On Fri, Jun 5, 2009 at 1:24 PM, Matthew W. Ross<mr...@ephrataschools.org> wrote: > I used a tester from a company called Test-Um, which I just found out was > purchased by JDSU. > The TestUm won't validate Cat-5e or Cat-6 ...
If it's the same one I've got, it's just a glorified continuity tester and tone generator. It will tell you if you're wired an 8-conductor straight-through cable properly, and identify the failure mode (open, short, miswire, split) and the bad wires if not. All that is pretty good given the sub $100 price. But it doesn't actually do performance testing/certification, which is what the OP is asking for. I know from hard experience that you can have a cable that's wired right but won't perform well due to impedance, selective frequency problems, propagation skew, or about 11 different kinds of crosstalk. Most common cause is the wire being physically stressed during installation. With gig Ethernet, a sharp kink is all you need for a bad day. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
