It does actually work - it's a cute trick that you can have fun with. It's not remotely scientific though.
Thanks, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com c - 312.731.3132 From: Sean Martin [mailto:seanmarti...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 5:32 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Fiber Cable Tester Honestly, I'd never thought of that. Does it actually work? I guess my concern is that it wouldn't identify all possible imperfections within the strand. I'm no fiber expert, but my understanding is that light impulses basically bounce down each strand, and that is why sharp bends in fiber can cause problems because those light impulses can end up being reflected out of order, depending how they strike that bend. I would imagine a constant light source may still be able to travel the strand even if minor fractures existed, where data transmission could be negatively affected. Are my concerns valid? Is there a reasonably priced device to verify the integrity of a fiber cable, or am I just going to have to try the flash light trick and then plug n pray? - Sean On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 1:34 PM, James Kerr <cluster...@gmail.com<mailto:cluster...@gmail.com>> wrote: Can't you just shine a light through one end and see if theres light on the other end? ;-) ----- Original Message ----- From: Sean Martin<mailto:seanmarti...@gmail.com> To: NT System Admin Issues<mailto:ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com> Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 5:27 PM Subject: Re: Fiber Cable Tester We just completed a Data Center migration and I have a whole box full of cables that were pulled from the old location. These are mostly LC-LC cables from servers to fiber switches. Nothing over 30 meters. I was just looking for a device that would tell me whether or not the cables were still good (no breaks, etc.). I certainly don't need anything along the lines of an OTDR. - Sean On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 11:05 AM, Ben Scott <mailvor...@gmail.com<mailto:mailvor...@gmail.com>> wrote: On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 2:52 PM, Sean Martin <seanmarti...@gmail.com<mailto:seanmarti...@gmail.com>> wrote: > Can anyone recommend a quality Fiber Optic cable tester? I don't really know much about it, but I have been told by a couple installers that testing fiber isn't like testing copper. There's no cross-talk or other fancy stuff like the copper testers do. All they do is measure the power loss (in dB). They do that by using a simple meter and a light source. The measure the source to the meter, then they put the run in line, measure that, and take the difference. Of course, the installers could have been full of sh*t. They often are. I do know that an OTDR (Optical Time-Domain Reflectometer) is an expensive gadget, but all it does is tell you how long the cable is, or where the break is, if it's broken. That's very useful if you're looking to find a break to put in a repair splice, but it's useless for quality acceptance purposes. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
