Devolo dLAN 200 AV USB extender review

The USB Extender doesn’t let you share USB devices. You have to associate an attached printer or drive with a certain computer. If you access the Extender from another PC, instead of an option to connect or disconnect a USB device, you’ll get the option to “take over” the USB port – disassociating it from your other computer so you can use it to your own ends. We also tried plugging in a USB hub, to see whether we could access multiple drives over the network; the extender recognised our hub but warned us that devices attached to it might not work, which they didn’t.

As a way of extending access to a printer, the dLAN 200 AV USB Extender is a limited success. It works, but only with one PC or laptop at a time. You can also only access USB drives from one associated PC at a time, and transfer speeds are slow; we measured a top speed of only 2.4Mbit/s when transferring large files from an attached drive to our computer.

If you want to share USB device on your network you’re better off buying the Belkin Home Base. This gives you four USB ports, supports USB hubs and up to 15 connected devices, and costs around £50.