How to test CAT6 cable for POE

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freddyq

Getting the hang of it
Nov 18, 2016
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Hi,

I have three CAT6 cables I had run to the front, side and back of my house as part of renovation work and before I go off and buy some IP cameras I just want to make sure there the cable will support power over ethernet. There is no reason why it wouldn't but I just want to be sure. So how do i go about testing?

Many thanks!
 
freddyq said:
Hi,

I have three CAT6 cables I had run to the front, side and back of my house as part of renovation work and before I go off and buy some IP cameras I just want to make sure there the cable will support power over ethernet. There is no reason why it wouldn't but I just want to be sure. So how do i go about testing?

Many thanks!
Click to expand...
Put ends on the cable and buy something similar to this. TRENDnet TC-NT2 Cable Tester-Newegg.com
 
if you get a data link you'll get a PoE link.. dumb power is easy; its the signals that get messed up.. Plug a laptop into one end and run some bandwdith performance tests; if you can achieve full wire speeds w/out a bunch of network interface errors then its good to go.
 
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OK cool thanks guys. So if I plug a laptop in to the end which will go into the back of the camera and run the types of tests mentioned and receive no errors then I'm good to go...
 
freddyq said:
OK cool thanks guys. So if I plug a laptop in to the end which will go into the back of the camera and run the types of tests mentioned and receive no errors then I'm good to go...
Click to expand...

Correct

Run two test, first test at the router / switch then remaining test at each Ethernet cable end where the camera will connect to.

This way you will know if any Ethernet cable you ran into wall have interfences, break, or bad crossover.

Bill
 
Ex
TechBill said:
Correct

Run two test, first test at the router / switch then remaining test at each Ethernet cable end where the camera will connect to.

This way you will know if any Ethernet cable you ran into wall have interfences, break, or bad crossover.

Bill
Click to expand...
Excellent - thanks very much for confirming. Can the tests be done using online sites or should I download some kind of software?
 
use something on the network, your internet wont be nearly fast enough for stress testing an ethernet network.

personally I prefer to use trusty ole iperf, to check for interface errors on windows I believe you use netstat -s from cmd, for unixes including MacOS run ifconfig from a shell

Run an iperf server on one end of the cable and an iperf client on the other end of the cable and have it churn data down the line for at least 5mins or so, then you can repeat the test transferring data in the other direction just to be thorough..

if you have any fluorescent ballasts or anything high voltage running near the cabling make sure they are on when your testing.
 
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Hi, so I'm just revisiting this as I had to put plans on hold for a bit to deal with other things. Apologies but I've never used iPerf so how would I go about doing the following:
nayr said:
Run an iperf server on one end of the cable and an iperf client on the other end of the cable
Click to expand...

Any help much appreciated.

TIA!
 
freddyq said:
Hi, so I'm just revisiting this as I had to put plans on hold for a bit to deal with other things. Apologies but I've never used iPerf so how would I go about doing the following:


Any help much appreciated.

TIA!
Click to expand...
you are overthinking it...it will work.
 
I am genuinely not sure how to do this...I'll have a go at explaining what I understand. I need two laptops, one connected at each end of the cable being tested. I install iperf on both laptops and from one laptop I run iperf in server mode and from the second I connect to the first. iperf will then give me some stats I can use to verify bandwidth.

Hopefully I've got it right...
 
freddyq said:
I am genuinely not sure how to do this...I'll have a go at explaining what I understand. I need two laptops, one connected at each end of the cable being tested. I install iperf on both laptops and from one laptop I run iperf in server mode and from the second I connect to the first. iperf will then give me some stats I can use to verify bandwidth.

Hopefully I've got it right...
Click to expand...
once again, an utter complete waste of time...
 
Not sure what your issue is mate but you don't have to reply if you think it's such a waste of time.
 
freddyq said:
Not sure what your issue is mate but you don't have to reply if you think it's such a waste of time.
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Just pointing it out to my other users mate...I dont want anyone to think this ocd nonsense is normal....if you dont like my comments you are free to leave my forum...
 
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