A school job in Tucson changed my cable testing routine

Was doing a network upgrade at a middle school last month. Ran all new cat6 and thought I was done. Then my tester kept failing on 3 runs. Turns out the patch panel ends were fine, but the wall jacks were punched down wrong. Now I check both ends before I even look at the cable itself. Has anyone else gotten burned by assuming the far end was the problem?

1 comments

1 Comment

charlie_lane8519d ago

Man, I feel this one in my SOUL. Last year I spent two hours chasing a "bad cable" only to find out I'd punched down the jack with the pair colors all twisted up like a spaghetti mess. My tester kept screaming at me but it was MY hands that were the problem the whole time. Now I do both ends before I even plug in the tester, because apparently I can't be trusted with a punchdown tool without supervision. At this point I'm half convinced the cable gods just enjoy watching us suffer.