Instructor: In this lesson,
we're going to discuss various tools we use.
This includes snips and cutters, cable strippers,
cable crimpers, cable testers,
punch down tools, tone generators,
loop back adapters, taps and wireless analyzers.
Whoa, lots of stuff we're going to cover.
All right.
The first cabling tool we have
is probably the most basic one that we're going to cover.
And it's a snip or a cutter.
A snip or a cutter
is used to simply cut a piece of cable
off of a larger spool or run of cable.
Now, a snip looks a lot like a pair of scissors
but it has stronger blades
because we're going to use it to cut off
twisted pair, copper cables, coaxial cables
or even larger cable bundles.
Next, we have cable strippers.
Now, once we cut the piece of cabling
off the larger spool using our snips,
we now need to strip off the end of the cable
and prepare it for attachment to a plastic RJ-45 connector
or whatever kind of connector we're going to use.
For example, let's say I wanted to create a crossover cable.
I'm going to cut off some twisted copper from the spool,
then I'm going to strip both ends using a cable stripper.
This allows me to remove around six to 12 inches
from the outer plastic jacket at the end of the cable.
And then I can spread out those inner wires,
prepare to attach the RJ-45 connector to them
and then I'm going to have to use a crimper to do that.
Now, if I'm making a coaxial cable,
I would then use a coaxial specific wire stripper
to remove the outer jacket of the cable and the insulation
so I can now get to that center conduit
for that RG-6 connector to go through
and be put on the end of that cable.
Next, we're going to use a cable crimper.
And this is how we attach the connector
to the end of the cable.
Again, let's say I'm making that crossover cable.
I need to use an RJ-45 connector
and RJ-45 specific cable crimper.
Normally your cable crimper is going to be used
for twisted pair cabling,
and it's going to support both RJ-45 and RJ-11 connectors.
If you're working with coaxial cables,
there's a different cable crimper you'll use
that'll support RJ-6 or RJ-59 connectors.
All right, now that we've created our cable
using our snips and cutters,
our cable stripper and our cable crimper,
we need to test the cable.
And this is where we use a cable tester.
A cable tester is going to be used to verify the continuity
of each of the eight individual wires
inside of that twisted pair cable.
This will verify there's no breaks inside the cable
and then we have good continuity from one end to the other.
By using a cable tester,
we can verify the pin outs were done properly
and that each individual wire in the twisted pair cable
is properly connected
for a straight through or crossover cable,
whichever one we were making.
Now, there are different types of testers
for different types of cable.
If you're testing an ethernet cable,
you're going to need one with an RJ-45 connector on the cable
and that cable tester.
Now, if you work
with a lot of different types of networks though,
you may want to use a multi-tester.
A multi-tester
isn't going to support just ethernet cables using RJ-45
but it can also support BNC connectors for coaxial cables,
IDE connectors for hard drives, PATA and SATA connectors
for internal computer devices.
RJ-45, again for your ethernet.
RJ-11 for your telephones, fiber, DB25, DB9,
and anything else you might need to test.
Next, we have a wire mapping tool.
Now a wire map tool is like a cable tester
but it works specifically for twisted pair ethernet cables.
In addition to testing the cable from end to end,
we can diagnose any issues with that cable,
such as open pair, a shorted pair,
a short between the pairs,
a reverse pair, a cross pair, or a split pair.
Now an open pair occurs
when one or more conductors in the pair
are not connected on one of the pins
at either end of the cable.
In other words, the electrical continuity
of the conductor is being interrupted.
This can occur if the conductor's been physically broken
somewhere in the middle, or because you had an incomplete
or improper punch down on a patch panel.
Now a short can occur
when conductors of a wire pair
are connected to each other
at any location within the cable.
A short between the pairs occurs
when the conductors of two wires in different pairs
are connected at any location within the cable.
A reverse pair occurs when two wires
in a single pair
are connected to the opposite pins of that pair
on the other end of the cable.
And cross pairs occur with both wires of one color pair
are connected to the pins of a different color pair
on the opposite end.
Split pairs occur when a wire from one pair
is split away from the other and crosses over the wire
into an adjacent pair.
Because this type of fault
essentially requires the same mistake to be made
at both ends of the cable,
it usually doesn't happen very often,
unless somebody meant to do it.
Next, we have a cable certifier.
Now cable certifier is used with an existing cable
to determine its category or data throughput.
I can plug into your network
and find out is it a CAT 5, CAT 6, CAT 5e,
CAT 7 or CAT 8 network.
It's going to tell me based on the frequency range being used,
what the throughput of the cables are.
And the standard output
is shown here on the screen as you can see.
Now, notice I have a wired mapping here
that shows my pins are correct.
That it's a straight through cable.
It's also going to tell me how long this cable is.
In this case, it knows it's 10 feet.
Then it's going to tell me what the delay is on the cable.
It tells me what the resistance is on the cable.
All that type of good information
can be done from a cable certifier.
Essentially it can do a lot of the same functions
as a cable tester
but it goes further and gives you additional details
such as length and throughput.
So I can use this to determine the length
and make sure it's right for a particular cable
or if the cable has been crimped properly,
just like a cable tester does
but all this other information is really good too.
Now, because of all this extra information,
these devices are more expensive.
When you're dealing with a simple cable tester,
you can buy that for about $10
but a cable certifier might cost you 100 or 200 or $300.
Next, we have a punch down block.
If I'm going to be using a 66 block
or a 110 block for either my phones or my networks
or either my network jacks in the wall,
I'm going to be using punch down tools to install those cables.
This is going to terminate the wire on the punch down block
and strip off the excess installation
and trimming off all the extra wires that we no longer need.
Next, we have a tone generator also known as a toner probe.
Now a tone generator allows a technician
to generate a tone on one end of the connection
and use the probe to audibly detect the wire
connected on the other side.
This is often called a fox and hound
because the fox generates the tone,
and then the hound is used to sniff it out
and find it using that tone or probe.
A tone generator is going to be used
to understand where the cables are running
inside of your walls
whenever you have an unlabeled or undocumented network
and you need to figure out which wire
is connected to which jack inside your building.
Next, we have a loop back adapter or a loop back device.
These loop back adapters are going to be different
depending on whether or not you're using ethernet
or fiber in your networks.
Now, if you're using twisted pair cabling in your networks,
you can create your own inexpensive loop back adapter
by simply connecting some of the twisted pair wires
from the transmit side
to the receive pins inside the same RJ-45 connector.
Essentially you need to have your transmit plus
going to your receive plus,
which means pin one goes to pin three.
Then you need transmit minus going to receive minus.
This is pin two going to pin six.
If you're using fiber in your networks,
you can simply connect your transmit port
to your receive port using a fiber patch cable.
And this creates a loop back for you.
This is extremely easy to do
if you're using an ST or SC connection
and they do make specialized loop back plugs
in a small form factor
so you can carry these in your pocket
when you're working as a network technician.
Now, once you connect your loop back adapter
to your network,
you can then use specialized diagnostic software
to test the connectivity of the client
and ensure everything's working properly.
Next, we have a tap.
A tap is a simple device
that connects directly to the cable infrastructure
and splits or copies those packets for use and analysis,
security or general network management.
You're going to need to purchase install the appropriate tap
for your type of network
depending on if you're using copper or fiber.
Now, basically, you're going to connect the tap
in line to your network
and it's going to create a duplicate copy of every frame,
one going out the tap port,
where it's going to be collected and analyzed
by your cyber security tool set
and the other one out to your network
so it can be processed by the equipment.
This is used heavily in cybersecurity,
but can also be used in network management
and network operations.
Finally, we have wireless analyzers,
which is a specialized piece of software
that can be used to conduct wireless surveys
to ensure you have the proper coverage,
and it helps you prevent any non desired overlap
between wireless access point and coverage zones
and channels.
Now, if you're concerned with the channels and use
and their signal strength for a given area,
you can use a view inside of a wifi analyzer
to display the SSID of each network detected in that area,
their relative signal strength
and the channel they're using.
Here, you can see that most of the 2.4 giga wifi networks
are in use and are centered on channel one,
with four others being located on channel six.
Now channel 11 is not being heavily utilized at all,
it only has one network called home.
This is being located on channel 11 as the home network
but there are four other wireless networks
located channel nine,
and this could cause interference
for both channel six and channel 11
as you can clearly see their overlapping frequencies
on this Visualization.
Now, in addition to this view,
you can also overlap the coverage zones on a floor plan
using a wifi analyzer
as part of a wireless site survey.
This displays the location of the wireless access points
and the signal strength that's radiating
from each of those access points.
In this example, you can see the entire office building
is pretty well covered in wifi
as it's shown by the green coverage areas,
but there is a small area
of yellow and orange on the leftmost wall.
As you exit the building,
you'll see more areas of orange and red,
which indicates areas of lower signal strength too.
Due to the left wall
having a large orange and yellow coverage area,
we may want to suggest adding another access point
in this area of the building.
This would allow us
to have more wireless networking capabilities
on that part of the building if we needed to.
All right.
I know that was a lot of different tools
that we just covered.
Remember, when you're dealing
with the physical layer of your network,
you're going to be using a lot of different tools
for a lot of different things.
For the exam,
it's important for you to understand which tool
you might use to troubleshoot which type of cable
and which type of issue.