Another example of poor Ethernet cables

David Decoons, wo2x

Hi All Just to reiterate what Tim has stated about changing your Ethernet cables if you suspect network issues. Our 9-1-1 system went down @ 2 a.m. This morning. Seems we had a bad patch cable for a Verizon managed point to point Ethernet circuit. The switches showed a good layer 1 physical connection but we couldn't ping between locations. We were getting tons of "unavailable seconds" when testing diagnostics. Replaced the patch cable with a cable I made using the Amp two piece Ethernet connectors and no more errors. Here's a picture of the bad cable and its packaging. Goes to show you can't depend on commercial cables to be made correctly. Dave wo2x

Bill -VA3WTB

Dave, same thing for USB cables. I remember when I got my Flex 3000 I had the radio drop communications a lot. That would cause a freez.  Flex told me to change the USB cable for a better kind. It has never dropped ever since then. It has been 10 years.

David Decoons, wo2x

Hi Bill I think you mean FireWire :-) 73 Dave wo2x

Ria

We had professional wiring guys pull a cable too **** one of our routers yesterday. After hours on the phone with Level 3 and Verizon, we just replaced the cable, and the link came back 100%. So yeah, check your cables!

Mike va3mw

Dave

I work in the computer storage business managing our Software Support Teams.  I am surprised just how many times the solution is cable replacement when our storage performance is slow.  It is well over 95%.

Customers never believe us and they think it is just a stall tactic, yet it is the easiest thing to change out.  The same is true with Fibre connections.  

The only good way to check cables is with a BER (Bit Error Rate) tester, but no one person owns one unless they work for a Verizon, etc.  

Thanks for posting this.

Mike va3mw

Bill -VA3WTB

Oh yes sorry, I mean firewire.

KF4HR

I've found at times it's not the Ethernet cable causing the problems, but rather the Ethernet cable connectors not making good contact.   

Lee - N2LEE

Reminds me of the troubleshooting adage, "It takes a good one not a new one"

How many times have you said or heard, I put in new batteries. 

Jay Nation

Sometimes just reseating/replugging a cable will clear the trouble temporarily, Doing so, also jiggles the mechanical connection between the wires and the connector, and also might scrape some corrosion off of the pins in the jack. If you have a spare cable anyway, why not use that and set the original aside for the next emergency repair.    

  SDRgadgets

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  73, Jay - NO5J