10/100 POE switch powering AP

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mailmarshall

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#142793 24-Mar-2014 21:10

The backbone of my wired home network is gigabit based switch. I have a N wifi Acess Point which can be run via power over Ethernet. Unfortunately the only poe switch I have spare is a small 4 port one and is only 10/100.

The network has couple of NAS devices and Internet access. I want to access these via the wifi.

Question is will the performance of the wifi be slow if I use the access point via the 10/100 Poe switch? All my wireless devices have N wireless cards.

Don't have the $$ to buy a gig Poe switch just yet to power the ap.

sbiddle

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#1012073 24-Mar-2014 21:21

Does the AP have a Gigabit port? Most don't as you won't typically get more than 100Mbps.

mailmarshall

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#1012079 24-Mar-2014 21:28

Yes it does have a single port - 10/100/1000baseT with auto sensing

eXDee

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#1012085 24-Mar-2014 21:37

Is a POE injector out of the question?

Dynamic

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#1012087 24-Mar-2014 21:40

Unfortunately, yes the ethernet cable will be limited to 100mbps speed. Because wireless is less efficient than cable and has a whole lot more issues around signal strength and performance (plus a lot of laptops only have Wireless N capable of 150Mbps speeds at best) you might not notice the difference in performance.

You can choose to power the wireless router locally and keep full performance, use the PoE switch and have the convenience of fewer cables, or go and spend some more money on a Gigabit PoE switch. Just check the PoE standard on the AP ad the Switch are the same. I've come across many incompatibilities due to varying standards in my relatively limited PoE exposure.

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Zeon

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#1012135 24-Mar-2014 23:46

I don't think I've ever seen 802.11n at a rate that would saturate 100mbps wired

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sbiddle

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#1012155 25-Mar-2014 05:48

Zeon: I don't think I've ever seen 802.11n at a rate that would saturate 100mbps wired

UDP at 40Mhz in a clean RF environment will be able to get well over 100Mbps, but with wireless being half duplex you'll really struggle to get that with TCP traffic.

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mailmarshall

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#1012156 25-Mar-2014 06:32

Thanks guys. I suspected the answer might be as stated but was hoping otherwise. POE injector is an option but I wanted to reuse what I had and not spend any $$$ :)

raytaylor

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#1015205 29-Mar-2014 21:54

As a general rule of thumb, i normally tell people not to expect any more than 24mbit when using older G gear (or when one or more G devices are attached to an N ap)

Or 50mbits when using dual chain N

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