Need more POE ports, can I just add a second POE switch?

T

TooOldToKnowBetter

IPCT Contributor
Sep 26, 2018
22
8
Northern CA USA
I have an unmanaged 8-port switch and need two more ports. Would there be any problems/secrets in adding a second unmanaged 8-port switch? The second switch would connect to the same Ethernet hub the first switch uses. (I found a few posts but I wanted to double check).

TIA
 
As long as that "hub" is another switch and not your router, no problem.
 
as above ---
thats what I have - a poe switch plugged into another poe switch, out 100' away with 2 more cams wired in to it.
works great with good cable, and power to it.
 
juliand said:
as above ---
thats what I have - a poe switch plugged into another poe switch, out 100' away with 2 more cams wired in to it.
works great with good cable, and power to it.
Click to expand...
Thanks! So your second poe switch just plugs into one of the first switch's regular ethernet ports? My first switch has 8 poe ports and 2 regular ethernet ports.
 
yes sir. they also happen to be plus switches also - to help with the extra range
 
TooOldToKnowBetter said:
I have an unmanaged 8-port switch and need two more ports. Would there be any problems/secrets in adding a second unmanaged 8-port switch? The second switch would connect to the same Ethernet hub the first switch uses. (I found a few posts but I wanted to double check).

TIA
Click to expand...

Not a problem to do that at all. I did that at first until I ended up buying a 24-port POE switch.
 
sebastiantombs said:
As long as that "hub" is another switch and not your router, no problem.
Click to expand...

Technically if he had a multi-port router, he could plug his 2nd POE switch into an empty router port right?
 
@bradner Yes, technically he could but the problem is that ISP style routers have relatively low bandwidth capabilities. It's very easy to overload them with video traffic especially with a larger number of cameras. There is also no need to "route" traffic through a router because all camera traffic should be limited, and blocked, from needing access to the internet at all. A local time server takes care of time sync duties and updates should be downloaded, and applied, locally through the GUI of the camera.

Using multiple, smaller, PoE switches also eliminates a single point of failure. If one goes down for some reason the rest of the cameras can continue to operate normally on the additional switches.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JNDATHP, looney2ns, bradner and 2 others
I assume your referring to a layer 2 switch, so you should have no issue in connecting both switches together however you may have to use a crossover cable if it doesn't auto mdix
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom