Now in this lesson,
we're going to discuss the various copper cable issues
that you may experience.
This includes things like incorrect pinouts,
bad ports, opens, and shorts.
First, we have incorrect pinouts.
If you're testing a twisted pair network connection
and it isn't working properly,
the chances are your connections pinout
is probably incorrect.
Now, there are a few places the connections pinout
could be incorrect, including the patch panel,
the wall jack, or the RJ45 connector itself.
When you look at the patch panel,
there's usually going to be a sticker near the punch down block
that shows you what wire or pin
should be attached to each connection point
on that patch panel.
By default, most patch panels use a TIA-568-B pinout.
This means we have pins one through eight being connected
as white/orange, orange, white/green, blue,
white/blue, green, white/brown and brown.
If you're having an issue with the connection
and you suspect the pinout is incorrect,
you need to visually inspect the back of the patch panel
and its punch down block to ensure the proper colors
are being put in the proper pins.
Now, when you're looking at the back of a wall jack,
the exact same thing holds true.
Instead of being shown as pins one through eight
in a horizontal layout like you might see in a patch panel,
most wall jacks will usually have four pins
on one end of the jack and four pins on the other.
This wall jack is also known as a keystone,
and it's clearly going to be labeled as pins one through eight
or visually using color-coded stickers
or markers for each pin's location.
Finally, we have our RJ45 connector itself.
These plastic connectors are used to connect copper pins
to the inner twisted pair wires of a UTP or STP cable.
While an RJ45 is not clearly labeled from pin one to eight,
or with the TIA-568-B color scheme you need,
you can always visually look at the pins
and see all eight pins inside the RJ45 connector.
When you hold up the RJ45 connector
with a small plastic clip facing downward,
you can then look at the pins and count them
from left to right number from one to eight.
Again, this will ensure that your inner twisted pair wires
are color coded correctly as white/orange, orange,
white/green, blue, white/blue, green, white/brown, brown
when you view it from pin one to pin eight.
To test the connection or a cable and verify its pinout,
you can also use a cable tester or a wire mapping tool.
These tools will test the inner wire
from your cable or connection
and ensure they're properly cabled
from one end to the other.
If the connection is found to be incorrectly pinned out,
you can simply disconnect the individual wires,
restrip the twisted pair cable using a wire stripper
and re-punch down the wires into the patch panel
or wall jack, or replace the RJ45 connector on the cable
until all portions
are properly using the TIA-568-B wiring standards.
Next, we have the issue of bad ports in a copper network.
Each network interface card on a workstation or server
needs to connect to an ethernet twisted pair network
is going to have an ethernet port
that it's going to use and accept an RJ45 connector into.
If you need to test the ethernet
port on your network interface card,
you're going to need to use a loop back plug
and specialized software.
This will let you send out data
and have it returned back in the ethernet port
and determine if everything's functioning properly.
If it isn't, you need to replace the network interface card.
If the network interface card
is soldered to your motherboard,
you can then add an expansion card instead
to replace this broken onboard ethernet port.
Now, if you suspect a bad port on a switch or a router,
you need to connect a loop back plug
to the port on that device
and run a test using specialized software
just like you would on a workstation.
Now, if the port is found to be faulty or bad,
you can then switch out any connections from that port
to another available port on the switcher router.
In the case of a router,
you may also be able to replace the ethernet port
by changing out the interface card
for the router on that slot.
If not, you're going to have to simply move
that connection to another available port.
Finally, we have opens and shorts.
When you conduct a cable test of a twisted pair connection,
you may find an open or a short exists
on that cable connection.
The result of open is going to occur during a cable test
if you have nothing on the other end of the connection,
or if there's some kind of a break in the wires
between the source and the destination.
So if I'm conducting a test of a cable from a patch panel
to the wall jack over a patch cable into my tester
and reports is open, that means somewhere
in that end-to-end connection.
It's either disconnected
or one of those cables has been accidentally cut or broken.
At that point,
we're going to need to test each piece of the connection
to determine where that brake exists.
For example, I might first test the patch cable,
and if that's successful,
I know that the problem isn't my patch cable,
and instead I'm going to look at the patch panel connection
or the wall jack connection.
The opposite of an open is considered a short.
Now, a short indicates that two wires are connected together
somewhere in that connection.
Usually this occurs when a cable is poorly made
or two of the inner twisted pair wires
accidentally touching each other
in a single pin of an RJ45 connector.
If you're experiencing a shorten your connection,
you should rewire the RJ45 connection
at the end of the cable,
as this is usually going to be the source of your problem.
If this doesn't fix it,
then you need to physically examine the entire cable
to see if it's been damaged
somewhere in the middle of that cable run.
Alternatively, you can simply replace the cable
with a known good cable, and this can also solve your issue.
If you need a test for incorrect pin outs,
opens and shorts a good cable tester, a cable certifier,
or a wire mapping tool will be the key to your success.
If you're testing for a bad port,
then a loop back adapter or a loop back plug
is going to be the tool to use.
Remember, for the exam,
it's important to understand
which tool you might need to use
to troubleshoot different cable connectivity issues.