I'm sure you were having some kind of unusual electrical interference on this coil of uninstalled cable
Guys,
The cable in question was a 100' run of CAT6, going from the gigabit switch in my office to the server's LAN NIC in the copy room. About 20' of cable was not needed, so it was carefully coiled (about 1' loops) and laid flat on the floor at the switch end. It was coiled in the coil-uncoil style of coiling, where every other loop is coiled in the opposite direction, allowing the cable to lay flat when uncoiled.
I was having connectivity issues with my switch, and it also showed up as an error in my server eventlog, that the connection was lost and then regained several times a week. The workstations all confirmed this with the requisite pop-up Windows balloon.
When I asked my MCSE tech, who was in-office on another issue, about the connectivity, he simply picked up the loop, gave it a half-twist as described, and placed a zip-tie in the middle. The problem has been gone ever since. There is no knotting, bending, or tying involved. He muttered something about "canceling it out" as he is reluctant to share "trade secrets" with me that could put him out of a job, I guess.
I was sure gbaughma, LawnBoy, and edfair for starters would be familiar with this solution for pesky CAT6 problems, as it was a no-brainer for the tech and he recognized and solved it instantly. If not, then know now that it works. I wish I could explain why, but I'm not the one who solved the problem.
I have had more problems with CAT6 than anything and will not use it again. The run to the front office was re-done by well-meaning carpenters, with tight turns and cable clamps every foot. It didn't work at all. I made them re-do it with fewer clamps and wider turns, it works fine now.
So, if you guys don't know why it worked, I sure don't. I was just trying to offer what has proven to be a very valuable and effective repair of a pesky problem. It was effected by someone with a much higher skillset than mine and I have an email in to him as to exactly
why it worked, but he is lame about returning emails. He'd rather me call him into the office for another $150...I don't blame him, I'd probably do the same, but I DO answer emails.
Tony
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