Testing CAT6 with a cheap tester

[buckfast]

So my builder will route my cat6 for me around my house, both for my IP cameras and internet function. However, he will not terminate with RJ45 connectors, that'll be up to me.

I have a cheap 2 piece cable tester. As the CAT6 cable will be already on installed in the walls etc, can I plug in one end, walk to the other area of the house and plug the other end into the other half of the cable tester and ensure that the lights on the tester illuminate in sequence from 1-8? I won't be able to see both half's of the tester blink side by side.

 

[nayr]

yes thats how they work, check both ends and ensure all the LED's fire in order, 1-8.. if so then all are connected and in the right order at least.

If one end fires up say, 1,2,3,5,4,6,8,7 then you have a couple pins that switched positions as you were fitting the connection on... if any of them dont fire up then the crimp was bad, you can try to put it back in crimper and apply more pressure.

all else fails chop it off and try again, practice some before trying to terminate em ontop of a ladder or anything.

these are just simple continuity testers, they reveal termination issues but wont actually test the cable to ensure its not damaged, experiencing no interference, or using standard wiring schemes.. for deeper testing w/out expensive equipment you can simply wire a computer/laptop up to the run and run local bandwidth tests while checking for network errors and dropped packets.. if you can get full wire line speeds w/out any errors its safe to assume the cabling is kosher.

 

[buckfast]

Cool, thanks for the informative reply.

 

[phydeaux]

So my builder will route my cat6 for me around my house, both for my IP cameras and internet function. However, he will not terminate with RJ45 connectors, that'll be up to me.

I have a cheap 2 piece cable tester. As the CAT6 cable will be already on installed in the walls etc, can I plug in one end, walk to the other area of the house and plug the other end into the other half of the cable tester and ensure that the lights on the tester illuminate in sequence from 1-8? I won't be able to see both half's of the tester blink side by side.

Yes you can
If a helper is around use a cell phone to verify all lights are running in correct order.

If only you, you will need to check one end Then walk to the other end. (it's how I Have to do it with no helper)

Don't take for granted if one end lights up in the proper sequence the other end must be correct. Double check at both ends.

I use one of those Cheap Ebay 2 piece testers works fine for me.

 

[tigerwillow1]

One thing learned the hard way... After making up a cable that flunked with the tester, and replacing the RJ45s on both ends, I finally figured out that the stripper had cut through one of the wires. With it twisted to its mate wire, there was no visual clue that it was cut through.

 

[tangent]

You can do a lot of the tests a fancier tester is capable of with software or even from the bios on many computers see: TL-SG1008P Question

 

[tommydadog]

For those 2 piece testers you only need to check the slave side of the tester as regardless of the wiring on the master it will still count 1 to 8, the sequence on the slave side will tell you if its in correct order or not, most of those testers are just continuity testers and won't tell you if pairs are wrong if they are wrong on both ends.

I don't know if that make sense, like having blue /white on both end backwards, the tester will still count in the right order.

Not really a big deal though as long as you have the pin layout on both ends the same.