Raw Network Cable Tool Question - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

McG · 07-19-2014, 02:38 PM

I am hoping that a fellow CPer can assist with this mundane question that i probably should know the answer to... i know a little bit about this but i am more of a doer, not a thinker for networks.

I pulled a bunch of CAT6 cable in my house and labeled it on both ends; we had a contractor finish the basement and i don't know how, but all of the locations that i wrote on the cable ends has disappeared. I don't know if the Sharpie ink just dried up and faded, or where the writing went to.

i found this tool: http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX16399 that can be used to tell the problems with the cable, and which cable is which, but then i would have to end all of the cables in the basement; half of them will be telephone cables so work i would like to avoid if possible other than putting the correct end on.

are there any tools out there that can help tell which cable is which? it is all twisted pair cable so i guess my ask is if there is a tool out there where i can put say, orange cable in a room and orange cable in the server room, without ending it, and find out which cable is which?

Thanks CP!

nik- · 07-19-2014, 02:42 PM

If you don't care about the internal mapping, you can just get a toner.

photon · 07-19-2014, 02:53 PM

Yeah a toner is what you want, I think this is the one I've got.

http://www.homedepot.ca/product/lan-...-1-clam/963530

You just put the tone generator on one end and then use the sensor to figure out which wires have the tone on them at the other end, makes finding which wires go where easy. I've used them in big office towers even.

McG · 07-19-2014, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nik-

If you don't care about the internal mapping, you can just get a toner.

thank you! a product like this? http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX18819

I'm not sure what you mean by internal mapping (sorry i just want to make sure). one end of the cat6 cable is in say...a bedroom upstairs. my mini server room is in the basement. once i know in the server room which cable is which, i would know which room things were located in. or do you mean the route that the cable itself traverses in the house?

i have ended a bunch of the cat6 cables already and they work well, but the remainder...

Sorry that i'm just competent enough to ask dumb questions.

Raekwon · 07-19-2014, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McG

thank you! a product like this? http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX18819

I'm not sure what you mean by internal mapping (sorry i just want to make sure). one end of the cat6 cable is in say...a bedroom upstairs. my mini server room is in the basement. once i know in the server room which cable is which, i would know which room things were located in. or do you mean the route that the cable itself traverses in the house?

i have ended a bunch of the cat6 cables already and they work well, but the remainder...

Sorry that i'm just competent enough to ask dumb questions.

Yeah, that's the one I use at work. Does the trick.

Hack&Lube · 07-20-2014, 07:45 PM

what do you mean by "ending" the cable?

Do you mean terminate them? Do you not have RJ45 crystals on the ends so in the case of CAT6, it's just 6 wires sticking out of the sheathing? Yeah, you can just use a toner to send a signal from one wire to the same coloured wired on the other end.

If you are ultra cheap, it's just copper so you could just use a multimeter on one end and a battery on the other end.

nik- · 07-21-2014, 11:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McG

thank you! a product like this? http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX18819

I'm not sure what you mean by internal mapping (sorry i just want to make sure). one end of the cat6 cable is in say...a bedroom upstairs. my mini server room is in the basement. once i know in the server room which cable is which, i would know which room things were located in. or do you mean the route that the cable itself traverses in the house?

i have ended a bunch of the cat6 cables already and they work well, but the remainder...

Sorry that i'm just competent enough to ask dumb questions.

By mapping I meant your terminations being correct. IE: The pins at one end match the pins at the other. If they haven't been terminated yet (which is what I assume you mean by ended) then it won't matter.

BloodFetish · 07-21-2014, 12:08 PM

Hmm, another thing you could try is use the foot numbers printed on the Cat6 cable. Every spool should have printing on the cable identifying what it is (standard, brand, gauge, etc) , including how many feet from the start of the spool. Usually it's printed every couple of feet.

Write down the starting foot-numbers in the basement, then compare them to the end foot-numbers in the various rooms. If you only used one spool of cable for all the runs you should easily find the sequence.

Hopefully you a) didn't wire the house using multiple spools, and b) have enough slack in the cables where you can pull it out from the wall and read the numbers.

McG · 07-22-2014, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BloodFetish

Hmm, another thing you could try is use the foot numbers printed on the Cat6 cable. Every spool should have printing on the cable identifying what it is (standard, brand, gauge, etc) , including how many feet from the start of the spool. Usually it's printed every couple of feet.

Write down the starting foot-numbers in the basement, then compare them to the end foot-numbers in the various rooms. If you only used one spool of cable for all the runs you should easily find the sequence.

Hopefully you a) didn't wire the house using multiple spools, and b) have enough slack in the cables where you can pull it out from the wall and read the numbers.

that is very clever and yes, the numbers are visible. I'm going to try to see if this works... and confirm with the battery test above from H&L!

McG · 07-22-2014, 11:12 PM

I want to thank every CPer that posted; I've got a great idea now of what to do and will be completing this soon. my wife was happiest because of the possibility of finishing the cabling...

I had put the rj45 ends on all of the cable that I knew, but thanks to you guys I will be able to finish.

Thanks again guys!

McG · 07-22-2014, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nik-

By mapping I meant your terminations being correct. IE: The pins at one end match the pins at the other. If they haven't been terminated yet (which is what I assume you mean by ended) then it won't matter.

exactly; all of my twisted pair are or will be terminated following the "a" colour maps for consistency. thanks for your help!

Hack&Lube · 07-23-2014, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McG

I want to thank every CPer that posted; I've got a great idea now of what to do and will be completing this soon. my wife was happiest because of the possibility of finishing the cabling...

I had put the rj45 ends on all of the cable that I knew, but thanks to you guys I will be able to finish.

Thanks again guys!

Just so that you know, by putting on the RJ45 crystals and crimping them yourself they are no-longer CAT6 certified because human crimping cannot maintain the amount of twist neccessary to ensure the rated standards of CAT6 compared to end to end factory produced and rated cabling. In reality you really won't be able to tell the difference at all though even if it degrades to CAT5.