Community How To

Gentlepeople, 

Yesterday I had to go on site to fix an issue where an AP did get POE but was not connecting to the switch over this cable. 
The cable test done by the electricians rather professional tools was perfect, the one done by my amateur cable tester was also perfect.
When doing the cable test in the switch (a 1830p model) it however stated there was no spoon, euh I mean cable. 

On closer inspection I saw that the connector on the switch side was a pass true connector that had about half a mm (No idea what that is in dishwashers nor freedom eagles) of wires sticking out while the other one on the AP side was cut perfectly. Replacing this by a normal non pass true connector fixed the issue. 

Lesson learned --> Aruba ION switches are really really sensitive with regards to the physical connector size. Hopefully this saves some troubleshooting time on your end. 

Regards 
Toon 

Wire sticking out of the connector is not a proper termination! Good on the Instant-On switch reporting a failure.

A simple electrical continuity tester would be unlikely to report a problem (crosstalk, etc.) unless the wires were electrically shorting. A proper network testing device would, but a professional testing device can be expensive.

I would let the person or company that terminated the network cable that wires sticking out of the connector is not a proper termination. Most decent wire crimpers even at the low-end price range, should slice off the ends upon crimping. However with less expensive devices, it can be possible that if the wire, connector and tool are not in proper alignment that it may not do the best job.

I'm a network guy and it was not uncommon when I would go onsite to a customer that I would experience problems with network equipment I installed - only to learn that the cable was terminated by the customer "who never had a problem" with any cables he terminated. That's when I'd whip out a spare cable of mine and said let's try mine...

Thanks for sharing!

Gentlepeople, 

1) The switch didn't report anything, it powered the AP with POE over a cable it did not detect and didn't show that it was powering the AP 

2) The wires were cut off, there was like half a mm of left over on the connector, not enough to even cut of using a rasor-blade. 

Just be aware that the switches are really fiddly about their connectors and they do not tell you anything when they are giving POE but not detecting cable...