Linksprinter

Last fall I had the pleasure of winning a Fluke Networks LinkSprinter 200 network tester on Twitter.  Since then it has become my go to tool.

In my environment, I have a lot of links that are poorly labeled and that are on VLANs without DHCP.  This means having to tone out or trace cables when the desktop team or server team comes to me wanting something moved to another VLAN.  That's where the LinkSprinter has been a life saver.  Now when they come to my desk, I just hand them the LinkSprinter and tell them to press the power button once they hook up the cable and wait until it either gives them a red icon or a green solid cloud.  

When they bring it back, I plug it into my spare port and within a minute I have their port reports in my e-mail.  From those reports I can easily see the CDP information and know exactly what port on what switch needs changing.  The tool also tells me about POE, speed, duplex, dhcp and latency to a cloud target.  In the field of course, I also have made use of the wireless feature to see the results instantly on my iPhone.  

I used to carry my OneTouch AT with me a lot more, but I have found the LinkSprinter to replace the OneTouch AT for many smaller daily jobs.  Both its size and its price make it a perfect tool for every engineer and technician.  My organization is currently reviewing the idea of issuing our desktop support team with LinkSprinters to help decrease problem resolution time.

If you haven't bought one, I highly suggest you head over to Amazon and get yours today.

Panduit Blanking Curtain

Panduit dropped off a new toy... err tool today.  It's a sample of their new blanking curtain.  Instead of a slew of 1U or so panels to attach to a rack, it's 4U that expands up to 45U.  Of course it only works if you are blanking contiguous areas.

It was a breeze to install and it is supposed to work in both square and round hole racks.  Changing the size as you add servers to the bottom of the rack is a tool less 10 second procedure.  All in all, I think it's a great new product for data center air containment.

Installed!

Deployed!

Review - Fluke Network One Touch AT

Earlier this summer I had the privilege to participate in Fluke Network's beta test of their OneTouch AT Network Assistant.  Many of us have our favorite software tools on our laptops that we use for troubleshooting.  Unfortunately a lot of times, it's not convenient to lug around a laptop (not everyone gets a Macbook Air to use).  Also there are some tools like network cabling qualifying that just can't be done by a laptop.

This generally leads to one of two scenarios.  Either you have budget and you buy a bag full of tools or you don't have budget and you make do without specialized tools.  For those with budget you will generally have a list of tools something like this:

• Cable Toner and Probe Kit
• Copper Cable Qualifier
• Fiber Cable Qualifier
• Wireless Tester

With the OneTouch AT, you have all of these tools, plus some of the best software tools all in one package.

Picture (c) Fluke Networks

Picture (c) Fluke Networks

As seen in these pictures the OneTouch AT packs in two Gigabit copper ports, two SFP fiber ports and an 802.11a/b/g/n wireless antennae.  The screen is a touch interface.  It's not quite as responsive as your average iPhone or Android, but the screen looks more robust which is good in a testing tool.  In addition to the tool itself, Fluke has various accessory packages that include a directional wireless antennae, wire locators, and a USB fiber scope.

Because of the dual ports for fiber and copper, the device can (with the right license) serve as a TAP to capture traffic.  From reading the manual, I don't believe that it is capable of full line speed. However, for most applications this TAP will be useful in troubleshooting.  The captures can either be copied over the network or via USB thumb drive.

The real place that the OneTouch AT goes beyond what you would expect in a network troubleshooting tool of its size is in the software.  Fluke has provided many predefined tests that can be applied against different tiers of networks and applications.  Once a profile is setup, an engineer or help desk staffer can hook it up, press Test and have a picture of everything from the client to the services it would access.  This alone could help narrow the troubleshooting time of a problem immensely by showing what tier in a multi-tier application is slow or failing from a client's perspective.

One of the predefined tests is also rather unique.  This is called VeriFi.  It uses the wireless adapter to connect to your network and do a throughput and latency check against a defined host on your network.  This lets you confirm usability as well as coverage.

My Take


If you have the budget, get this tool.  You'll save money and space compared to buying the individual tools.  My only complaint is that I don't have one in my toolkit yet.  There have been a few times since I had to ship it back that I wish I had still had my beta unit.  Take a look at the Fluke website for more information and details because I barely scratched the surface of the "apps" on this unit.

Disclaimer


Fluke Networks sent me a free beta unit that was the basis of this review.  Because I participated in the beta and case study process I may end up receiving a OneTouch AT.  My review though is my own and what I really think.

Index of Basic Telephony Posts

Basic Terminology

Color Code

Tools

Terminations

Butt Set Testing

Telephony Basics Pt 5

Okay, so now that we have a phone line interconnected from the PBX to the IDF(s) and then to the end user, how do we troubleshoot it if it doesn't work?  My methodology is to work from the MDF out.  I have two tools I use depending on which type of phone I am troubleshooting.

Butt Set

For an analog phone or fax, I use a traditional butt set.  A butt set is a ruggedized telephone handset with a set of clip leads that are used to clip on to a 66 block or other terminal.  Because the metal part of a 110 block is hidden, a special adapter has to be purchased to use a butt set with a 110 block.  If you don't have the adapter, you can remove the jumper and then use a spare piece of jumper wire to punch down to the block and then connect the jumper wires to the butt set clips.  At each step from the MDF out I will hook up the butt set and see if the line works.  Wherever it stops working helps me isolate the problem.  Generally for me it usually ends up being that I have a loose jumper wire, or I punched the jumper down on the wrong terminals.

If the line in question is a "digital" line, the standard butt set won't work.  What I do in that case is I take a RJ-45 jack and wire pins 4 and 5 to a jumper cable.  I then punch down the jumper cable to the points along the path and use the same model phone as the line is configured for to test the line.  It's a bit more cumbersome, but it gets the job done.

This concludes my series on basic telephony and I hope it has been useful to other router jockeys out there that have been put in the situation of learning telephony too.

Telephony Basics Pt 4

In previous posts I've explained terminology, color coding, and how to trace cables.  Now it's time to actually connect something.  As I showed in the first post of this series, there are two styles of punch down blocks for telephony, the 66 block and the 110 block.  These blocks are used to connect station cabling to the trunk cabling that goes from an IDF to the MDF.

Wires laid into the 66 block terminals.

Punch down and cut the wire.

Both styles of punch block use a punch down tool to terminate the wires to the block.  Many tools have a dual blade that can be flipped depending on which style of block is in use.  To terminate a wire, you place it into the terminal and then push it down to make contact with the punch down tool.  The punch down tool fits around a 66 block terminal or into a 110 block terminal.  One side of the blade is sharp to cut the wire off flush, this is normally marked on the tool with the word cut.  Be sure to have this side oriented to cut off the loose end of the wire and not the end going to the other block.

Laying out station cabling
in a 110 block.

Terminating a station cable onto 110.

110 5 pair tool

Terminating station cables to a 66 block or 110 block is similar to jumper cables except that you have 4 or more pairs instead of one.  The color code dictates that you should lay out your pairs white/blue, white/orange, white/green, white/brown, white/slate, red/blue, etc.  Each time you put a new station cable on it's white/blue pair would follow the previous cable's last pair.  These pairs are punched down on a 66 block into the outermost terminal.  On a 110 block, they are terminated by placing a plastic biscuit on top and punching it down on top of the wires.  Each biscuit terminates 5 pairs of wires at a time.  While you can use a standard 110 punch down tool, it is much easier to use a tool designed to punch five pair at a time like the one pictured.  Once the biscuit is in place, the jumper wires can be terminated one pair at a time.

In the same method, larger 25-pair cables can be terminated on a 110 or 66 block.  When doing larger cables, getting a neat appearance is often tricky until you have practice.  One phone technician told me to hide extra cable behind the block in case you ever have to reterminate a pair so that you don't have to reterminate the entire cable.  Below is a good howto video from YouTube on how to do 25-pair termination to a 66 block.

Telephony Basics Pt 3

One of the first things that I learned in my foray into the world of telephony was how to effectively use a cable toner.  Although I had used a toner before to trace network cabling, it was a different ball game using it with 66 and 110 blocks instead of modular patch panels.  For those who might not know, a cable toner consists of two parts, the tone generator and the probe.

Tone Generator

Probe

The probe detects the tone(signal) placed on the copper line and generates an audible sound.  The stronger the signal is, the louder the sound will be.  In telephony you usually plug the tone generator into a station cable that is in need of identification and then take the probe into the IDF.  When you get to the IDF, you can run the probe up and down the rows of the 66 blocks, but that method won't always get you the results you want.  An experienced telephone guy taught me to hold the probe in one hand near your ear (so you can hear it well) and then use a finger on your other hand to run down the conductors.  When you hear a tone, you can isolate it by using your finger to touch only one pair of conductors.  For example if the tone is coming on the blue/white cable pair you should be able to place your finger on the orange/white pair and not hear tone, but when on the blue/white you will hear tone.  There is only one drawback to the finger method... phones use voltage to ring which means that if you happen to hit a ringing line, it might bite a bit.

My particular model of toner is a Fluke Networks IntelliTone which has a digital tone option.  This comes in handy when there is digital phone signal or data signal on the line.  Using this option is the same as the analog method, but many times it will power through noise on the line.

Banjo

Another thing to keep in mind when toning out cables is how the color code corresponds with a modular jack.  Remember that most telephone cabling now uses the same color code as Ethernet.  Because of the switch to VoIP, cabling is often now run as all CAT5e or 6 and then used for voice.  When this is done and you plug in your tone generator, the tone will go on the blue/white pair (pins 4 and 5) since they are in the position for "line 1".  To split out the pairs you would have to have a "banjo" that has a modular jack on one end and conductors on the other corresponding to each pair.

Sometimes phone installers will split a CAT5e cable into two jacks with blue/white and orange/white on one jack, and green/white and brown/white on the other jack.  In this configuration green/white and  brown/white are wired to the blue/white and orange/white pins on the jack.

Telephony Basics Pt 2

Telephony is definitely not an area for the color blind.  Telephone cables and wires are all color coded to help with pair identification.

Mainly in older installations you will find the Bell Company solid color code which was as follows:

Pair One	Green	Red
Pair Two	Black	Yellow
Pair Three	White	Blue

This scheme did continue for larger numbers of pairs, but it is rare to see any cables with more than three pair left in service.

The modern scheme uses a repeated combination of a group color with a pair color.  The group and pair colors are:

Group	Pair
White	Blue
Red	Orange
Black	Green
Yellow	Brown
Violet	Slate

So using the group and pair colors, the first group of pairs will all have white matched with a color.  Usually the white wire has a tracer of the pair color to help with identification in case the cables become unwound.  Using these colors, you can uniquely identify 25 pairs.  Because the 25 pair cable and related termination on punch down blocks and other terminations is quite common, I have listed out the entire cable pair color chart below.

25 Pair Color Code from Wikipedia

Pair #	First wire	Second wire
1	White	Blue
2		Orange
3		Green
4		Brown
5		Slate
6	Red	Blue
7		Orange
8		Green
9		Brown
10		Slate
11	Black	Blue
12		Orange
13		Green
14		Brown
15		Slate
16	Yellow	Blue
17		Orange
18		Green
19		Brown
20		Slate
21	Violet	Blue
22		Orange
23		Green
24		Brown
25		Slate

Once you go past 25 pairs, the pattern repeats by using colored ribbons called binders to wrap each set of 25 pairs.  So the first set would be wrapped in white and blue ribbons, the next white and orange and so on.  

In networking, we've adopted the same color code for Ethernet cabling, but with only 4 pairs we only use part of the color scheme.  The Ethernet TIA586A and TIA586B standards define two different ways to terminate an Ethernet cable into a RJ-45 or an 8p8c connector.  Most use the B standard which places pair one (white/blue) in pins 4 and 5 which corresponds to line one in telephony.  Line two which is pins 3 and 6 is pair 3 (white/green).  TIA586A on the other hand puts pair 2(white/orange) in the pins 3 and 6.  This allows the termination to correspond to telephony line 2.  Mostly this is just knowledge to have for reference, but you may run across TIA586A in the wild.

Telephony Basics Part 1

My last post generated a lot of comments about what I would call traditional telephony or what VoIP (IPT) installers refer to as Analog, Public Telephone Switched Network (PTSN), or Plain Old Telephone System (POTS).  Three years ago I was handed a traditional PBX to manage with very little training or experience beyond Cisco Unified Call Manager.  To me at the time, the phone frame (equivalent to a patch panel in network parlance) looked like a tangled mess of spaghetti that I would never understand.  Thankfully I had a very patient manager and a local telephone consultant that helped me understand how things worked.

Terminology

66 Block

66 block: This is a type of punch down block used to terminate cabling.  The permanent wires are generally placed in the outer columns and the jumpers in the inner columns.  Some 66 blocks however have the permanent in the left most and up to three jumpers.

110 Block

110 block:  This is a type of punch down block used to terminate cabling. The permanent wires are terminated first and then a spacer block with conductors is placed on top where the jumpers are terminated.


Main Distribution Frame (MDF):  This is where the phone system's connections are terminated into either 110 or 66 punch down blocks.  Jumper cables are used to connect these terminations to house cabling, the telephone company demarcation point, or to other intermediary distribution frames.

Intermediate Distribution Frame (IDF):  This is generally a closet or enclosure in a remote part of the building that feeds back to the MDF via large 25 to 100 pair cables.  In the IDF jumpers are run from blocks connected to the feeder cables to blocks connected to house cabling.

Demarc (Demark, Demarcation Point):  This is the demarcation between what is the local telephone company's responsibility and what is the building owner's responsibility.  Usually this is an enclosure with some sort of terminating block inside of it.

Local Exchange Carrier (LEC):  This is the local telephone company that delivers the physical PTSN to the building demarc.  Alternatively in some areas there are Competitive LECs (CLEC) that provide services over the LEC's cabling.

Foreign eXchange Office (FXO):  This is the type of port that usually is connected to PTSN coming from the phone company.  It doesn't provide its own power or ground.

Foreign eXchange Station (FXS):  This type of port is generally found on PBXs and analog adapters for VoIP systems to "power" analog devices like fax machines and analog phones.  It provides ring and supervisory voltage to the line.

66 blade on left, 110 blade on right

Punch-Down Tool

Punch-Down Tool:  This is the device used to terminate a jumper or pair from a cable to a 66 or 110 block.  The tool generally can be used with different blades depending on the style of block you are using.

Spudger

Spudger (aka Spludger, Pick): This tool is used to remove or adjust jumper cables in cabling blocks.  It is very useful to pick out small bits of wire left behind after removing a termination.

Microsoft Clustering and Ping

We often take the venerable ping utility for granted.  Simply tell it what to ping and it does it.  When you're in a Microsoft cluster environment though you might not get what you really wanted.

Let's say that you're testing a firewall rule for a particular cluster IP address.  If you start to ping from any of the cluster nodes, you will actually ping from that node's IP address.  This obviously won't test the firewall rule correctly.  Instead you want to ping from the cluster's IP address.  To do this you just need to look at the command line options for ping.

C:\Users\storyb.000>ping -?
Usage: ping [-t] [-a] [-n count] [-l size] [-f] [-i TTL] [-v TOS]
            [-r count] [-s count] [[-j host-list] | [-k host-list]]
            [-w timeout] [-R] [-S srcaddr] [-4] [-6] target_name
Options:
    -t             Ping the specified host until stopped.
                   To see statistics and continue - type Control-Break;
                   To stop - type Control-C.
    -a             Resolve addresses to hostnames.
    -n count       Number of echo requests to send.
    -l size        Send buffer size.
    -f             Set Don't Fragment flag in packet (IPv4-only).
    -i TTL         Time To Live.
    -v TOS         Type Of Service (IPv4-only. This setting has been deprecated
                   and has no effect on the type of service field in the IP Head
er).
    -r count       Record route for count hops (IPv4-only).
    -s count       Timestamp for count hops (IPv4-only).
    -j host-list   Loose source route along host-list (IPv4-only).
    -k host-list   Strict source route along host-list (IPv4-only).
    -w timeout     Timeout in milliseconds to wait for each reply.
    -R             Use routing header to test reverse route also (IPv6-only).
    -S srcaddr     Source address to use.
    -4             Force using IPv4.
    -6             Force using IPv6.

So from looking over this list it looks like -S will save the day which it will.  By using ping -S <sourceIP> <dstIP> you can ping any host from the cluster's virtual IP.