I was planning to put a network switch on my attic. However, I currently don’t have any power outlets there. Getting an electrician will cost a ton here. I saw that Ubiquity sells the Mini flex which is a switch than can be powered by PoE! Switch Flex Mini - Ubiquiti Store
But the problem is that I also wanted to mount an AP which will be connected to the switch and it too requires PoE.
Going out on a limb here, is there any switches that can be powered by PoE and also output PoE on at least 2 ports?
You looking for feature name PoE passthrough. 1 port poe passthrough is common, and more ports might available for special models, if you can feed it Poe++ on ingress and are okay at serving multiple Poe as clients.
EDIT: if you need to power only wifi AP there, you don’t need to output POE on 2 ports, just one.
PoE from main switch provides both uplink and power to attic switch. Attic switch the provides power and POE to AP.
I would strongly recommend to just pull second cable from main hub to attic. Its cleaner solution with less points of failure.
Or maybe instead of buying a poe switch that has its own poe power supply, you can use an injector and a regular poe switch that only has an output for powering devices.
If you already have a poe switch that you can use then all you would need to buy is a decent poe injector/splitter.
In this way, using one cable between levels, you will transfer both power for the switch and data.
It doesn’t require separate cables or buying a new poe switch if you already have one.
If you don’t plan to have more than two poe devices upstairs, you can use a poe splitter for two devices instead of a switch.
I see! Thanks for setting the correct terminology. As it looks like currently, I only need 1 PoE port for one AP. If it was easy/cheap to prepare for more however that would be nice to future proof.
I could of course run two ethernet cables to the attic but my plan was to also run ethernet from the attic switch and install jacks in different rooms.
I don’t have a PoE switch currently though. Not sure what you mean by running two ethernet to the switch? Do you mean that I will effectively get 2 PoE pass throughs?
Not two eth cables, just data ethernet and a separate electrical cable (probably dc barrel jack).
The poe injector splitter kit is two devices. You plug in power and data at one end, then both go down one cable, and come out back into two power and data cables.
Usually, the point is that you already supply DC, let’s say 12V, so you connect the switch/device normally using such terminals, i.e. the output from the splitter.
In other words, you don’t need another AC/DC PSU with a barrel jack. The terminal device receives current straight from the splitter which receives the correct W/V from the injector.
The dc jack you see in the picture is your power supply for the switch and the eth as wan.
Why did I suggest such a solution instead of the pure switchs-based poe…
Old school and the question of what will be cheaper at the end of the day.
Is a switch that can be powered via poe and power other poe devices a nice thing? Yes, but… You need to supply this power through eth from the bottom to the top.
You say you have one eth cable? Ok, and what do you have to inject power + data into this cable?
In this solution you need either two poe switches or an injector at the bottom and a switch at the top, as @ucav117 shows.
It depends how many devices you plan to connect upstairs and if you need a poe switch downstairs? and how much do you want to spend on it all… Spending $99… if your plan is to just connect one device seems a bit overkill to me. But if you need 4 1G ports, it’s ok.
If he has to stand downstairs and provide only power+data for one device in the attic, sure. Although it can be done even cheaper… instead of $99 spend only $18 TL-POE150S if OP doesn’t need a poe switch downstairs and only one device in the attic. And it already has some kind of LAN…
@greatnull@ucav117 If it’s going to be done as cheaply as possible, I don’t see the point in spending $99 or more…
There are several combinations and it’s a matter of the OP’s actual needs.
We can put a cheap poe switch downstairs and connect the AP directly in the attic if it is poe if not then a cheap splitter.
The switch at the bottom is powered directly by its AC/DC power supply.
We can put a poe switch in the attic if the OP needs more than one device. At the bottom, we use a poe injector. The switch(attic) can be a version capable of being powered by poe or a regular one, then we use a cheap splitter.
We can put a poe injector at the bottom and directly connect the AP in the attic if there is poe, if not, then a cheap splitter.
If the OP doesn’t need a new switch downstairs or in the attic and the sole purpose is to connect the AP in the attic to the existing LAN then a cheap poe injector is the cheapest option and there’s no point in spending $99 on a switch.
Yes, tbh I haven’t read the thread in detail. I just saw the question for a POE switch that is powered by POE and posted what I have used in the past to great success.
The question should also be how much does it cost to install a new electrical outlet in the attic?
It would be good if suddenly the prices of poe equipment did not start to be closer to the cost of setting up a electrical outlet in the attic.
After all, this is the main reason OP is looking for poe…
Where do you live Baxtex? Attics can often get quite hot, enough to push the operating temps above what some switches or APs are rated for. Something to keep in mind.
Yes this is a concern I have. I live in southern sweden. My attic is what I would translate to english as an “cold attic”. It means that the attic is insulated from the living spaces and is ventilated. This means that temps fluctuate a lot. This is temp data that I have:
I would say that 45 degrees can be reached in a few summer days and sometimes even 50 but not very often.
During winter it would mostly hang around 5+ to -5.
The minu flex is specced for -5 to 45+. So yeah it would probably work but there is a risk of slow dows and possibly early retirement of the unit?
The AP will not be in the attic, it will be in living spaces.
In that case, head towards the set proposed by @ucav117
Just think about the need…
Have a switch in the attic that has 4 ports, one port for the AP, you will only have three free ports for the rest of the devices. Is this number enough for you? If that’s not enough, then you need a bigger model.
Also check exactly how much it will cost you to buy these two devices in Sweden and whether the price is still optimal.
As it looks like currently, I only need 1 PoE port for one AP. If it was easy/cheap to prepare for more however that would be nice to future proof.
