Better cable testing?

[hunterjwizzard]

Hi folks,

So I have a patch panel on my rack at home, which I use for LAN and a KVM-over-cat5. When I was first doing all the runs, I tested them with a standard cable tester(the kind with the little tights) and they checked out fine. Then when I actually started spinning up systems, about half the cables didn't work. The IP KVM seems to be extremely particular about what cables it uses. Regular old LAN was a bit more forgiving, but I'm still left with quite a few runs that don't work.

I'm sure I'm just doing something wrong with the punch-downs(or maybe pulling a panel out of an ewaste bin is not the best way to acquire one).

But in any case I'm wondering if there is a better type of tester I can be using? Something more advanced that can do a better job of identifying the bad runs?

Thanks!

 

[Sealside]

Hi!

It depends on how much money you want to spend.

A lot of money: Buy a fluke network tester

Budget: Tester from ebay sc8108 SC8108 Portable LCD Digital Display Network Tester LAN Phone Cable Meter New | eBay
Mine actually broke when I accidentally plugged it into a poe cable. Cheap, but somewhat ok.

Budget: This poe tester is about the same price, better build quality imo, but can't measure cable length
LCD Network Cable Tester PoE Checker Inline PoE Voltage and Current Tester | eBay

Semi-budget: If you step it up a bit pocket ethernet is really neat, costs a bit more, but still cheap. Supports pretty much everything needed.

Pockethernet - Smartphone connected Cable tester & Ethernet network analyser

Regards S

 

[hunterjwizzard]

Awesome, thanks!

I suspect the PoE checker is exactly what I need, even though I don't do a lot of PoE. The problem is most likely poor quality connections, so continuity testing is what I need. Plus, I can always run PoE as an additional layer of checking.