Cable Tester
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can i use a cable tester on a live wire?
I am wondering i can use a cable tester for rj45 on a live network, im always finding dead wire and i just ordered one, all the wires go to a switch then to the wall outlets. is a cable tester a good choice to do this? or is there a better tool?
It depends on the tester. Most testers aren't going to HURT anything on a live wire but the results may not be accurate.
As far as the right tool it depends on what you are trying to test. the cheapest tester would just test continuity (are all the wires intact). since you're testing in-wall cabling you'd want something with a dongle or other device that goes on the other end since you won't have both ends handy. This type is good for telling which wire is bad and may need to be re-punched. this would be the only tester that you would not want to use on a live port since the signals from the switch may cause incorrect results.
If you are want something to tell whether a given jack is live the simplest way would be to plug in a laptop using a known good cable. But you can also get more expensive testers that will tell you that the jack is live, what speeds/duplex the other side is capable of, and may even watch the traffic to see what devices are broadcasting. This would be the most useless tester in a home environment since you can do all of this with equipment you already have.
this is the set I always carried around with me:
http://www.frys.com/product/5231237
It allows you to tone out a port to locate it and then plug in with the toner to verify the individual wires. (and it can be plugged into a live wire without damage. Doesn't tell you anything, but it doesn't hurt anything other then the person who you unplugged 
The tone generator piece will tell you if the port is live. I always start with that or my laptop when someone claims a port is bad. (laptop if I don't believe them!)
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November 28th, 2007 in
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