Does anybody know of a cable tester that can test a cable, cat-x or coax, and test the integrity of the cable. I have a Klein LAN tester (one of these [Link: homedepot.com] ) that will pass the pinout of a cable but that cable won't make a connection. I live in Houston and had a few calls where stuff doesn't work after the flood. So I go out and test the cable with my tester and it passes but I just can't get a connection. Running a new cable fixes the issue. I don't why if it doesn't have any shorts or breaks it wouldn't work but it doesn't.

So is there a somewhat inexpensive tester somebody knows that can test and make sure a cable can get a network connection thru it. Where I used to work they had a test-um validator but it was like $1,500 which is a bit out of my price range. Just seeing if somebody knows of something like that that's a but cheaper.

If water got to the copper and any voltage was present
It would oxidize rather quickly.
At the plug, port, wire.

This will not show as a short or open necessarily.

You need a better meter.

The Fluke CableIQ will show pass / fail 1000/100/10 etc.
if excess resistance is in the line, it should fail it.

It the cable was under water, it likely needs to be replace. Or will need to be replaced sooner or later.

I agree that getting wet means replace it, period. Chances are huge that a cable that now looks like it got wet was recently submerged for some period of time. Any lack of integrity of the outer jacket would let water into the cable. It's now toast, or whatever the wet corollary of toast is.

And, of course, if the ends got wet, there's definitely water along the cable, just by capillary action.

Since we never have wet wires upon initial installation, nothing more than a check with DC -- the $40 tester -- will tell us that we put the orange where it's supposed to be, etc. But those can't tell if any actual signal will pass. Sorry, but you're going to have to get, or rent, a tester that will put an actual signal on the line and see if it gets through.

ggarza270,

I'm sure that this will not be your last call of this sort. A waterlogged cable will probably pass what I call the "copper test", meaning that all of the pins are routed through to the other end and there are no shorts, but a waterlogged cable will not pass the bandwidth test.

It's expensive, but a proper tester will diagnose this sort of issue very quickly. Rather than speculating "maybe this or that" you'll have a firm diagnosis and you can show this "Fail" to the customer. The tester will save lots of time and misunderstandings in the long run.

Another dimension is the insurance adjuster. If you can show a clear "Fail" now, you'll avoid needing to bicker with the customer and the adjuster later if a latent problem develops.

Pockethernet <$200
[Link: pockethernet.com]

When you need more than a wiremap, and less than a multi thousand dollar certifier.

(they ship surprisingly quick not being in the US, might have been a week)

I brought this up the other day in another thread.  Please someone buy this thing from me.  It's like brand new.  I've got way too much crap taking up space in my garage that I no longer have a use for.

[Link: remotecentral.com]

I have a $430 triplett tester and it passes cables that just won't work. Pisses me off. Im at the point where I feel I need one that can certify/qualify cables and they are all like $1200+ but at least this way i'd know if the damn cable was really good.

I went ahead and order one of these. Waiting for it to get it. Hopefully it works out.

Will this pocket Ethernet unit perform shielded cat tests? I didn't see a shield in the wiremaps in the video.

I'd consider replacing my cableiq with this but without shield test, I can't.

Yes it does shielded wire mapping.

Shows an (s) on the wiremap line and when tapped an expands and shows each wire 1-8 plus a s for visual indication as well.