Power Over Ethernet -- allows the transmission of electricity via network cables to power lower-powered electronic devices.
How it works - A Network Switch is connected to your network with PoE capabilities.
- The network switch pushes electricity down your network cable to power the device the network cable will be attached to.
- The device doesn't need an electric outlet -- it gets its power from the network cable.
- The device must be PoE-ready to support this network power.
- Optionally, a splitter can be used at the device which will create a small electric outlet for the device to plug into. This is not recommended, just here for completeness. Buy PoE devices.
Pro-Tips - Some cheap network switches wont put out full power (15w per network connection) -- be careful what you buy
- Any Cat5e network cable is fine. Don't buy something ridiculously expensive. It all works the same. You'll be dead before it's obsolete, anyway.
- PoE Network switches are expensive compared to non-PoE. Get used to it and think how much you saved not having an electrician install a power outlet.
- If you only have a single PoE device, an inline-PoE pump can be purchased that will power up just one network cable.
Why PoE is awesome - If the power goes out -- your PoE switch can keep all your RFID readers running.
- If the power goes out -- your PoE switch can keep all your VIDEO cameras running.
- And, no doubt someone says, "There's no light though!" -- so use infrared.
- No electricity needed. Getting electric outlets installed is no fun. Network cabling is easy.
- No one bumps the big transformer off the power outlet.
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