Question Cable testing devices wanted

[ingeborgdot]

I'm not looking to break the bank. I don't do this as a career but as a hobby and I'm learning something new every day. I have about 3/4 mile of cat5e and cat6 in my house for my whole house audio, networking, and cameras. I also work at my friend's house doing his networking, out at his shop with cameras and networking, and at his bin site networking and cameras. I also just got done doing another friend's cameras and networking, along with the same at my brother-in-law's place. All in all, I'm sure there are 5 miles or more of different cat5e and cat6 cable runs. Plus at these places, there is cable internet.
I'm looking for something that will test all the cables periodically as mice in some of those areas can cause damage, plus age, etc.
What do you use to test cables? I would like to keep it under $150 and under $100 would be the best for no more than I would use it. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks.

 

[bill001g]

There is no automated thing that will do it. Even if you were to test 1 run at a time the meters that actually certify that cables can pass data at certified rates cost near $1000.

There are many cheap things that will light leds with a battery but that does not actually tell you if it will pass data. These also require you to disconnect your equipment and put the test equipment on the wires.

Your best bet would be to buy commercial switches that keep track of errors on ports and can send data to a central server. This is extremely common in a enterprise class install where they can run reports on every port. BUT this is almost a waste of time. When the company I used to work for ran reports you could have 10,000 ports being monitored and they would see zero errors in a month related to cable issue. You get what looks like errors every time someone unplugs or reboots a pc.

 

[Ralston18]

One indirect way would be to set up a bit of code via Powershell that could be used to ping each device, in turn, hosted by the network.

Likely a simple (relative) script that could be run on some regular maintenance schedule (Task Scheduler perhaps).

Just print the results and file. If the cables get nibbled on or otherwise degrade then the ping test times will likely start increasing.

And it would not take too much effort to add improvements.

E.g.:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/p.../test-netconnection?view=windowsserver2022-ps

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/use-powershell-test-port-connectivity-run-network-komarovskiy-mba

Remote testing is possible:

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=001116742&type=1

Python could also be used:

https://www.justanswer.com/computer-programming/naji6-write-program-python-scan-ip-addresses.html

Or you could make some use of netstat.

https://www.makeuseof.com/netstat-c...Command Prompt, type,"netstat > Path\FileName.

However, the bigger picture is likely that the device will simply disappear from the network. And the pings etc. would fail.

What may be more handy is a good floor plan or diagram showing all device locations and the cable runs serving those devices.

Still if you like to learn and wish to advance your hobby - then give it all a go.

And very likely there may be other ideas and suggestions that can be added or incorporated.

But buy some mouse traps.... 🐁