Today I decided to learn about wire testers. The networking guys we running some new wires right outside my office. They had two yellow devices. One device was placed at each end of a new wire.
http://www.flukenetworks.com/us/Cabling/Copper+Cabling/DSP-4000+Series/Overview.htm
Once connected, the one end would give a readout that “rated” the wire on its ability to carry a networking signal. I had them test a couple of my wires that I thought were giving me problems. Turns out there two of my wires were bad. They had electrical shorts or breaks in the copper.
The tester shows several useful pieces of information. The easiest thing to understand is a “short”. This just means that there is a break in the solid copper. If the wire is moved (twisted, pulled, etc), there may be an electrical connection or there may not be. Shorts are bad because they are unpredictable. The other useful reading was “cross talk”. This is when on strand of the wire has a signal that interferes with another strand of the wire. This can be caused by neglect (too much pulling or twisting of the wire).
The tester I used today was more than $1000. So I don’t think I’ll be buying one for myself any time soon. I did find out that the UF has a set that I can use if I need to.