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I have the above Nanostation which I believe is a POE device. I have been told that I can plug it directly into my pc ethernet port. As it is powered I am concerned that I may damage my pc. If I cannot plug in direct what do I need to hook it up to the pc

Eric Britten
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1 Answers1

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You can plug it in just fine.

The AP simply won't supply any power, and the computer won't draw any power. Per a previous Superuser post:

Yes, it is perfectly safe. The switch performs a check before it applies power.

The following is drawn from this site; the last couple of paragraphs (emphasis added) have the relevant bits.

Network cables, such as Cat 5e and Cat 6, comprise eight wires arranged as four twisted pairs. In 10 and 100BASE-T Ethernet, two of these pairs are used for sending information, and these are known as the data pairs. The other two pairs are unused and are referred to as the spare pairs (Gigabit Ethernet uses all four pairs).

<p>Because electrical currents flow in a loop, two conductors are required to deliver power over a cable. PoE treats each pair as a single conductor, and can use either the two data pairs or the two spare pairs to carry electrical current.</p>

<p>Power over Ethernet is injected onto the cable at a voltage between 44 and 57 volts DC, and typically 48 volts is used. This relatively high voltage allows efficient power transfer along the cable, while still being low enough to be regarded as safe.</p>

<p>This voltage is safe for users, but it can still damage equipment that has not been designed to receive PoE. Therefore, before a PoE switch or midspan (known as a PSE, for power sourcing equipment) can enable power to a connected IP camera or other equipment (known as a PD, for powered device), it must perform a signature detection process.</p>

<p>Signature detection uses a lower voltage to detect a characteristic signature of IEEE-compatible PDs (a 25kOhm resistance). Once this signature has been detected, the PSE knows that higher voltages can be safely applied.</p>

Additionally, PoE is configurable within the Nanostation's software.

JMY1000
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