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Power over Ethernet (PoE)

Mikeyg40

Regular Member
Hello all..

It's a slight aside from the main thread subject but I thought it worth a mention to all of you that are, or have considered using PoE to provide power to your router stuffed away in a loft without electricity.

Don't do it.

My own trials and tribulations with Three HomeFi are discussed in another thread, but having invested in an outdoor antenna, I chose to put the router in the loft so as to avoid the big antenna cables coming into the bedroom. I then ran an Ethernet cable direct to my PC. As I had no power up there, I read up on PoE which seemed like a great solution......

Soon enough I noticed that the d/l speeds over Ethernet were pretty much half those that my Wi-fi connected iPhone and smart Tv were getting?

As you will have worked out, once I removed the PoE injectors and ran an electrical extension cable into the loft, all was well again.

I watched countless videos and read many articles on PoE, which make it clear that it does not degrade the Ethernet signal - well not in my case!

Ethernet is now all good and I'm getting around 70Mbps down - and for those that didn't see the other thread - that compares with 7Mbps fixed Broadband on an OE line.
 
I use PoE extensively, and I've only had a problem with one injector which only worked at 100Mbps rather than 1Gbps.
Did you use a PoE router, or did you try to use a pair of PoE injectors with the original router power supply?
 
I use PoE extensively, and I've only had a problem with one injector which only worked at 100Mbps rather than 1Gbps.
Did you use a PoE router, or did you try to use a pair of PoE injectors with the original router power supply?
A Tp-Link injector and splitter at either end of the Ethernet cable, set to the correct voltage output. In fairness, they did provide power to the router albeit at the expense of performance.

I didn't make it clear previously - apologies to all. I'm fairly certain that the Ethernet cable is at fault - but that's part of the point.

I spent £25 on a generic 5m cat6 cable from Amazon which clearly stated that it was PoE compatible, which evidently, it ain't!

As an aside, I watched a video about Ethernet cables only yesterday on Youtube and was amazed to learn that there are dozens of variations of just a simple cat5e cable.

So, if you're confident that your cable is right then give PoE a go. But certainly for me as an enthusiast rather than an expert, it is more trouble than it's worth.
 
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If you used an injector and the router's power supply, it is possible it is a noisy output - lots of switching power supplies create electrical noise which wouldn't normally be a problem but could cause problems when sharing a cable with an ethernet signal.
As an aside I can recommend the Ubiquiti ToughCable Pro as a good quality but not too expensive cable. I've used a couple of drums, and it has worked well inside and out - and the rats haven't eaten it unlike some other brands. If running it between buildings with different earths, only earth one end of the cable shield.
 
PoE is fine if done properly, I know a few people who use it on UK VDSL circuits with the HG612. You need a proper 802.3at/af extractor the lower current ones aren't powerful enough to power the VDSL modem.

I use passive PoE for other things, wifi ap's, lte modem but it didn't work with the HG612 when I tested that.

There's a really small Mikrotik switch with proper PoE ports, ideal for small office or home installs.

A lot of PoE switches can monitor the modem's IP address and power cycle if it loses contact, it's also helpful to be able to tell the switch to power cycle the port remotely. A friend with two bonded lines uses it too greatly reduces cable clutter and ensures the modem is on the same (hopefully UPS) power as the switch.

I'n my case I was able to remove some dodgy internal telephone wiring back to the master socket, no power near the master socket but PoE was a better solution to that.
 
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