How to use a Tone Generator to trace a network cable

Solution 1:

First, check the batteries or make sure that you have new ones. Next, you should be swiping along the patch panel and not the switch. I swipe along the underside of the cable jacks (against the copper side) or along the punch panel on the back. I usually get a clearer signal this way.

I think you should test your toner by plugging the generator into a line you know is patched properly and stick the receiver in the proper jack.

Solution 2:

My experience with tone generators is that you're going to be touching the pins on the jacks on the patch panel, or, if you've got a really sensitive probe, the terminations on the back of the patch panel. I've never used a tone generator / probe combination that was able to pull tone thru the insulation of a UTP cable.

I don't know that I'd plug a tone generator into the far end of a cable that's patched into a switch, either. You probably won't blow anything up, but I wouldn't try it.

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Solution 3:

All the above have great ideas, but another option is the following:

If you are trying to trace out Cat5 or 6 cabling, make up an adaptor that bridges/shorts out both the blue and the orange pairs and then connect the whole blue pair to one alligator clip and the whole orange pair to the other alligator clip. This will increase the tone volume significantly, as the twist in a pair of cat 5/6 cancels out the tone, but shorting the pair and using both conductors it overcomes this.