Reddit reviews Wire Tracker, ELEGIANT RJ11 RJ45 Cable Tester Line Finder Multifunction Wire Tracker Toner Ethernet LAN Network Cable Tester for Network Cable Collation, Telephone Line Tester, Continuity Checking
We found 18 Reddit comments about Wire Tracker, ELEGIANT RJ11 RJ45 Cable Tester Line Finder Multifunction Wire Tracker Toner Ethernet LAN Network Cable Tester for Network Cable Collation, Telephone Line Tester, Continuity Checking. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Professional Wire Tracker. It can help you quickly find the target line in many pairs. It is suitable for tracking RJ45 internet cable, RJ11 telephone line and other metal wire in low electricity. Please note that it can not be used to track wires with high electricity ( maximum currents for emitter and receiver are 10mA and 30mA respectively, and maximum voltage is 10V ). Besides, you may need two 9V laminated cells, which are NOT included in the packaging of this item.Network Cables Verifying. Plug one side of the cable into the emitter and the other side into the receiver. Select "Network" to check and verify whether the network cables are good or not. No need of network tester.Wire Tracking. It can trace not only Ethernet LAN wires, but also electrical and speaker wires when connecting to the alligator clip. In this situation, the wires must be in power-off status, otherwise the units will be damaged. It is recommended to stripe down some of the wires when connecting through the clip. Select "SCAN". Emitter works properly if the "SCAN" indicator is on. Use the receiver to find target wires. No need of multi-testers.Telephone Line Test. The work of the telephone line of the detection of various states, only the transmitter can be detected, such as determining TIP or PING line, to determine the work of the telephone line idle, ringing and off-hook state.Additional Earphone & Equipped Lamp. In a noisy environment, you can put on the earphones to accurately find the target cable through comparing the strength of "beep beep" sound. Adjust the volume knob to make the volume proper and avoid being interfered. At night or in a dark environment, you can turn on the illuminating lamp, which can be helpful during operating.
I use a decent ($100) one of these every day for work.
Before, I used a cheap-ass ($20) one every now and again for work.
I have NEVER seen a cable tester/tone generator fry a network appliance. I've had network appliances fry a cable tester (those cheap ones really dislike passive PoE).
Your patch panel is fucky, but that's easy to fix. Get a punchdown tool and re-terminate. There should be color coding on the back of the panel to tell you what wires should go where. If not, Google is your friend. It seems like this panel likely used to run cables for telephony, or something else aside from networking. No biggie to fix, just takes a little time and diligence.
Your router, and anything else on the other end of these runs, should be totally fine.
Edited to add links.
I've never used this specific product, but it looks like what you need, and seems to have good reviews @ Amazon.
This is the kind of tool every IT shop should possess, so your boss should buy this for you.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HCQSHNG
It's the wire mapping & continuity tool that you need.
The probe stuff you don't need today, but might need some other day in the future.
That will let you test each cable (both your patch cords, and the in-wall cables that they installed) to ensure the wire map is correct and all 8 wires show good connectivity.
This is a primitive test. This is not highly scientific. This will not "certify" that those cables are good. But this is a good, cheap first test.
Kinda like popping the hood of your car to try to look and see what the noise is or where the small is coming from - even if you're not a mechanic - having a look is just the intelligent thing to do.
The wire map & continuity test is the same thing. Taking a quick look at things.
-----
The short cables you provided, those are patch cords, or patch cables.
Where do you buy them? What does it say on the cable jacket?
Do you remember about what you paid for each of them?
example
I'm most concerned to hear if you find the letters or the term "CCA" on the cable jacket.
CCA indicates Copper Clad Aluminum which are the worst and most evil kind of ethernet cabling on the planet.
CCA is actually kind of rare since it is so low a quality only shady businesses even sell the product.
What does the cable jacket say on the cables they installed for you?
Can you take a picture at the patch panel side and link it to this thread?
This is the image I want to see.
Not This I don't need to see the front of the equipment.
I've got something similar to this, but in orange:
https://www.amazon.com/ELEGIANT-Multifunction-Collation-Telephone-Continuity/dp/B01HCQSHNG/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=cable+tester&qid=1558715360&s=gateway&sr=8-5
Figure out how it works with a spare patch cable, but basically you plug it in and it should count down from 1-8 in sequence. if either end skips, your cable is probably wired bad.
better test gear will show the distance to a cable fault... But that's going to cost a bit more.
I'm not 100% clear on what your problem is? You have a 16 port switch at the patch, and you're trying to use an 8 port at the other end of a run?
I don't see where you used a cable/continuity tester to confirm the drops / terminations are good. You can spend hundreds on one, but get a reasonably cheap tester. This will confirm that no pairs are broken or swapped.
----
> ... seems to be capped at 100mb/s (I cannot confirm this though, running SpeedTest on the device shows around 95mb/s,...
There are all sorts of reasons why you can't "trust" the numbers you get from some app. Always check with your hardware about what link speed it was able to negotiate. Software will help you confirm the negotiation was correct, as well as find other bottlenecks in the full connection. It's a good measurement to have, but not the important one here.
> I suspect they may have used a 100mb/s Cat5 cable for this run...if that's the case, is 100mb/s Cat5 not able to provide PoE?
cat5 is old. The unit you have was probably wired with cat5e cable; cat5 was "common" in construction during the late 90's, but should have been switched to cat5e in the early 2000's (somewhere around 2001 is when cat5e standard was "finalized")
the "cat" rating of a cable is only it's "certified" specs; as in, this cable will work at least up to $some-value. cat5e is certified for gigabit, but i have used it in applications that specified cat6a. 10/100 eithernet requires two pairs of cables, gigabit requires all four. This is why i suspect you're not getting the full gigabit speeds. You have a continuity issue on this drop; either a broken pair or a bad termination.
I don't remember which pins are used for which PoE standard, but you can push some PoE types over 10/100 connections.
Start with a simple termination/cable tester. you have an incorrectly wired termination somewhere, i think.
The first picture is a phone jack, so not suitable for Ethernet.
The second picture is probably Cat3 cable, also not really suitable for Ethernet. If you can pull the cable out, look for writing on the jacket that can identify the cable type.
The fact that there are two cables in the second picture suggests daisy-chain wiring. While this is suitable for telephone, it's unusable for Ethernet.
To trace wires, get a network tester with a toner. I have this one. It's really cheap quality but it works. There are several clones available with more or less accessories, so you don't have to get this one in particular.
It sounds like what you're looking for is a cable tester? You'd basically connect a toner on the wall jack side that sends out a continous tone adn then you would search in the server room side for the tone to identify the drop that the signal is coming from to your patch. Then you can identify the patch going to the switch.
​
Cheap one from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/ELEGIANT-Multifunction-Collation-Telephone-Continuity/dp/B01HCQSHNG/ref=sr_1_4?crid=170G8HQ7MQQDT&keywords=cable+tester+toner&qid=1572455475&sprefix=cable+tester+ton%2Caps%2C183&sr=8-4
This is a selection of what I keep in my tech go-bag. You'll build your kit as you learn and build experience, or realize you could have helped a customer out of a jam quicker if you had that tool with you.
Various extra parts I've accumulated over the years like screws, ATX Molex Power to SATA Power Adapters, ATX Molex Y splitters, SATA cables etc..
Good luck and some tools overlap like multi tools and pliers so if budget is low, go with the tool that covers the most jobs.
Edit: I noticed your bag is kind of expensive compared to something like a Dewalt tool bag. I use a plain Dewalt bag which is not as cool as the one in the link, but it's just as tough. This might be a good and less expensive consideration for you if you don't require the look of a briefcase for your tool bag.
Edit 2: You may want to mark your tools with a wrap of some crazy bright color electrical tape to be able to recognize them when they walk away.
Not sure how much money you want to through into it but a signal tester Is helpful ensuring all the pinouts are correct and making good contact end to end.
Especially if this is your first time crimping there might be couple times you need to cut off what you messed up and try again.
A network tester like this one doesn't cost much and might help you diagnose the issue. It can test if a link is working if you plug it in at each end, and you can also use them to send a signal through the link which the other piece can detect from nearby. Pretty useful if you ever need to suss out the location of a cable through a wall or something.
Imo the most likely case is that the connection at one or more of the ends has become broken. You should be able to fix that rather easily yourself. Google "RJ45 wall jack installation" for more info on that. You would need a punch down tool for that.
You can buy a network testing kit like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HCQSHNG and track down where it's coming from/where it's going to.
Why worry about labels for a home install? They always go missing during construction. This from Amazon is cheap and a great back up when lables fail.
I mean, it's certainly possible that whoever ran those was using network cable to run audio. Each RJ11 (phone connector) has a pair of wires, and theoretically each pair could be +/- in an audio cable. You'd need a breakout at each end to wire it up to your receiver.
I'm racking my brain trying to remember if there were any integrated systems that used RJ11 modular connectors for the speaker / receiver interface, and I swear that I've seen it before, but my google-fu is failing me and I can't find it.
Personally, I wouldn't do it this way for amplified signals, too much possibility for cross-talk and too small a wire gauge. But maybe it would work for speakers that have their own internal amps?
Do you have a tone generator? If so, hook it up and see if the tone comes out of the speakers. Then you're guaranteed that they connect to the overheads and are there to carry an amplified signal...
If you don't know what I'm talking about, this is a good example, you'd plug in each jack to the emitter box, start a tone going, and you'll hear it through the speaker if they're connected and passive.
Edit - adding an afterthought:
Ultimately, you're mixing tech here. Best method might be to use those network cables as the fish lines to pull proper speaker cables. You could hack something together to convert the phone lines to patch into a normal amp (provided the surrounds are passive), either with an RJ11 patch panel or just cutting off the connectors and using the colored line as + and the white as - per speaker.
If you could pull a surround out of the ceiling and take a picture of how it's wired up and the brand or model of the speaker, I could tell you more about how it might have once been.
>what is the best way to determine what wiring protocol was used at the wall plates?
Pop them out and take a look. Usually, they are labelled which standard the wiring diagram is for. It may just say "A" and/or "B."
>For the cable input, is there a way to tell which end is live or is it trial and error?
Yes, but for a project this small trial and error is probably easiest. In larger instances, you can use a toner: https://smile.amazon.com/ELEGIANT-Multifunction-Collation-Telephone-Continuity/dp/B01HCQSHNG/
>Any other suggestions? I am new to this
At least buy a cheap cable tester! I have this one, works fine: https://smile.amazon.com/Zoostliss-Network-Cable-Tester-Networking/dp/B06XZYXN63/ You can waste SOOOO much time checking things just to realize you had a bad crimp or punch or miswired something. That device will let you know of any continuity/wiring issues.
This Will help you trace it. It sends a tone over the line and you can use the probe to follow it. Works well for tracing power lines as well.(Turn em off!)
With no controller, you're flat out not going to be able to get them to light up an SSID. As I see it, you've got two basic ways to find the little buggers.
The first is to bring up a controller. The 2332 was a rebranded Trapeze AP, which was then bought up by Juniper. One of their last acts before letting the product line die was to release a virtual controller which, if I recall correctly, had a built in license for 4 APs. You can find the software by going to support.juniper.net and searching for "JunosV Wireless LAN Controller". Once you bring it up, you'll have an SSID up you can go hunt down.
The alternative way, if you don't feel like resurrecting all that infrastructure, is to go analog. More specifically, get yourself a toner, like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/ELEGIANT-Multifunction-Collation-Telephone-Continuity/dp/B01HCQSHNG
You'll need to unplug the cable from the switch port and plug it into the signal generator unit. From there, it will greatly facilitate physically tracing the cable through bundles, letting you check that you still have the right one at intermediate points without having to eyeball it or rely on someone tugging at the other end.
Neither way ends up being trivial, but if you don't have any good maps to fall back on, they're your best bets.
RJ-45 Cable Tester:
https://www.amazon.com/ELEGIANT-Multifunction-Collation-Telephone-Continuity/dp/B01HCQSHNG/
It would much faster to troubleshoot bad ports than installing new cable runs...
Worst case scenario, those are the ONLY cables that exist (low voltage wise). If you’d like, you can use this cable toner to confirm if that Ethernet cable is the other end of that wall plate jack.
If you’re unable to find any proof of previous cabling elsewhere, I’d recommend to just do it right and run the cables yourself. I’d choose a central place other than the attic.
Yeah it sounds like there is a wiring problem. I would recommend getting an inexpensive cable tester. You can then verify that all connectors are terminated correctly.
I bought this one a while ago when I did wire tech work professionally. It works really well and also allows you to tone out the cable. You plug in the block side and at it to either tone out test depending on your need. Than use the wand to listen for the sound or plug in the cable and test.
Wire Tracker, ELEGIANT RJ11 RJ45 Cable Tester Line Finder Multifunction Wire Tracker Toner Ethernet LAN Network Cable Tester for Network Cable Collation, Telephone Line Tester, Continuity Checking https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HCQSHNG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_XzQyDb4Q69CQN