We love wireless, except that it needs a wire to power it! In many cases, hanging your wireless access point or wireless gateway in the highest location possible in your house will offer the best balance of indoor and outdoor range. Placing your AP/Wireless gateway on the roof or in your attic can be a major headache. We show you how to remove the extension cord and power your access point or wireless gateway over the Ethernet cable that you already have running into the WAN port of the unit.

Quick Tip:
Making your own power over Ethernet cable
* WARNING - doing this wrong could SERIOUSLY FRY your access point and may void your warranty, proceed with caution!

Keep in mind this works with ANY access point or wireless gateway. Most SOHO wireless routers or access points do not have Power over Ethernet (POE) built into their products. Power over Ethernet allows you to run only a single RJ-45 cable (Ethernet) to your access point, and run the power over the unused pairs of wires within the RJ-45 cable. In Category 5e cables, there are 2 pairs of wires (4 wires total) that are unused and can be used to inject power into your cable. Running power over your Ethernet cable can often save you time and extension cords by trying to run power up to the access point. If you have your AP or gateway in your attic or near your rafters in your roof, getting power up to that location is tough.
















The RJ-45 cable ends are shown before cutting and splicing (sheath removed) (Click to Enlarge)

Power over Ethernet is a specification that allows for your router or access point to draw its power internally from the unused pins (4/5 and 7/8) in the cable. Since many routers do not have this, we will "hack" a RJ-45 cable and "inject" our DC power supply into the cable, and on the far end of the RJ-45 cable, we will "extract" the power from the RJ-45 cable before it goes into the AP or gateway. This is not true Power over Ethernet, just a rigged version to help make your life easier!

The first step is to find your power supply for your AP or wireless gateway. Examine the OUTPUT power, most of these are around 9-12v DC. The ORiNOCO BG-2000 that we use for this tutorial is a 9V DC supply. Find out which wire on the power supply is positive and negative. The Agere BG-2000 has Tip positive, and the power supply positive wire has a white stripe in it. (See picture 1 )
Cut your power supply down near the end that plugs into the gateway, leaving about 6 inches. (See picture 1 ) Strip the wiring around each end of the power supply and the cut end. Make sure you keep note of which wire on each end is positive. Put these aside.

Now, take your RJ-45 cable and splice into the cable about 6" from each end and remove the sheath around a 2-3 inch area on each end. (See screenshot from abive) Our cable is a 25 foot Category 5e by Belkin. Pins 1/2 and 3/6 are the ones we DO NOT WANT TO CUT. Identify the wires 4/5 and 7/8. In our cable, 4/5 is the blue and blue/white wire, and the 7/8 is the brown and brown/white wire. (For help see this site) Cut these wires on the RJ-45 plug end, leaving wires 1/2 and 3/6 intact. Do this on each end of the RJ-45, being careful not to damage or cut any of the other wires. Strip each of the cut wires about 1" down. Twist the blue pair of stripped wires together, and do the same with the brown pair. Do this on each side of the cable. (See picture 1)

Now, take your POSITIVE stripped wire of your power supply end, and twist that POSITIVE wire onto the blue pair. Take the NEGATIVE wire from the power supply and twist that with the brown pair. (See photos) Now take the small end of the power supply that you cut (See photo) and find the POSITIVE wire. Twist the wire with the blue pair on the other end of the RJ-45 cable. Take the NEGATIVE wire and twist that with the brown pair. Proceed to the testing phase below, make sure your cable works great and then tape it up with electrical tape, making sure to protect the "hot" wires from the network wires. (See pictures 1 2 3)

















The 4/5 & 7/8 pairs spliced on each end with the proper power supply end (Click to Enlarge)


TESTING: Be cautious when you test. First, during construction you would have tested the cable after you cut the wires 4/5 and 7/8. This means the cable still works and you cut the right wires. After you splice in the power supply ends, you should NOT plug it in to the outlet, you should first test the cable without any power at all. It should work fine.

Now, UNPLUG the RJ-45 from the PC that you are using to test, and leave both RJ-45 ends unplugged. Now, plug in the power supply end, and then test the gateway or access point for power. It should power up fine, if not, kneel down and pray, wipe the sweat from your brow, and check it again using the power supply in it's original condition. This is a pain, but is safer than plugging in the gateway again with your cable. Check your connections, use a multitester to be 100% safe, and you should have no problems.

The BG-2000 with our custom POE (power over Ethernet) cable with gobs of electrical tape. (Click to Enlarge)

Keep in mind that if you make your own power over Ethernet cable that is over a total length of 100 feet, you should do more research on the resistance of the RJ-45 wires. You could inject 9V in one end, and only come out with 6V or less on the other end depending on the total distance. We found some great info on http://www.nycwireless.net