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I've noticed that enterprise grade switches usually have dedicated grounding screws or lugs, but home grade switches don't.

Is it just because of that fact that they will be used in different environments? Or is there any difference in internal wiring?

Does PoE make any difference? Or maybe it has something to do with available power sources? Or is the explanation device-specific, maybe even to the degree that it's not possible to answer the question generally?

For example, Cisco 110 series switches have neither a grounding screw nor a lug, even though they have metallic enclosures. However, Teltonika TSW202 does have a grounding screw, even though it's DC powered. The same is true for Mikrotik Cloud Smart Switches.

Community
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vrsio
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2 Answers2

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Business-grade equipment is commonly tightly packed in a rack, which consumer-grade hardware rarely is. Reasons for properly grounding equipment include

  • improved shielding from external fields, increasing reliability of the device
  • improved shielding against emission, increasing reliability of the other devices
  • improved electrical safety, possibly required by local code for work environments

Also, business-grade equipment is likely to be installed professionally, so a grounding lug is bound to be actually used. Few consumers know/care about proper grounding, so a lug might just be ignored.

Zac67
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In fact, many consumer devices do have a grounding "eye" on them. It's easy to mistake them for one of the case screws, but they'll usually have a little grounding sticker next to them. Consumer gear almost has to have one to be grounded at all; they're commonly powered by an external DC power brick so they aren't connected to ground. (how many "wall warts" have you seen with a 3-prong plug?)

As for the "why"... in an enterprise / commercial world, that's going to be an environment and code thing. I've only seen it used a few times - inside a telco CO where it was DC powered, and inside the fence of a power substation. (and my Cisco 4331 because the electrical inspector was being an a**.) As I said above, that's the only way to get a consumer device grounded, and the only reason to need grounding is for shielded cabling (that almost no one needs.)

(If a device is connected to something that could be hit by lightning - phone line, coax cable, etc. - having a solid ground is a good idea.)

Ricky
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