What do you have to do?
What do you have to do?
I work at a small business doing IT stuff. We are moving to a new office spot and my job is getting about 100 Ethernet cables connected to a patch panel. The old team didn't tell me which desk gets which cable, even though I know there must be some way to figure it out when I plug things in at the end of the desk. It's just hard to find that specific thing right now. Could you help me tell them what equipment I need to buy? The gap between my desk and the patch panel is probably more than 60 feet long. Every single desk has two cables, one being a spare. So that's around 50 desks or seats. Thanks!
While there are fancy tools that let you find many ports at once (lots of plugs sending out codes), what you need can be done with a basic, cheap cable tester like the ones you use for ethernet cables. Just plug the active end into your desk and then put the receiver part inside each port on the patch panel until you find it. Go through every single one like that. The tester is cheap to have handy, plus if you get paid by the hour, how long does it take really matter? Whereas those fancy tools cost more money but are more useful if you often see new patch panels that need tracing.
Most cable installers put tags on the wall plates so you can tell which patch panel connection they match. There isn't a standard rule, but it's easy to figure out once you do the work. Since this is something you'll be doing yourself, label those wall plates too. You could even pull them off and see if there are marks that show where the cables go. This way, you can get cheap patch cord tones. One of these things has a locator tool along with a tester to make sure the pair of cables is correct. Plug your sender into a standard wall jack, then take the receiver and bring it close to the other end until you hear the tone. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TMDFG3W The other method depends on how many jacks you plan to use. Since you'll need to buy a switch for the patch panel side just plug in a bunch of cables into that switch and then connect one device to your wall jack. Look at the lights on the switch while doing this. If you have a helper, it takes much less back and forth.
If you have standard keystone jacks on both sides, I suggest this product -- https://www.amazon.com/Klein-Tools-VDV50...08BDBB983/ You can find 18 jacks at once. Plug the numbered remotes into all the jacks in a spot, then plug them into the patch panel start. Mark where they go and put painters tape over each jack when you are sure which one it is.