Cat6 Cable Damaged - tester shows 1,2,3,X,X,6,X,X

[Noxid86]

Hello, I'm new here and was hoping someone could help me with some basic questions. As the title states, my newly installed 230 foot direct burial cat6 cable is showing 1,2,3,X,X,6,X,X on the cable tester. I didn't notice until earlier my speeds dropped to 0.5mbps and I was evicted from a zoom room. When I spotted this on the tester, I re-fit both ends of the cable. I'm new to this and thought I'd made a poor connection. After replacing both ends the tester shows the same result. I'm left to assume that somewhere in this very long very inaccessible cable there is a place where, according to my reading, my blue and brown cables have been cut. Is there a way to test where along the length the cut is without just chopping the cable in half? Additionally, I'm now getting 10mbps and I'm on DSL. Are the remaining wires sufficient to carry my connection or should I expect repeated interruptions?

Thank you!

 

[L&LD]

Replace the cable run in a protective pipe with a new cable. You're just asking for more trouble as things go from bad to worse if you wait.

 

[Jeffrey Young]

I don't suppose you have access to a TDR (time domain reflectometer)? Otherwise no.

 

[degrub]

DSL that i am familiar with (ATT) only requires a single pair for basic service. If you have higher DSL speeds (say 50 mbit), you likely need a bonded pair, so 4 wires. You may have to change the pinout to get 1 or 2 good pairs in the right pinout for the connection to the modem. i had mine on a punch down block which made it easy.

However, you will not be able to use the cable for anything else in the future.

Does your phone work over this cable ?

Is this the main run to your DSL modem and phone service from the service entry ? Or is this a drop from your house to another building and you are running only ethernet over the the cable ?

What is your stated up/down bit rate for DSL ?

 

[Noxid86]

DSL that i am familiar with (ATT) only requires a single pair for basic service. If you have higher DSL speeds (say 50 mbit), you likely need a bonded pair, so 4 wires. You may have to change the pinout to get 1 or 2 good pairs in the right pinout for the connection to the modem. i had mine on a punch down block which made it easy.

However, you will not be able to use the cable for anything else in the future.

Does your phone work over this cable ?

Is this the main run to your DSL modem and phone service from the service entry ? Or is this a drop from your house to another building and you are running only ethernet over the the cable ?

What is your stated up/down bit rate for DSL ?

Thank you for your useful reply. This is an outbuilding, I am supposed to get about 15 mbps down and 5 mbps up, though up has never actually been greater than 1mbps. No phone line runs through this, only my internet.

 

[Noxid86]

Replace the cable run in a protective pipe with a new cable. You're just asking for more trouble as things go from bad to worse if you wait.

This does not relate to my question.

 

[Noxid86]

I don't suppose you have access to a TDR (time domain reflectometer)? Otherwise no.

Nope, but thanks for telling me what the thing is called Too bad they are expensive

 

[degrub]

Are you running the DSL signal from the ISP over this cable or your local ethernet from your router ?

Did you test the cable before laying it in the trench ?

You may still have a bad termination on one end. It takes a hard hit by a shovel to damage direct burial cable. Has anyone been digging in the area since your placed the cable ?
A more likely damage point is near the end or in the wall or receptacle box. Nailing after install can also do it.

CAT6 is not the easiest to work with. What tools and connectors are you using ?

Did you confirm the tester on a known good cable first ?

you could also take a scrap piece of cat6 cable and terminate it and test to see if you are getting the terminations right

 

[CaptainSTX]

The inexpensive smart switch I have from TP-Link has a utility that provides an estimated distance to a cable fault. I have never tried it when the fault is with just a single pair.

 

[Noxid86]

Are you running the DSL signal from the ISP over this cable or your local ethernet from your router ?

Did you test the cable before laying it in the trench ?

You may still have a bad termination on one end. It takes a hard hit by a shovel to damage direct burial cable. Has anyone been digging in the area since your placed the cable ?
A more likely damage point is near the end or in the wall or receptacle box. Nailing after install can also do it.

CAT6 is not the easiest to work with. What tools and connectors are you using ?

Did you confirm the tester on a known good cable first ?

you could also take a scrap piece of cat6 cable and terminate it and test to see if you are getting the terminations right

I'm running from my router. I'm renovating an outbuilding into a guest house on my parent's land to survive ... the slight economic downturn of the last year lol.... The immediate budget was a huge concern so after doing a lot of googling I realized I could not afford to lay conduit. I purchased direct burial cable and dug a shallow trench. I assumed the cable would give due to the frost/thaw cycle or a hungry mole at some point but decided I would do it the cheap way and replace in in the spring when I had more money and time. Didnt expect it to fail so soon. The particular cable I got from amazon has wire the felt incredibly stiff and for the life of me I could not get the ends to lay down and flatten enough to crimp a typical end, so I ended up buying keystone jacks which I can set up.

I've redone both terminations, I actually suspect the cut is right near where the cable comes out of the earth and into the building. Two culprits are the exterior hole which forces a right angle and the early it emerges from which was dug later than the trench and had time to freeze. This means I had to re-bury that portion of cable with shards of frozen earth ( which thawed the next day as was my hope and re-settled, but could have been damaged during the process ).

 

[Noxid86]

I think I might buy some couplers and do a bit of guess and check. Since this was supposed to be a temporary fix to get me through the winter, I'm hoping that if it isnt right by where the line enters the building, I can unbury a section, cut it, test it, and recouple it. If I do that 3 times I bet I can find the break. That will, however, leave 3 connections which are not exactly "direct burial approved" but I'm hoping a healthy cacoon of electrical tape will solve this for long enough.

 

[L&LD]

@Noxid86, I can appreciate your budget concerns and I hope you're able to solve this issue inexpensively.

The answer I provided may not be the answer you want, but as you already stated it was your intention in the spring, it is still the best course of action.

All the best my friend.

 

[Noxid86]

@Noxid86, I can appreciate your budget concerns and I hope you're able to solve this issue inexpensively.

The answer I provided may not be the answer you want, but as you already stated it was your intention in the spring, it is still the best course of action.

All the best my friend.

Hahaha thanks man. "Do it right the first time" is always good advice that nobody wants to hear after the fact