Managed or unmanaged
An unmanaged switch is a splitter: plug in and it works — fine for a home or a couple of devices. A managed one adds VLANs (isolating cameras from the office LAN), QoS, port monitoring and loop protection; in an office network it repays the price difference with the first incident you actually diagnose.
The rule of thumb: more than a dozen devices, or cameras and telephony on the network — go managed.
PoE: powering cameras over the data cable
A PoE switch powers cameras, access points and IP phones over the data cable — no sockets at the camera. Count the power budget: a regular camera draws 6–8 W, an IR dome up to 12 W, a PTZ up to 25 W, a Wi-Fi 6 AP up to 20 W. A typical 8-port switch carries 60–120 W — not enough for eight PTZs.
Watch the standard too: 802.3af gives up to 15 W per port, 802.3at (PoE+) up to 30 W, bt up to 60–90 W. Keep 20–30 % headroom — winter camera heating adds load.
L2, L3 and uplinks
An L2 switch lives inside one network — the access layer: a floor, a room, a camera rack. L3 routes between subnets and becomes the enterprise core: departments are isolated, inter-VLAN traffic is controlled. A small office does not need L3 — L2 with a gigabit uplink to the router is enough.
The uplink is the bottleneck: with 24 gigabit ports in use, a 10G SFP+ uplink to the core or server is the sane choice. We match Hikvision, MikroTik, TP-Link, Ruijie and H3C switches to the task, preconfigure VLANs and offer H3C partner pricing on projects.
FAQ
Which switch fits 8 CCTV cameras?
An 8-port PoE unit with a 90 W+ budget and two uplinks — for the NVR and the LAN. Heated and PTZ cameras need their power counted separately.
How is a switch different from a router?
The router connects the network to the internet and hands out addresses; the switch multiplies ports inside the network. A typical office runs both.
What is a VLAN for?
A VLAN splits one physical switch into isolated networks: cameras cannot see accounting, guest Wi-Fi cannot see servers. Configured once on a managed switch.
Installation works cost calculator
Set the number of points — the calculator lays out a site plan and shows the range from our standard price list. One minute, no phone calls.
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