and 1070 informs a main program that entry into or the operation of stages 1000 1010 is permitted in yet another embodiment the timer of one of stage 1050 1060 and 1070 sets a flag which is consulted by a main program prior to the entry into or the operation of stages 1000 1010 the routine of fig3 has been described as having the temperature indication input prior to enabling the port this is not meant to be limiting in any way and is specifically meant to include inputting the temperature after enabling the port fig4 illustrates a high level flow chart of an embodiment of an improved pre cursor operation of control circuitry 40 of fig1 and 2 in accordance with the principle of the invention the improved pre cursor operation ensures that the temperature indication is below a pre determined maximum temperature prior to enabling the port start up routine of fig3 a port start up command may be generated internally to power over ethernet controller 10 60 or may be received from an external host or supervisory circuitry without exceeding the scope of the invention it is to be understood that at start up of power over ethernet controller 10 60 a plurality of attached valid powered devices may be detected powering of each port is preferably accomplished in accordance with the routines of fig3 and 4 in stage 2000 a valid unpowered powered device is identified.