Tenda TEF1105P-4-63W — 5-Port 10/100Mbps Desktop Switch with 4-Port PoE

Buying it, and when not to

The TEF1105P-4-63W is a 5-port 10/100Mbps desktop switch with PoE on four of its ports and a 63W total power budget. It is the smallest, cheapest way to power devices over Ethernet in this catalogue.

Use it for the small powered job: two or three IP cameras at a gate or shopfront, a ceiling access point or two in a small shop, an intercom panel, a single stall or kiosk. One uplink in, up to four powered devices out, no injectors, no adaptors in ceilings or on poles. For a camera installation of a handful of units it is often the entire network side of the job.

The ports are 10/100, not gigabit - that is the compromise at this price. For cameras at modest resolution it is usually invisible; for a modern access point serving a busy room, or a site where several high-resolution cameras write to a recorder at once, 100Mbps ports will become the limit and you should buy the gigabit TEG1105P-4-63W instead. Watch the 63W budget too: four hungry devices will exhaust it, and devices that brown out intermittently are among the hardest faults to diagnose. For more ports, step to the TEF1110P-8-63W - but note that spreads the same 63W further, so check your power arithmetic rather than your port count.