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

TooOldToKnowBetter

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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
 

juliand

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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.
 

TooOldToKnowBetter

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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.
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.
 

juliand

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yes sir. they also happen to be plus switches also - to help with the extra range
 

Mike A.

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Not sure what you're calling a "hub?"

You really shouldn't have any true hubs involved.
 

bradner

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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
Not a problem to do that at all. I did that at first until I ended up buying a 24-port POE switch.
 

sebastiantombs

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@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.
 

Jinksy

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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
 
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