[SOLVED] Help choosing network equipment

[Wetjackson]

I am trying to setup my home network and am looking for suggestions.

EXISTING
My network will have 3 different "zones", rear house, front house, and detached garage.
All of my cameras are Lorex POE IP cameras that show 12VDC as the input on the camera.
Cable connection comes into the rear house and is attached to an Arris 6190 modem.

TBD
Rear house needs 2 POE for IP cameras, wireless access point, and switch to distribute backhaul to front house and garage.

Front house needs 3 POE for cameras, wireless access point, 3 wired ports for Lutron, TV, Sercurity NVR, and SmartThings hub.

Garage (detached by 50') needs 3 POE for cameras, wireless access point, 3 wired ports for Lutron, Solar Inverter, and PC.
(I already have a brand new Netgear Insight 8 pt POE+ switch with 126w of power and it is working very good for the garage portion, but am willing to change it out if it makes for a more robust network. I don't see the VDC used for the POE, but the cameras have been working fine for weeks.)

OPTIONS
Netgear: I was looking at 2 more POE+ switches, 1 for Rear House and 1 for Front House, and the 3pack WAC510 for access points. I would connect the first WAC510 to the modem and configure it as a router, then feed to the rear switch and run the backhauls to the Front House and Garage.
I am not sure how good the WAC510 router functions will work and the switch to a switch thing seems redundant, but I am struggling with a simpler solution.

Ubiquity: I would use the 5pt Edge router for the Rear House, but it shows passive POE at either 24V or 48V and I don't want to cook my cameras. From there, I would use the AC-Lites in all 3 locations and add a switch in the Front House. If I go this route, I would probably replace my switch in the garage and use the same switch in both locations.

THOUGHTS
I know that the EdgeRouter doesn't use the Unifi app so the total system would not be visible at once, but everything from the router on would be. Not sure how big of a deal that would be.

It seems like the Netgear WAC510 has a similar issue when used in Router mode, it looks like it would not show up on the Insight app any more. This seems odd to me, but that is how I read the manual.

I am open to suggestions, won't say money isn't a factor, but I want robust, high speed connections and something that is relatively maintenance free.

 

[kanewolf]

All of my cameras are Lorex POE IP cameras that show 12VDC as the input on the camera.

That means that standard POE switches won't support them. POE switches are either 24V or 48VDC.
If they really are 12VDC only then stop looking for POE switches.
What is the model of the Lorex cameras ?

 

[Wetjackson]

I have the LNB8973BW cameras and even though they say 12VDC on the back, the documentation says they can be hooked directly to a 48VDC POE+ without issue? I have 3 of them hooked to my Netgear InsightPoE+ switch and they work great, so I am assuming this is true. I can't seem to find the voltage on the Netgear, they only show the available wattage you can use, but I am guessing it is either 24 or 48VDC

 

[bill001g]

It would be nice if companies did not confuse people by using names for their non standard implementations.

POE used to always mean 802.3af which is a 48volt active standard. POE+ normally means 802.3at. The main difference is it can provide more power but it is still a 48volt active system. Unlike passive systems active system only provide power when it is requested. Mostly because 48 volts can fry stuff.

If your cameras actual have 802.3at support they will work with 802.3at switches.

Ubiquiti makes good product but they are one of the bigger offenders when it comes to calling things POE. They also sell one of the very rare switches that puts out a 24volt passive form of POE power.

The key advantage to 48volts is it can actually go the full 100meters ethernet cables can. 24 volt system can't, I forget the length...there is no standard so it can vary by manufacture.

Another things to watch out for is if your cameras actually require POE+ (ie 802.3at) ports. 802.3at can have 30 watts where 802.3af is only 15. If your cameras actually need more than 15watts you have to have 802.3at switches, it if it is less you can hook 802.3af devices to either 802.3af or 802.3at ports.

I would try to feed as many cameras from a single switch as you have power to run. I do this because I run UPS on the POE switch and it gets expensive to buy many UPS. My cameras take a minute or two to reboot if I take even a very small power hit

 

[kanewolf]

I have the LNB8973BW cameras and even though they say 12VDC on the back, the documentation says they can be hooked directly to a 48VDC POE+ without issue? I have 3 of them hooked to my Netgear InsightPoE+ switch and they work great, so I am assuming this is true. I can't seem to find the voltage on the Netgear, they only show the available wattage you can use, but I am guessing it is either 24 or 48VDC

48VDC is 802.3af/at POE which is the newer standard. A POE switch should work. As @bill001g said, POE+ is the higher wattage 48V POE standard.
Ubiquiti UniFI has the 8 port 150W switch (all 8 ports are POE) or if you need more ports but not more POE, they have a 16 port 150W with 8 POE ports.
All of the Ubiquiti UniFI APs are 48VDC POE so there is no compatibility problems. I have one of the Mesh Pro (it does NOT have to use mesh) in my garage with an 8 port 60W switch. Right now it has 2 cameras and the AP. About 4W per port.
The Lorex Website is terrible for finding out things like the POE standard.

 

[Wetjackson]

Thanks for the replies! I am confident that the Netgear switch I am currently using is PoE+, so I am going to assume that the cameras are fine with that. I also found a cut-sheet that showed the cameras as 802.3AF with a maximum of 7.8 watts. Good thing, since when I plugged them in, I assumed that PoE was a completely universal standard.
I was also confused by the EdgeRouters being available in both 24VDC and 48VDC and the fact that they were passive. So damn confusing...