We had a contractor wire up our office with all the cables leading back to a central location. The only problem is that he didn't label anything, so we have no idea which cables go to which room. One end of the cable is terminated in a wall-jack (in the rooms), the other end is un-terminated and will be punched to a patch panel. Is there a way to identify the cables without having to terminate them? We'd like to group the cables on the patch panel by room, but I don't want to crimp/punch each cable twice. Thanks!
SnapOverflow
Get a tone generator (http://www.amazon.com/Fluke-Networks-PRO3000-Tone-Probe/dp/B000FTADX0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383596496&sr=8-1&keywords=tone+generator) and plug that into the terminated end and use the probe to find the cables on the other end.
And anytime a cable is pulled make sure the installer plans to label them cables in a manageable way (I've done site visits before even accepting a bid for work to make sure the installer does quality work)
Instead of punching down the entire cable, just punch down one wire (of the 8 in the CAT6 cable), e.g. the orange one, then cut open a patch cable, plug it into one plug and then electrically test that connection (using testing leads, a 9V battery and a little lightbulb/buzzer.