I have a nice super-flexible
GREEN Ethernet cable, which kicks around aimlessly on the floor for easy access when I want to plug something in for testing. In spite of having boots on the connectors, a couple of days ago, while in the middle of something important, I somehow managed to snap the retaining tab on one of the RJ45 plugs. So far so normal.
Because it's super-flexible, and moreover
GREEN, I decided not to simply chuck it back in the box of assorted netjbexing stuffs and untangle a working one, but to dig out the case of elec-chicken tools and fit a new connector. A couple of recitations of the T568B mantra and a bit of swearing in colourblind
[1] later, I plugged it into my Cheap Shitty Network Cable Tester From China, which reported lack of continuity on pins 4 and 5.
So I chopped it off and fitted another. Same problem. "Ah!" I reasoned, "It must be a fault at the other end.", so I lopped that one off and fitted a new one. Reader, it was not a fault at the other end.
Several RJ45 plugs later, I did what any reasonable person would do and stuck a warning note on the cable to the effect that the blue pair was mysteriously b0rked somewhere along the length (on the basis that Future Kim would have the sense to use it for Fast Ethernet, and not anything gigabit or telephonic or relying on the supply of voles), and chucked it back in the corner by way of making the problem go away.
Obviously this played on my mind until I came to rant at barakta earlier today. Where, lacking something important to be in the middle of, I decided to sort the problem properly. "Binary search!" I exclaimed in
computer SCIENCE, and after a cursory inspection for obvious kinks or nicks, chopped the cable in two at the mid point. Having by now become suspicious, I opted to strip and short the offending pair before fucking about with further crimping. The tester showed continuity, so I proceeded. To make yet another cable with no connection on pins 4&5.
At which point my brain started working, and I considered that perhaps it was my Cheap Shitty Network Cable Tester From China that was at fault. "Mongrels!" I exclaimed in the time-honoured Dave Jones antipodean style, as I discovered that they'd used triangle-head screws. Barakta pointed out that I had a set of silly screwdriver bits, which were duly used to open it up, at which point it was about a minute's work to replace the offending LEDs with ones that still contained magic smoke. I can only assume that past-Kim had been a div and plugged it into something that supplied ringing voltage or PoE.
Anyway, I'm now the proud owner of two nice super-flexible (if somewhat short)
GREEN Ethernet cables, and a Cheap Shitty Network Cable Tester From China with mismatched blinkenlights and midly chewed screw heads. Hurrah!
(For anyone wondering about the knee referenced in my previous post, it's mostly stopped hurting, but has developed a respectable bruise.)
[1] For some inexplicable reason this one went: White wire, orange wire, other white wire, blue wire, light blue wire, poo colour wire, grey wire, dark poo colour wire. Because the usual colours-and-matching-stripe scheme where you merely have to get a really bright light to determine which is the green and which is the orange would be too obvious, or something.
