POE Switch and access points

Over Clocker · 27 Jul 2010 at 19:50

Hi guys,

We need to put up 12x wireless access points around the building and need to go for POE for them all. Was looking into getting a 16 port POE switch, was just wondering if it is best that it is the same make as the wireless access points?

Really not sure what kit to go for here!! Budget is about £1,000 or a little more for the switch and 12 points.

Cheers guys!!

Mal

bigredshark · 27 Jul 2010 at 20:02

Umm, you need 12 access points with 100m radius of a single switch? That's the maximum cable length...

Can't help you with recommendations, there's barely any POE switches I'd recommend from experience for your budget, let alone for the access points as well...

Duke · 27 Jul 2010 at 20:17

I've set up a PoE switch with a few access points coming off them last year. You don't need to have the same make, as long as both are designed for PoE you just plug in the ethernet cable and it powers up like normal.

I used Netgear Prosafe:

16 port switch - FS116p - http://www.netgear.co.uk/fastethernet_switch_fs116p.php - about £150
AP - WG102 - http://www.netgear.co.uk/wireless_accesspoint_wg102.php - about £80

Over Clocker · 27 Jul 2010 at 20:18

It is just a temporary solution until we install the Aruba fully managed solution properly. The walls are approx 2 foot thick, yes, very thick, with over 120 laptops in use, hence 12 points. Will prob be slightly less, we'll see.

We've allowed for £12 - £14,000 for the Aruba managed system, so don't want to spend too much on this temporary solution!!

Any ideas etc would be great

Cheers,

Mal

Over Clocker · 27 Jul 2010 at 21:17

Duke said:
I've set up a PoE switch with a few access points coming off them last year. You don't need to have the same make, as long as both are designed for PoE you just plug in the ethernet cable and it powers up like normal.

I used Netgear Prosafe:

16 port switch - FS116p - http://www.netgear.co.uk/fastethernet_switch_fs116p.php - about £150
AP - WG102 - http://www.netgear.co.uk/wireless_accesspoint_wg102.php - about £80

Thanks very much mate

#Chri5# · 27 Jul 2010 at 21:19

{Waits for BRS to choke on his tea}

Switch - NetGear FS726TP - 24 x 10/100, 12 of which are POE plus 2 10/100/1000 uplinks. Should cost around £200 on the street. We've got dozens of these out in the field and they are very reliable. We have found the smaller NetGear POE switchs (eg FS116P / FS108P) to have a higher failure rate (though that's a not a problem as NetGear give a lifetime warranty).

WG102s will set you back around £80 each, so you'll be just over your budget with 12 APs. You're on manual config for the APs but it's an easy GUI to setup, even with multiple SSIDs and VLANs.

Watch out on the smaller switches for their overall POE "budget". 12 WG102s will (should) pull 51.6w and a switch like the FS116p has a limit of 55w. The bigger (rack mount) FS726TP can handle 100w POE.

Over Clocker · 27 Jul 2010 at 21:33

Thanks Chris.

We can get the FS726TP for about £180 and that looks like the one to go for for that little bit of extra reliability.

Thanks again guys

#Chri5# · 28 Jul 2010 at 10:15

No worries - should be an easy job to setup

Duke · 28 Jul 2010 at 11:26

Let us know how you get on

atomiser · 28 Jul 2010 at 18:24

would be interested to hear some feedback on your aruba deployment

Over Clocker · 29 Jul 2010 at 07:36

Cheers guys. We've decided to spend a couple of hundred more and put in a very cheap WMS5316 as well.

Aruba install will all depend on funding at this site, but we have Aruba systems at a number of other sites, as well as Ruckus, and just about to get our first Meru install in the next few weeks also.

Cheers,

Mal