Anyone interested in a quick job assisting with some Ethernet troubleshooting?

[th3w01f]

I was at my mom's this morning trying to figure out why none of her builder installed CAT5 ports work (condo). I brought my Ethernet tester and tested every possible cable in the wiring panel (starting with the one labeled for the jack in question) and I was unable to get a connection on any of her jacks. I pulled one of the outlets out and the cable is wired to the outlet so I can only assume that there is an issue with the RJ45 wiring on one end or the other. My tester tests for straight, cross over and short but I got 'no connection' for every port. I brought it home and tested my ports and the tester is working just fine.

I'm usually pretty busy and I no longer have an RJ45 crimp tool so I'm looking for someone who may want to barter some silver, $$$ or ??? for an hour or two of work (only 4 jacks in question).

She's in Highlands Ranch off of Broadway. PM me if you're interested.

If you have a good company you've worked with for this type of issue I'll take their name as well.

[Brian]

Sorry for the basic question - but what is the other end plugged in to? The wiring panel connections are plugged into a switch down there, correct? I know when I bought my house, they ran the wires for me but didn't connect them to anything.
My brother-in-law couldn't figure out why his network wasn't working either, until I explained to him he had to connect the wiring closet end into something like a switch or router.

It's unlikely that the builder messed up every one of those lines. I'm betting your problem is the wiring closet side.

If this was not a new build and everything just died, it's also possible the switch blew out or has an issue. If you happen to have a little switch or hub, you can plug the closet side in to one of the runs, and your laptop in to the other side, and you should see link light. If the switch went bad, it's possible the lights would still light up though. I had a little netgear gigabit switch that went bad and it still would show link-light even though it was bad.

[Ranger353]

+1 on Brian's comment above. I have gone through my share of switches over the years. Sometimes the switch appears to power-up and function but the port(s) are dead. An easy way to test without a tester is to just swap it out with a known good switch and see. Ports can go bad for many reasons to include static electricity from the carpet, just touching a jack without grounding yourself first can do it.

[asmo]

If you're still having problems this weekend let me know. I'll be back in town and can take care of it.

[th3w01f]

Thanks for the comments and the offer asmo. The wiring closet does have a very simple switch that interconnects all of the jacks, what I did was pull the RJ45 labeled 'Master' from the switch and connect it to one end of my cable tester, I attached the other end of the tester to the RJ45 on the wall and zilch. I then tested all the other cables in the panel just in case it was mislabeled but no luck. I did the same thing (tested every cable) with 3 other RJ45 outlets and no luck. Unless they did something strange pulling the cable my tester should have been on opposite ends of the same CAT5 wire which is why I think they screwed something up. For the life of me I can't figure out what they might have done (unless one or both ends just aren't terminated properly), my tester reads crossover and rollover cables with no problem and it shows individual pins, I wasn't able to get any connectivity at all on any test.

My first though was to cut the RJ45 connector and jack off of one of the cables but I no longer have a crimper (I know they're cheap but my mom didn't want to spend any more time on it today).

[brutal]

If you need it, I have an RJ-45 crimper and a test and tone set as well. I doubt I have any RJ-45 heads and I'm doubtful I have the needed stripper. However, I might have to look at the crimper as it may be one with a built in cutter. Haven't used it/seen it in so long but it's in a box in the garage.

I'll add that I'm not back in town until late Friday evening and plan to head to Tanner Sat morning.

[Half Live]

I deal with new houses with those panels all the time. The rj45 end in the panel is probably a cheap bad one. I gave up a while back and now just replace all the ends and most jacks when installing phone, tv, and internet. If you still need help on the weekend, let me know.

Edit: I can probably give you guys a hand tomorrow evening after work since I might be going to visit my parents and will be driving by.

[Monky]

I need to wire my house for cat 5.. Well 3 rooms. I have zero idea how to do it. Want to help me when you're done with him?


Sent by a free-range electronic weasel, with no sense of personal space.

[def90]

I do this stuff for a living.. I'm booked out 3-4 weeks though..

It's odd that none of the wires are good, even if a moron crimped them i would think they would have at least gotten a pair or two on one of the wires. Do you know what brand wall plates/inserts they are? You usually need a punch down tool on the jack end, there are some DIY jacks out there that use a cheap plastic throw away tool to seat the wires, I'm guessing it's possible that someone tried doing this themselves and didn't properly seat the wires on the jack end.

[Brian]

Can you confirm if this is a new build, and was the wiring done by a professional builder/company recently?

I agree with all the options on what might have gone wrong, but for it to affected 4 different runs at the same time it just is very odd. Is there only one run to each room (instead of two runs - one for phone, one for data?)

Even if they mixed up 568a/b your tester should have seen something.
Even if they mislabeled the cables, it sounds like you tested each end anyway, so that should eliminate that's not the problem.
It's possible I suppose that whoever did it just didn't follow either standard wiring pattern, but for anybody who's done even a handful of these, that's hard to believe.
Maybe the wires weren't actually terminated in the rooms - some contractor got lazy or something, but that's something that would be pretty visible on first use, so I doubt it.
Could the wires have been cut somewhere?

I don't know, at a loss I guess without looking at it.

I've got all the tools and tips, etc. and would be glad to help, but couldn't be until next week. Sounds like you have a lot of other volunteers though...