Meraki Switch Cable Test

[ToryDav]

Hello!

How reliable is the Cable Test feature on the MS product?

I am getting a 'short' even when I move the cable to another port.

I am going to rule out the cable itself, but how reliable is this tool?

I'm looking for your experiences using it, or any knowledge of what it's doing under the hood.

Thanks!

Tory

[PhilipDAth]

I find it is pretty good.

Sometimes you need to unplug the cable from the remote device to get a better reading (for example, a 10Mb/s device might actually short the unused pins).

[BrandonS]

I have questioned it on occasion, but it seems mostly accurate.  Why would you assume your cable is good when the test shows a problem though?  Keep in mind all the points from A-Z the cable could be in trouble from end to end through jacks, patch cords, patch panels, etc.

[cmr · Accepted solution]

@ToryDav 100Mb/s Ethernet connections only use two pairs so if you test a port at 100Mb/s what you get is totally expected as only the first two will show accurately.   If you connect a device at 1Gb/s to the same port then all four pairs will be accurately tested.

I have access to a high end cable tester and found that when testing ports running at 1Gb/s the Meraki results are very good with the only caveat being that the switch does not test the shielding (if it exists) and detail on minor shorting is better with the 'real' tester.

[ToryDav]

I questioned it because there is only one camera showing problems, but shorts show on several ports, and its because or what @cmr pointed out.