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Handmade vs. Commercially Produced Ethernet Cables
An anonymous reader writes "We have a T1 line coming into our satellite office and we rely fairly heavily on it to transfer large amounts of data over a VPN to the head office across the country. Recently, we decided to upgrade to a 20 Mbit line. Being the lone IT guy here, it fell on me to run cable from the ISP's box to our server room so I went out and bought a spool of Cat6. I mentioned the purchase and the plan to run the cable myself to my boss in head office and in an emailed response he stated that it's next to impossible to create quality cable (ie: cable that will pass a Time Domain Reflectometer test) by hand without expensive dies, special Ethernet jacks and special cable. He even went so far as to say that handmade cable couldn't compare to even the cheapest Belkin cables. I've never once ran into a problem with handmade patch cables. Do you create your own cable or do you bite the bullet and buy it from some place?"
While it may be cost effective to crimp and cut your own cable when you are making less than 20 dollars an hour once you are making 20 dollar+ just buy it.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
We have TDR equipment and appropriate tools, but we still buy patch cables in bulk. We tested an assortment of ones we had made with cheap crimping tools, and they were all horrible. We can make decent ones, but it takes longer and costs more than buying them pre-tested.
Monster cables, dude, Monster cables...
~men are from earth. women are from earth. deal with it.~
It's clearly not your company's core business to make their own patch cables. It may be fun for you to wittle down your own toothpics from lincoln logs but if it's not in your job description it ain't going to fly. Seriously, just buy the damn stuff and do what your boss has asked.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
And I have never had any problem with them. Even on 50 servers running at full Gig. No errors.
I've spent many hours debugging things that ended up being poor quality TP connectors, but I've also saved countless more hours producing them myself compared to running to the store everytime.
For any permanent installation, go for the molded cables. For anything thats temporary, just pick whatever cable is closest.
And you're not guaranteed to be free of problems just because you buy expensive stuff, I've had problems with Dell PowerEdge switches and factory-made, properly molded STP cables, the RJ45 plug was simply too small and the copper pins didnt connect every time. Really odd, we had to throw away a whole box of STP patch cables for that reason.
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
Aristotele
but makes perfectly fine cables from what I saw. I generally don't do it anymore unless I have a very custom length as pre-made are really inexpensive and over 10 cables I usually have to re-crimp at least one end. Does your boss have any proof that hand-made cables are inferior?
I've learned the hard way when setting up a couple of clusters: You MUST use custom-made, cut to length cables to prevent a huge rats nets in the server room. Buying precut cables is a disaster. I had to rip out and completely rewire one cluster because I made that mistake.
However, you need to TEST the cables. And not just by plugging in and making sure it works, but a full ethernet validation tester.
I've been very happy with the Fluke Cable-IQ qualification tester, which doesn't just make sure that the wiring is correct, but actually tests the cable up to gigabit speed to make sure everything is kosher.
Test your net with Netalyzr
You can certainly screw it up if you do it yourself, for example you could forget the signal directional markings and then the signal would not know which way to go. Why do you think there are Ethernet cables at $500/1.5m? You think respectable companies are just trying to steal your money?
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
I buy cables because I would go through 5 - 10 cables a day and by the time I made them, tested them, labelled them, I could be doing 101 other things.
It's not to say that you can't do it, you can. It's just a matter that the amount of time you spend doing it just makes it a hell of a lot cheaper in the long run to buy them.
This is ESPECIALLY true when dealing with CAT7 or STP. On a 20Mb line (Probably a 100Mb link) the chances of having a problem though are pretty low provided you terminate it cleanly.
Curiosity was framed; ignorance killed the cat. -- Author unknown
If you get the rated speed and it's reliable, need we delve further?
I took a network troubleshooting class in college, and we had to test the integrity of data runs that we pulled ourselves and if they weren't good enough we had to do them again till we got our numbers down. I'm sure there are hundreds of data companies that would disagree with you on what it takes to make quality cables and I'm sure "expensive dies" and other nonsense like that really don't help that much when it comes to quality. All you need is a steady hand and lots of practice.
The musings of just another geek and his junk.
I think you have a pointy haired boss who can't do anything himself. Thats why he has other people do the IT. I've run into these types of people before. He's probably the kind of guy that staples the crap out of cat cable and wonders why his network is down.
Why put your neck on the line? If you make a cable and anything goes wrong, even if it happens later on, you're blamed. If something happens with the Belkin cable, you can blame Belkin. Even if it isn't Belkin's fault. Especially after your boss has told you to do something. Whenever you go up against an authority figure, the best you can hope for is proving them wrong. It's better to say "What a great idea boss!" and buy the cable. If it works, great. If it doesn't work, don't rub it in. Besides, do you really want to crimp your own cables?
We had a contractor come in and rewire our facility. They ran raw CAT 6 and hand terminated it, then TDR'd each run.
Your boss is unclear on the tools needed and the difficulty...just simple hand crimpers were all they needed. There's going to be
an impedance bump at the RJ anyway...the cable's not twisted there.
As to making them yourself or buying patch cables? It's way cheaper to buy them (I like L-Com) but if you need one *right now*,
(or a custom length) it's cheap to have a crimp tool, some RJs and a roll of cable handy in the corner of the office.
Wait a minute. Your boss is telling you to buy cables instead of toiling to make your own, and you're _complaining_? I don't think a self-terminated link of CAT6 will have the slightest trouble maintaining 20 megabits, but that's not the point.
Word of advice, take his word for him and nod. If he's willing to spend money to make your job easier, then keep that job!
Your cables would be fine, but if ANYTHING ever goes wrong the first thing your boss will say is "It's probably that damn cable you made when I told you to buy one." It's just not worth it.
Obviously your boss isn't good at making cables. While if you lack the skill to do something like make cables with care you're going to have problems, there's no reason that you can't make your own cables and have them perform just as well as the ones made by a machine in a factory.
They can put it under the "Tech" section if they like, but this is really another disappointing Ask Slashdot. It's disappointing because too many of these have this format: "my boss at work wants me to do X, but I'd really rather do Y; what are the merits of X versus Y?" All of them need to be summarily rejected, with a polite e-mail sent to the submitter which says "within the bounds of the law, you need to do what your boss asks you to do whether or not you necessarily agree with it. If you cannot convince your boss to do otherwise, and this is a problem for you, perhaps you should consider working elsewhere."
The other disappointing category of Ask Slashdot-type submissions are those questions that are factual in nature and have only one correct (and rather well-known, easily researched) answer. Asking a large group with varying levels of expertise makes a lot of sense when there are multiple possible solutions to a problem and there is room to be creative. It makes no sense when it's more of a yes/no question -- remember the recent Ask Slashdot that asked whether spam is increased by trying to opt-out of spam e-mails? That's an excellent case in point, and not atypical either. That should have been an "Ask Google", not an "Ask Slashdot".
I think it's a shame that the quality of these particular submissions are on the decline. There's nothing inherently wrong with the "Ask Slashdot" format and there are a lot of very knowledgable people who browse this site. I'd love to see how creative they can be. It's just never going to be as good as it easily could be when it's handled this way.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Ask him how the premise wiring in every commercial building in the world is installed. They order patch cables from some commercial patch cable vendor for every run, riiiiiiiight.
Also, CAT5e is fine for what you are doing. I agree with the previous poster that you could practically use tin cans and a string for this.
These special dies, jacks, and connectors are called "CAT5" parts and you can buy them at Home Depot I think. Does that make them "special" ?
It really preserves the assonitic complexity and quality of the packets when they move from your wall to your router. Cheaper cables let noisy bits through that go all wobbly and clog your connection. I hear their new wifi cables are hella expensive but totally worth it.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
We have a roll of bulk cable for when location X needs a network run Right Now. I route it, cut to length, and terminate it. I'm pretty good.
I don't have a TDR, so I run 200M of data at the target link speed. If it isn't good enough (i.e. more than 10% away from my target throughput rate), I reterminate the cable. If it still isn't good enough, I pull new cable.
This is for those projects where waiting a week for a shipment of manufactured cable won't do. For anything else, you are wasting time and money by making your own cable. Tested chinese patch cables are cheaper than buying bulk cable, and they have a higher chance of working right the first time, and they're probably the right kind of cable for what you're doing.
Your boss is being paranoid - I'm sure you can install cable to handle the 20M link without problems... but he's right to say that you should look to save money elsewhere. I'm guessing you make more than $3/hr - your time can be put to better use than making a $20 cable.
Now, on the other hand - if you're doing a run that's more than 100ft long, yes. Make it yourself (or hire a professional installer). Long cables are stupid expensive - but that's horizontal cabling, not patch cabling. Still have to pull, route, and terminate it properly. Getting good connectors on it is the tricky part - none of the local places carry the kind of jacks we use (Panduit MiniCom - all the locals carry some crappy cheap variety of a keystone jack).
TLDR: You had a T1, probably at the same demarcation point. Why aren't you reusing that cabling to move the data from the new channel bank that's sitting 3 feet away from the old T1 interface over to the network closet?
Yes, you can use handmade cables that are as good as mass-produced factory cables. But that really isn't the issue.
It's just not worth the time spent to cut and crimp your own lines anymore. In my experience, it was a more common practice years ago in IT. That may have had something to do with the fact that there weren't nearly as many PC's or ethernet ports in buildings as there are today.
My advice: Find a good supplier (i.e. not one that charges $800 for a 6 ft. adamantium-coated cable) and do something else with the rest of your time.
It's disappointing because too many of these have this format: "my boss at work wants me to do X, but I'd really rather do Y; what are the merits of X versus Y?" All of them need to be summarily rejected, with a polite e-mail sent to the submitter which says "within the bounds of the law, you need to do what your boss asks you to do whether or not you necessarily agree with it. If you cannot convince your boss to do otherwise, and this is a problem for you, perhaps you should consider working elsewhere."
Just pretend that the question is "how should I convince my boss that Y is better than X?". It's like asking legal questions on Ask Slashdot: the real question is "what should I know before my appointment with a lawyer?".
Maybe I'm missing your point... but I think the submitter is aware of what he's REQUIRED to do. This puts his question more on the theoretical, "If I were the boss..." , but still does not invalidate the question. Just because he may be unable to act on the advice gained here, why does that make the question bad? There may be plenty of other situations where he CAN apply the advice, or any of the rest of us reading can use said advice.
Bull! Entirely aside from what the submitter should do to protect their job, it is topical on slashdot to question whether DIY ethernet cables are any good, just as people on a home repair DIY site might discuss whether doing drywall yourself is worthwhile.
When the only answer slashdotters can imagine is "just pay somebody else to do it," that is the day there is no point reading here.
While I would agree that hand making Ethernet cables is a fine way to go about things, if the boss says says to buy them pre-made, then just buy them. That is, unless you can convince him, for example, that hand making cables is necessary for keeping a tidy data room (precut sizes aren't going to work for running a building's worth of Ethernet jacks).
What you've posted him saying sounds like a lot of I'm-afraid-of-doing-that-myself jargon. By crimping the cables yourself you're opening yourself up for any data or transmission speed problems to be blamed on you and your shoddy Time Domain Reflectometer tests.
I've bought thousands of dollars of cable. Full disclosure, it has been BNC cable, and not ethernet, but I think my experience is likely germane. This cable has been used to construct installations of scientific equipment that gets reconfigured pretty frequently (and I've been the primary user on most of this equipment). I have never, ever had a single cable-related failure using ITT/Pomona cables. My peers, on the other hand, use hand-made cables and are constantly debugging their setups.
I spend my time doing my job (collecting data), while other people in my lab spend their time fixing problems. (Really full disclosure, I'm the only one with an EE degree.)
Good cables can be found inexpensively. These are the ones you want. Cheap cables can be found for less money, but these are the ones you do not want. Custom cables, unless you have high-quality crimping tools (the $39.99 variety don't cut it) and a proper means for doing testing, which means TDR and bandwidth testing in your case, just are not worth it for general-purpose use.
Look at it this way: how long does it take you to generate a qualified cable? Not how long does it take you to make one cable, but how long does it take you to make one cable that you will use, including all of the failed crimps, cables that were cut too short, too long, were miswired, or must be discarded, for some other reason. How many cables will you be making? Total that up and use 1/2 of the time to search for low prices on high-quality cable instead. You will be ahead in the end.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
with equipment that's not much different than stock equipment. I test these cables with a DTX-1800, they do great.
They're sticklers for BlackBox brand cable, I don't know if it's because the cables good, or the more likely scenario that instead of specifying TIA-568B compliant cable they have have to give a part number to make a "Typical". A "Typical" is a blue print for a cable. Remember, it's government, loads of red tape.
We also use Black Box brand connectors, again, for part number reasons I'm almost certain. For the Cat-5 stuff there is something a bit different than your run of the mill cables, it's the inclusion of black load bars that get crimped into the connection. A bit different than most connectors I've used.
The only Cat-6 I've made was a specialized connector with additional grounding added, so I wont get into that.
Beyond what's mentioned the only difference between NASA and the rest of the world is the use of really expensive test equipment, and the insistence that calibrated ratcheting crimpers are used. For test reasons I've made cables using my own stuff and put it on the Fluke, I hate to say it, but my uncalibrated out of the box $20 crimpers from Ideal do just as well as there $150 at minimum crimpers that are custom pieced together. At least according to the Fluke.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
When the only answer slashdotters can imagine is "just pay somebody else to do it," that is the day there is no point reading here.
Hey, that was pretty good. What would you charge to make my posts for me?
I've personally crimped thousands of patch cables and other ethernet lines in Cat5 and Cat5e. However, it's been my understanding that it is nigh impossible to field crimp Cat6 to meet specs. That may have changed, since the last time I asked was a couple of years ago. Cat5 and 5e are relatively easy, and as others mentioned, making your own eliminates messy loops of extra cable hanging about. And there's some satisfaction from making your own stuff as well. But Cat6? As others mentioned, it's probably cheaper and better in the long run to purchase ready-made cables from a reputable source.
Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse. -- L. Long
While I have made my own, I really just don't have the time. Especially when I need a few dozen patch cables.
Running to the store is great, but I've learned the hard way to trust only one manufacturer. Their cables are guaranteed for life!
Buy a few hundred 'Brand X' cables and a percentage of them could be useless.
Once that happens, you'll have a box of cables you'll never want to use. Just can't trust them.
Beside, who has a spool of beige, black, blue, gray, green, orange, pink, purple, red (crossover only), white, and yellow laying around?
They can put it under the "Tech" section if they like, but this is really another disappointing Ask Slashdot. It's disappointing because too many of these have this format: "my boss at work wants me to do X, but I'd really rather do Y; what are the merits of X versus Y?" All of them need to be summarily rejected, with a polite e-mail sent to the submitter which says "within the bounds of the law, you need to do what your boss asks you to do whether or not you necessarily agree with it. If you cannot convince your boss to do otherwise, and this is a problem for you, perhaps you should consider working elsewhere."
I don't know about you, but I was hired for my technical expertise. It is part of my job description to let management know when they are making bad technical decisions. If they still insist after that, then sure, I gotta shrug my shoulders and do it; but until then, it's my job to find out the facts and make sure they stay informed...which is exactly what the questioner is doing.
Save the "shut up and do as you're told" bit for McDonald's burger-flippers. We're professionals here.
If pre-made cables from a good vendor are available that meet your needs, then buy them.
Times they may not meet your needs:
*You need it NOW
*They don't come in your size and the nearest sizes are not acceptable
*The only vendor that makes the one you need charges a fortune
Examples of when custom is good:
*Temporary installations, and it's faster or a lot cheaper to make than to go shopping
*Runs over 50 feet that aren't close to pre-made sizes. A 63 M run in tight conduit and little room for slack cable is probably better done custom than using a 75 M premade run. Usually, runs under 50 feet can use a 50' or smaller pre-made cable.
For permanent installations, test your custom cables. Test your store-bought ones too for that matter.
For temporary installations or installations where it's easy to yank-and-replace if there's a problem, it's frequently good enough to just power it on and see if "it works."
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
If you have a substantial distance to run, a patch cable may not be the best option. Patch cables are (or should be) made of stranded conductors to make them more flexible and reduce metal fatigue. They are not recommended for long distances. A permanent link cable is made of solid conductor wire and carries the signal better at longer distances. Keep in mind that a CAT5e/6 ethernet connection is limited to 100M/328ft. If you need to run solid conductor, installing the data jacks is much easier than installing the crimp-on RJ45 ends and much more reliable. Doing it this way would simply require two short patch cables to tie the permanent link to your devices. My $.02.
Existence is futile
Solid core has slightly better propagation properties (the 100M limit implies solid core for example) however it also acts similar to a wire coat-hanger. Like any metal it weakens as it bends and after a period of time it'll grow weak, thin and even completely break.
Stranded is similar to a braided rope, it can withstand constant reconnections (user area, especially common with laptops), movements (telcom closets when you're moving the cable mess to access equipment ports) and the stress that will wear down the solid-core cables.
Do yourself a favor and make sure that if you create your own patch cables:
There's nothing wrong with making your own patch cables, and it could potentially save you big bucks (compared with buying a $35 patch cable at a local store). However if it's not done right you will kick yourself down the road -- or more likely blame the network electronics, server, network cards, or whatever you normally blame. :)
Best advice I've ever heard on cabling:
If you have to drill holes to run it, make your own. If you don't buy it premade.
Second best advice:
Test it all. Even if it comes in a shrink wrap package.
-- $G
This principle of going with the provider you can sue over the one you can rely on is becoming far too prevalent.
I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with Belkin, and I think in this situation the pre-made cables are the better option.
However, in a more general sense, I'd prefer that my systems didn't go down rather than being able to point the finger when they do. If you are the front end provider of a service your customers are not going to be placated by the fact that, even though all their data is gone, you are currently seeking glorious retribution from the guy that solders the LEDs onto your motherboards (or whatever).
On top of this, when things go tits up at three o'clock in the morning - you can be sure the Belkin shop won't be open.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
This is a CYA issue. Your boss does not want to explain to HIS boss, when a cable goes bad and the company is losing $large_number per hour until it is diagnosed and fixed, that he authorized one of his tech guys to use "homemade" cables.
Yo dawg, I heard you like the Ackermann function, so OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD
I've used both handmade and commercial cables and there is big difference in the connectors. When I crimp it myself (or get cheap pre-made ones) the only thing holding the connector on is the little metal spikes inside it. With decent commercial cables, there is moulded plastic connecting the ends on to the cable, which is a lot stronger.
Whether it's worth going for the expensive option depends on whether the cable will be plugged in and unplugged a lot or whether the ends are likely to have sharp bends in the cable near them.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
They are made at specific lengths for marketing reasons. All of the "transmission line" characteristics of Ethernet cable have been solved for every length within the specified maximum.
I have a whole data center (~32 rows of 22 racks) fully cabled with lengths ranging from 100 meters to 5 inches (crossover between 1U boxes). They are cut to custom lengths, source to destination. Where their port is on the router and where they were placed in the tray add and subtract inches here and there. They run to the patchpanels in bundles about 7 inches in diameter. We have no problems with crosstalk, reflections, intermod and what have you.
If this were coaxial Ethernet we could have a fun discussion... but those days are well behind us.
You really want to use stranded wire for patch cables. Solid will end up cracking with the repeated bending that most patches are subjected to. I've made patches by hand with stranded and found it much harder to work with than the solid most people are used to.
It's definitely not worth my time unless it's an emergency with no alternative (i.e. poor planning).
-db
Something like the Fluke tester is a very sophisticated ANALOG device. Its measuring reflectivity and a whole host of analog properties, in order to determine that the cable meets the specification.
EG, it will tell you where there is an actual break in the cable.
Personally, I don't consider build-my-own cables saving money. Rather, it is some other reason (the necessity to be neat, an inability to pull pre-made jacks through the wall...) that is the reason to build your own.
Test your net with Netalyzr
That's funny.
I mean, a couple of weeks ago I finished up a job where I went into a mess, with a mix of premade cables and mixing A and B pinouts. I re-did most of the connections - by hand - and installed all new patch cables - made by hand, and tested every link with a TDR. A couple failed - turned out the oh-so-slight crosstalk between T568B patch cables and the old T568R runs was just enough to break the link so I switched those old connections to T568B and all was well.
I've seen articles which claim the crosstalk from mixing A and B only sometimes cause link problems, but I've seen it often enough to make it a blanket rule to always, always, always go 568B. 568B is supposedly deprecated but every cable I've ever bought off the shelf, aside from crossover cable, has been wired 568B so I always stick with B.
Most of the premade patch cables that were on site tested bad BTW. I've since installed a few premade cables but they were brand new and those tested fine.
If you're going room to room, don't go with premade patch cables. Get a spool of CAT-6 and use keystones (jacks) on the PC side and a patch panel (or keystones if the boss is too cheap - although once you do more than 20 jacks the patch panel becomes much cheaper so just tell him to STFU and do it right, and skip one appetizer and alcoholic beverage at a meal to recoup the cost) on the other side. Just hanging a patch cable out of the wall is really hack. It works, but it's fugly.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Here's how people screw up cables:
1. They just match colors at either end and don't pick a standard pinout (T568A or B). That might result in a usable 10mbps link, but it won't work at 100 or 1000.
2. They mix 568A and 568B - usually wiring A in the wall, and using premade B patch cables. Instant crosstalk. OK on very short runs, but anything longer than 80' to 100' will become problematic with many NICs.
3. They score the insulation. Use the right tools, and adjust the tension on the stripper.
4. They only strip 1/2" of insulation and try to organize the cables and jam it in, so you don't get a clean connection on all the conductors - or might miss one completely. Strip the insulation back 2", then you have room to sort the conductors, trim them neatly then you can slide them all the way to the end of the terminator, then the clips will "bite" each conductor twice - cleanly, resulting in a good connection and a strong link.
Your boss sounds like an idiot and a hack.
If you're going from the wall to the PC I'd say yeah, buy a premade cable and save on labor. Just buy a good one. Believe it or not monoprice's cheap stuff is extremely good.
From the patch panel to the switch, it depends on the length. Will a premade cable fit the length well? Go premade. If not, then make the cables.
Ultimately though, your boss is the boss. If he insists on hanging patch cables loose through the wall, etc. just document it in email, send it to him with your recommendation, etc. so that when he comes back to you complaining that it looks hack or that the cabling was overpriced, you can remind him that you recommended otherwise.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
I have a cat6 cable certifier. You can make cords by hand that certifies to cat6 the majority of the time. Something that isn't cat6 compliant isn't going to hurt your 100base, you only need cat5e for gigabit, cat5 for 100base. You can't tell if you meet cat6 spec without the $10k certifier.
A lot of people put rj45 mod ends on solid wire (instead of stranded). Then when the wire moves it pulls on the pins and 'goes bad'. Premade patch cords are always stranded, ones you make usually are using solid wire. If you use solid wire from jack to jack and tie it down, then use premade patch cords made from stranded wire from jack to device, you're fine. Or buy stranded wire and make your own. Putting a rj45 mod end on stranded wire is a little bit challenging. Your best bet is solid wire from jack to jack, tied down, prebought short patch cords from jack to device.
Patch cables are bought pre-made in standard lengths. These are for use in racks, from desktops to wall jack, patch panel to switch, etc. In these cases the time taken to properly crimp the ends and re-doing the occasional bad crimp is just not worth it.
Cable RUNS, such as what you're talking about are done custom in-house.
One big advantage is that the cable pull can be done much more easily without the ends in the way. You can abuse the end of the cable as much as necessary (including tieing it in a knot) to get it pulled then just snip the abused part off.
Another advantage is getting the length right. It's a shame (and a mess) to have to coil up 30 meters of cable just because you could buy 50m or 100m and you needed 70. The alternative would be to measure the length you need and have someone else custom the cable 'professionally' for you. The problem is that you're now doing the pull twice (once with string to measure and then again with the custom cable) and the 'professional' cable will come from some guy doing exactly what you were going to do. It's not like it's rocket surgery and he may have no more experience than you do. Further, he doesn't have the sure knowledge that he'll be at the office till 3 A.M. if it goes bad to encourage him to do it well.
Further, if you buy pre-made of have it "professionally" made, you have to be extra careful not to abuse the end of the cable when you pull it. Most likely, you'll tie the pull string near the end as tightly as you can, and then when it comes out the other end, you'll find that it slipped and all of the pulling force has been supported by the connector pulling through the crimp. If the end didn't actually come off, it's probably worse than even an amateurish crimp by now. Either that, or the connector has caught on absolutely every obstruction along the path and so is similarly damaged. Covering it over with tape will help but not eliminate the problem.
I've never had a problem with a hand made cable that didn't show up right away with a tester and couldn't be solved by snipping the end off and trying again.
Big tip for getting a clean crimp: Strip off a little too much outer insulation, get all your conductors lined up in the connector, then pull it back out holding the conductors in alignment between your thumb and index finger. Now snip the excess off squarely and re-insert into the plug. If the outer sheath doesn't go neatly into the connector, nip off a bit more. You now have a nice professionally made cable (you are, after all, a networking professional and you made the cable).
The only actual difference is who does the testing.
We have a T1 line coming into our satellite office
Strap a cart onto it and you'll have a space elevator!
As another EE (who does all their work at about 3GHz)
You must drink a lot of coffee to be that jittery. I can't even begin to understand how you'll get any work done at 3GHz...
The view was horrible and the smell was even worse; Julie severely regretted becoming a proctologist.