MikroTik RouterBOARD hEX PoE (RB960PGS) 5-Port Gigabit Router

Description

Four PoE Output Ports — the Defining Feature

The hEX PoE’s standout characteristic versus the hEX and hEX S is multi-port PoE output. Ports 2–5 can power other PoE-capable devices at the same voltage as applied to the unit, with a maximum of 1A per port and shielded Ethernet connectors throughout. In a small office or remote site, this eliminates the need for a separate PoE switch or individual PoE injectors — the router itself powers the access point, IP camera, IP phone, or VoIP adapter directly over Ethernet.

Passive and 802.3af/at PoE — Voltage Matters

PoE behaviour depends on input voltage, and this is the most important thing to understand before purchasing:

The unit supports passive PoE input and passive or 802.3af/at PoE output on ports 2–5. It can power 802.3af/at mode B (pins 4,5+; 7,8−) compatible devices if 48–57V DC input voltage is used. The included power adapter is 24V — at 24V input, ports 2–5 output 24V passive PoE, which works with MikroTik access points and other passive PoE devices rated for that voltage. To power standard 802.3af/at devices, a separate 48V power supply is required (sold separately).

The unit provides a maximum current of 450mA per port regardless of device power class and does not support PoE powered device classification. Maximum total PoE output budget is 2A across all four ports.

⚠️ 802.3af/at requires a 48V power supply — not included. The included 24V adapter enables passive PoE only. If you need to power standard PoE access points or cameras, source a 48V DC supply separately. Never connect a device expecting 48V passive PoE to a port driven by a 24V supply.

SFP Cage and USB

A 1.25 Gbps SFP cage and a USB 2.0 port are included, matching the hEX S on both counts. The SFP port accepts standard SFP modules for fibre uplinks, media conversion, or SFP-to-RJ45 copper modules. The USB port supports 3G/4G LTE modems for WAN failover, or USB storage for configuration backups and logging.

CPU and RAM — Different from the hEX/hEX S

Unlike the hEX (RB750Gr3) and hEX S (RB760iGS) which run the MT7621A dual-core MMIPS at 880 MHz with 256 MB RAM, the hEX PoE uses a QCA9557 single-core MIPSBE CPU at 800 MHz with 128 MB RAM. This is the same architecture as the hEX lite (RB750r2) but at a higher clock, with the trade-off being that the hEX PoE lacks the hardware IPsec acceleration and higher RAM of the MT7621A-based siblings. For most small office deployments — routing, firewall, NAT, VLAN, VPN pass-through — this is not a practical limitation. If IPsec VPN throughput is a priority, the hEX S is the better choice.

Power Input Range

The DC jack accepts 12–57V input, with a maximum power consumption of 54W (including PoE-powered devices) and 6W without attachments. The wide input voltage range gives deployment flexibility — 12V, 24V, or 48V DC depending on what PoE output standard you need.

RouterOS L4

RouterOS Level 4 is pre-installed with lifetime free updates. The full feature set covers static and dynamic routing (OSPF, BGP, RIPv2), firewall with connection tracking, NAT, VLAN, bridge, bonding, IPsec, OpenVPN, L2TP, PPTP, SSTP, MPLS, bandwidth queuing, hotspot, scripting, DHCP server/client/relay, DNS cache, and PPPoE client/server — exactly the same licence as the rest of the hEX family.

Key Highlights

• CPU: QCA9557 single-core MIPSBE @ 800 MHz
• RAM: 128 MB | Storage: 16 MB flash
• Ethernet ports: 5× Gigabit (10/100/1000 Mbps) | Shielded
• PoE out: Ports 2–5 | 1A max per port | 2A max total | Passive or 802.3af/at (48V input required for 802.3af/at)
• PoE in: Passive PoE on port 1 | DC jack 12–57V
• SFP cage: 1× 1.25 Gbps (SFP module not included)
• USB: 1× USB 2.0
• RouterOS: Level 4 (pre-installed, lifetime updates)
• IPsec hardware acceleration: Not supported on this CPU
• Power: 24V/2.5A DC adapter (included) | Max 54W (with PoE devices) / 6W (standalone)
• Extras: PCB temp monitor, voltage monitor
• Dimensions: 113 × 89 × 28 mm
• Operating temp: −40°C to 60°C
• Architecture: MIPSBE

 

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