Re: [school-discuss] Cat-5 question

["Dave Prentice" <prentice@instruction.com>]

You can make a poor man's tester for a few cents, if you go to a
hardware store and buy two 8-pin phone jacks. You can plug your RJ45s
into them, then use an ohmmeter to check continuity between the
matching screws. The wires attached to the screws are color coded, so
it helps to keep things straight.
Dave Prentice
prentice@instruction.com
http://www.originsweb.info
-----Original Message-----
From: Cameron Miller <cdmiller@adams.edu>
To: schoolforge-discuss@schoolforge.net
<schoolforge-discuss@schoolforge.net>
Date: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 9:24 AM
Subject: Re: [school-discuss] Cat-5 question


>I concur with Chris and Matt.  Use solid core for long runs and
stranded
>for patch cables.  A decent tester and good crimper can save lots of
time.
>
>- cameron
>
>Matt Drew wrote:
>> Also make sure you have a quality crimper.  A low-quality crimper
will
>> often wear out over time, and begin to crimp bad connections even
when
>> it looks okay to the eye.
>>
>> Matt
>>
>> Chris Puttick wrote:
>>
>>> Solid core is normally used for longer runs (lower
resistance/metre)
>>> than multicore, where multicore is normally used for fly and patch
>>> leads (outside of the building structure) because of the greater
>>> resistance to flex (bend a solid core enough times one or more of
the
>>> cores breaks).
>>>
>>> The other issue is this: IDC connectors (normally found on the
back of
>>> the RJ45 socket are designed to use solid core, and the RJ45 plugs
are
>>> (with specific exceptions) designed to be used with multicore.
Trying
>>> to terminate the wrong type of cable into the wrong type of
>>> socket/plug will often result in poor or missing termination, even
>>> though visually it looks ok.
>>>
>>> A cheap cable tester can save much heartache and head scratching,
a
>>> mid priced one (say a Fluke  620) even more. Now if you're very
rich,
>>> there's nothing like a DSP2000 to sort out all your etwork cabling
>>> problems... (or if you know a school that has Cisco Academy
status,
>>> borrow theirs!)
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Chris
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Jim Aird
>>> To: schoolforge-discuss@schoolforge.net
>>> Sent: 8/14/02 1:09 AM
>>> Subject: [school-discuss] Cat-5 question
>>>
>>> I just got a new box (1000ft) of cat-5 cable and made five new
runs
>>> through my office but couldn't get the links to come up.  After
several
>>> hours of troubleshooting, re-crimping cables, moving hardware etc.
I
>>> discovered that the new cable (four twisted pairs) is conducting
on many
>>>
>>> tiny fibers of copper while the rest of our building, running
fine, has
>>> a solid piece of copper within each of the 8 individual strands.
>>> Otherwise there is no difference.
>>>
>>> Am I going nuts or is there something to the solid piece vs. the
many
>>> tiny strands difference?
>>>
>>> Any help within the next 1-24 hours would be a huge help, so I can
be
>>> ready to drop in our new set of servers and firewalls and offer
internet
>>>
>>> filtering (squid) and related services to the students by the
first day
>>> of school.
>>>
>>> Jim Aird
>>> HomeTech Charter School
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>--
>- cameron miller
>- UNIX Systems Administrator
>- Outhouse Attendant
>- cdmiller@adams.edu
>
>
>
>