Ethernet Tester Recommendations

Started by Slappy, August 01, 2017, 08:30:47 PM

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Slappy

Mentioned in the Wifi Mesh thread, I need to find the live end to an ethernet port in the house. Switch will be in the basement, any suggestions on an easy to use tester? It will probably be just me, don't think I can hold the Wife's attention long enough to help out.
A little diddie 'bout black 'n cyan...two reflective colors doin' the best they can.

Farabomb

I'm sure you can find a tone generator on amazon but the question is price. I have one here but I've never used it so that's not much help. I wonder if you can use a multimeter and the pins to trace. In theory it would work, just make an adapter that creates a low voltage signal and then find what cable is carrying the voltage and that should be the one you need.

Mind you that's is you happen to have a multimeter (I have 4) and some networking stuff hanging around. I never throw anything out so a punchdown block is kicking about somewhere.

You can also try playing nice with IT and see if they have a tone generator. If they don't know what it is, back away slowly and never call them again since they don't know what they are doing. I may not always know what I'm doing but I can fake it well enough until I can google it.
Speed doesn't kill, rapidly becoming stationary is the problem

I'd rather have stories told than be telling stories of what I could have done.

Quote from: Ear on April 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on April 06, 2016, 11:39:41 AMIt's more like grip, grip, grip, noise, then spin and 2 feet in and feel shame.
I once knew a plus-sized girl and this pretty much describes teh secks. :rotf:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
         —Benjamin Franklin

My other job

Joe

I have this one. Works fine. You won't need a second person.

Ethernet Tester
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

Farabomb

My search sure didn't turn that one up. Damn, that's super cheap. I wouldn't expect it to last long term but for your project it should work fine.

I may pick one up just to have it at home.
Speed doesn't kill, rapidly becoming stationary is the problem

I'd rather have stories told than be telling stories of what I could have done.

Quote from: Ear on April 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on April 06, 2016, 11:39:41 AMIt's more like grip, grip, grip, noise, then spin and 2 feet in and feel shame.
I once knew a plus-sized girl and this pretty much describes teh secks. :rotf:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
         —Benjamin Franklin

My other job

Joe

I've had mine for 5 years and it still has the original battery in it. Sure is handy to have around if you have a bunch of spaghetti cables and need to find both ends of the same cable.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

David

Quote from: Joe on August 02, 2017, 06:38:32 AMI have this one. Works fine. You won't need a second person.

Ethernet Tester

over at the last place we used the Fluke brand, but I can see there is a small difference in price of yours to the Fluke.


 :shocked:
Prepress guy - Retired - Working from home
Livin' la Vida Loca

Joe

We have one at work that cost about $75. The one at Amazon does the job though.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

Farabomb

If I were doing wire traces as a main part of my job, I'd have a Fluke. One of my multimeters is a Fluke that I've had for years.

The 2 meters I use the most are from radio shack mainly because my big one likes to eat batteries. The 2 shack ones might be on their original batteries and they're 8-10 years old.

If what you're doing is responsible for putting food on your table, spend the money to get quality tools. If you're a mechanic your whole box doesn't have to be Snap-On but you're going to want what you're using daily, like ratchet handles, to be of high quality and reliable. It's a lesson that's hard learned at times but when that car didn't leave that day and the customer is pissed because your shit harbor freight tool broke, smart people make sure that doesn't happen again.

Speed doesn't kill, rapidly becoming stationary is the problem

I'd rather have stories told than be telling stories of what I could have done.

Quote from: Ear on April 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on April 06, 2016, 11:39:41 AMIt's more like grip, grip, grip, noise, then spin and 2 feet in and feel shame.
I once knew a plus-sized girl and this pretty much describes teh secks. :rotf:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
         —Benjamin Franklin

My other job

Joe

Agreed. That is why I have the cheap one at home. I use it maybe twice a year.. We bought the really good one at work because I use it a lot at work.

The ethernet testers are better than to trying to use a regular volt/ohmmeter. Once you crimp the plugs if something isn't right it tells you which wire(s) you screwed up. Though once crimped your only option is too cut it off and do all of the wires again.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

DigiCorn

I bought a multimeter from Radio Shack when they were going out of business. If it were a Fluke, it'd probably have cost me $300 but I got it for $35. I immediately set it to test voltage, and went to test our crappy wiring in our kitchen, which I suspected wasn't grounded properly. Within seconds, I had fried the meter, melted the probes and was probably lucky I hadn't started a fire or electrocuted myself. Glad we sold that house. And I'm probably better off without a meter.
"There's been a lot of research recently on how hard it is to dislodge an impression once it's been implanted in someone's mind. (This is why political attack ads don't have to be true to be effective. The other side can point out their inaccuracies, but the voter's mind privileges the memory of the original accusation, which was juicier than any counterargument ever could be.)"
― Johnny Carson

"Selling my soul would be a lot easier if I could just find it."
– Nikki Sixx

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
― Ernest Hemingway

Joe

 :facepalm:

You definitely weren't doing something right.

 :lmao:
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

Farabomb

Umm, yeah. I have a feeling you may not have read the manual on that one. For house wiring I have a non contact induction meter that will tell me if the line is hot. Then I power it down and check the wiring. 110 can easily kill you and electricity is not a hobby. I have friends in the public service sector and you don't fuck around with high tension shit. I've heard enough horror stories to make me careful as hell when playing with house voltage.
Speed doesn't kill, rapidly becoming stationary is the problem

I'd rather have stories told than be telling stories of what I could have done.

Quote from: Ear on April 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on April 06, 2016, 11:39:41 AMIt's more like grip, grip, grip, noise, then spin and 2 feet in and feel shame.
I once knew a plus-sized girl and this pretty much describes teh secks. :rotf:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
         —Benjamin Franklin

My other job

Joe

It isn't the voltage that kills you:

QuoteHow many volts does it take to kill a human?

Its not the volts that kill you, it's the amps. Dragging your feet across the carpet can generate as much as 25,000 volts. There are companies on the internet who routinely sell 50,000 volt Tesla coils to play with. However, it only takes a current between 100 and 200 mA (0.1 to 0.2 amp) to be lethal.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

Slappy

Quote from: Joe on August 02, 2017, 06:38:32 AMI have this one. Works fine. You won't need a second person.

Ethernet Tester
Awesome thanks! One-click purchase on Amazon is a dangerous thing, usually.
A little diddie 'bout black 'n cyan...two reflective colors doin' the best they can.

Joe

Yeah I have one click ordering turned off at Amazon to save me from myself!
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.