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Product Reviews
November 2004


Juice Box

System Engineering International, Inc., (SEI)
5115 Pegasus Court, Suite Q,
Frederick, MD 21704
Tel.: 800-765-4734
Web: www.seipower.com
Price: 24-port Juice Box, AC powered, with Web/SNMP and serial interfaces – $1,239. With serial only – $999

Editor's Choice Award

RATINGS (0-5)
Installation: 5
Documentation: 5
Features: 4.75
GUI: 4.5
Overall: A


SEI’s Juice Box is a mid-span Power over Ethernet solution for VoIP, Wireless Access Points, and other PoE applications. The Juice Box is fully compliant with the IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet standard and will also provide power to many legacy devices. With the Juice Box, there is no need to replace your existing Ethernet infrastructure to realize the advantages of Power over Ethernet. The Juice Box eliminates multiple cables to networking devices by injecting power on the Ethernet cable. In addition to eliminating multiple cables, the Juice Box allows centralized backup power for all connected devices. Centralized UPS backup is less expensive, more reliable, and easier to maintain than individual UPS backup.
PoE allows power to be supplied to end devices, such as Wireless Access Points or VoIP phones, directly through the existing LAN cables. By supplying the power mid-span, you can centralize power distribution and backup without the need to increase infrastructure.

It can even provide power to legacy devices that do not support the latest power over Ethernet standards. For example, it supports legacy IP phones (non-802.3af) such as the AltiGen HP300, 3Com NBX 1102, Cisco 7910, Toshiba IPT1020, and more. It also supports powering legacy wireless access points from Avaya, D-Link, Proxim, Symbol, and others.

The Juice Box features LED indicators that display power status, fault status, network link status, and more. We found it to be extremely easy to set up. We simply changed our PC’s IP address to match the default IP configuration of the Juice Box, launched a browser and then typed http://192.168.0.30 to access the Web administration console. We turned on 802.af and legacy support for Port 1 and immediately it detected the Pingtel xPressa phone we had plugged in and showed a green icon indicating it was providing power. We didn’t see a way of changing the IP address from the Web browser. Instead we had to use a serial cable, which was a minor inconvenience. Also from the Web interface we were able to set the Max Port Power, which is important for legacy devices so you don’t fry the equipment.

Features

  • Fully compliant with the IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet standard.
  • Powers non-802.3af legacy devices.
  • Web and SNMP interfaces are standard.
  • 1U chassis size.
  • Status LEDs for AC power, network link, and DC port power.
  • Easy configuration with simple Web-based interface.
  • SNMP interface allows integration into existing Network management.
  • Eliminates multiple cable runs.
  • Allows centralized UPS backup.

Conclusion
All in all, the Juice Box delivers what it needs to — the amount of power you need on a port-by-port basis, an easy to use Web interface, support for legacy IP phones as well as the 802.3af power over Ethernet standard. TMC Labs was very pleased with the ease of use and the features of the Juice Box all in a 1U rackmountable chassis.

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