Integrators can’t eliminate all the issues in an installation, especially those caused by other contractors. Geoff Meads looks at the most common issues and how to remedy them.

Like any type of smart home project, network installation can be fraught with frustrating, time-consuming and costly issues. While they can’t all be fixed easily, there are a few scenarios we can plan for and, if we take preventative measures, prevent them from happening or, at least, minimise their impact.

So, having installed quite a few in my time, here is my list of the most frustrating network install issues you might encounter and what you might do about them.

1.    The ISP WAN connection isn’t live

ISPs are a law unto themselves. They work at their own pace, provide only what they deem necessary for a ‘normal customer’ and usually have flaky/non-existent support beyond a simple ‘is the router on or off?’ check sheet.

If you turn up to site and there’s no WAN connection to the property, because it either hasn’t been installed yet or is broken, then it puts a big dent in your ability to configure the network.

There are two things you can do here that will help. The first is to check, check and check again with the client for confirmation when the ISP service will be live and plan your installation accordingly. The second is to carry a 4G/5G mobile modem with a USB connection that you can use as a temporary WAN source.

Connecting your mobile modem to the WAN side of your router via USB will help get you up and running and allow you to do most of your configuration and testing before the permanent ISP connection goes live.

2.    WAN feed has the wrong connection type

ISPs normally provide one of two connection options: a phone line/coax cable using a modulated signal or a fibre or satellite modem providing a baseband signal. Modulated connections require a modem box that is suitable for the incoming signal. If the connection is via cable, you must use the supplied modem to convert to a baseband ethernet signal before connecting your router.

With a phone line modulated signal, you might be able to supply a higher-performance router that has a suitable modem inside already.

It’s vital you know the exact format of the supplied signal before buying and installing your equipment and this is something to agree with the client as early as possible in the design and costing phase of the project.

3.    Contractor pulled the wrong cable type

If you don’t normally supply the actual network cable being installed, then you probably should! Network cable (CAT5e, CAT6, CAT6a etc.) varies dramatically in quality and, without specialist knowledge, the client (or contractor running the cables) will often choose the lowest cost product regardless of spec. Once it’s in the wall, you’re stuck with it!

If you absolutely cannot supply the cable, then you might choose to provide the client with a performance expectation document that outlines the limitations that may occur for varying cable types. While this could easily turn into a very technical document, writing the document using simple terms like ‘reduced speeds’, ‘slower loading times’ or ‘lower availability’ should be enough to highlight the issue with the client and give you something to fall back on if a poor-quality cable is installed by others.

4.    Installed cables don’t verify

Firstly, I had better explain what I mean by “verify”. Verification is the simplest test we can run on an installed cable to establish its possible performance. Note that I do not say ‘for fill the function it is intended for’ – there is an important difference here. The first thing any electrical cable must be able to do is pass a current. This means the cable (and its terminations) must have end-to-end continuity. To put this another way, each conductor of a cable must be continuous with no breaks (open circuit) or unintentional connection to other conductors (short circuit).

To carry out a verification test we use a simple, two-piece (master and slave), tester that passes a small current from the master, along each conductor, through the remote slave at the far end of the cable, and back again along another conductor. For a ‘category’ type cable this is usually done across each pair of conductors (e.g., the orange pair). If the test fails, then it means either one or both conductors are faulty. This test usually uses a DC voltage and, therefore, does not tell us anything about the cable’s ability to carry actual data.

So, what if an installed cable doesn’t verify? In my experience, this usually means a poor termination at one or both ends. If ‘category’ type cable is treated with basic respect at installation, then it will usually be okay to pass at least a DC voltage.

If a fault isn’t found after a careful visual inspection of the terminations, then simply re-terminating may solve any problems hidden from the eye. Failing that, some more advanced verification testers will show the distance to a break in the cable, and this will give you a good idea if the problem is at the termination point or somewhere along a cable run.

5.    Data cables next to power cables

Power and data are not friends. When power cables are passing significant current, they give off a strong electromagnetic field. This can be induced into any data cables close by and may disrupt or even swamp the data signal within them.

The rule here is that there should be a minimum of 30cm between parallel runs of data and power cables if they are running together over any significant distance. More than 30m is better and most installers aim for 60cm. This should always be specified at design time and in instructions to other contractors when they are running your cables.

So, what do you do if you find your instructions have been ignored? There is no simple answer to this issue. Obviously, the list of options for getting around this problem will depend on the current state of the building project. If all cables run to wall plates and walls have been finished and decorated, then you may need to consider getting to the data cables along their pathway and rerouting them. This may sadly involve couplers (used Cat-rated ones!) which are not ideal. You might also consider adding a small network switch acting as a repeater at the new mid-run termination point, especially if the total run length is high.

If there are a bundle of data cables running next to/within a power cable bundle, then another way out may be to bypass the category cables in the bundle by adding a fibre cable to the bundle and passing all data along that. This works since fibre optic cables are not affected by electromagnetic interference. At each end of the bundle, you would then add a switch to convert from fibre back to copper. The specification of the fibre and switch will need to be carefully considered and take into account the likely total bandwidth of all data cables in the bundle as the fibre will now be serving as a ‘trunk route’ of all the conjoined data.

Conclusions

I hope this article gives you a few new ideas and helps you manage network install issues when then they crop up. No project runs perfectly but, knowing how to get yourself out of trouble when it occurs, can save a lot of time, money and stress!