A power over Ethernet controller comprising: management functionality; data send and receive functionality associated with the management functionality; priority determination functionality associated with the management functionality, the priority determination functionality being operative to determine a highest priority port requesting power; and power enabling functionality associated with the management functionality, the management functionality having a first mode of operation in which: responsive to receipt of a command via the data send and receive functionality to enable a port, the management functionality enables the determined highest priority port requesting power via the power enabling functionality; and a second mode of operation in which: responsive to receipt of a command via the data send and receive functionality to enable a specific port, the management functionality enables the specific port via the power enabling functionality.