had placed the satellite beside other equipment, and so was close to many ‘fat plugs’.

It would seem the electromagnetic radiation from these plays havoc with the satellite unit, but it still managed to move data both ways without failing. After moving it I saw the transfer rates jump to a more respectable 585Mbps from the base and 780Mbps from the satellite. Robert Togneri, Lochmaben

(pictured above right)

I have Talktalk 38Mbps fibre broadband delivered by BT Openreach in an undereaves cupboard in my 1930s bungalow with loft conversion. The Talktalk ‘Super Router’ is located in this upstairs cupboard – not ideal. Connected devices include a smart TV, desktop PC, laptop, printer, ipad and two Android phones.

I followed the set-up diagrams. One tells you to download devolo’s Cockpit software, which helps you control your network. Problem! I got an error message when trying this online. Instead I found the downloads from the Products menu on the homepage.

How well did the Gigagate perform? In the short time I’ve been using it there have been no crashes or any obvious need for a reboot. Before upgrading its firmware the speed between the base and satellite hovered around the 1Gbps (1,000Mbps) mark. Thereafter, it has shown a constant 780Mbps, which is more than enough for me.

But it didn’t perform so well linking the satellite and Wi-fi devices. Carrying out broadband tests found speeds ranging from zero to 8Mbps download and 5Mbps upload. It seems that to get whole-house coverage one would need to buy additional satellite units at about £130 a pop.

Brian Lowing, Colyton

The connection speed to the base unit is so good that I’m considering buying another satellite to place in the lounge

I could even watch a Youtube video in my garage, where previously I had no signal