I am a new administrator on a brand new very visable project. I arrived well after planning and just on the tail end of the purchasing phase. No one was on site to review the installation or indicate who was to do the job. It wound up being done by an electrical company with almost no concept of network wiring at all. They had practically no network tools and NO networking testing tools/methodologies. All that was provided to them was a test so thin that it translated to plugging in a patch cord and getting a green light! I pushed and protested until they were required to do a more thorough test. They are a union company so I am not allowed to touch anything at this point. They proceeded to RENT a pentascanner and perform testing on the cable they installed. most passed some did not. I am EXTREMELY concerned. A couple of runs that “passed” are not passing a simple ping test.
1.) I have limited control to what I can do. I am allowed to implement testing with my laptop though.
2.)I observed severe mishandling of the cat 5 cable, multiple over 45 degree bends and lots of pulling.
3.) The “fails” that came up on the pentascanner were at a minimum 328 ft, out to almost 500 ft. The electricians are handling the cat 5 as if it were electrical wiring. The are untrained as to the requirements of cat5
What testing(software) can I employ to test the functionality of the cables? My budget will not allow spending an excessive amount on a tool that will be used infrequently.
Thisis my first administration, at this point I am solo. My support IT Dept. Is in Canada and extremely loaded with their own network problems.
I need to get this problem straightened out as quickly as possible as it is what is holding us up from moving into the new site.
Any help, recommendations(to tools, books, testing methods, policy etc.) would be immensely appreciated