Be Excellent To Each Other

Some idiot builders have just cut through an ethernet cable that I can't just replace (it's rather long and in the fabric of the building. I somehow need to join the two broken bits together.

Anyone have any idea how?

Cheers.

Do you know where it is cut? is it accessible?

Oh I can get at it. It's hanging there "repaired" with insulation tape. Each individual wire joined with tape. Fucking builders.

Apparently this is now my problem because they have "fixed" it.

Personally I would have taped each wire together with insulation tape, so that's me out of ideas

Stick two ethernet ports in the wall next to each other and bridge using a short peice of cable?

Rj45 ends, crimp tool, 2 rj45 coupler and a patch lead.

I know it seems more proper but I'm not really sure why all that would be any better than just twisting the wires together and wrapping tape around them. From what I understand you aren't really mean to have any kind of join in CAT 5 (but that's not to say it won't work just fine, especially if you aren't anywhere near the maximum length).

Owing to the size of the wires, that would probably involve stripping more wire off and leaving a shortfall. I assume this has no slack?

Could you use a choc bloc? or solder it, then put a length of heat shrink over the wires, then the cable? (probably more work than needed!)

All obtained from a local computer shop. However the cable is a bitch. Instead of being striped or clearly marked, all the cables that should be striped are actually just white with the faintest of dots every inch or so.

Given up after 3 hours. Trying to get the nearly identical white cables in the right sequence is like some Crystal Maze game. A man is coming later with a toolbox to fix it. I'm not paying. Sadly the idiot builder isn't either.

It's a long cable and the routers error light was flashing like Dave Double decks best shit disco lights.

There is some slack. The reason I have given up is I am worried that I will indeed run out of slack!

Bob Demands more slack

That sounds shit. The cable we use here, even those destined to buried in the walls, are clearly coloured. RJ45 'ends' are a true bastard to fit though. It comes with practice.

You could use electrical insulation tape as it seems to stick together quiet well but tape fails eventually. I'd choc bloc it and then tape it.

You could also add a RJ45 plug to each side and use one of these to bridge the gap:

If his cables aren't coloured enough to allow him to stitch them back together then I imagine it's a nightmare trying to get the correct wire into the correct slot in the plug

Yeh some of the older CAT 5 cables have really poor colouring on the cables, was a bastard terminating 48 way patch panels with the cheaper stuff.

With regards to the connection the options from people above would probably be your best bet, but as you can't differentiate the colours then you have a problem, one way to check would be to cut the cable at the other end (by the router i assume) and link pairs together one at a time and test with a continuity tester, labelling both ends after each test. Or if you have access to a Fluke tester (other brands are available) running a diagnostic test on the line would tell you which pairs are mixed up.

Hope the guy you have coming in can get it sorted for ya

All i can say id be glad it isn't a fibre cable, imagine the Builder trying to fix it with super glue

If all else fails run new cable by taping it to the old stuff at the wall plate & hauling it through. Then taping it to the other side of the broken cable & hauling it through to the other wall plate.

Then invoice the builder.

I would go with Wullie on this one. I wouldn't be able to trust a broken cable and it would be a good opportunity to replace it with a correctly coloured cable.

You can just join it with twisted wires. Better options exist, as above, but chances are it'll work like that forever if undisturbed.

I was always shit at making cables when I did IT for a living but could do it. In fact the cable that runs next to the one that broke was wired by me using borrowed tools and an off-cut of cable from a data centre that was going to be skipped (they were wiring long runs and long off-cuts were just being skipped). That cable was dead easy to wire from memory probably because it was good quality.

The stuff in the cable that broke was a bitch though. Basically just 4 white cables and forced to do the wiring standing up because of where the cable had broken.

The computer shop guy can't come and fix it till Saturday now. I'm fine, I'm not there again until next week.

Due to the work today it would not be undisturbed so that's out.

But that cable has never had a great connection at the best of times as its a long old run and the router was moaning about errors. Best to do it properly.

The computer shop guy has had to cancel for today but will do it Saturday. Doesn't impact me so not that worried.

Back when I used to make cables we did indeed have a proper tester that told you if wires were crossed etc. Todays frustration was that + the uncomfortableness of having to do the connectors standing up at shoulder height. A clumsy oaf like me can make a cable at a well lit desk sitting down, but that was difficult. Best to leave it to a pro before I run out of slack cable!

These are the "seamlessly repaired" wires after I'd snipped them off.



Personally I'd never have known the cable had been broken in the first place!

The mark of a master is that he leaves no mark!