I have had wire map pass. No shorts etc and the damn thing still won’t link up. Swap cables and all good.

This was to a sunbrite using snap 540 balun.

I was using structured cable products shielded direct burial cat 6. At first I noticed wiggling wire at balun would occasionally make link light. So I test cable. No issues. Wiggle cable every which way while testing. Passes. Swap to a second non direct burial cable. Worked fine. Said wtf. Ran a new length of direct burial. Same bs. Swapped baluns to another 540. Issue worse. Cable certifies.

Ultimately I said screw it and am running off the non direct burial wire. When I was talking to snap tech he said they were seeing issues on the 540.


Speed tests are indeed valuable. Very valuable. A cable can pass a wire map all day long but still not pass the speeds. A good meter is $1500 or so that can do this well. A cable “certifier” and “qualifier” are two diff things. Only one is actually a true legit speed rating you can sign off on during a prewire.

[Link: m.flukenetworks.com]

IMHO a VDV is very limited. In no way whatsoever is it all we need. In this business we all should be budgeting sooner rather then later for a tester that can certify a cable. It absolutely is a very valuable tool in network cable troubleshooting (even in HDMI balun usage).