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Tracing cabling through walls

  • 24-03-2016 01:14PM
    #1
    Luck100
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 878 ✭✭✭


    I've just moved in to a new house and we're scratching our heads over the wiring. It's a recent-ish build (8 years old roughly). All the houses in the estate were prewired with Cat5e and coax with plenty of faceplate jacks around the house. The problem is that we can't find the other end of the wiring for the jacks. The other houses in the estate have a central box in the kitchen with a patch panel for hooking everything up (i.e. connect external UPC line to house's internal coax lines with a splitter, and connect ports of cable modem/router to the Cat5 ethernet lines). Our house had some renovation/extension done and they've gotten rid of the box. Presumably the wiring is tucked away somewhere, but I've yet to find it short of ripping open walls.

    Is there any way to trace the wires back back to find where they end? In summary, I have access to one end of each wire (Cat5 and coax) and I'd like to trace it back through the house to see where they end.


Comments

  • #2
    irishfire
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 94 ✭✭irishfire


    Luck100 wrote:
    I've just moved in to a new house and we're scratching our heads over the wiring. It's a recent-ish build (8 years old roughly). All the houses in the estate were prewired with Cat5e and coax with plenty of faceplate jacks around the house. The problem is that we can't find the other end of the wiring for the jacks. The other houses in the estate have a central box in the kitchen with a patch panel for hooking everything up (i.e. connect external UPC line to house's internal coax lines with a splitter, and connect ports of cable modem/router to the Cat5 ethernet lines). Our house had some renovation/extension done and they've gotten rid of the box. Presumably the wiring is tucked away somewhere, but I've yet to find it short of ripping open walls.

    Luck100 wrote:
    Is there any way to trace the wires back back to find where they end? In summary, I have access to one end of each wire (Cat5 and coax) and I'd like to trace it back through the house to see where they end.

    Reading your post I was going to suggest a toner and probe, but depending on how thick the walls are and how deep the cables are this might be ineffective, worth a try though


  • #3
    Luck100
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 878 ✭✭✭Luck100


    irishfire wrote: »
    Reading your post I was going to suggest a toner and probe, but depending on how thick the walls are and how deep the cables are this might be ineffective, worth a try though

    Any idea where I can get my hands on toner and probe? I found this Fluke Pro3000 unit on Amazon US but it's going to be well over a 100 euros with shipping and duty. Plus it will probably take weeks to get here, and then who knows if it will do the job.

    http://www.amazon.com/Fluke-Networks-26000900-Pro3000-Generator/dp/B000FTADX0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=A1EZ2V2AKS0VVR


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