[SOLVED] Is my cable faulty?

[fiona1212]

I have my Master BT socket in a cupboard near the main door, with extensions in 3 different rooms. The junction box with cables feeding the rooms is next to my master socket.

Since the cabling in my house is Cat 5e, I am trying to convert extensions in 3 of the rooms to ethernet sockets, using a suitable faceplate. I successfully connected two of them and tested the connections using an ethernet cable tester. Speeds were also optimal, confirming that punchdowns were done correctly.

However, in the third room, when I wanted to repeat the procedure and removed the BT faceplate, I found an extra loose end of cable. At first I thought this was excess cable just stuffed in by the builders, but when I tested them, both appeared to be live... so one was originally connected to the BT socket and another was lying loose inside the faceplate! But my problem is that when I tried to repeat the ethernet connection in this room, my cable tester only lit lights 2 and 5, and skipped the rest. I tried different face plates and keystone jacks, but all to no avail. I am certain the punchdowns are perfect, and the cable tester works fine. Since all cables are behind walls, there is no way to test if there is a damage to this particular cable... although I cant think how this is possible since the other two are working fine despite being farther away from the cable box.
What could I be doing wrong?
And why are there two loose, live ends behind one single extension socket?

 

[bill001g]

I doubt anyone on this forum can help a lot. There is no way to guess what is in the walls. You would think both cables go back to the same central room. Maybe you have another cable there if you look. It could I guess go to a different room but that would be strange in a house that already has a central data cupboard. Phone wires used to daisy chain jack to jack so you would see 2 wires in those but again they would not do that when there is a central location for the wires.

Look for damage to the cable maybe some of the wires got damaged. Make very sure that the jack is cabled correctly. Pin 2 and pin 5 are on a standard ethernet configuration are on 2 completley different pairs. One wire would be in the blue pair and the other either the green or orange depending on which standard is being used. If someone had say used the cable for a phone like they generally would have used both wires from a single pair rather than 2 random wires.

 

[fiona1212]

Thank you for your reply, Bill001g. Yes, both cables go back to the same junction box, and oddly both "appear" to have the same cable end as only this gives me a postive test on the tester. It is almost as if the cable, somewhere along its journey, mutated and split into two. Lol.
As suggested by you, I looked behind the faceplate and there are some twisted cables of another colour and I think these belong to the TV or something else, but have no loose ends.

Okay, I didnt quite understand your explanation of the two wires being used for telephone - blue and orange, but since you have ruled this out, I will not delve into it.
I am a bit disappointed as I really wanted a LAN connection in this room.
Thanks again.

 

[bill001g]

I would look carefully how it is currently conencted. Then take it apart and see is something is broken. TV would run over coax. It would be more likely it was a alarm system or something.

If nothing seems wrong connect the wires to the jack properly and it should work as ethernet.

 

[fiona1212]

Hi again, Bill. I have spent some time with it this morning. It appears it was originally configured to be a dual port, hence the two cables behind the face plate. But should this not then lead to two separate cables in the junction box? Oddly they dont, but merge into one cable at the other end, with all 3 ends (2 in the room, one in the junction) giving me the same result of 2,5 lit, the rest are skipped. I have tried to pull out as much cable as possible in the junction box, but this is all there is to it, and everything matches but for this. I'm at my wit's end and pretty frustrated.
I changed new keystone jacks and used fresh cable pull, yet same result.
I just had a question..... should this be in any way connected to the BT master socket for whatever reason, because at the moment, that lies disconnected until I decide what to do with my phone connection.
Always thought ethernet should feed from one end of cable to the other end, provided all other factors are fixed and working.
I thank you again for responding to my dodo-like questions

 

[bill001g]

Ethernet is point to point. You should not hook up the phone to anything until you need it. You will in effect have to give up a ethernet cable.

The extra cable is either going to go to another room, maybe one of those have 2 cables. It could also go outside the house if someone for example ran a line for a telephone/DSL connection. Still if you have a phone line in your central cabenet it is not likely they ran another cable to a different phone location.

What I can't see is why only 2 of the 8 wires would work. Unless someone cut the wires someplace in the middle the wires should go end to end

 

[fiona1212]

Yes, 2 out of 8 is the baffler here.
I have given up on it, and will look for another option to improve internet in the said room.
Thanks again for all your responses, Bill.

 

[AVDesignPro]

What you need to do is get past trying to solve the mystery of what somebody else did or intended originally and just test the wire from the junction, making sure both ends are open (not connected to anything) You say you have a lan tester but does that tester also have other features such as continuity or tone? If so use it or a multimeter to test, you should have no connection...also insure you have the right cable by twisting to bare wires together in room 3 and then you should get tone. You will quickly be able to tell by doing this if the cable is usable or is daisy chained from somewhere else. This has to be step one or you will be chasing your tail...as you have been! Hope that helps

 

[fiona1212]

Thank you, AVDesignPro. That was useful. Will get hold of a tone tester and start over.
You are right. I am not only chasing my tail, but have lost sight of it in the process!
Have also messaged the guy who was responsible for the original wiring. If he is able to help, then it should make it simpler for me.
Will update here and seek advice if there is a change in scenario. Thanks again.