Troubleshooting Cable Connectivity

Question 1

Theoretical maximum data rate- Usually measured in bits per second - The size of the pipe

Answer 1

Speed/bandwidth

Question 2

• Amount of data transferred in a given timeframe - Usually measured in bits per second- How much water is flowing through the pipe

Answer 2

Throughput

Question 3

Unshielded and shielded cable

Answer 3

• Abbreviations-
  U = Unshielded,
  S = Braided shielding,
  F = Foil shielding

Question 4

(Overall cable) / (individual pairs)TP

Answer 4

• Braided shielding around the entire cable
  and foil around the pairs is S/FTP- Foil around the cable and no shielding around
  the pairs is F/UTP

Question 5

• cable may not be as flexible - May not have the same bend radius
  used in areas where fire is a higher risk

Answer 5

Plenum-rated

Question 6

• Cisco console cable,- Yost cable- Serial cable “standard” proposed by Dave Yost
• A standard for RJ-45 to serial communications
• Used in conjunction with serial port connectors

Answer 6

“Rollover” cable

Question 7

• Power provided on an Ethernet cable- One wire for both network and electricity - Phones, cameras, wireless access points - Useful in difficult-to-power areas

Answer 7

Power over Ethernet (PoE)

Question 8

Signal strength diminishes over distance- Loss of intensity as signal moves through a medium

Answer 8

Attenuation

Question 9

• Signal strength ratio measurements- One-tenth of a bel- Capital B for Alexander Graham Bell

Answer 9

Decibels (dB)

Question 10

dB loss symptoms

Answer 10

• No connectivity - No signal!
  Intermittent connectivity- Just enough signal to sync the link
  Poor performance- Signal too weak- CRC errors, data corruption

Question 11

pinch connector onto a wire

Answer 11

cable crimpers

Question 12

punch a wire into a wiring block

Answer 12

punch down tool

Question 13

generates a tone to find where wires go

Answer 13

tone generator

Question 14

useful for testing physical ports
not cross over cable
used on 1 device

Answer 14

loopback plug

Question 15

shows cable lengths
id splices
shows signal loss
locates breaks

Answer 15

TDR time domain reflectometer

Question 16

shows voltage

Answer 16

multimeter

Question 17

simple continuirt test
wire map

Answer 17

cable testers

Question 18

sends a copy to a packet capture device

Answer 18

tap port mirror

Question 19

join two ends of fiber together

Answer 19

fusion splicer

Question 20

shows how much light is going through a cable

Answer 20

light meter

Question 21

shows what frequency’s are available forr wireless transfers

Answer 21

spectrum analyzer