Always clean brand new patch cables. There is a specific exception for some cable systems designed to be installed at heights while wearing rigging gloves, the kind of environment where a cleaning attempt could make things worse. In that case, the manufacturer warrants a consistent lab-tested dB loss from gunk on the ends of new patch leads.
John > On 9 Nov 2017, at 9:24 am, Bob Purdon <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> Grab an optical fibre scope while you're at it. It's amazing how dirty >> your cable ends and recepticals can actually be. > > Absolutely - even brand new cables directly out of the manufacturer's > plastic bags can be filthy. I did have some fibre scope photos of this > somewhere... > >> with fibre, the major carrier datacentre operators less so - yes, they >> did it too) as plugging SC cables into SCA recepticals or vice versa. > > This.. ..or connectors not properly mated. High attenuation. Push. > Click. Problem solved. > >> Have you done optical loss testing? Some network gear can tell you >> directly what your tx and rx power levels are. > > Be careful with this - while it can often be a good guide, I have seen > many cases where the diagnostic data says the SFP is transmitting, but > an optical power meter shows nada, zilch, zero, nuffin' (as in no light, > /not/ 0dBm, lol). ..or the launch level is vastly below what the SFP is > reporting it is. > _______________________________________________ > AusNOG mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog _______________________________________________ AusNOG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ausnog.net/mailman/listinfo/ausnog
