Help with a POE switch set up.

[Birchaholic]

Hello,

 

I'm looking for help with a set up. I have a old (2009) 48 port cisco catalyst poe switch and I want to install it in my house to have all of my devices hooked up directly to the internet. The switch works and I tested it on my desktop PC and it connected to the internet right away. BUT..... I'm worried about POEing my devices. I have heard that if a device does not require POE but receives POE it can ruin the electronic it is sending power to. Devices I will have hooked up directly to the switch will be TVs, TV boxes, playstations, computers etc. In the research I have done I found that you are able to turn on and off the POE on each individual port but me not being a super tech savey guy, I have no idea how to do this. I have also read that POE switches will only send power out if the device it is hooked up to requires it. When I hooked it up to my desktop it was a plug and go set up. No programming or anything like that, so does that mean I can do the same with with all of my devices?

 

Any help with this topic would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you

Kevin 

[Electronics Wizardy]

The switch won't provide POE power if a device doesn't need it. There is system to check if a device wants poe before any power is send. I have a few 48 port poe switches and plugged almost everything I have into them and no problems.

[Kisai]

32 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

The switch won't provide POE power if a device doesn't need it. There is system to check if a device wants poe before any power is send. I have a few 48 port poe switches and plugged almost everything I have into them and no problems.

More or less.

 

The switch does not power devices that don't need it, however the switch does have a limit to how much power it will supply, so read the manual to see how many ports can be powered based on the PoE devices. Like for example at my office there are 256 ports, but only enough power for 192 (3/4 of them) deskphones. 

 

Managed switches may need you to log into them and manually enable the ports. 

[PineyCreek]

Switch> Enable
Switch# conf t
Switch(config)# interface <interface ID>
Switch(config-if)# power inline never

Switch(config-if)# end
Switch# copy run start

 

I think that would work.  It's been years since I touched Cisco though.

 

Also, I don't think you need to do anything since POE follows standards, and the switch will check if the device needs POE.

 

In reference to your earlier worry, anything connected to anything with an electrically conductive material can cause an issue with a surge, so surge protect things you care about, ex, both the POE switch and TV.  That way, as long as things perform to standards, you shouldn't have much to worry about.

[beersykins]

The above works.

 

The devices negotiate power, you shouldn't receive power if the NICs don't negotiate it.

21 hours ago, Birchaholic said:

When I hooked it up to my desktop it was a plug and go set up. No programming or anything like that, so does that mean I can do the same with with all of my devices?

Probably, a default configuration has a flat network which should behave similarly to a normal unmanaged switch.  You probably want to put spanning-tree portfast on all of those unless you like waiting for STP listening and learning states.

[Birchaholic]

Is there a site or program to download that would show me all the ports and allow to configure each individual port? Like some sort of port management program?

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, Birchaholic said:

Is there a site or program to download that would show me all the ports and allow to configure each individual port? Like some sort of port management program?

Your switch you have a cli that lets you manage it.

 

But for poe, just use it normally and it will give poe if needed, don't worry about that hurting devices.

[Birchaholic]

Awesome!!! Thank you everyone for your help. I was nervous of this switch ruining my devices but you all have reassured me that it wont. Thanks again.