Brilliant Solution Sought for Less-Abled Inwall Cat-6

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pdh

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#319473 28-Apr-2025 15:52

Just put the connectors on to the house's last stretch of Cat-6 wiring.
I'm finally working to finish up the flat under the house.

I ran two cables to the flat - one for the POE Access Point, and one for the TV.
The AP cable checks out A-OK - the TV cable fails and is most probably pinched somewhere.
My sparkie nephew's tester shows 6 connectors OK - and 2 not OK.

We've changed the connectors each end & double checked everything - I believe we have a lame cable.
And no, I can't pull a replacement - trust me on that.

I seem to remember (long years ago, when I could remember this stuff) being able to run two ethernet circuits over one cable - so I'm hoping someone can explain - or point me to an explanation - of how to get one functional connection using only 6 connectors.

If I can do so, I can (a) wire the non-standard connectors to the necessary pins - or (b) build two short cross-over cables for the non-standard wiring - thoughts ?

richms

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#3368326 28-Apr-2025 16:00

If you use 2 of the good pairs in the bad cable in place of the orange and green, it will work for the TV which will only be a 100 meg interface.

Or get a POE extender with multiple ports and use the one cable for both AP and other things. These come up in the choice deals on aliex for about $20 all the time, its basically just a switch that negotiates POE on one port and then offers it on all the others. Just be sure to get a gigabit one and not the slightly cheaper 100 meg one.

Richard rich.ms

bagheera

539 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3368328 28-Apr-2025 16:03

Just put a switch on the end of the good cable and a new cable to the ap, and the TV would be the easiest answer, the other option is a splitter, but then it only 100mb

pdh

338 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3368338 28-Apr-2025 16:26

Thanks for good ideas - I'm trying to avoid running a surface cable from the AP (up at the wall / ceiling corner) and the TV - plenty ugly !!

I think I'll look at making the cable-pair transplant work if a 4K TV will be happy on a 100mb circuit.
I didn't wire the house for satellite or terrestrial TV - figuring those days are history...

CYaBro

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#3368346 28-Apr-2025 16:41

pdh:

Thanks for good ideas - I'm trying to avoid running a surface cable from the AP (up at the wall / ceiling corner) and the TV - plenty ugly !!

I think I'll look at making the cable-pair transplant work if a 4K TV will be happy on a 100mb circuit.
I didn't wire the house for satellite or terrestrial TV - figuring those days are history...

That's what I would do and you'll probably find the ethernet in the TV is only 100Mb anyway so would never connect at gigabit.

Find 2 pairs of wires that are connecting OK and wire for 100Mb and leave the rest of the wires cut short and don't bother crimping or punching down.
Something like this:

You can use any 2 pairs as long as both ends are wired the same, just keep pins 1 & 2 the same pair of colours and 3 & 6 the same, as the wires are twisted together inside the outer jacket.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

pdh

338 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3368352 28-Apr-2025 17:30

Thank you - having the diagram is super helpful.
Saves me wading through all the various country-preferred CAT wiring codes/preferences.

and yes - the TV will likely be 100 mbps (both of my own - reasonably new - ones are).

richms

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#3368357 28-Apr-2025 17:46

Just be aware that if it is a staple hit or something, that there may be one of the intact wires bridged to one of the broken ones making a stub. The blinking light testers will not see this, so if it was one of those that it was tested on there could still be problems that stop it working.

Richard rich.ms

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3368363 28-Apr-2025 18:32

If you can get your hands on a TDR, it will tell you (in metres) how far along the cable the fault is. Sometimes that can be helpful and you can cut out the damaged part of cable. Aliexpress has some for <$100 that are workable.

Agreed that cutting the TV cable down to two pairs is probably adequate. Even with future gigabit gear, it's likely to negotiate to 100Mb/s; adding a 100Mb/s switch behind the future gigabit TV is an option if that doesn't work.

Leave a nice note at each end of the cable explaining the situation for when you or someone else comes back to it in a decade.