Why is it so hard to get a home network right?
We've been remodelling our basement, the intended home of my office and hence network hub, gateway/firewall, webserver etc. I had to move the equipment three times. Nothing ever works easily. First, wireless networks are upredictable, and hard to debug (at least I don't know of the right tools). Second, wired networks are surprisingly easy to get wrong when you're making your own cables. There are only 64 possible combonations of the 8 wires in one cable, and even with a cable tester and a color chart for wiring, I think I botch 50% of my cables. Now, I'm trying to fix a problem where I had a cable that used to work, that it turns out was miswired, and once fixed, now the wall doesn't work when it used to. Ugh. Time to crack open the wall, and rewire something yet again.
Why is this so hard?
Finally! I got it fixed. Three lessons to be learned.
ReplyDelete1. Never close up the wall plate until you've got everything hooked up and tested.
2. Combo crimper, cutter, and strippers can subtley clip wires from the twisted pairs. Always make sure that the wires aren't damaged when you attach to the jack.
3. Having a tester with a remote end and a tester end is really useful. Just plug one end of the cable into the remote end of the tester. Go to the other end of your cable, and plug-in the tester. Hit the button and voilla!