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I have an EnGenius EAP350 Access Point that supports 802.3af PoE. After digging through the specs sheets online, I believe that the AP requires 48V@.375A when using POE. Currently I have the AP running directly on a power adapter, however I'd like to move it to a ceiling mount in the middle of the house. So far I haven't been able to find any mention of supported PoE injector models for this AP on the EnGenius website. When I called their technical support, I asked the person about whether or not this AP supports mesh and which types of POE injectors were supported. The support person just stammered on about how their new products had so many more better features and told me the only way to use PoE for the AP was to use a PoE compatible switch.

I hung up the phone.

So here I am asking you all if anyone knows the difference between PoE injectors that are 802.3af compliant, but some say Gigabit and others say only 10/100. According to the Wikipedia page on PoE, the power pinouts for 10/100 and 10/100/1000 appear to be the same; Using pins 3,4,7, and 8 for power. I know that the physical difference for 10/100 and 10/100/1000 is that the for gigabit, all eight pins are utilized in the cable for bi-directional communication whereas in 10/100 only 4 pins are utilized.

If I buy an el cheapo PoE injector that says it's 802.3af compliant will the data connection still remain at gigabit speeds, or will it get knocked down to 10/100 speeds? My guess is that if it get's knocked down to 10/100 it's because the power pins on the POE side are not connected to the data side. Can I just jumper the pins on the connectors with some diodes/resistors/or something to make the injector work at gigabit speeds?

Of course, I could just go buy a gigabit PoE injector, but I'm cheap and DIY is usually what fits the budget.

вʀaᴎᴅᴏƞ вєнᴎєƞ
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  • That particular model does appear to be gigabit, why would you assume the connection would drop to 10/100? Where does mesh networking come into play exactly? – Richie086 Jan 12 '16 at 08:48
  • @richie086, I'm assuming the connection would drop if the PoE injector is only 10/100. The mesh networking was in regards to possibly getting a second AP, one for the front of the house and one for the back; I didn't know if the model I have would support a single SSID for both APs. – вʀaᴎᴅᴏƞ вєнᴎєƞ Jan 12 '16 at 09:37
  • If your router supports a technology called WDS you should be able to do it. – Richie086 Jan 12 '16 at 11:48
  • I personally use a 802.3af gigabit device in my network to provide network connectivity to devices in the family room (where the tv is) and I do get a full gigabit connection (according to a managed switch that one end of the PoE adapter connects to). – Richie086 Jan 12 '16 at 11:55

1 Answers1

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To run at gigibit speed you switch needs all four pairs of your cable cat5 or cat6. 10/100 only requires two pairs to operate. Using any POE device required two pairs to send 12/24/48 volts so you switch will drop to 10/100 even if it’s a 1 gig poe switch. If you device is locally powered then it would run at Gigibit speed. As the switch can only work in the two modes.

Brian barber
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