Testing Ethernet Couplers and Debunking a Myth

I’m working with a client and he reaches into a random box to pull out an old coupler or cable.

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My Spidey senses usually go off when I see this because I have no idea if that cable or coupler works, etc.  This literally happened to me last week and the random cable ended up being a ‘bad cable’ and we could not get a link light on the switch. Since this was an install after the office was rewired, the client immediately blamed the electricians and the patch panel.  After 30 minutes of trying various things, I reached over and got a new cable.  I suggested we test the cable, just to be on the safe side. We knew the patch cable on the client computer was fine since it worked prior to the cutover. Then I swapped the new patch cable with the random cable that he started with and Bingo! It worked.

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That’s when I pulled out my cable tester and started testing a bunch of patch cales and RJ45 couplers.  Each test took less than a minute and, in the end, I found 6 cables and 2 couplers that failed the test. As the client was asking if we can just re-terminate the cable, I tossed them into the trash.

In this video I show you how easy it is to test a cable or coupler as well as dispel a myth that I hear quite a bit “a xover cable or coupler is NOT compatible with a gig switch”.

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