N10-005 · Question #721
A technician is upgrading the wiring in an older office building. The building currently contains some CAT3, CAT5, and CAT6 cables. The technician cannot visually distinguish between the cables…
The correct answer is A. Cable certifier. A cable certifier measures electrical performance characteristics such as attenuation, crosstalk, and bandwidth to certify which category a cable meets, allowing technicians to distinguish CAT3, CAT5, and CAT6.
Question
A technician is upgrading the wiring in an older office building. The building currently contains some CAT3, CAT5, and CAT6 cables. The technician cannot visually distinguish between the cables because they are all the same color. Which of the following tools would help the technician determine which wires are the CAT3 and CAT5 cables needing to be replaced with CAT6 ones?
Options
- ACable certifier
- BToner probe
- CCable tester
- DCrimper
How the community answered
(28 responses)- A96% (27)
- C4% (1)
Why each option
A cable certifier measures electrical performance characteristics such as attenuation, crosstalk, and bandwidth to certify which category a cable meets, allowing technicians to distinguish CAT3, CAT5, and CAT6.
A cable certifier performs full TIA/EIA-568 compliance testing, measuring parameters like near-end crosstalk (NEXT), attenuation, and frequency response to determine whether a cable meets CAT3, CAT5, or CAT6 specifications. This is the only tool that can categorize cables by performance standard rather than just testing basic connectivity.
A toner probe is used to trace and locate cable runs behind walls or through conduits; it cannot measure electrical performance characteristics or identify cable categories.
A basic cable tester verifies pin-to-pin continuity and wiring configuration such as straight-through or crossover, but does not measure bandwidth or frequency performance needed to distinguish cable categories.
A crimper is a hand tool used to attach RJ-45 connectors to cable ends and performs no diagnostic or testing function whatsoever.
Concept tested: Cable certifier for identifying cable category by performance
Source: https://www.flukenetworks.com/knowledge-base/dsx-cableanalyzer-series/cable-certification-basics
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