I recently bought a place already wired with Cat 5E (8 ports, leading to a central closet). However attempting to get link, nothing works. On closer examination, it was obvious that the ends in the closet were wired backwards (brown on pin 1, etc). The jacks that I've pulled out of the wall do look to be correctly done. However, testing with a network cable tester shows zero link between any of the jacks and any of the ports in the closet – I had expected to just see a 1/8, 2/7, … 8/1 mismatch, but instead get nothing at all.
The runs are accessible and look neat, though they take some bends that seem quite sharp and are in some cases much longer than they need to be (the person who put this in was a professional electrician but I suspect this was the first time he ran network cabling).
My best guess at this point is that he either bought bad cable, or put so much tension on it that he snapped wires. Though it seems surprising/unlikely that I wouldn't get at least one active wire on one of the 8 lines.
So, my question: is there anything else I should try or test before I go ripping out everything and running new cable?
Update: for the exciting conclusion, see my answer in this question below.
Best Answer
Don't run CAT6 cable
If the bends in your cable don't exceed the minimum bend radius for the cable type then it's not an issue.
If the cable lengths don't exceed the maximum cable length (in your case 100 meters/328 feet) then it's not an issue.
Why run new wiring when you can simply test the existing cable (not the terminations but the cable itself) and then reterminate one or both ends.