If I have run cabling at my own home, and am having a specific issue after having made some troubleshooting attempts and observations, is it on topic to present the observations and issue here to ask about the problem?
2 Answers
As long as you NEVER reveal that you're talking about a residential setting, perhaps. However, the instant the truth is known, the question will instantly, and permanently, be off-topic (aka "closed".) Why? Because there are a million things that go wrong in residential wiring. (often the result of (a) work of people who don't know what they're doing, (b) testing by people who don't know what they're doing, and lastly, (c) use by people who know even less.)
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"As long as you NEVER reveal that you're talking about a residential setting, perhaps" most certainly seems to be the case.– Jason CCommented Nov 3, 2014 at 14:46
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2Put another way: speak in general terms that apply universally. Your NE question would've been fine had you left of the part about the ceiling in a house. ('tho I'm sure it would have surfaced eventually)– RickyCommented Nov 3, 2014 at 18:27
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Which is precisely why I hope you can see the silliness here. The edit that I made to my question was exactly to leave out the part about the ceiling in a house. Had I posted that version first, it would have been OK. Because the mention was in the edit history, it was doomed to never be OK. In reality, the presence of an item in the edit history has no effect on the question in its current form, what others see when they view it, and what answers are given. The fact that the latter is off-topic makes zero sense when the end result is exactly the same question. ...– Jason CCommented Nov 3, 2014 at 18:31
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1... And therefore I can only conclude that Mike disliked that question not because of its final form, but because of personal feelings towards that type of question, and this is precisely what I called into question there, as moderators accept the responsibility of casting that type of behavior aside when they voluntarily accept the diamond. That was my issue there. The question was fine in its final form, Mike was just being surly because it hit a nerve, and that hits a nerve for me, and is a topic I often actively (and happily) confront.– Jason CCommented Nov 3, 2014 at 18:32
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3Don't bash Mike. Had it been post during the week with members active, it would've been voted closed in short order. Sans the original mention of a house, it might've taken days to find out -- and then it would've been closed.– RickyCommented Nov 3, 2014 at 18:41
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I will not bash Mike any further in any of the recent topics I have posted, but cannot make any guarantees about the future.– Jason CCommented Nov 3, 2014 at 18:45
If I have run cabling at my own home, and am having a specific issue after having made some troubleshooting attempts and observations, is it on topic to present the observations and issue here to ask about the problem?
Home cabling issues are not on-topic on Network Engineering; they are on-topic on Super User; as I mentioned in my comment, our members answer at Super User on occasion, and there isn't much benefit for asking on Network Engineering when it comes to cabling issues. In fact, if you look though my SU answers, I often cherry-pick interesting questions that were closed on Network Engineering, and then re-posted / migrated to SU; This question had similar symptoms, although you might not have the same problem.
Now to be explicit, why aren't home cabling issues a good fit here?
- Network Engineering assumes you're a professional with either:
- Access to professional cable test equipment, such as a Fluke CableIQ. This gear is prohibitively expensive for home users, but no serious commercial networking operation should be without something like it. These meters do everything for you... link test, cross-talk tests, identify which pairs are good / bad, etc... as long as you know how to use them, I can't think of a reason for a professional cable installer to ask questions on Network Engineering because the task is so completely managed by these units (that is a good thing)
- If you don't have access to a professional cable tester, you have the budget to hire someone who does. Network cabling appears deceptively simple; however, there are things you can innocently do to mess it up. For instance, most Cat5e is only rated to 25 lbs of tension; if you pull harder than that in the process of installing in tight circumstances, you can ruin the cable. Cabling technicians have meters that can detect these kind of problems.
Both conditions above are quite unusual for home networking use-cases. In fact, if you had either, it's unlikely you'd be insisting on free support from us to help make your cable.
Final note: the OP claimed that his continuity meter qualified as professional network test equipment; however continuity testers are not sufficient; there is a lot more that goes into making ethernet cables than merely ensuring the pins have electrical connectivity to each other.
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I am unclear on your final note, as there is no mention of continuity meters in this meta post.– Jason CCommented Nov 3, 2014 at 14:49
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2He's referring to the NE question that led you to meta. Continuity is only the most basic of tests. There are a lot of issues that happen beyond "current flow".– RickyCommented Nov 3, 2014 at 18:14