Home networking problems patch Panel testing

Im not exactly sure how to go about explaining this, but I'll try. My parents just built a new house and they wanted cat5 in every room. Of course I wanted more than one in every room so there is about 30 something cat5 runs.


The way I have it set up is 48port patch panel to all the various runs around the house and on the other end are rj45 keystone jacks that had some weird standard on them so I wired them for the B standard anyway. the patch panel is also punched down to the B standard. Then from the patch panel it goes to 2 24port linksys switches and then to my router.

There are so many runs that I dont know which cables go to which room. I was thinking about buying a tone and probe tester so I can isolate one cable and see if my wiring is an issue. (which it most likely is) I dont know if this is an unrelated coincidence but i thought i should mention it anyway. One of the switches went up in smoke shortly after I plugged it and started connecting patch cable to it. I doubt it was my cat5 that did it though.

That said almost everything im using was purchased off ebay serveral months ago. But I did test the switches to make sure they were in working order.

Sorry for the lengthy post. Hopefully someone here can suggest a proper course of action.

Yep, a toner is probably your best bet, and on the switch unless you managed to hook into a highish voltage line somewhere I doubt the cabling killed it... but I could be wrong...only copper experiance I have is in my home network, use about 95% fiber at work... And make sure you label the lines you do find on the p/p makes it soo much easier later on...

thanks, thats what i thought. Im not sure if this could happen but could the switch commiting suicide mess up the patch panel in anyway?

I'll go pick up a tone and probe kit after work

Did you wire the keystones for the B standard that's printed on them, or one from the from the memory of another maker's jacks?
Since everyone in the industry seams to be fighting for copyrites on every last aspect of hardware, you really need to follow what's printed on the jack to get it right...lawyers will kill us all.

BTW, a tone and probe works great but there is another way if you got the time. Just crimp one modular plug with a single wire crimped at both ends linking positions 1 and 8, and you can locate which cable it's plugged into at the patch panel using a DMM set for Ohms. You can even make a pigtail that mates the meter's probes to an ethernet mod plug to make discovery as simple as plugging it in.
I have a tone and probe for my work, but I'd balk at the price if it were for this one use.

Home Depot has cheapo toners availible.