general question on POE+ Switches

bfordbford
in WiFi - General Questions

We currently don't have any POE Switches in place. We're using Cisco Catalyst 2960 series for our network.
I need to add more ports so I want to go with POE+ ports/Switches since we seem to be adding AP's.

What works well with WG AP's, what are others using, which ones are somewhat easier to setup (I don't use/know the cisco io/cli interface, using Cisco Network Assistant-Gue), any brand recommendations, one over another?

I'm not looking at a big switch, 12 - 16 port mangaged switch.

Thanks

Comments

  • greggmh123greggmh123

    I suspect that any 802.3at compatible switch would work with any brand of 802.3af/at access points. I use UniFi access points and they work fine on multiple switch brands, even cheap Netgear and TP-Link switches. I can't imagine any reason why WatchGuard APs would not work. They also work on my Cisco SG300 series PoE switches and they work when connected to a T35's PoE port.

    Gregg Hill

  • bfordbford

    Gregg,
    Thanks for that input.
    I'm just curious what others are using. If anyone had any opinions / experience with good or bad brands.

  • greggmh123greggmh123

    Their APs should work with anything 802.3at compliant, so it's really just which vendor's interface you want to deal with.

    You didn't mention your price range. On the low end of switches, I just bought a TP-Link TL-SG108PE when I used to buy Netgear GS108PE switches, although both are only 802.3af and not PoE+. They both work fine powering any PoE 802.3af device I have (sorry, no WG APs!), but the TP-Link's VLAN setup was much nicer than Netgear's. PoE was plug & play, of course.

    In my office and at my largest client, I have a Cisco SG300-10PP and they have a Cisco SG300-52P. VLANs, QoS, PoE on/off are all easy to do via web UI. I haven't touched a Cisco CLI since I got my CCNA in 2003. I have had HP switches (non-PoE) that were easy to configure in the web UI.

    Six of one; half dozen of the other?

    Gregg Hill

  • bfordbford

    Gregg,
    Thanks again for the input.
    At lease it's more food for thought.

  • james.carsonjames.carson Moderator, WatchGuard Representative

    Biggest thing I'd suggest watching is power budget -- on any of those switches there will be a max wattage.

    If the max wattage is 400w on a 16 port switch, and each AP uses 50W, then you're only going to be able to power 8 of them on that switch. (I'm using round numbers to make the math easy.)

    If you're looking for a way to power off of the firewall itself, T70/T80 has 2 PoE+ ports on board, and M440 has 8 PoE+ on board.

    -James Carson
    WatchGuard Customer Support

  • bfordbford

    James,
    Thank you for your input!

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