What's new

intermittent wiring problem stops entire wired home network

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

rhodesengr

Occasional Visitor
I have some network cables going through my house and I have an intermittent issue I would like to get some advice on. I will describe the overall setup first. My network starting point is downstairs in my office. There is a cable modem followed by a Linksys router and then a switch for more ports. I wanted wired internet in two other room so I had a guy install a wall plate with two jacks. One of these goes upstairs to the master bedroom and the other goes to the living room. The one going up to the bedroom is causing intermittent problems. These cables have been in place for something like 5 years and have mostly worked fine. At times, I found that if something pressed up against the cable plugged into the upstairs outlet the entire wired part of the network would stop working. When I removed the offending object (typically a laundry basket) everything would be fine again.

I came home yesterday and my wired internet was not working. I tried various things like reboot and restarts which didn't help. So I went upstairs and unplugged the cable plugged into the upstairs jack. That fixed the issue for the rest of the network. So I tried changing out the upstairs cables and things seemed to be working again last night but by this morning, the wired network was frozen again.

I am going to pick up a cable tester today and see if i can find the problem. It could well be the upstairs wall outlet but might also be something wrong with the two devices connected to the outlet.

I would like to get some advice about what aspect of the wiring could cause the entire wired network to stop working both up and downstream from the offending line. Trying to get a sense of what to look for. If a wire was just loose, I would think just the downstream devices would stop and not everything upstream too. Maybe a short?

Just FYI, the upstairs outlet feeds a 4-port switch which feeds a wireless access point and a WDTV device.
 
Sounds like a short circuit. Check for continuity not only core to core but core to shield. That's the only thing I can think of that would effect the other devices on the upstream switch.
 
well that is what I figured but seems weird that the issue only comes up if the wall jack has something plugged in if the issue is in the jack. If it was in the cable plugging in, changing the cable should have fixed it. I doubt I have shielded cables or the right type of connectors for shielded cables. I will see when I dig into to it later. I am probably going to buy a Klein Lan Scout Jr. (in stock at my local Home Depot) but I am open to suggestions. It does test shield continuity and shorts.
 
Yes it does sound strange. Have a look inside the jack socket. There are 8 metal sprung contacts, a bit like fingers. Sometimes they get bent and cross over each other so that when you insert the plug the contacts are pressed together.
 
As Colin said look at the little spring contacts and see if any of them appear bent.

Also follow through with using a simple tester and see what that says. Since your problem is intermitent I would also pick up a pair of new keystone jacks and replace the jacks at both ends of the bedroom run. This will cost you around $12 and should take no more than ten minutes for each end. The jacks you buy at a Home Depot come with the small plastic tool you need to push the wires down into the slots. The jacks are all color coded for which wire goes where. Use the 568B wiring pattern. This is a simple low tech operation and anyone should be able to do it easily unless you have bad vision and/or are color blind. The only other tool you will need is a pair of scissors to trim off the wires sticking out of the metal slot. Do not reuse the exsisting wires that have previously been punched down.

After you reterminate the cable test it again to be sure you did it correctly.
 
yeah and make sure of the pattern before you remove the cable to re-terminate. Or you will do both ends.-
 
This is a simple low tech operation and anyone should be able to do it easily unless you have bad vision and/or are color blind.

I am actually pretty technically proficient; just never did this particular operation before. I just hate intermittent stuff. I do appreciate all the advice. Off to HD now to get the stuff. I will let you all know how it goes.
 
Well hopefully I found and fixed the problem. Turns out the color pattern was different at each end of the run through the house. The office end was pattern A and the jack up in the bedroom was pattern B. I understand how this happened because there were two different installers at different times. What I don't understand is how it worked all and why it was intermittent. The connectors were like that for a long time and it mostly worked. Weird.
 
Gig ports have auto-crossover built-in, they compensate. If you tried to use a 100 meg port it makes a difference. If you want to go Intel NIC to Intel NIC using 100 meg port you would need a crossover cable. So it kind of depends on what you connected up.
 
well it all seems to running stably as of this morning so I guess that was the issue. I appreciate all the comments. Thanks guys.
 
it may also have been a termination contact that was loose and intermittent rather than a crossover issue. Your comment about bending the external connected cable seems to lead in that direction as this would have put stress in the internal cover plate based termination. They tend to be loose in the cover plate to some extent.
 
well the drama is not quite over. I got home yesterday and wired internet was frozen again so fixing the crossed wiring was not the entire problem. I had my suspicions. As I mentioned before, that upstairs outlet feeds a 4-port switch which feed just two devices: a Western Digital WDTV box and a Zyzel access point. I unplugged the Zyzel AP and the internet unfroze. I used have two of those Zyzel units. The first one crapped out a few years ago. So now it seems my the second one took a dump. I had replaced the first one with a TP Link AP so I ordered a new version of that unit to replace the second Zyzel. We will see how that works.
 
So just a final (I hope) update. I replaced the Zyzel AP with a new one from TP Link and the system has been stable for a few days now. So it now seems the the recent problems had more to do with the AP going South somehow rather than the crossed wiring. As I recall, a similar thing happened with a second Zyzel AP I was running in my living. That was replaced over a year ago also with a TP Link AP.

So maybe it wasn't the wiring after all. At least all this got me to check and fix the wiring anyway.

Thanks to everyone that posted. It did help.
 
Similar threads
Thread starter Title Forum Replies Date
A New camera wiring problem - hope someone can help! Switches, NICs and cabling 7

Similar threads

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!
Top