[Asterisk-Users] Polycom 500, asterisk user opinions?

[Noah Miller]

> Tim Jackson wrote:
>> They aren't dumb hubs, they are dot1q capable switches. I do not
>> understand why people are saying they need special POE cables for the
>> IP500. Mine came with a cable that injected power into the cable, and
>> from what I read, its Cisco and 802.3af compatible out of the box. My
>> IP500s were $174/piece shipped. Maybe you will have better luck than I
>> with them. I could be wrong on some of this info.
>
> The IP500 will not draw power from either an 802.3af or a Cisco powered
> Ethernet link without a special adapter cable from Polycom. Same goes
> for the IP300. Rumor has it that current phones are starting to ship
> with the 802.3af adapter cable included.

This is correct - the IP 600 has a built-in PoE chip to do 802.3af with 
any vanilla ethernet cable.  The IP 300 and 500 models do not have this 
chip, so they require special cables (the chip is built into the 
cable).  I just got a shipment of 19 (18 IP500's and 1 IP300) of them 
drop-shipped directly from Polycom, and they did not come with 802.3af 
cables.  They only came with a special ethernet injector cable for 
using an AC adaptor wall plug.