What sort of network tester do I need?

[Johno]

My home is cat5e networked and I have the VDSL signal from the master socket fed via Ethernet to the fibre modem sitting on my patch panel, with the modem output fed to my WiFi router's WAN port via Ethernet (let's call it cable 22) from the patch panel to the room where the router's located and plugged into the network point. This setup worked perfectly for years until recently when the router's broadband status light went red and showed as disconnected from the internet. I traced the fault to cable 22, which I tested with an RJ45 continuity tester which showed that all pins/wires were working fine, but clearly there's an issue with cable 22 from the patch panel to RJ45 module into which the router was plugged. I've since plugged the router into another network point and all's now fine.

What type of network tester could I use to diagnose the fault with the infrastructure cable 22 as it would seem the issue isn't the cable continuity but something else.

 

[CaptainSTX]

My home is cat5e networked and I have the VDSL signal from the master socket fed via Ethernet to the fibre modem sitting on my patch panel, with the modem output fed to my WiFi router's WAN port via Ethernet (let's call it cable 22) from the patch panel to the room where the router's located and plugged into the network point. This setup worked perfectly for years until recently when the router's broadband status light went red and showed as disconnected from the internet. I traced the fault to cable 22, which I tested with an RJ45 continuity tester which showed that all pins/wires were working fine, but clearly there's an issue with cable 22 from the patch panel to RJ45 module into which the router was plugged. I've since plugged the router into another network point and all's now fine.

What type of network tester could I use to diagnose the fault with the infrastructure cable 22 as it would seem the issue isn't the cable continuity but something else.

When you say you tested continuity did you use a simple cable tester that also confirms pinning similar to this tester from Amazon.

Amazon.com

Or did you just use a multi-meter?

If you also confirmed the pinning is correct about the only thing you can do that might salvage the cable is re terminate both ends and see if that solves the problem. If the actual cable it self is damaged and is in the wall not likely you can replace it.

 

[Johno]

When you say you tested continuity did you use a simple cable tester that also confirms pinning similar to this tester from Amazon.

Amazon.com

Or did you just use a multi-meter?

If you also confirmed the pinning is correct about the only thing you can do that might salvage the cable is re terminate both ends and see if that solves the problem. If the actual cable it self is damaged and is in the wall not likely you can replace it.

I used a pin-to-pin tester like the one you've linked to. I plan to re-terminate the RJ45 socket first but might use a tool-less module to avoid errors punching down the wires.

I was wondering why the connection failed though, that perhaps there was a tester I could get that'd tell me where in the cable the issue was?

 

[Ripshod]

The fluke tester in my kit would do the job, but you wouldn't pay the price (£1800 when I got it). For a single cable just reterminate.

 

[Johno]

The fluke tester in my kit would do the job, but you wouldn't pay the price (£1800 when I got it). For a single cable just reterminate.

Yeah, makes sense, but hopefully I won't have to re-terminate at the patch panel.

 

[CaptainSTX]

I used a pin-to-pin tester like the one you've linked to. I plan to re-terminate the RJ45 socket first but might use a tool-less module to avoid errors punching down the wires.

I was wondering why the connection failed though, that perhaps there was a tester I could get that'd tell me where in the cable the issue was?

A lower cost option than the Fluke tester might be a smart switch. My TP-Link SG108E has an option to do a cable test and reports a distance to fault. Never tested it to see how accurate the results actually are.

 

[Johno]

A lower cost option than the Fluke tester might be a smart switch. My TP-Link SG108E has an option to do a cable test and reports a distance to fault. Never tested it to see how accurate the results actually are.

My switch is a Cisco SG300 which supports testing. I guess I could get a known good cable to plug into my laptop's LAN adaptor, plug that into the suspect RJ45 wall-socket, then connect a port on the Cisco to the corresponding port on the patch panel and run tests.