Cat 6 wiring problems in a new house

Scuzi

Scuzi

Scuzi

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We recently moved into a new build house in which we specced some Cat 6 cable to be installed. I requested that 3 rooms in the house each have 2 ports: the living room, the study and the master bedroom. The 6 connections were to terminate in the closet under the stairs.

Now to the problems...

1. There are only 5 terminations in the closet. I pulled off the faceplates and there are only 5 cables.
2. I bought a cheap cable tester from a high street electronics store chain. Using this, I confirmed that one of the ports in the master bedroom is not connected to anything.
3. Using this cheap cable tester, only one of the connections showed all 8 lights. Every other connection skipped a light, detailed below.
4. When cables are inserted into the sockets in the faceplates, it is difficult to get the cable to stay in. Either the ports/faceplates are extremely cheap or they have been poorly installed.

I have raised the issue twice with the builder and each time they have sent an electrician. Each electrician has started their visit by saying , "I don't know a whole lot about these computer cables..." which hasn't exactly inspired confidence. I asked the builder to send someone who knows what they are doing, i.e. a specialist but they're only willing to send one if their electricians.

I have a couple of questions.
1. If the cable tester shows a connection but doesn't show lights on, for example, pins 4 and 6 or one or the other, does it suggest there is a problem with that connection?
2. The site manager suggested it might have been wired in series (WTF??). How do I check if this is the case?
3. Any tips on how I should continue with this?

Many thanks :)
 
Cat 6 is difficult to work with and can be very fragile.

If an electrician who knows NOTHING about structured network cabling installed it then I would not be surprised if half of it is totally wrong or just plain broken.

Questions:
What sort of cable lengths
What type of Cat6 cable (Shielded or not, solid or stranded core, full copper or cheap plating)
What kind of face plates in use. Modular?
 
You need to hire someone who knows what they're talking about.

Suggest this to the builder and if it isn't sorted tell him you'll find someone yourself and make the bill payable to him.
 
It looks like UTP with modular faceplates. I haven't examined the cable any further. Is there a way to tell what type of cable it is without cutting through it?

The longest run should be from the master bedroom, probably under 50ft at a guess.

MarkLP, that's what I have asked for but they're not being responsive. I think I'm going to have to consider getting someone out on my own dime and trying to bill it to the builder. Practically speaking, I'm not sure it will be quite as simple as that though!
 
People that describe themselves as electricians but are competent at doing data cabling are like unicorns.

You need a structured cabling engineer to sort the mess out. If a cheap tester isn't lighting up then that run is either damaged or not terminated properly - you'll probably find 5 miles of untwisted wire behind each faceplate as well. Cheap testers tend to over simplify things - they will light up when the run might still be out of spec as they are only checking resistance. In your case though where it's not lighting up it's fine to rely on (assuming the LED or port on the tester isn't broken).

Since you've requested data cabling to be installed to Category 6 standards then the cabling should be Cat6 (it will have it printed on the jacket), the socket modules should be Cat6 (again, it will say on them somewhere), and if you really want to annoy them technically the installation should have been tested and certified to Cat6 standards with a Fluke and there should be certificates with test results from each run to prove this. A structured cabling engineer would provide this as a matter of course if they expected to be able to prove the task was completed, and therefore paid.

Cables that are damaged mid-run or aren't run in at all will likely require plasterboard to be pulled down, so you definitely want to get the builder to sort it out.
 
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As the others have said.

I did similar in my new build but terminated in my study rather under the stairs. Didn't want the better half knocking the switch and router with all the crud we store under the stairs lol.

Again I had similar issues cabling not run correctly or failing. I was able to borrow a fluke from work and test thoroughly. I went for cat5e instead as it was easier to work with and suitably fast for our needs.

Ended up with some plaster boards being taken down and cables being replaced by the builder but not after a struggle.

I would also suggest looking into snagging sites as new builds can be fun and games

Hope that makes sense. Posting from my phone.
 
When I renovated, I did the ethernet cabling myself. I got the builders to channel the walls etc for me, then did it myself. They were hesitant too about doing it.

It's not that hard to do, all worked fine first time without any faff.
 
Well the cables are run so that's the most important point.
It sounds like the problem is with the termination of the cables, I'd personally borrow a friends tool and terminate them myself (after practicing on some spare cable)

If you can't get your hands on the proper tools to do this then you could always use some tool-less box's like the ones below to solve the problem:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tool-Less...ther_Computing_Networking&hash=item35ce922f0d
 
dabotsonline said:
Just out of interest, Scuzi, why did you specify Cat6 and not Cat6a?
Click to expand...
The builders originally only offered Cat5e and they upped it to Cat6 as a "good will gesture". Cat5e would have been more than enough for my needs anyway.


C.R.A.Z.Y said:
Well the cables are run so that's the most important point.
It sounds like the problem is with the termination of the cables, I'd personally borrow a friends tool and terminate them myself (after practicing on some spare cable)

If you can't get your hands on the proper tools to do this then you could always use some tool-less box's like the ones below to solve the problem:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tool-Less...es we'd have said **** it and went to the pub!
Click to expand...
 
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