Thanks all. I was trying to see if I could cut down on any of the cabling, but it seems not
If you had three devices chained together, the one in the middle could provide PoE to those either side. So any combination of three switches and/or WAPs could be run on PoE from one of them.
Interesting. Worth a try with a couple of switches. Thanks Chris
As Simon notes, you generally won’t be able to chain multiple devices, all powered by PoE. I run a (large, for a residential network) Ubiquiti network. My “core” switch powers a couple of access points, and the switch in the lounge (which feeds my ND555). I’ve got another switch in the study, which itself powers an access point and a couple of cameras. The study switch is powered by its own power supply.
As Simon also noted, the key thing to keep an eye on is the power budget. Each PoE power-consuming device (switch, access point, camera etc) will have a power requirement measured in watts, and you have to make sure that the switch providing the power has enough grunt.
As an aside, I’ve been trying different switches (thus far a Nordost QNet with a couple of Heimdall 2 ethernet cables, and now a Melco S100/2 powered by a Plixir linear power supply). I’ve yet to get into serious listening with the S100, but I couldn’t detect any difference in sound quality with the Nordost, which leads me to think that the Ubiquiti equipment, powered via PoE from another room (and on a different circuit) does a pretty good job.
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If you’re able to make it work, a simple “star” configuration cuts down on complexity. Multi-switch chaining can be a great way to end up racing around the house trying to find the switch in the chain that is causing connectivity problems.
When we did a renovation several years back, I had used the built-in wardrobe in our spare bedroom as a comms closet, with a couple of UTP runs from there into each room in the house that I wanted connectivity to. It’s worked great, and keeps things simple.
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Indeed, hub and spoke will be most reliable over time. A central switch that connects to your broadband router is technically called a distribution layer switch… that is what you will have in your loft. These will connect directly or to access switches in your rooms.
I would suggest if you have more than one or two switches, that you use basic managed switches at least such as the entry level Ubiquiti switches where you can connect to their manager screen/centralised portal and see their status … ideal when you are setting up or troubleshooting or seeing what is doing what without knowing how to configure them.
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That’s a great help folks. Much appreciated.