Outdoor poe switch

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danristheman

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Jan 25, 2011
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I am looking for an outdoor poe switch for security cams, so i can run 1 can cat5 cable into the house. I want to get rid of some wires out side the house. Any ideas?
 
You might have better luck searching for a weatherproof outdoor plastic control box similar to what phone and cable companies use and mount a traditional PoE switch inside.

Something like this:

Orbit 57095 Sprinkler System Weather-Resistant Outdoor-Mounted Controller Timer Box Cover Amazon product ASIN B000VYGMF2


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They don't make such a beastie that is humanly affordable. The one that Amazon lists is around $580. An enclosure is the way to go although I don't recommend one that is only drip resistant as you'd have to buy an outdoor switch to put in it erasing any savings.

You could make one but cord grips and CAT5 can be problematic unless you get grips that have glands specifically designed for network cable.

I think I'd opt for a steel box so I could ground it if your cables go topside at any point.

Know that even outdoor-rated CAT5 typically isn't happy about substantial sun exposure.
 
There is another thread going on this week about where I post a link for Primex boxes (grey cable/tel boxes).
Switches good for outdoors?

I use them both for satellite and for what you're talking about - putting a POE switch inside it. If you put it near an outside utility ground, you could ground the POE switch or satellite switch.

Another other option for POE is to use a Mikrotik Powerbox to be your POE switch and is also indoor/outdoor.
MikroTik
 
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It is one thing to be drip-proof and quite another to be water tight. Satellite switches are a lot less sensitive to heat and moisture than are POE switches that use convection cooling.

POE switches not only perform switching functions but they also include power supplies that provide up to 10 watts per port.
 
It is one thing to be drip-proof and quite another to be water tight. Satellite switches are a lot less sensitive to heat and moisture than are POE switches that use convection cooling.

POE switches not only perform switching functions but they also include power supplies that provide up to 10 watts per port.

We get 12-15 feet of rain annually where I live and work and can attest to the fact that waterproof doesn't really exist, but keeping outdoor electronics out of direct wind and rain with outdoor boxes, as well as using gel or dryblock direct burial ethernet or RG6 will all but eliminate most weather threats.

The most common danger I have seen was water getting into cables that were not gel or dryblock types that then runs into the the device at the other end. Its crazy to see water dripping out of someone's IP device after they ran a standard-type cable, the jacket cracked and filled with water that then pushed up into and out the wire end. It happens. Using the right parts, the most you'll get are mild corrosion over time.
 
Its crazy to see water dripping out of someone's IP device
Used to work at a drive-in theater,came in to start getting ready to open for the nite.Go in to the projection room and there's water pouring out of the service panel,WTF,a little gully washer storm had just gone thru.Anyway,I killed the main and took the cover off the panel,there's water coming out of one of the mc cables that fed a security light,pulled it out of the panel and set up a fan to dry the panel out.Traced the cable to see which light it went to and went up on the roof to check it out.Here's the cable pointing straight up on the mast,no box,and a wad of electricians putty laying on the roof :rolleyes: ,I fixed it the next day,properly.
 
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Exposing ethernet cables to the weather is not really a good idea, and having them out in the open somewhat truncates the purpose of a security camera... too easy to cut. Every situation is different though, what ever works for you, but the switch has to be kept dry in any case.
 
Overall I just wanted to reduce my wires through the windows and make it look better, instead of having 6 or 7 wires just have 1 or 2 cat 5 cables. I am trying to upgrade my system up to 4k to see what it can really do.
 
I am trying to upgrade my system up to 4k to see what it can really do.
Remember that at some level, you're leaning pretty hard on the switch to consolidate much of the camera traffic into a single port as it travels from the switch back to the DVR/NVR. When you home run the cameras, each has direct access to the switch built into the recorder. Putting a switch in the middle bunches things up quite a bit.

Remember that real time compressed 4K coming from a camera is a lot more bandwidth than a exhaustively compressed Netflix or Amazon UHD video (less multichannel audio).

There's a calculator on a security website that figures bandwidth. I ran four 5MP cameras at 30fps in high quality and came up with 96.24Mbps of h.264 compressed video. I suppose 4K resolution would be somewhere upwards of 150Mbps that is well into gigabit Ethernet territory.
 
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