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I have been trying to crimp cat6+ cables at home and been having issues. some would work fine at gig others would only go to 100mb. Is there a reasonable tester out there for verifying a cable run will work @ 1gb?

Cable tester

I was looking at the one above and cant tell if it would do what I need it to do. I will need to test both patch cables and hard runs. I may end up running poe 600' in to the barn for security cameras so that looked interesting. the tester w/o the poe is about 400. My servers and a couple desktops will need access to the san at a gig so those I want to be able to run full speed. I may end up with seperate lan for storage in the near future but right now it will be shared so I am trying to make sure the parts are up for the chalange when the network get seperated. There's also a fluke out there for 400 but I cant tell if that one does cable quality or not either. Mind you this is for home use so I cant drop 4k+ for a nice fluke.

Kendrick
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  • Cable certifiers are freeking expensive. No two ways around it. – Chris S Jul 25 '12 at 23:16
  • I'm closing this as off-topic since (a) it's for a home environment, and (b) a good portion of the question is about cable tester recommendations. Having said that, you've received some good advice in the answers below. Re: testing the cable, *certifiers* (that run the frequencies and really verify the cable meets spec) are expensive, and that's what you'll need to ensure full speed. Most I've used were over $1000, most sub-$500 units are adequate, but not great. Also don't forget the usual environmental factors that could be causing trouble (distance, Low-voltage AC, etc.). – voretaq7 Jul 26 '12 at 01:03
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    you know its funny I got the same result from super user if I cant ask the question here where am I allowed to. This is rediculous you folks and superuser need to sort out your quarel as to where people can ask questions like this. I dont see how verifying what features are needed to diagnose what I want is off topic. – Kendrick Jul 26 '12 at 03:12
  • @Kendrick, there is no quarrel. If you want to dispute the reason for closure, please go to [meta](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/) and request that the question be reopened. However, if Jeff Atwood wrote the policy about shopping questions, you're really wasting your time. He basically owns the site – Mike Pennington Jul 26 '12 at 09:05

2 Answers2

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At gigabit speeds, forget crimping your own cables. Instead use solid core cat6 cable and put in patch panels and wall plates, then buy precertified patch cables.

longneck
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  • I'm in agreement. If you're not in the profession of installing and certifying cabling then I can hardly justify the cost of a cable tester for the occasional "one-off" installation. – joeqwerty Jul 26 '12 at 00:25
  • Thank you for being so kind as to provide insite, inspite of others dismissing this as trivial. – Kendrick Jul 26 '12 at 03:11
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First, let's nail down a few things.

The max length for a single run of POE Cat6 is 100 Meters; if you're going farther than that and you still want Cat6, you either:

  • Need to run fiber (which won't carry POE)
  • Need an ethernet repeater (such as a switch) every 100Meters

As for your cable tester shopping question, it's off-topic for Server Fault

Mike Pennington
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  • I was expecting to break it at about 300' where the front gate will be getting power for a camera and the gate hardware. since the barn is un powered its been a hard decision. blauns are supposed to be able to run 2000' even with poe to cameras. though I am not sure if i could run 4 cameras off of the long run blaun and poe. – Kendrick Jul 26 '12 at 03:15
  • I will go out on a limb and suggest that you've never run ethernet over a balun before. AFAICT, baluns are not useful as an ethernet extender; however, you *can* run HDMI video over Cat6/balun. HDMI video over Cat6/balun is not ethernet though. – Mike Pennington Jul 26 '12 at 09:19
  • correct, I was planning to run analog cameras over the balun. I am skeptical of the manufacturers claim of 2000' in cost of cable and having to string arial lines Im not excited in putting up a fist full of cable. I have a 300' ish burried run I have to do along the drive to the gate. then put up some poles to cross over the creek and string to the barn. it was pure luck that the gate was midway point. depending on the blaun im not sure if i would just run the video cat all the way to the house or repat at 300' – Kendrick Jul 27 '12 at 03:26