Identify true/false twisted pair wires and connectors (1)

Although the method used in the selection and evaluation of wiring components is not rigorous, It is of practical significance as a common wiring component check. If you want to strictly evaluate the quality of cabling products and engineering, you are advised to participate in the training of the wiring Certification Test Engineer of anheng network maintenance Institute-CCTT.
Complete online shopping guide for cabling devices that are most easily overlooked
Network cables, crystal heads, and socket modules are the most inconspicuous and easily overlooked components in computer networks. Most people pay attention to devices such as switches, routers, and network cards when building networks. However, these devices are generally not very picky. However, the LAN of a household often encounters one or another problem: in a LAN that needs to be established, the configured Nic and switch port are 10/100 Mbps, and various configurations must be correct, of course, the distance is completely in line with Ethernet requirements, and the access between them is very slow, or even not connected to the Internet. In fact, many network faults are not caused by problems with network switches, routers, network cards and other devices, but by poor quality of Network cables, crystal heads, or socket modules. Network disconnection or slow speed is mostly caused by poor network quality and high impedance signal attenuation. In overcast and rainy weather, disconnection often occurs, most of which is caused by bad quality of metal connectors of crystal heads or network modules and mildew. Some may ask how much profit or fake goods can be made for small items such as network cables, crystal heads, and socket modules?
Next we will take the network cable as an example to figure it out. From the network cable products of several brands, including ampu, longxun AVAYA, Simon XIEMON, and IBDN, which are currently in large shipments, every family is faced with fake goods to eat away from its market. It is really a mix of fish and dragons, it is hard to distinguish between true and false. Taking the cat5e twisted pair cable, which is widely sold in the market as an example, we do not care about the average price of a bucket (305 meters) of brand goods, which is about 400 yuan, but that of fake goods is about 200 yuan. In this way, an additional 100% of the profits will be incurred when you buy fake goods. Now we have found out why fake goods are rampant in the market !! How can ordinary home users avoid these things when setting up a local area network? Next, we will introduce the three network accessories which should be paid attention to in terms of purchasing:
Network cable purchase
As you may know, network cables (usually unshielded twisted pair wires) are divided by their transmission bandwidth. Generally, they can be divided into 4, 5, 6, and 7 categories, currently, the most widely used category is Category 5/Category 5. In a gigabit or faster network, there are 6 or 7 types of cables. These seemingly simple cables are critical to the speed of network access. In different brands, we can see the most in the market as AMP ).
If we take a closer look, we will find it very strange that all the products introduced by different stores claim to be AMAP's Category 5 lines/Category 5 lines, regardless of their appearance, in terms of touch, there are obvious differences. Fake goods are usually the result of some manufacturers re-packaging the original four or even three categories of lines, which is less than 5 categories/more than 5 linear capabilities, however, it is difficult for general users to identify which seller sells the true amp cable. Based on the author's purchasing experience, I have accumulated the following experience in purchasing the ampo line:
First, you can see that there are two aspects: first, you can find out what type of network cable you have, this prevents JS from buying three types of lines as five or cat5e lines for cainiao who are new to the Internet. We all know that different types of network cables have their own different identifiers and uses. The three types of lines are CAT3 and the bandwidth is 10 M. They are applicable to 10G networks and have been eliminated. The five types of lines are CAT5 and the bandwidth is 100 M, applicable to networks with less than 155 MB of bandwidth. CAT5E and 250 MB of bandwidth are the mainstream products. CAT6 and MB of bandwidth are CAT6, deploying a gigabit network is a future trend. Secondly, we can identify most of the five categories/more than five categories of false lines by looking at this approach. The characters printed on the real Category 5 online plastic foreskin are very clear and smooth, basically with no sertices. Fake handwriting printing quality is poor, Some fonts are not clear, and some are seriously jagged. Authentic cat5 lines are marked with cat5, and cat5 lines are marked with "5e, counterfeit Goods are usually marked with uppercase letters such as CAT5 and 5E.
If you still cannot identify the category by using the "View" method, you can further use the "Touch" method to identify the material differences between Category 5 and Category 5. Category 5/Category 5 is soft, which is mainly used to meet different network requirements. copper wires are usually used as wire cores in twisted pair cables, relatively soft (because some network environments may require a small angle bending of the network cable, if the wire is hard, it is easy to cause open circuit .); Some illegal manufacturers add other metal elements to copper to reduce costs during production. The wires made are hard and not easy to bend, which may lead to broken lines during use.
Then cut with a knife. In this step, you only need to remove the plastic foreskin from the outer side of a small cut line with scissors to expose four core wires. Here we can further identify through the "View" method. The white lines in the five categories/super five categories and four core wires of the true ampu should not be pure white, it is the color of the core line that is paired with it, which is mainly used to facilitate the user to make the time zone of the crystal head. Fake goods are usually pure white or the color is not obvious. Another point is the winding density of four core wires. The winding density of category 5 and Category 5 is moderate and the direction is counter-clockwise. Generally, the line density is very small, and the direction may also be clockwise (less). This is mainly because it is easier to make, so the production cost will be smaller.
Finally, with fire, you can put the twisted pair wires in a high-temperature environment to test, to see if the cable outside the rubber skin will become soft, genuine network cable will not become soft, false is not necessarily the case; there is still a real network cable outside the rubber is still flame retardant, and some false is not flame retardant, does not comply with security standards, you may wish to try it at the time of purchase.
The above tactics alone are far from enough to deal with all fake Network cables. Some counterfeits also use three types of wire cores to cover the five types of cables. This fake method is concealed and difficult to distinguish with the naked eye. This fake network cable can also reach the transmission speed of five types of lines within a short distance. However, when the distance is long, there may be problems such as slow transmission speed, loss of transmitted data packets, or failure to detect signals. In this regard, you can take a network cable for testing: Take a one hundred-meter network cable to connect the computer, use the "system monitor" in Windows 98 or the "Network Monitor" in Windows 2000 to personally test, if the test speed reaches 100 Mbps, it indicates that it is a category 5 twisted pair. If it is only 10 Mbps, it indicates that the cables use three types of wires. This method not only correctly distinguishes between Category 3 and Category 5 cables, but also can be used to test whether the twisting degree of each pair of wires in a twisted pair Cable conforms to the standard, it can also determine whether the metal medium in the wire is qualified. Note: During the network speed test, the length of the twisted pair must be 100 M. Otherwise, the measured data has no practical significance.
Of course, these testing methods do not necessarily produce good results. The continuous improvement of counterfeiting means makes it increasingly difficult for consumers to differentiate authenticity. In addition to improving the recognition capability of consumers, manufacturers must make unremitting efforts to deal with fake goods. However, in general, we still need to select a brand of network cable and carefully screen it to maximize our interests. Most of the major manufacturers have ultra-large scale production capabilities in the field of precision cables. While ensuring the quality, the prices can be greatly reduced, making it difficult for counterfeits to profit. For example, the network cable products of the well-known Foxconn (Foxconn) company adopt this method. Currently, Foxconn's counterfeit network cable has not been found on the market. From this point of view, so far, it is still one of the most effective ways for manufacturers to deal with counterfeit products.
We believe that through the above steps, we will be able to buy the real Category 5/Category 5 twisted pair wires. In fact, one principle we master is fake goods because they are not large. In order to save costs and maximize profits, the raw materials and manufacturing details of some time-consuming, laborious, and expensive equipment are greatly reduced! Therefore, we can also determine whether it is a fake product at the price. For cables of other brands, you can purchase cables at the store of a regular agent to avoid fake goods.