PowerBox Pro (RB960PGS-PB)

The PowerBox Pro (product code RB960PGS-PB) is the larger PowerBox: five gigabit ports, four of which can supply power, plus one SFP cage. It belongs in the same places as the ordinary PowerBox, but where 100 Mbit is not enough or where fibre arrives: a yard, a roof, a cabinet where cameras and access points come together.

The catalogue records the default configuration router with ether1 as the WAN port. The port layout is verified, so you will not see the "port layout not verified" note here.

The ports

• ether1: 1 Gbit, no PoE-out. The WAN port by default.
• ether2 through ether5: 1 Gbit, all four with PoE-out.
• sfp1: one 1 Gbit SFP cage. For fibre to another building, or as an uplink to a switch.

Because the catalogue records four feeding ports, the PoE-out per port field appears with ether2 through ether5 in its list. Per port you choose auto-on, forced-on or off.

The tool knows which ports feed, but nothing about the power budget: not per port, not in total, and not what your supply delivers. Switching four ports on does not mean four devices come up. Do the arithmetic yourself, and see PoE-out per port and Cables and PoE in practice.

VLANs and the switch chip: read this first

The catalogue records hw_vlan: switch-menu for this model. That means the switch chip keeps its VLAN table in /interface ethernet switch, not in the bridge. Switch VLANs on and the tool writes bridge VLAN filtering with a note attached: that works, but it turns hardware offload off. VLAN traffic is then forwarded by the processor instead of the switch chip.

In practice: for a few cameras in a VLAN of their own you will not notice. If you use the four ports as a switch with a lot of traffic between them, it does cost throughput. You only get that back by configuring the switch chip by hand, which the configurator does not write. See VLANs and Speed checks.

What is inside

From the catalogue: MIPSBE and 128 MB of memory. That is above the line where the configurator warns about tight memory, so you will not see that note here. The licence level and the type of switch chip are not recorded for this model, so this page does not quote them, even though hw_vlan does tell us which behaviour to expect.

There are no radios and no modem, so no Wi-Fi package and no Wi-Fi generation in the catalogue entry.

What it is good at, and where it runs out

Good at: four powered gigabit devices in a place with no mains socket, with a fibre side alongside. Cameras, access points, an intercom; see Recipe: connecting cameras.

Where it runs out:

• VLANs cost hardware offload. See the section above.
• No Wi-Fi. All Wi-Fi roles are greyed out with "No wifi radio".
• No modem. LTE / 5G router is greyed out with "No LTE modem".
• The power budget. Outside the tool's reach, and the most common reason a device does not come up.
• QoS in software. Set up a queue tree and fasttrack goes off, making the processor the limit; see QoS and bandwidth.

Which roles fit

• Home router: when this is the router for the location.
• Office router with VLANs: available with six wired ports. Read the switch chip section first.
• Switch: when a router is already in place and this device mostly feeds and forwards.
• VPN gateway, Router + CAPsMAN and Hotspot: available.
• Core router: technically offered, but not what this device is for.
• Harden only (baseline): for a PowerBox Pro that is already running.

The quickest route to a working configuration

1. Pick One device and search for PowerBox Pro or RB960.
2. Pick Home router for a simple setup, or Office router with VLANs when cameras and users have to be separated.
3. Put the internet connection on ether1, or use sfp1 if fibre arrives.
4. Go to advanced, the Ports section, and switch PoE-out on for the ports you use.
5. Set an admin password, reset the device and paste the script. See Using the script.

Afterwards check with /interface ethernet poe print whether power is flowing, and with /interface ethernet print whether the SFP cage has link.

What trips people up

• Expecting full throughput with VLANs on. On this model bridge VLAN filtering turns offload off. The tool says so; read it.
• Switching four ports on without doing the sums. First add up what comes in, then what goes out.
• forced-on when in doubt. Voltage without detection can damage equipment that expects no PoE.
• An empty SFP cage. Without a module or DAC there is no link; see SFP port does not link.
• Confusing it with the plain PowerBox. That one has 100 Mbit ports, no SFP and 64 MB of memory.