PoE Limits for GS105PE

[PalouseTech]

Hello:

The GS105PE switch is a great idea and potential problem solver.  Unfortunately, due to one design flaw, it is only "almost" useful.

There are a few different switches that support PoE Passthrough on a single port.  What makes this switch so awesome is that it has two ports.  With an 802.3at (PoE+) feed, there is enough power to power two devices of common PoE types (for example, two PoE telephones).    Of course, with this its also potentially possible to plug in two devices that use too much power and end up overloading the feed port.  Fortunately, MOST poe devices out there do not have this problem.

Unfortunately, this switch is hamstrung by a design choice: the overload problem is solved by PoE class limitations rather than actual current limits.  In order to use both ports, you have to plug in class 1/2 devices, if you have even one class0 or class3 device, then you only get one.  Period.  Even if that device only wants 2.5w.

This is a more extreme problem than it appears because most PoE PE chip makers have switched to only making class 3 chips.  Thus most devices advertise class 3, even if they only need class 2.  Except for this switch, this is no issue, as normal PoE switches regulate by combined power, not class.  That's why I can get an 8 port 60W PoE switch that supports class 3.  At full class 3, that allows nearly 13 watts per port, or 104W for all 8 ports.

It appears Netgear used this worst-case design method when designing this device.  Please correct this huge oversight and just use power limiting rather than class-based limiting.  It would be fine to shut off the port output and flash the power light if the total available budget is exceeded.  Without that, this becomes a single-port PoE passthrough, not the two port its advertised as.

Jim Kusznir

Palouse Technology Services

(who is now returning 3 of these devices just purchased, as they are useless as currently implemented)

[DaneA]

Hi PalouseTech,

Welcome to the community! 🙂 

Thank you for posting your feedback about the GS105PE switch.  Our development team will be reviewing your observations about the GS105PE and assess it.  

Be reminded that the more kudos given by community members to your feature request will help as the development team will be reviewing the post that has the most kudos and might be considered.  

Regards,

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

[Iruwen]

Has this been resolved? The GS105PE would perfect for our use case if it was designed reasonably, we need to power class 2 devices and devices that don't identify as class 2 but use 3W max as well. With the issue described, this doesn't work. It would be sufficient if the power sourcing ports could be configured to assume a specific power class if none is given. I guess even the GSS108EPP can do that (at least the data sheet says "User-defined PoE power limit per port (override detected Class)").

[DaneA]

@Iruwen,

Is your GS105PE switch already updated to the latest firmware version?  If not yet, I suggest you to try to update the firmware to the latest v1.5.0.5.  You can download it here.  Be reminded to perform a factory reset after updating the firmware then reconfigure the settings from scratch in order to start clean using the latest firmware version.  Then, check if same problem occurs.

Regards,

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

[Iruwen]

I got one for testing - this still isn't configurable with the latest firmware, which makes the two port PD feature useless for many PoE devices.

[DaneA]

@Iruwen,

Thank you for the update.  I believe it would be best if you open a support ticket with NETGEAR Support here at anytime and let them know about your concern.

Regards,

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

[cdoublejj]

I found that the D Link DGS-1100-05PD allows PoE Class override! So you can manually classify the wattage for each of the 2 devices! It's not a netgear but, it also has a Web GUI. I already filed for retunr on newegg for my GS105PE and i'll just get the DLINK, it's also cheaper too. Sorry netgear unless you roll out firmware that allows manual PoE override this thing is almost usefull and almost fales advertising. I like your products but, i'm not even sure if a netgear AP would proepr clissfie it's self to run off the GS105PE AND run an IP camera.