Hacker Friendly

Here is an interesting article by Ron Wickersham on how to mod a Netgear FS116P POE switch to provide power on the unused pairs. This makes it possible to use the switch to power gear that expects it on the unused pairs rather than the data pairs. This includes equipment such as the Soekris 4526, Metrix kits, etc. If you have one of these Netgear switches, it’s much easier to mod the switch itself rather than to mod the Soekris board.

This mod is necessary due to design decisions made by both manufacturers coupled with a slightly nebulous specification. Ron’s quote from the Soekris mailing list sums it up nicely:

“Compliance with the 802.3af standard does not guarantee that equipment will interoperate.”